Esports Heaven caught up with the savvy British caster Jared "Nomad" Bajina -- one of the up and coming casters in the scene. In this interview, we touch on a lot of topics such as his humble beginnings, TI9 experience, hurdles he's faced in this scene, memes and more! Hey Nomad. Thanks for agreeing to the interview. How are you doing? Hey KarY! I'm good thank you, just got finished with a very busy week of qualifier casting which was awesome, especially this time as I got to cast with a bunch of different people who I have never worked with before, it's a great feeling to introduce new people to my craft! So now I'm just taking the weekend to relax with my parent’s dog whom I'm looking after, and of course play some Dota. Tell us a bit about yourself. I'm English born and bred although my mother is Northern Irish and my father is Indian, so I've had a very diverse upbringing I'd say! I grew up in the south of England, and went to Staffordshire University where I studied Radio Production. After my degree I'd saved up some money so my girlfriend and I lived in Canada for about half a year and then spent two months travelling, and now we're living in Birmingham, England. The most important question: when and how did you get into video games especially Dota 2? A friend of mine, Treee0, got me into Dota 2 after we played the game Dungeon Defenders and he said it was similar and there was a huge competitive scene for it. If anyone has ever played Dungeon Defenders then they will know it's not even remotely similar, but then again what is? We immediately fell in love with the complexity of the game, trying out all the different heroes and items and generally having fun with it. I distinctly remember winning most of our games starting out because we'd just wait to get our ultimate’s and run at the enemy team as 5 with them, which was a very strong strategy in the newbie bracket! And when did you decide that broadcasting is something that you would like to get into? Are you trained in this area? I started casting Dota under the pseudonym Peanut Almighty after we took part in an amateur tournament and they just asked who could stream and cast the games. I started enjoying it more than actually playing, and had this great cocaster named Coe, who had a stroke young and stopped being able to play or cast. I guess that's the side-effect of casting with me. But in seriousness I hope that guy is doing well because he was great. Things started to get a little bit busy in the third year of university so I couldn't really do it as much, and then when we went travelling I was living in a house shared with 13 other people, most of which woke at midday and started drinking in the afternoon so casting wouldn't have been possible, plus I was extremely busy skiing, teaching skiing and working in my ski rental shop. You may have picked up on the fact that I like skiing. When I got back to the UK I decided to start trying to cast professionally and see if I could make a bit of side-income from it. I'd planned to get a job in media but when my casting started taking off quickly I really wanted to give it my all and see where it could go. As a caster, what are the initial struggles that you faced in the early days and what struggles are you going through now? In the early days it was a certainly nerves for me, I think it would be the same for most people. When you're jumping from 10 viewer streams, then doing JDL and getting 300 viewers, then you do some qualifiers and hit 1k, then you go to an event and see all these people - producers, observers, tournament organizers, sponsors, etc. - of which you are the front end for. You are representing a large portion of their product. That was a tricky thought to shake. Since then I've developed a multitude of techniques to control that anxiety to make sure I'm calm and confident in any situation I'm plunged into! Another really tough thing a lot of casters, including myself, need to face is having to improve quickly without anyone telling you how to do it. You have to become a master of critical thinking, self-analysis and feedback analysis if you want to become good, because there's no handbook, there's no fixed advice, and no one wants to be your mentor as no one is old enough to want to quit the scene yet! It's hard, and something I'm still working on now. Channeling failure into positive energy is also really important, as it's something you're going to face a lot as a caster. How difficult is it for a person to come into casting in Dota 2? And to follow up on your previous answer, where do you stand now? I don't think it's that difficult to start casting Dota. Anyone can start up a stream and with enough initiative start getting a bit of online work, but the step from online to event is huge, and the expectations rise just as sharply. There's so many pitfalls, mistakes and wrong turns to be made. I know because I've made or watched others make a lot of them, but I've improved so much because of that, both on screen and in how I work behind the scenes. I'm more confident in both how I conduct myself as a freelancer and how well I can perform my role than ever, and I'm really hungry for my next opportunity to prove myself. I'm not trying to be the best caster in the world in 2020, but I would like to be the most improved. Starting out we all think we're going to be the next OD Pixel, but the reality is that his situation was a rare mixture of raw talent and good timing, which is an incredibly unrealistic standard to set for yourself. Aim for the top of the ladder but focus on the next rung! Speaking of qualifiers, as a caster with different co-casters this time around, how did you feel while casting the game on a new patch? Also, who did you enjoy casting with the most? This patch is great to cast actually, I feel like there's a ton of fun stuff and I'm going to be really envious of whoever gets to cast the first important game with those tier 5 (70 min+) items in it, that's going to be so hype. I actually had my first game with them yesterday and we ended up winning because I had double rapier ballista on Drow, no one could get close to be due to the insane range on knockback, it was hilarious. My only criticism of this patch is that it feels really snowbally, it's rarer than ever to have a game which is really close. Generally you know who is ahead. I always enjoy casting with Mofarah, we're just so familiar with each other, we've been through so much together, and of course we're good friends out of game now as well so of course casting with him is always great. Misery has more Dota knowledge than anyone I've cast with before, it was a great experience to cast with him because I could ask anything and would get a brilliantly thought through answer in response. He really bought a lot. Saberlight, although we only did one series and it wasn't super close, but he still surprised me. That guy has a ton of confidence and his game knowledge is really good as well. He bought the perfect balance of fun and analysis in a series that only had like 1k viewers, but he still bought his A-game. Super impressed by him. Now, there was a lot of conundrum recently regarding Trent and Bulldog issue. What is your opinion about it? It's a really important issue and I'm glad to see people talking about it more, however I do think we've started off on the wrong foot. Trent's rant was a bit too aggressive, which I understand and he's even said so himself. When you open discussion like this it's obviously going to get people mad and rather than actually listen to you, they're going to immediately be on the defensive. But saying something is better than saying nothing, so I'm still glad he said it, and I hope we have much more discussion on this issue to make our community a more inclusive place. Name few things that you're excited about regarding this patch. -Tier 5 Items. -Seeing how players start to utilize the reworked heroes. -Seeing if anything becomes the new cheese strat. -Seeing a much wider hero pool is always fun as it just increases the variance between games so much.  What are you looking forward to most in the next year? Where do you want to be in your career? Honestly the Bukovel Minor looks like it's going to be a ton of fun, I love what WePlay do and I'm excited to see what they've got in store for this event! For myself, as I said focusing on the next rung, I'd like to continue focusing on my casting and hosting, looking to hopefully get into the DPC rotation this year. I've also got a stand-up comedy course booked starting in January so looking forward to learning more about the art of comedy and hopefully being able to apply it to my casting and hosting! How was your TI9 experience with us? TI9 was certainly an experience! I've never been to China before, I've never been to a TI before and I've never done Dota reporting before so it was exciting to do all three! The TI experience was obviously awesome, the game quality was great and the crowd was awesome. Reporting was awesome, during my degree I was trained in interviewing and audio content so it was great to get to work on that again. China itself is a very interesting country, just so different to anything I'm used to. One problem I certainly had was being a vegetarian in a very meaty, non-English country. Lowlight has to be when I accidently ordered a Durian pizza. If you don't know, Durian is a fruit famous for having an incredibly potent, sweet, sickly flavour. Very acquired taste. I tried ordering a simple cheese pizza then ended up with cheese and durian. I was so hungry because there was no veggie food at the arena, so I tried to pick the fruit off it and eat it anyway, but I only managed a few slices before retching and having to stop. Also, my room stank like that goddamn fruit for the rest of the trip, so I felt nauseous every time I walked into my own room... yeah, that was not a good move from me. You’re also quite the meme person. Your memes have garnered a lot of attention. Why don’t you focus on that area as well? I’m sure one could use such services! Yeah I make a lot of memes, I don't like the term meme person, I'd prefer picture-based comedian. Yeah people seem to like them so I'll keep making them, I don't really have a quota to fill so I just make them when I think of a good joke, or when I see a funny format that I think could be used for Dota stuff. I've been offered a few social media positions from my memes which is kinda crazy honestly - the fact that we live in an age where someone is willing to give me a sustainable income from making memes all day. Madness. Alright, I think that's it for now. Anything you'd like to say? Alright thanks for having me! Great questions! Only thing I'd like to say is a huge thank you to the people who support me, whether it's liking my dumb Twitter posts, joining in the chat on my casts or just watching and following what I do, it's hugely appreciated and I do notice the names that pop up often!

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