British caster Leigh “Deman” Smith has opened up on Riot Games’ rigorous job application process in a new video log.
The well-known commentator revealed that he applied for the position of a play-by-play caster in the North American LCS back at the start of 2016.
Deman said he had to take part in 24 separate interviews over a two-day period, with each lasting about half an hour. He said that each chat was with one of 24 different people from Riot, within their casting and esports divisions.
His application was rejected by three people of the 24.
“I have no hard feelings whatsoever about that, I kind of agree with one of the persons that rejected me and I completely understand his reasons for it,” Deman said.
This inspired him to look beyond League of Legends. Deman also admitted that he had less passion for CSGO than LoL, and also spoke of his motivations for casting following the Riot interviews.
You can listen to Deman’s full video log below (the info on the League casting position starts shortly after the two-minute mark):
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
