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Valorant has firmly established itself in the esports sphere over the past two years, and has allowed some top talent from around the world to flourish.
We’ve seen former CSGO pros make the switch to Valorant, and looking specifically at the UK region, we’ve been blessed with plenty of talent at all levels, from players to hosts, casters and more.
We have the Polaris Valorant Regional League for the UK and Nordic regions, the recently announced Beacon grassroots Valorant series, there’s UK talent in the Valorant Game Changers initiative for women, plus collegiate activities from NUEL, NSE and British Esports. On the pro stage, talent like Boaster, Yinsu Collins, Pansy and more have shone.
There’s a raft of talent breaking through as well, who could be among the Valorant stars of the future. Speaking of which, we sat down with two rising UK casters – Gottmoxi (pictured right) and Twiggy (left) – at the recent Valorant Insomnia 68 LAN, to find out more about them and their plans in the space.
They were busy at Insomnia this month, with both of them casting the Valorant BYOC finals, and Gottmoxi also handled the Belong i68 Valorant finals and i68 Overwatch BYOC finals (AND wrote our Valorant match report – cheers Moxi)!
“I think the UK scene is still thriving,” Twiggy says. “There’s been so many tournaments organised specifically for the UK and Ireland.”
“We’ve been really lucky we’ve had NUEL and NSE [getting involved],” Gottmoxi adds. “I think UK uni Valorant was where Yinsu got her start coming into that hosting role.
“I worked on the Polaris regular season, playoffs and VCT promotions. I’m a really big fan of the regional leagues – because it means you get all these different regions that get highlighted. You get to see personal styles [outside of the usual big esports regions of America and Korea].”
“We get together before a game and go over talking points. When we’re throwing to each other, it’s a lot easier to actually know what the other person is talking about to carry on the point. It’s really important to do as a casting duo and I think we do that quite well.”
Twiggy
Twiggy says on UK CS players switching to Valorant: “I think there was that joke around stage 2 that the superpowers of Valorant were Overwatch players and UK CS players! I think a lot of people saw Valorant and decided to give it a go, and it was a lot of UK players [that got involved].”
Gottmoxi also gave a shoutout to RyanCentral, and Twiggy to Sideshow and Bren for inspiring them in esports.
Moggy – remember the name
There are several well-known casting duos out there in esports, with British League of Legends casters like Medic and Vedius known as ‘MediVedi’ for example.
What about Gottmoxi and Twiggy? Would they be known as Twixi?
Twiggy says: “There were two options, right, there was Twoxi (laughs)! And the one we went with – Moggy.”
“Brits will understand, ah yeah, that means cat. We had a piece of paper in the i68 finals explaining M4LIK’s composition, and had a tiny little cat drawn in the top corner!”
Twiggy adds: “When you look at casting duo, you have your play-by-play caster and colour caster, but our approach is we get together before a game and go over talking points. When we’re throwing to each other, it’s a lot easier to actually know what the other person is talking about to carry on the point. It’s really important to do as a casting duo and I think we do that quite well.”
Moxi says they prep together and go through the matches before a cast, through past conversations, maps, scribble down notes and bounce ideas off each other.
Twiggy adds that it’s also important to work on your own self and ‘be prepared for anything’, because while the two push for work together, you have to be flexible for the possibility of being split up at an event.
But it’s clear Moggy have great on-screen chemistry and a ton of knowledge – we look forward to seeing them on an even bigger stage in the future.
Insomnia esports coverage powered by AGON by AOC – see the AGON League of Legends monitor here and more i68 esports news and coverage here
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.
