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League of Legends casting is an increasingly competitive space, with a few spaces at the top that are incredibly hard to reach. It’s fair to say you not only need talent and knowledge, but a lot of hard work – and a bit of luck – to make it.
Not only that, but we have an abundance of talent from the UK and Ireland in particular, with the likes of Medic, Caedrel, Nymaera, Jamada, Munchables, Dagda and more enjoying the limelight on big stages like the LEC (see the 2022 casting line-up here), Worlds, LPL and more over the past few years.
For Stanley ‘GreyHart’ Barker and Harry ‘DocDa’ Evans, who have just cast the Insomnia 68 LoL BYOC LAN, they’ve done so much at the grassroots tier, and are surely amongst the next to get a fresh opportunity in the UK/Nordics NLC league and beyond in the future.
GreyHart has cast several League of Legends tournaments at the grassroots and semi-pro level, from Insomnia to the British Esports Student Champs and lots more.
“When I was younger, I wanted to be a football commentator, sort of forgot about that dream as time went on, got massively into League of Legends, went to watch what was then the EU LCS and Worlds live in London,” he explains. “I got to meet some of the casters and absolutely fell in love with it. And I was like: ‘Oh I want to do this.’
“I got some advice from some of the top-tier guys and practiced in my bedroom at home for about a year. Then one day someone put me in touch with CompeteLeague, I got an opportunity and I’ve kept going ever since.”
“I’d love to do things like the NLC and LEC. There’s the GreyHart buff now passing over to DocDa, because I think the last two people I cast finals with were Nymaera, who’s now having great success, and Chronicler!”
GreyHart
DocDa also has vast experience at the grassroots and semi-pro level, having started in 2016 and worked as a mod, admin, observer, broadcast talent and more. He’s got involved in many tournaments – even the speedtyping tournament at Warwick Uni.
“Back in the good old days of CompeteLeague, we were just doing everything there was because it didn’t have the biggest team,” he explains.
“Then over at the old UKLC when it was run by LVP a few years ago, a posting went out looking for observers, and I thought: ‘I know League! So I turned up, learnt everything on the day and did that for a year too.”
Style, social media and the star factor
One thing we’ve noticed here at Esports News UK is as casters (in general) grow their career and reach the higher-tier broadcasts, they develop their style a bit more, find a look that really suits them, and also increase their content output on social media.
Nymaera recently went from the lower tier broadcasts to NLC and LEC, as he adorned a more sophisticated look that saw him named ‘the Keanu Reeves of UK League of Legends’ (by us).
Do DocDa and GreyHart feel that pressure to do the same, and to increase their content output?
“Some casters do this more, it’s something that’s being asked of more at the top tier,” DocDa says.
“At the end of the day, if you’re a caster, you’re an entertainer, and organisers like it if you have a good social following and do skits and content.”
DocDa
“A lot of the stuff we see with this short-form content is cringe humour or something, and it’s funny, but it’s kind of quick and easy. And so I’d love to see big extra sketches more.”
DocDa also recalled some bad Annie cosplay he once did during a broadcast, while GreyHart has recently cut back his longer hair and sported some extravagant flowery suits for broadcasts – and he loves cringe content.
“I have producers who will write into my contract that I’m only allowed to say a finite number of puns in a broadcast!” GreyHart adds. “I did two in ten seconds earlier and left DocDa speechless. I like to go out and make fun content.”
At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. Having fun with video games, with friends, and getting paid to do it. And if you’re lucky (and keep putting in the work), UK talent has proven in recent years that yes, you can make it to that LEC stage alongside Sjokz, MediVedi, Laure and co. We hope to see these guys there in the future.
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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.
