Gonzo's 15 Rounds Volume 1 Feat. Happi

1. What is your first memory with video games, and what led you to R6?

My first memory with video games was playing the Wii at a neighbor’s house and bugging my parents about getting one forever until they finally caved. For R6 specifically, I was at the store with my mom and joked about getting it, since all my friends had been playing it. I fully expected her to say no, as she’d always been very anti-violent games, but she actually let me get it. I’ve always had a strong connection to R6 after that, since it was the first FPS I ever got, and I played it with my friends all the time. Obviously I wasn’t the best shooter, since I’d never played FPS games before, but I loved how I didn’t need to be the best at shooting to help out on Siege. Instead, I watched PL streams and tried learning strats so I could explain them to my friends and bring it to our gold ranked Xbox lobbies, something I always looked forward to.

2. Was casting always the goal, and was it always for R6?

Yes, it was the first esport I ever watched, and the early era of R6 commentators of KiX, Interro, Milosh, and Mzo inspired me more than anyone else has. Siege has been such a big part of my life, and it was even before I started casting it for real, and something about it always brought me back. It helped that R6 had the most welcoming prod community and I immediately saw a pathway to success here, something I can’t say about other games, but I feel like it was meant to be given that R6 got me into esports and casting to begin with.

3. Going from solo casting to Rocket League to the upper end of T2 in NA—how crazy was that first year for you?

It was incredibly inspiring and I’m super grateful for it. I’m incredibly blessed to have shown up when I did, because realistically I just became known at the perfect time to get a string of really cool opportunities, and it felt like every other month I was getting the biggest opportunity I’d ever had, of course leading up to being T2 by the end of my first year. During this time I was working incredibly hard to improve every day, and it was really nice to constantly be recognized for getting better and showing commitment. An unfortunate downside of this is that nowadays I can lose motivation somewhat quickly since early on I kind of got conditioned to moving up really fast, and unfortunately that’s not what happens when you’re in T2 aiming to make T1, at least on the casting side of things. I’m still very grateful for where I am though, and I still get joy out of practicing and improving as much as I can.

4. Looking back on your early career, is it crazy seeing your life in Pro League mirror guys like Ashn, Ambi, Bae, Packer, and about 10 other NAL players, when you were cutting your teeth in Xenon S5 casting their games?

It’s definitely crazy to see, it makes it really hard to have a favorite team when a bunch of people I know or have talked to over the years are all T1 now. It’s really cool to watch someone grow from being a promising player to being a bonafide T1 player, especially when you can tell they’ve made an effort to work on their weaknesses. Dfuzr is a great example, it was sick to watch him grow his operator pool immediately after being such a promising prospect in E2, and that turned right into him becoming a major champion.

5. Who is your favorite co-caster you have worked with?

Serious, 100%. He was my co-caster for just over a year, from ELEMENT THREE through ELEMENT FIVE, and he was so easy to work with. We had a similar view on how we saw the split between play by play and color commentary, and he was always willing to do whatever created a better end result, which is something I really respect about color commentators, and it was something I aimed to do back when I did color during ELEMENT TWO. He just retired after this past season, but it’ll take a lot for anyone to surpass him as my favorite co-caster. Honorable mention to Jzwills though, he was the biggest reason I went from being a complete newbie to a comfortable T2 caster so fast, and he was super fun to cast with, I just didn’t work with Jonah for as long as Serious, and I personally like play by play more than color.

6. What event was the most memorable to cast?

Casting the NA LCQ for SI 2025 was easily the event I look back on the most. It’s still crazy to think that after all these years of wanting to cast, my work was directly tied to the official competitive circuit for R6, and I got to talk over matches leading to one team going to Invite. Because of the magnitude of the opportunity, I was super excited to cast, and as a result felt like I put my best foot forward and did some of my best casting ever. And on top of all that, a couple clips of mine got played during an SI content piece about the LCQ teams, and my voice being heard on an SI broadcast still does not feel real, but it actually happened.

7. With how volatile the T2 scene is, how hard is it to prepare for an event or season?

Incredibly hard. There are less tier 3 events than ever, and the events that do exist can be hard to find streams for, often not streaming every matchup. With The Crucible, XGS, Blitz, and TPL all not running between E5 and E6, it’ll be really tough to get ready given that some of the invited teams might only have one or two VODs of footage on them, if there’s any at all. All love to the TOs like OCS, mukbang, and AEL, who have been running tournaments over the past couple months, but they often don’t draw in the biggest T2 teams and they run such big tournaments that they can’t stream every game, which makes it hard to find footage for prep work.

8. Who in T1 do you think is the best caster right now, and is there someone you look up to in casting?

While “best” isn’t really something that can apply to something as subjective as casting, my personal favorite caster in T1 for R6 right now is Zenox. There’s nothing I love more than when you can tell a caster is genuinely passionate, which is the energy that Zenox brings to the broadcast, and that enables him to inject such strong emotion into any game he’s casting, something that I hope to be able to do someday. I also want to mention Scrawny, a Counter Strike caster, because he’s just so insanely good that he’s become my biggest inspiration in casting as a whole. His ability to follow a cadence so naturally while never stumbling and telling a coherent story makes every one of his casts a treat to watch, and I’ve found myself listening to him the most for inspiration lately. I also want to mention some other favorites in R6 from over the years, like Devmarta, BLU, Lynnx, and of course KiX.

9. If you could go back in time and cast any event, which one would you pick?

SI 2024 was really cool, and casting to that massive crowd would probably be the experience of a lifetime, so I’ll have to say that, even though I did love the casting at that event as it was. I would’ve also loved to cast CAG’s run at RE:L0:AD this past spring though, for no reason other than that I love the APAC region and that’s probably my favorite tournament run ever.

10. Who is on your Mount Rushmore of NA Siege?

Canadian, GurmyWormy, LaXInG, and The Evil Waffle.

11. What is the next big goal in your career?

Definitely casting the NAL and later an S-Tier LAN. There’s a solid chance that takes an incredibly long time though, especially since there hasn’t been a lot of movement on the casting end in a while, at least in North America, but that’s my goal and I don’t think I’ll be content unless I accomplish it, so I’ll keep working at it for the foreseeable future.

12. Is there any event outside of R6 you’d like to cast one day?

Apex Legends has become one of my favorite esports to watch, so I’d love to cast ALGS one day, but it’s hard to find many jobs in Apex so that’s a bit of a pipedream.

13. If you had to swap regions, where outside of NAL would you go?

Easily APAC. I’ve been an APAC fan for 8 years, they’re my perennial underdogs & I love them.

14. What team excites you most heading into Element Winter this season?

Packer’s new team is obviously really exciting, especially since ville and solo are both really accomplished, and I know vulspur is super talented too, really excited to see who their 5th is. I’ve also heard some rumors about old players coming back, or new stacks from scrims, and while I can’t confirm anything it seems like it’s gonna be a really fun season if some of them are true. Also I really want to see F5 Esports succeed, since Stealth is my boy and I played collegiate with Cheeg before we graduated, and I know their team has the potential to surprise people.

15. If you could give any new or aspiring caster advice, what would you tell them?

Have fun. It sounds silly, but it’s what I say to everyone I meet who comes to T3, because that’s what it’s all about. There’s literally zero reason to cast if you don’t enjoy what you do, and that makes all the difference in a broadcast. I can always tell when the casters are enjoying themselves, and it ruins the viewing experience when they’re not happy to be there. So just make sure you have fun. It’s like Reggie Fils-Aimé said; “If it’s not fun, why bother?”