Interview with eSports Caster DoA at Blizzcon 2016
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8 Nov 16

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Interview with eSports Caster DoA at Blizzcon 2016

Erik "DoA" Lonnquist talks Blizzcon, Overwatch, and casting with Dignitas Novalas!

Erik "DoA" Lonnquist is an American Esports caster known for his work in Starcraft II, League of Legends, and Hearthstone tournaments and championships. Most recently, DoA has taken on the expanding Overwatch Esports scene with fellow caster MonteCristo at Blizzcon, where Dignitas Novalas met up with him for a conversation.

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Hey Youtube and Team Dignitas Fans, my name is Dignitas Novalas, and I'm here at Blizzcon 2016 after the Overwatch Grand Finals, and here with me is DoA, who is most likely one of the greatest casters when it comes to Esports. So, DoA, out of curiousity, how was the Overwatch tournament in general?

DoA: It was great, it was cool to see players and teams from all over the world. South Korea won, so pretty par for the course as far as Esports go, but we had a lot of great games, it was great.

How did it feel when you got invited to do this event? It was shortly after Worlds, and both you and Monte announced around the same time that you were going to be attending Blizzcon, so how did that feel to be approached by Blizzard for this?

DoA: It's awesome! This is my first Blizzcon, so it's great to finally make it here. I've been a fan of Blizzard games for my entire life, basically. I've always wanted to come, and I finally made it, with Overwatch, an awesome new game, and here we are.

So how do you feel about Overwatch in general? It seems like you and Monte are expanding to Overwatch, is it a game that you're really into?

DoA: We love Overwatch, we've been playing it since Beta, and as Esports casters you always have to be ready to move games. The nature of the business means that no game is ever going to last for 10, 20 years; Starcraft 1 is the only exception, of a game that lasted that long in a single state with no patching. You need to be ready to take on a new game, and I think we're ready to take on a new game; Overwatch has been a lot of fun to approach and cast, and it's certainly pretty difficult. I don't know if we're ready to hang it up on League just yet, but Overwatch is definitely a fun game to focus on for now.

Is it possible that you'll be entirely shifting focus, or do you think you'll try and stay with League for as long as you can?

DoA: I've always loved casting League of Legends, I hope I get to keep doing that. I don't know what is going to happen in the future, but you have to be ready at some point to move on to that next game. I had to do that with Starcraft II, so I've been through this before in a different situation. I guess I can't really say for sure right now, but we'll see.

You were invited to the LoL World Championship but declined due to your marriage (Congratulations, by the way!). If you are to be invited to the Mid-Season Invitational or Worlds next year, is that something you would plan on attending?

DoA: If they invite me, I'd be happy to negotiate with them; I love casting League of Legends and Riot's production crew is absolutely awesome to work with, and if we can come to a contractual agreement I'd be happy to do it.

Since this was your first Blizzcon, how did you feel about all the announcements in the opening ceremony?

DoA: I'm just excited to go home and watch through all the panels and the things I missed while I was doing the broadcast the whole time. I'm a Hearthstone caster as well, so I'm really pumped about the new expansion; they're really shaking things up with the tri-class cards, so that's going to be great. Sombra I haven't even had a chance to try yet, so I can't wait to try her out, because her kit is just insane, and it's really going to change the game I think. The more WoW stuff, playing through the original Diablo with the Diablo III engine, just a lot of really awesome stuff, and it's great to be here for the 10th Blizzcon and the 25th anniversary of Blizzard. It's just a great time to be here and a lot to be excited about when I get back to Korea, and can watch all the stuff I missed and try all the stuff I didn't get to try here.

Any last words for the fans?

DoA: Thanks for watching my stuff, thanks for watching Monte and I casting. We did some League of Legends, did some Starcraft in there, and now we're doing Overwatch, so thanks for sticking with us. Making you guys happy and entertaining you is what we love to do, so hopefully we'll get to keep doing that for a long time. Thanks to Blizzard for inviting us here, and props to the Overwatch devs for making a great game; I think it'll last a long time.

Thank you guys for watching; make sure to follow DoA on all of his various social media!

twitch.tv/ggdoa
@ggDoA

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