While we were at IEM Katowice, James “Bakery” Baker caught Tim “Trikslyr” Frazier and made him follow us to our secret, empty hallway, where they sat down to talk about his background, streaming, and more. You can watch the video of the interview above or continue reading for the transcription.

Welcome to IEM Katowice! My name is Bakery, and with us is a professional HGC caster and streamer, Trikslyr. So, where did the name Trikslyr come from?

Trikslyr: It’s a bit of an odd story, but it came from another, rivaling game - League of Legends. There is an amphibian in that game, similar to Murky, called Fizz. He has an ability in that game called Tidal Trickster, and I really enjoy that ability, it’s probably the reason why I play that game. So, I took that, mixed it with the color of silver, tried to find a way to get it spelled weird, eventually got to a point where we added a “Y” for some reason, and now you can google my name. So, it’s kinda a cooperation of different things, but I’m happy with it, I think it’s a good name.

So, recently you have moved more into variety streaming. How is that going for you?

Trikslyr: Good, I started with Heroes and have been around it now for four years, but it got to a point where I was playing Heroes of the Storm all the time on stream, and I was playing it for fun, I was playing it in a competitive nature to try and study up on European strategies, and I was also casting it. I found out that I didn’t enjoy being around the same game for 200 hours a week, believe it or not. Apparently, it starts to grain on you a little bit if you play the same game too much. So, it got to a point where I needed to find a new substitute for my stream and I ended up looking at single player games, and ended up pushing my limits for what I’ve played before, because I’m a weird gamer, playing multiplayer games all the time. Eventually, as I continued to grow older, I was like, “You know what? Maybe I should start playing these games!” It wound up being a really cool experiment for me, and I’m actually beginning to enjoy these games, they are freaking fun - People were lying! So, I’m going that route and luckily the audience I’ve built in Heroes have been supportive of that, and I get to stream different games and that’s pretty cool.

The Button Mashers, or Mutton Bashers, depending on where they are?

Trikslyr: It’s Button Mashers, multiple syllables, because we slam buttons and try to win games. I know a game that you and I have started to play a lot lately, Sea of Thieves. Captain Trikslyr and first hand Bakery over here, if you ever want to see him in a spot where he is being conniving, you should definitely check out our streams - Bakery is Brittish, he loves to lie to all the civilians that are on the water with us, and all the Americans are like: “Oh, he is Brittish, we can trust him!”, and then he stabs them in their back and steals their chests. Good times, follow our streams... That must be enough plugging.

How did you become an HGC caster?

Trikslyr: I have been a caster on and off for the past 6-8 years of my life, played Halo professionally to make some money, did okay, got some money here and there, never broke into the scene, but when Starcraft came out I found out really quickly that I’m not really good at Starcraft; it’s actually a really hard game. You get excited watching people play, and, wait a minute - my finger can’t do that. I pursued casting on the side, eventually through Starcraft, and then eventually Heroes, I got to a point where I enjoyed entertaining. Blizzard gave me a chance for HGC to get an interview, I walked out, and somehow they thought I did okay at the interview, they picked me up, and ever since then been casting week in, week out.

You mentioned week in, week out. What is the best thing about casting every week?

Trikslyr: I didn’t think it would be this, but it has become a really cool thing. Khaldor and I are working on our synergy. For us, we think that it’s really important. You come in every week and you will see stuff that is copy-pasted. It’s a league format - people are trying to be the best of the best on a certain patch, so we hope that injecting personality and injecting fun into a caster duo here and there can be something you guys can enjoy, and we want to make it as seamless as possible with no hiccups going on. What we do is we usually drive together in the morning, we get a bagel and talk about what we enjoyed the cast before and what we have to work on the next day, and gradually doing little things has come to a point now where a year later we are considered to be one of the greatest duos in Heroes of the Storm. I don’t want to say that, but it’s good to have on the resume - Khaldor and Trikslyr, pretty dece.

We are segueing fantastically into my next question about you and Khaldor. You build up your synergy week over week, got better and better, and eventually casted the MSB finals. How was that moment for you?

Trikslyr: That was the best moment of my casting career, almost the most nerve-wracking too. I found out a day before that I was casting it, and it kinda actually affected my casting the day before because I was so nervous about how I would do in the Grand Finals. Luckily, we got a fantastic support group around us; Khaldor was there and I know he got experience, I just need to not screw up, so I made sure not to do that. Actually, Dread was really kind too, he taught me a lot about Eminem, because he is super into rap and stuff. I started to listen to the album like crazy and Eminem got me through this hump I was going through. Like, I need to just relax and be myself, and get up there and cast. After listening to that album and Dread telling me “you got this”, I just walked up there and I think we knocked it out of the park. Really enjoyed the MSB cast, you guys had some great games, so thank you for that. I think you guys can look back at that final and be like, that was a good final no matter what.

You talked about Eminem there, is there any process you go through to prepare for casting?

Trikslyr: Lately it has just been listening to music. It can be random things, I’m really weird when it comes to variety. T. Swizzle - I got this inner diva in me, I got to listen to some 80s, 90s girls singing out, but then there’s these new 2000s girl coming out like T. Swizzle coming up in here, and randomly listen to Foo Fighters and jam out to that all day. I listen to everything, if you have seen my stream people will be like, I can’t watch this, because we’re playing Spice Girls and Barbie Girl, but the next day they wanna hear heavy rock and I’m there with them. It’s just who I am, I love to be all over the place.

Who are your favourite players or teams?

Trikslyr: This is kinda a generic answer, but I think it’s one that’s warranted. Snitch, one of my favourites to watch, he’s improved dramatically. You know this, but I guess we can open up a bit. When I first started casting you reached out to me and was very kind to me and gave me feedback. I remember one thing in particular where I said, “Auriel, you can go Reservoir of Hope at 16”, and you messaged me and was like, No, you can’t, Trikslyr”, and you were like, “Here is some other stuff that you did okay.” And you gave me a nice sandwich of “here’s some loaf, here’s some loaf, and here’s some bad sh*t..” Stuff... So, that was important to me, and Dignitas was a team that I naturally lashed on to because of that kindness. If you are kind to people, apparently, that’s a good thing. So, Dignitas I always enjoyed, and now that they are successful and doing great in Europe, that’s great to watch for underdogs. I actually have on and off weeks with Zealots, sometimes I love to see what they are doing, and sometimes I hate it, but it’s always great to be a fan of a streamer, and with Cris streaming all the time you always have the action with single player games and competitive play, so I would say Dignitas and Zealots are my favourite teams.

I’m afraid that’s the end of the interview, I think we were nailing this, but we’ve run out of questions. Do you have any shoutouts?

Trikslyr: Thank you to my girlfriend, she has been around for a couple of years now and she has been supportive of my incredibly busy schedule, she is a complete sweetheart. Shoutout to my stream, everyone who watches me building portals, building bridges, occasionally shooting people on Fortnite, and feeding in Heroes of the Storm. And, of course, shoutout to you Bakery for doing this interview. I really hope your content creating career takes off, I think you deserve it.

Twitter: @Trikslyr

Twitch: www.twitch.tv/trikslyr

Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCKhLPwhc9FmDGHp4p0ucqFg

Read our announcement of Trikslyr joining the Team Dignitas stream team:
http://www.team-dignitas.net/articles/news/Unknown/12506/welcome-trikslyr