Hello Auguste, your name sounds French for an American, can you explain ?

My father is French, my mum is American, and they got creative when naming their kids. My middle name, Taliesin, is the Merlin's.

Before shoutcasting on CS:GO, you were a host for different events mainly on Starcraft 2. In France, except ESWC there is not any event hosted, can you explain us in what the host role consists in ?

The host role consists of entertaining the viewers during downtime, and making sure that the event runs smoothly from segment to segment. In general, this consists of interviews,
intros, and outros. The "new" format that is being explored in events today, consisting of a panel of experts and analysts, requires that the host be able to guide discussions on a range
of topics as well as keep the guests in check. It's a fun role to fill, if you've done your homework.

You had some cast experiences on SC2, why didn’t you keep going on this way when the game became famous ?

I didn't feel like the game was for me. I loved Wings and for a period played 20-30 games a day, until I got into 
masters, but before even the release of HotS, my interest faded. SC2
was missing the team element that I craved, like when I played Hockey, or WoW Arena, or Bloodline Champions. I enjoyed casting the game for the pleasure and challenge of the task.
Casting SC2 required a different pace and method from what I was used to with Bloodline Champions, a bit slower, a bit more reserved. The tourneys and working with Apollo at the Studio allowed me to explore different styles and become more well-rounded. Turning into a full-time SC2 caster was never part of the plan.

Appollo (on the left.) and Semmler (on the right) casting the SCAN Invitational on SC2

Can you present us GD Studio and what’s your role in there ?

The GD Studio was originally put together by Apollo, James, Trance, and myself to produce esports content covering SC2, BLC, Quake, and DotA2. This consisted of L2P episodes on the games, weekly cash tourneys, and eventually we started the GD Show with Newman from Team Dignitas and Hellspawn from Dreamhack. Adebisi, the SC2 observer, joined up after a while and added his expertise to the pool as well. In the present, the current roster focuses almost exclusively on DotA2 with James, Bruno, Skrff, Draskyll, and Weppas. I've gone from hosting and casting BLC and SC2 to focusing entirely on CS:GO. Apollo has moved to Germany to cast the SC2 WCS, and Adebisi is back in Canada sipping maple syrup. Mingles, the Victory cat, and her spawn, the Victory kittens, still reign supreme.

What’s your point on the current debate that says casters are more famous than players themselves, particularly on SC2 ?

In SC2, for a long time, the casters were seen more than the players, and the viewers had more opportunity to get to know their personalities and quirks because of this.
The casters created their own content, hosted talk shows, casted on youtube, and had more camera time than players at major events. The extroverted players got out there and joined in,
but for the most part, you were listening to and seeing casters. You could add that due to the caster pool being so small, you may not have seen the same players at all the
tourneys, but you could see the same casters. Production, throughout the past year, has shifted from focusing on casters to focusing on players as much as possible, bringing in players to participate on panels, doing longer interviews, asking for their analysis during downtime, and so on. This is all moot. Ever seen Stephano's stream go live? In other games, like LoL, and CS:GO, I think this is less of a thing. LoL pros in particular, because of how much exposure they are getting through the LCS, their own streams, and even reality TV shows, have very strong fanbases. It all comes down to how much you put yourself out there.

Do you think it is the same thing on the CS:GO scene ?

Perhaps to a certain extent, if we compare the amount of exposure casters get in comparison to players. However, the players in CS:GO have had years to cultivate followings, and so I don’t think it’s as big a deal.

You switched to CS:GO kind of lately, why did you wait so long ?

-When I didn’t find what I was looking for in SC2, that team aspect, I spent a few months playing DotA2. I had played LoL when it first released, and moved on to HoN when I discovered it, so I was familiar with the mechanics of the genre, but the way the game played, the slow pace, was not appealing to me. A few months earlier I had checked out GO with Skrff and, at the time,we had decided to give the devs a few more months to play with it before trying again. Fast forward a few months, I decided to give GO another try with some friends, and got hooked. I only ever played 1.6 and source to aim-map, DM, and surf. The matchmaking system in GO is what got me. Having never tried to mix or gather, getting into an organized 5v5 match so easily, and discovering how much depth there was to the game, how fast and demanding it was, with the teamplay to boot, was it. The casting just happened spontaneously one day back in July when the YOLOHITSQUAD was founded, when I was streaming some MM, and it’s gone from there. 

Semmler and the boss of Dreamhack, Robert Ohlén

Is it more easy to cast Starcraft or Counter-Strike ? What are the main differences ?

There is no harder or easier game to cast, it comes down to which game you enjoy. The rest comes easily. 

Is caster your fulltime job ?

Yes, hosting and casting have been my jobs for the past two years, since we founded the GD Studio. I love top ramen.

If so, what does a typical day as Semmler looks like ?

Coffee(nectar of the gods), and getting work done as quickly as possible so I can game. Wake up, coffee with the news, which includes the major esports news sites and all the subreddits. I try to keep tabs on all of the major esports titles, barring the consoles (I have no idea what’s going on in CoD, for example. Fighting games don’t count as console). Check the match scores that I might have missed, and check for any matches to cast that night. No official matches leads to MM with or without stream, Official matches means casting with Anders, then MM. Most of the time I’ll have a stream running on my second monitor with a tourney/talkshow/player. Rinse and repeat on a day to day. I have been spending some time playing Hearthstone these days as well, as a fun game to relax with when I need a break from shooting people in the face. Reddit is the bane of my existence. 

There was a lot of drama around the choice of casters for DreamHack Winter 2013, what can you say, because you were involved ?

Regarding the casters for DHW, I was surprised that Anders hadn’t been picked initially, seeing as how he’d casted nearly every major event throughout the year. Regarding myself, I was still pretty fresh, and for the biggest tournament in GO’s history, I wasn’t expecting to get picked. When Dreamhack came to us with an offer, they had bent over backwards getting everything sorted to have the second stream casted live from the event, and for that I am very grateful. It was an awesome experience to cast those games, and then host the finals, in front of such a pumped audience. The community’s reaction was amazing as well, and I am very grateful for the support of the fans that got us there in the end. Dreamhack came through, and that’s what matters.

Semmler and his fellow co-caster, Anders at DreamHack Winter 2013

Does this drama leads to rivalry between casters for the upcoming events ?

It’s always healthy to have some competition. There is no drama, however. I enjoyed working with everyone throughout the tournament, and look forward to doing so again in the near future. Anders and I work together frequently, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon. Past that, I’m going to continue doing what I’m doing and see where that takes me. 

Concerning the most important tournament for CS:GO (DreamHack), do you think there has been enough inputs (especially for streaming) for CS:GO ?

The extremely high quality of the players and teams participating throughout the tournament compensated for the technical difficulties experienced. Dreamhack have set the bar for the CS:GO majors as far as production is concerned, and we know what ESL are capable of in their studio, now we see where they can take the show in Katowice. With record numbers of viewers tuning in, 

Do you think Xray should be enabled the whole round or only in important situations ?

I think Xray should be enabled throughout the round. It allows for the viewers to clearly make out how the two teams are setting up in relation to one another, regardless of the minimap. There can be some exceptions, but for the most part, I enjoy having xray on. I don’t feel like it takes away from the hype of the moment.

The ingame graphs and statistics are rarely used by shoutcasters, can you explain why ?

Some work needs to be put into incorporating the graphs and statistics, there’s no getting around that. It comes down to having the right timing and topic for them, and admittedly we’re still fine-tuning things on the stream. At events, depending on whether there’s an observer in the mix or not, things can get complicated. The observer has to be listening to the casters attentively in order to know which graph to bring up and at which time, and when focusing on not missing any of the action, this can get tricky. Unlike DotA2, a game that has plenty of downtime to show off graphs and stats, in CS we have the freezetime at the beginning of the round, and small windows throughout. It’s just a matter of practice in the end, we’ll get there soon.

A tool so underused

What improvements/additions do you think Valve should make with its CSGO spec mod ?

The quick answer is: take everything they’ve developed for the DotA2 spec system and import that into GO. We’re pretty much there apart from the ingame caster options that you get when specing DotA2 games. The idea of a ticket for tournaments is interesting as well, but GOTV IPs and the community’s comfort with their availability make that a tricky idea to put forward. We already have the Esport cases helping to fanfund the Majors, and once/if the Marketplace goes full DotA2 with the ability to put individual skins up for sale, there will be more streams of revenue there to build off of. Announcer packs could be a lot of fun as well. I’m pretty happy with where the current obs tools stand as of now, regardless of my ramblings.

Thanks for this interview, the last word is yours.

I’d like to give big thanks to the community for its support, and to all the fans that tune in and enjoy the casts that Anders and I are putting out, www.twitch.tv/nipgamingtv for the uninitiated. Big thanks to Anders (@NiPAnders) for putting up with my antics, vENdetta (@vENdettaGO) and Arc for teaching me a metric shitload about CS and its history, Renny from the YOLOHITSQUAD, and the lads here at the GD Studio. If you like, you can follow me on twitter/facebook/youtube/twitch at /Semmlertheriot, and finally, thanks to Vakarm.net for this fine interview. Cheers, everyone, take care!