[InsideLounge] Robb

Greetings ladies and sloths, season 3 is drawing near and with the start of the new season, Inside Lounge is back as well, and this season with your own Alexandrikus (me) as your host. This time for Inside Lounge instead of a team we have one of the people working hard on camera (and behind the scenes) here in Heroes Lounge. Some people know him as a team captain of Deported Support, some people know him as a caster, some people know him as the guy who spams Heroes Lounge Discord most of his day, and some people know him from that video circulating online, that we aren’t allowed to mention. However, most of us know him simply as Robb, and I’ve had the pleasure to tie him to a chair, inject him with Sodium Pentothal, and force him to answer my questions. 

Thank you for joining us Robb, before we start, tell us one thing. You appear to be a .... person, and not a team, what are you doing here on Inside Lounge?

Robb: My pleasure. Whilst I am the co-captain (aka, admin slave) for Deported Support, more people in the lounge probably know me for casting and helping to organize some of the fun stuff that goes on in the lounge, such as the caster games, playoffs and pleboffs.

As people mostly known you for your casting, let's start with that, you originally started as a co-caster, and then switched to casting. Tell us a little bit about that, what made you decide to go into it, and what is your general opinion on being a caster in Heroes Lounge?

Robb: As anyone who has dealt with me attest to, I love the sound of my own voice! I have a background in public speaking, and whilst I am far from the most knowledgeable player, I am probably one of the most comfortable casters on the mic. Casting in Heroes Lounge is a lot of fun, it really is for people of all skill levels, and something I’d strongly encourage people to give a go.

We have a lot of new teams and players coming into season 3, so we are expecting more games to be had (some early estimates put us at 60 games per week), with the amount of casters we have it is always a challenge to make sure all are casted, and as I am sure there are people who would like to try their hands at that, what would you say to them? How hard is it really?

Robb: I would say co-casting is an absolute doddle. Casting takes a bit more setup to get started, and you need to have at least an OK internet connection, but it is a LOT easier than you would think. If anyone is interested in trying out casting, I suggest starting out as a co-caster first, as this gives you an idea of how casting actually works. If anyone is interested in casting this season, you should talk to Heartless on the Heroes Lounge discord. He does a great job of managing the team of casters we have, and we get a lot of support from him and the other more experienced casters when you are starting out. Also if you are interested in trying it out “off camera” first, just try to cast one of your replays! I did this first and recorded it on my personal twitch channel, and gave to Heartless for feedback.

Trying out replays on your own seems like a great idea. When it comes to casting there are two main "parts" the play-by-plays and the analytical casting. Many people looking to go into casting are afraid they will not be good enough in one or both of these, can you give us some insight on this and what is it like casting teams in divisions higher than you are in.

Robb: This is an interesting question, as it is something that got brought up at the end of last season with some of the higher division players. If you are a lower tier player casting a higher tier team, do not feel scared to give your opinion. What is key however, is to make sure you are honest about it being an opinion, and to not treat it like everything you are saying is the gospel. Some players won’t like you criticizing them, but as a caster, that is 100% your job. Your job isn’t to make the players look good (like some people think) it’s to tell a story of what is happening in the game, and offer praise/critique when you think it is appropriate. I consider myself more of a “play by play” guy, but with the nature of amateur casters and Heroes Lounge in general, we all end up doing a bit of both.

You were the main person responsible for the playoffs of season 2, which everyone agrees were a great success. Can you tell us a little bit about that, how did you end up being the one doing it, what were some challenges you faced, and what was it like?

Robb: I’d like to start off by saying I had a LOT of help, there was a great team of people working behind the scenes making decisions that made the playoffs as good as they were. My role ended up being more of being the guy who was pushing those decisions into being made, then writing up what people had proposed/discussed into something useable. I then was also the person responsible for making sure it all ran smoothly on the day also.

I had offered to help Cosmic with it sometime before the playoffs were organized. I had a background in arranging tournaments for Star Wars Jedi Academy, and that was helpful in assisting Cosmic and the other in this season’s playoffs.

It was a lot of fun, but a VERY stressful weekend. I had only arrived back in the UK the evening before having been away on business, so I was a bit tired to say the least! Dealing with games running long due to delays, and having to change stream schedules on the fly as a result was very challenging, but luckily we have amazing casters who were ready to switch what they were doing for me on a moment’s notice.

What was your favourite part of the playoffs?

That’s tough, a big part of me wants to say Throw Inc’s run, but I am going to be a bit selfish and say seeing the twitch chat all spamming #RobbLove after I was thanked for doing a good job, was really touching.

Well you did earn it, and for those that don’t know there is a chat command in our Discord now #RobbLove (go check it out). Let's talk about your team a little bit. Other than being a caster you are also the captain of Deported Support. What is it like being a team captain, and do you enjoy playing in Heroes Lounge yourself?

I mainly handle the admin side of things for Deported Support. Astraeus is our main shotcaller and drafter. I enjoy the organisational side of things, so being captain is a good fit for me. Astraeus also shares my love of spreadsheets, so it is a good partnership.

Honestly, I prefer casting to playing. Heroes Lounge has renewed my love of Hots certainly, and I love the people I play with (#blametinyowl) but I prefer to cast these days.

Who doesn’t enjoy a good, well formatted spreadsheet? Let me ask you which of the following would you prefer? A. a puppy; B. a flower from your sweetie; or C. a large, properly formatted data file? Choose!

Robb: C ofc.

That is correct. In season 2 your team was in the best division (division 3, 3>1), where it took a respectable position, what was your favorite moment in season 2?

For me it was our game against Late Game Heroes where we beat them on BoE with a LiLi. Their captain at the time FictionalAroma is also a caster in Heroes Lounge, and was the person who I first casted with, so it was great to beat them. I also played Li-Ming that game, with her best talent Astral Presence, and probably played the best I have all season.

I actually remember that game, a friend of mine was casting it, and your Li-Ming was very much on point. 0 deaths and topping all the charts, quite well done. 

People in Heroes Lounge also know you as the creator of the now legendary #BlameTinyOwl meme, that even grew into a chat command on the Discord (go check it out folks). How did that meme came to pass, and was it all a cleaver ploy to get TinyOwl into your own team for next season?

That came about as a result of my first ever cast! It was with FictionalAroma once more, and TinyOwl put the teams on the wrong side in the lobby, so we spent the first half of the game thinking the teams were opposite to what they were, and I informed the chat that our social media hashtag for the evening was #BlameTinyOwl. TinyOwl is one of the nicest people in the lounge, and super positive so I was really happy to have her join our team for this season when I heard Beginner AI were taking a break.

I will count that as a confession of guilt. In season 3 your team will compete in division 5, what are your expectations of the season and how do you feel about other teams from your division?

I actually think we have a chance to finish in the top 3-5 places this season, dependant on how good some of the new teams are. 23APM and Puppies in Shark Tanks are probably the favourites, but I think we should be up there this season. It will nice to avoid some of the stomps we got last season!

Also looking forward to hopefully facing our fellow Pleboffs team Potatoes007 this season, their buttons may be weak, but their memes are strong.

Deported Support vs Potatoes007 rivalry confirmed! 

Let's talk about Robb the man. When Robb is not picking the wrong level 1 talent on Li-Ming in Heroes of the Storm, what is Robb doing in life? Tell us about your hopes and (teenage) dreams.

I work in IT for a multi-national electronics manufacturing company, mainly focusing on sourcing, configuring and rolling out both homemade and commercial software solutions. In English that means I organize stuff for a living. Outside of gaming, I also enjoy airsoft, photography (I do wedding & event photography as a side job) and playing D&D.

You mentioned playing D&D, for those that do not know, you have organized a casters D&D game, with you as the Dungeon Master and Supreme Overlord, to whom we all bow. Events like these really help improve the community and help everyone bond outside of the Heroes of the Storm settings, which is an amazing thing. I have noticed a trend that you seem to organize a lot of stuff. Tell me do you like organizing or is it something you HAVE to do, when you see a chance? What are you planning to organize for us in the future?

I find a lot of it is necessity, but if I am being honest, I really enjoy organising things also. I like to make sure things run as smoothly as possible, and generally find myself in the position where people will let me do so for them. It's why I am in my current job, and probably my best attribute. As to what is being organised for the future...well, I was also responsible along with MacDino for all our cool Heroes Lounge merch we had at the end of last season, and I can tell you that we have some awesome ideas for not only season 3 team shirts, but some role based shirts as well. We are also currently working on plans for the playoffs this season as well, and potentially some cool "Pleboffs" style tournaments during the break between season 3 and 4.

When the word got out that this interview was happening my Discord inbox and my e-mail got flooded with thousands of fan questions for you. The most requested one your fans wanted to know was which Taylor Swift song is your personal favorite, and why?

That’s legitimately tough, as she has such a great library of songs, but I would have to go with Mean.

While we are enjoying that let’s talk about what Heroes Lounge means for you, and can you tell us some interesting experiences you had, or some cool people (other than myself) that you have met here?

Heroes Lounge is a great community of people, who want to share dank memes, have a bit of banter, and occasionally play some Heroes of the Storm. As an elder gamer, I have been a part of a lot of communities in my time, and this is probably the one I have enjoyed the most. So as to not make a giant list I would definitely say I have enjoyed talking last season with FictionalAroma, TinyOwl and Snow (and many others) a great deal.

For the end let's talk about a special event coming up this Sunday (26th of March 2017 @ 7.30 PM CET), the 2nd, now already traditional Caster Game Extravaganza. First one was held during the end of year break that we had, and it was your caster debut, as well. We all remember you were in a very festive holiday mood, tell us about the first caster games, and what will you remember about them?

I was so drunk by the last game! It was a lot of fun, I don’t remember a great deal, due to the twitch chat insisting that I keep drinking, but going into the voice chat to question teams after they all died was a lot of fun.

I may or may have not been one of the people in chat forcing you to drink, but moving on…

As some people remember we had a chance to see our favorite casters and co-casters play nontraditional game modes with wacky rules, and we have something similar planned for this event as well. Without spoiling too much for the audience, can you tell us what we can all expect to see on Sunday.

Well, there will be even more drinking this time I can promise that! In addition, we have something we are currently calling “Wheel of (Mis)Fortune” which I am particularly looking forward to. I’d strongly encourage everyone to come along and watch, as it is sure to be a clown fiesta of the highest quality!

Thank you Robb for taking the time to answer my questions, do you have any shotouts for the end, or is there anything else you would like to say.

Shout out to my team, Deported Support, Cosmic for being the daddy of all of this, and to anyone who tunes in to watch a Heroes Lounge game on Twitch, it really means a lot to all of us! You can follow me on Twitter .

Thanks to Robb for joining us on Inside Lounge, we have a tight schedule of interviews prepared for the next season, with some of your most requested ones coming up. If you happen to have any feedback or suggestions about what you would like to see here, be free to contact us on Discord, or via Twitter or Facebook.