Cassi Brown - E-Sports Caster
What is it like being an E-sports Caster?
Being an esports caster is a wonderful experience! With the games that I do personally, I get to apply my knowledge, and use it to spin narratives, hype up the action, and drive interest in the product. And I can even be a little creative with it. Sprinkle in little jokes and bits of wordplay and make it fun for me, my co-casters, and for the viewers. Plus it's a cool little amalgamation of a lot of the things I've dabbled in or loved doing growing up. Obviously I've always loved video games. I've always enjoyed the content and commentary that goes along with competitive gaming. And I grew up watching Professional Wrestling. So I look at people like Jim Ross or Mauro Ranallo and draw inspiration from them. Overall, it's one of the coolest things I've ever gotten the chance to do, and I do hope to be able to make a full career out of it going forward!
You mentioned you'd like to see changes in the industry. What types of changes would you like to see regarding the Esports industry and gaming industry in general as it pertains to women?
I think there does need to be a lot of change in the esports industry, but unfortunately I can't propose a simple solution or initiative that'll help to solve it. But I will definitely say that some things are going in the right direction. The current problem in esports, that's clear as day to me, is that there aren't very many female players at the top levels. And the reason for that, people often will say is something like "well, men are just better at video games, so duh!" But that's not really the case. In fact, it has a lot more to do with the sentiment held by both gamers, and society as a whole at the basic level.
Being a professional player in the esports world takes TONS of practice, dedication, and grinding. Even if you're god's gift to the game you play, you still need to keep yourself sharp, because there's always someone on your tail ready to be better than you and take your spot. Well, most women and queer gamers can't quite get that far, and even if they do, they burn out a lot faster. Gaming has always been seen as a hobby for boys. Not for girls. Anyone with a feminine or queer sounding voice, or username, is often subjected to torrents of slurs, misogyny, or.... lonely gamer dudes hitting on them. It can be so incredibly demoralizing to deal with that every day that it's like, at that point why do you even want to log in anymore? Why do you want to pursue this goal if it's gonna be made this much of a living hell for you? The mental toll that being a player takes on you at the top levels is already hard enough without having to deal with brazen sexism every time you drop into a game.
In esports, its the players who drive the product. And we have a system where there are SO many barriers to female players getting to that level, that there's no representation at the top, which makes it hard for women to get interested in esports in any capacity, and then it's kind of a self serving cycle. And those barriers don't need to be there. There need to be more initiatives that cultivate the talent that's there, help to take them all more seriously, and at the most basic levels, make people realize that it's not cool to be making those kinds of jokes or comments in game.
Things are moving in a better direction with the additions of some organizations that are focused on highlighting talent from women and marginalized genders. Calling all Heroes, for Overwatch is a big one for me. And you also have Female Pro League for Call of Duty, Hatterene Series for Pokemon VGC, and Celestial Cup for Apex Legends. These aren't the most widespread but the mission statements of these groups, as well as just providing inclusive spaces for everyone to learn and grow as players, and in other roles, *cough* like Casting :), is an extremely important first step.
