OverAchievers: A Conversation with Achilios

Hey everyone, it's Proilios again, and today, I'm pleased to be presenting an article about one of the best play-by-play commentators in the professional Overwatch scene, Seth 'Achilios' King. I'm stoked to be able to write about Achilios; I love his casting style, and find his energy and enthusiasm extremely contagious. His ability to keep up with the pace of every team fight he's casting, and break down plays in every corner of the spectator screen is second-to-none. Most of you are already familiar with his work, but how much do you know about his journey to being such a proficient and well-known caster? I'm guessing not a lot, so with great pleasure, I'm about to share his story with you.

As a kid, Seth was very fond of video games. He used to get them as a reward for getting good grades, so that he could play them on the weekends after his homework was done. He started off as a console player, but slowly got into PC gaming, thanks to 'Halo: Combat Evolved', which also introduced him to the FPS (First-Person Shooter) genre. When he was around 12, a LAN centre opened up near his place, and after paying it a few visits, he fell in love with games like Unreal Tournament (2004) and Counter Strike. He invariably started frequenting the place, grinding these new games and improving with his friends. Eventually, he got to represent that very LAN centre in a semi-pro tournament, which helped develop his passion for competitive gaming. A few years later, League of Legends was released, and that was the first "S-Tier Esport" Achilios took a big liking to after Counter Strike. Still a student, he would spend his winter breaks grinding LoL with his friends, having week-long LAN parties and seeking to improve at the game.

In 2012, en-route to PAX East (an annual League of Legends convention), he met a caster for the MOBA 'Heroes of Newerth' through some mutual friends. This caster, who wished to transition to League of Legends, asked Achilios if he'd ever considered commentating it, since he seemed very knowledgeable and had a great voice for the job. As someone who had worked in community theatre and production, Achilios wasn't camera-shy, and found it to be an interesting prospect. As a result, the two made a deal, through which Achilios would teach his new friend about LoL, in exchange for being trained at commentating. Quite excitingly, the duo was able to get a casting gig for OWN3D.TV, a then-competitor of Twitch, for a LoL tournament. Despite the event being cancelled part-way, Achilios enjoyed the short-but-valuable experience, and looked forward to commentating more often.

Back then, it was uncommon for people to make their living solely casting esports, so Achilios decided to treat it as a hobby, only commentating weekly League of Legends tournaments when he got the chance. Over time, he got to work with famous LoL personalities like PiraTechnics, Froskurinn and Drakos, and started making "minor amounts of money...you know, 10 bucks a game, that sort of thing". A couple of years later, he ended up joining Team Curse (Team Liquid)'s production crew, thanks to Damian Estrada (currently their Creative Director), who knew about his background in film production. This really helped accelerate Achilios' career, since he got to "travel around the world" for tournaments, and eventually met Montecristo and DoA, who were also casting League back then. Thanks to Monte's recommendation, Achilios was able to move to Korea in 2016 to cast the LCK, which was a truly big break.

In the same year, the ESL hosted an Overwatch tournament at IEM Gyeonggi, and Achilios tried his hand at casting it alongside none other than Uber, who was surprisingly the colour commentator (analyst) for that series of casts. Although it was challenging, Achilios enjoyed it, and looked forward to commentating more Overwatch. Thanks again to Monte and DoA, he got to cast the Challengers' tournament for Apex S2 alongside his now-casting partner, Wolf 'Wolf' Schröder. Seth cast both League and Overwatch for a bit, but felt he had a brighter future in the latter, since there were already a bunch of talented play-by-play commentators in the Korean LoL scene. Casting two esports side-by-side was proving challenging for him anyway, since he had to adopt two different casting styles; a more relaxed one with more downtime for League, and a faster-paced, more exhilarating one for Overwatch, which sometimes overlapped with each other and showed up in the wrong games. All these factors compelled Achilios to bid LoL adieu, as he decided to focus on making it big in the global Overwatch scene. He got to cast a few games in Apex Season 2, and became a regular caster for Seasons 3 and 4 due to his popularity. His hard work over the next few years culminated in him and Wolf being asked to join the Overwatch League in Season 2, an offer they were "ecstatic" about.

More than two years since, he and Wolf are one of the best casting pairs in the Overwatch scene, and they're thrilled to be doing what they're doing. Despite the current global circumstances, Achilios said "I'm as happy as I can be" with the state of the Overwatch League, highlighting how impressively quick Blizzard and the OWL team were at responding to the COVID pandemic. I asked him what one change he would've made to the Overwatch League if he'd had the power, and he said, "If I could snap my fingers like Thanos and get rid of COVID just for the sake of seeing the Asian teams clash against the top NA teams, that's what I would do". Seth also confirmed that he's planning to cast OWL in 2021 as well, saying, "It's really difficult for any other title to remotely come close to Overwatch for me. I love the non-stop action in the game, I like the constant fast pace and having to keep up with multiple things that are going on".

TIDBITS OF TRIVIA:

The name 'Achilios': 'Achilios' was a character in a Diablo novel called 'The Sin War', written by Richard A. Knaak, and being a "lore nerd" who loved the novel, Seth named himself after that character.

Favourite Foods: "Tier-1 food for me is always gonna be steak", opened Achilios. He also mentioned two of his favourite Korean dishes: 'Sundaeguk (soon-day-gook)', which is a blood sausage soup; and 'Haejangguk (hay-jaang-gook)', which literally means 'Hangover Soup', since it's eaten to recover from hangovers.

Favourite thing about Wolf: "His passion for the storylines of the players and the history of the teams". Achilios reminisced about how he and Wolf had spectated multiple Apex matches together before they got to cast any of them, which helped them soak in all the storylines. With Wolf already being an "encyclopedia" from his time casting Starcraft, he's able to recall these storylines and share parts of them with his audience.

ACHILIOS AND OVERWATCH:

Favourite Hero: Ashe/Ana

Least Favourite Hero: Mei

Favourite Map: Lijiang Tower

Least Favourite Map: Havana

Favourite Meta: Classic Dive (Winston-D.Va-Tracer-Genji)

Least Favourite Meta: Mei-Reaper (from OWL Season 2 Stage 4)

Favourite Team to Cast: "The Runaway iteration of the Vancouver Titans"

I must say, my conversation with Achilios was delightful. He was extremely friendly and accommodating, and spent a ton of time talking to me and sharing his story. His humility and gratitude really stood out to me, as he made sure to mention everyone who'd made him who he is today, be it his wife, his father, or other esports casters. I'm very thankful for his time, and you, for yours, so I hope you enjoyed this post, and would like to read similar articles from me in the future. As usual, the comments section is open, so if you want to say anything to Achilios, feel free to type it down there! Also, be sure to subscribe to this blog if you'd like to be notified about posts like these in the future, and on that note, I will take your leave. Cheers, and stay safe!

P.S. Achilios' image has been taken from liquipedia.net. I do not own the rights to it.