On Thursday October 4th, RLCD held an AMA session with RLCS Caster Mega Shogun. Below is the script for everyone to enjoy.
In light of your experience as a caster, having seen countless games at the top level, what things do you notice pro players doing that might not be immediately visible to other players around the C2-GC level?
I think people always underestimate just how well the pros hit the ball for clears and midfield shots. It’s so hard to guage how well you can lock someone down in defense when they can boom the ball the entire length of the pitch from very awkward angles.
What is your favourite thing about being able to have a career of being a professional caster?
The people I work with, easily. The thing about casting is that everyone that you work with has a personality so getting those people into a room always leads to a fun time. Live events are also up there. Being able to show my parent as the London finals that this is what I was able to do with my life was a top moment.
If you pour a bowl of cereal, but realize you’re out of milk, is it okay to eat the cereal with water instead?
Have you ever considered casting for other games and at other esports events in the future?
My entire casting style is heavily dependent on the passion I have for the game. I’ll 100% consider casting other things, but only when something gives me the passion that RL does
Do you play sports irl?
Used to do a lot of martial arts. Not so much these days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd2nPGM8mgU
What’s the most mediocre moment in your casting career for rocket league?
Getting pumped to cast the S4 finals between GFE and Method for it to be a 4-0 sweep.
What was the inspiration behind your username?
Why are you GC when your mechanical skills are the one of a plat 
genuine question btw how do you do it
genuine question btw how do you do itPositioning > Mechanics
Given that he has won 3 RLCSs do you think Turbopolsa is the best and most successful player in the world? If not, why and who is the best and most successful player in the world?
Turbo would be my close second. But Kaydop would get 1st since he’s the biggest earner in RL history and he hasn’t missed an RLCS season.
Where do you think CRL fits in the hierarchy of Rocket League? Do you think it could evolve into potential path to the Rival Series?
I don’t see it as a good way into the Rival Series, but considering we lose a lot of players when they have to go into college/higher education it’s a great move to incentivise players to stick with RL. It has it’s own role that it fills pretty well.
If you could pick any sign to represent your thoughts at lan Vegas what would be on the sign you held up?
Where’s Shogun?
Besides casting and playing games, do you have any other hobbies that you like to do on your spare time?
No but it’s something I need to look into. Discovered recently how much I suck at taking time off from streaming/analysis work. Thought about maybe graphic design but I’m open to some ideas.
would you rather fight one horse sized duck or 100 duck sized horses and why?
What are your top 3 favourite games (not including RL :Kapp: )
Danganronpa 1, Danganronpa 2, Danganronpa 3.
What do you think is missing in Rocket League casting/analysis?
More time to speak to the players. More live events would help with this but I can say that I’ve improved the most when it comes to my knowledge when I get a chance to sit down with the pros and pick their brains.
If you could,would you delete Octane from Rocket League?
Every car is now Delorean.
What tools do you use to create stats for casting?
I typically use a mixture between Octane.gg and Liquipedia to create my notes. Obviously not everything is useful but it gets compiled into something more helpful to me such as the below. Stats are useless without context. So here’s an example of what I used last season
How often do you queue with the other casters in comp?
All the RLCS casters are NA so barely ever. I do get in quite a few sessions with Cole, Stumpy and Gregan though.
What would be/could be/is the topper to end all toppers? What could you wear on your car that would make people stop what they are doing and stare in awe and amazement?
Naruto running arms.
Do you think a version of CRL could be made for EU? (asking for a friend)(definitely not for myself)
You could do some for certain countries but the US has a much bigger obsession with college sport than the EU does. Doesn’t really seem like theres a market there.
In one sentence, how would you sum up the internet?
Sub2Shogun
Whos your waifu
The Pillar Men
3s in Rocket League are gradually becoming more and more stale as the skill gap between high level players closes and the speed at which they are learning new skills is slowing. This “point” brings up concerns for the future of RLCS level entertainment, what (if anything) would you change to shake up high level Rocket League?
You hit the nail on the head. I already advocated for larger maps on Twitter because it would then repower up some of the older moves as well as open up for more intense positioning play. Right now everyone can air dribble the entire map which seems….weird to me. We’re getting closer and closer to being too good at the game. That being said I’ve been very interested in running some pick/ban maps tournaments, just to see how they go.
Have you ever thought about moving to NA, or are you more than content to stay in EU?
If RL became like OWL where there was a centralised studio with an absolute ton of broadcasts (way more than we currently do) I might consider it. But right now it doesn’t make any sense for me to upend myself, especially not financially.
Have you ever tried casting other games?
LoL 1v1’s…badly
What is t he most common mistake you see with midrange GCs?
Not forfeiting when I ask them to. Although it’s mostly just trying to be too clever. I played a 2’s game with ViolentPanda the other day and he didn’t do anything special mechanically all game, but he was always where he needed to be and never overextended. You don’t have to be JSTN levels of crazy with the ball all the time. If the situation calls for something mechanically nutty then do it, but I often see people putting themselves in a situation where they have to be mechanically nutty to score. Doesn’t make any sense. Make life easier on yourself.
What could Psyonix (and the community) do to help Rocket League grow into an even bigger game/esport in the future?
Everyone. Psyonix, community, players and casters need to get on the same page. This esport/game only works if people pull together for the best viewing and gaming experience possible. Seems like people are often trying to “score points” by swiping at each other and that doesn’t help anybody. It certainly doesn’t pull anyone new in.
Do you believe that the only reason that dignitas is doing so well is because they’re the best team as in teamplaying? Like they dont have the best mechanics but their teamplay is so good that they dont need it right?
The thing is they do have those mechanics. They just don’t need them all the time and that’s what makes them scary. The final vs NRG is the deepest I’ve ever seen Dig reach into their bag of tricks and we saw how amazing that entire series was with insane goals. Most of the time their passing plays are enough.
You think you can teach someone to cast?
I could teach people the mechanics of casting (throws, segways, timing for ads) but style comes from the person themselves. Casting is more trying different things and getting rid of what doesn’t work and keeping what does. So a caster should always be evolving.
How many times per day you open twitter?
I’ve been trying to curb my social media usage. I’ll usually open a few times a day if I’m bored and only when I think of something amazing to add to my rogues gallery of awesome tweets.
Speaking of Rogue,what do you think about Joro?
Seems talented but needs a lot of work with consistency (the whole team does). I’d love to see him with more authority in the Rogue rotation and see what he does with it.
If you weren’t casting, what could you have been doing otherwise?
Probably stacking shelves at TESCO. Would of had a degree in sports coaching but what are degrees worth these days
What’s your favourite song?
The Three of Us – Streetlight Manifesto
Which first pokemon do you always choose?
Bulbasaur and then I threw it away and completed the game with Ditto
Are there any players you feel are ridiculously good for the amount of hours they’ve put into the game? In other words, what player has the best ability to hours played ratio in the pro scene?
I’d need access to all the pros hours data and some of them have private profiles. Would love to take a look though.
What would be your dream LAN format for when SAM (and maybe other regions) get added?
Group stage into single elimination. ELEAGUE got it right.
Which team would you pick as a dark horse type of team to surprise people in RLCS regionals / lan?
Vitality seem to have lowered everyones expectations of them. They can only continue to get better and might make a decent run.
If you had to pick a location to host an RLCS LAN final, what place(s) would it be and why?
I mean I’d clearly take another London LAN. Best experience of my life.
How many more seasons do you think OCE needs before they can (a) put forward a Title Contender, and (b) be seen to have drawn level to NA/EU (top-to-bottom)?
What Chiefs have managed in OCE is truly incredible. By all accounts they shouldn’t be able to contend with NA/EU because they don’t get enough time to train with people at that level, I haven’t seen it in any esport before. Logic says they need time to play with top level international teams otherwise they’ll start to fall behind way before they catch up. Yet it’s the Chiefs and logic doesn’t apply to them.
Do you think SARPBC veterans (Kuxir, Kronovi…) will at some point in the near future be completely irrelevant in the competitive scene?
We could say that about any player. Kuxir is talented enough to stick around the top for a long time to come and Kronovi has won ELEAGUE and an NA Playoff in the last year, he’s not going anywhere despite how much people want to be dramatic. Even if Kro was to back down from playing I can assure you that a broadcasting role would open to him very quickly.
What is your RLCS fantasy dream team
ViolentPanda, GarrettG, Drippay. Decided to use one from each region, plus Drippay could be something truly dangerous to everyone in the world if he had time to work with two of the best professionals in the league.
Better striker: JSTN, Garrett G?
Garrett is a little out of form at the moment but we’ve seen how lethal he can be. Still has the record for highest GPG in a single season at 1.25 but Kaydop might challenge that this season. He’s at 1.34 now.
It seems the league play for RL has been getting shorter as time goes on. Would you like to see an extension? Perhaps have each team play each other twice in an 8 or 9 week season?
Of course I would like to see more Rocket League being played. If thats a change in format or just more events. Just give me more Rocket League.
