I spoke with Kevin “Adanas” Meier, Commentary and Talent lead for Hi-Rez Studios. Adanas is also a former professional player for the team Reason Gaming who came in 4th place at PAX East in 2013 during SMITE’s pre-season. He will be the first to point out that it was 4th place out of 4 but Reason gaming still made it. He talks about what Season 3 holds for SMITE’s, predictions on players and teams, as well as some of his most embarrassing moments while working for Hi-Rez.
Ben Hernandez: You started off as a competitive player for SMITE competing at PAX in 2013, then went into production for Hi-Rez and finally into casting. Talk to me about how you transitioned into each of those roles.
It was St3alth, Omega, and BaRRaCCuDDa, which would eventually become Cloud9, and they were undefeated. They were playing a team Down to Frag which consisted of players like djpernicus and KikiSoCheeky. They were actually getting upset by Down to Frag, so all the viewers from the main stream wanted to come see this team that won seven weeks in a row get upset. So, they came and listened to PeccYz and me cast it. In the middle of it, my net went down and Peccyz had to solo cast it. He wasn’t a caster. He was just helping me out. So, I got my name noticed a little more by Hi-Rez.
The launch tournament came about, and I wasn’t on a team at the time, so I asked if I could cast it. They said no as they had already brought in F. and Krett. I had met a guy named Josh Belkin on production, and he asked me to come out and work production with him. I got very lucky for that opportunity. I went there and just busted my ass. Hi-Rez told me they couldn’t offer me a job casting because they weren’t hiring but would contract me for a few weeks and see how it goes. It went well, and It was a great opportunity that led to me working for Hi-Rez. Last year, they needed to expand on commentary, and I threw my name in the hat as a former player. They told me to do some more things in the community which I did, and I sent them VODs and different videos of me casting and eventually I got the job.
BH: Sounds like a lot of proving yourself. Can you tell me about one of the most Awkward moments you had when you first joined Hi-Rez?
BH: That is hilarious. Let’s talk about commentator to player relationship. How close are you with the players as commentators?
BH: You have stated numerous times that the SPL is an old boys club. Can you expand on that a bit?
BH: With that said, you recently tweeted about talent only taking you so far. Can you expand on that?
BH: Sticking on the topic of players with respect to their teams, we saw Baskin and Andinster leave teams to play with friends. Is that good for SMITE or bad? Do you think it was a good decision or bad?
Look at Epsilon, they were all players who had no success outside of iRaffer. All of them had been on the scene forever, and they started thinking about the game more intelligently. iRaffer brought them together. They all had the right mindset to improve and started to create diverse strategies. They were not the best team at the start. The same team that won Season 2 SWC did not qualify for the Spring Split. They were ok, but they were not that good. They stuck together, worked as a team, and kind of figured things out. It is not just natural skill it will also take game planning and general thinking.
BM: If Baskin leaves after Spring Split that would change the entire dynamic of that team.
At the same time, what is going to matter is if Snoopy starts feeding every game six weeks in a row, and he doesn’t want to kick him. If that is the playing with friends, then it becomes less of a business and ok we are failing because of Snoopy. Now, I don’t think that is going to happen, but that is when you have to decide if you are actually playing with friends or do you want to make this a business. If Snoopy is feeding his brains out and is the reason that Wooney Tunes are losing games, Andi will have to decide if he will kick him or is it really “I am playing with my friends deal”. That is going to matter especially when you look at going to DreamHack at the end of the Spring Split. I think they are going to be fine, though. Baskin is a little bit different because he was on, realistically, the best team but he jumped to SoaR. SoaR also has a lot of potential around them. I think his was more around playing with friends. That is because he might be going back to school and quitting SMITE.
BH: As a fan of SMITE, I am excited to see what Andi could do without shot calling. Many consider him the top jungler as is, so thinking of him taking his game to the next level is kind of scary.
BH: After the SMITE World Championship, there was some talk of Organizations not treating the players correctly. How does Hi-Rez handle organizations that fall into this category?
BH: I feel like a lot of these guys are young being 16 or 17 years old and have no idea on how these things work. Can these players approach you or others in regards to the process and what to look for?
BH: People have said picks and bans was a big part of why Enemy made it so far last year.
BM: Let’s talk individual players some more. Give me a player you think will be a top player this year? Who is going to put the work in?
BH: Who do you think will be bad this year in the SPL?
There is a lot of hype around SoaR, and I don’t know if they are going to be Epsilon. I am not saying they are going to win Season 3. It seems to be the same formula though from the outside looking in. I have had some interactions with Homiefe and talking to Met. Met has been around forever, like, since I was playing, and he could never get on a team. He was just not good enough. Even last year he jumped onto Elevate as a support, and that was just a shit show and a half. Talking to some players that was just a bad environment, not necessarily organization but the team members and the roster together. Met makes the switch to Hunter this year. Scrims are awkward in that you can take a lot from them but you also have to take them with a grain of salt. Met has apparently been killing it in scrims. Homiefe also is probably the next best jungler next to Andinster when he is on his game. But only when he is on his game and he is not consistent enough yet.
BH: I want to talk about working on the analyst desk. As an eSports commentator, you get to interact with fans more often than commentators from traditional sports. How often do you read chat while you cast? You have people complaining about how you criticize players, yet there is always people criticizing the commentators the same way. If someone pronounces Ao Kuang wrong chat jumps all over it.
BH: Can you talk a bit about SMITE and Hi-Rez’s growth? SMITE and Paladins will be going to DreamHack this year. How big of a move is this for Hi-Rez?
BH: So what can we expect out of SMITE 2016?
BH: What about out of Adanas? What can we expect from you for 2016?
BH: Lastly what would you tell someone who is interested in being a Commentator for eSports or SMITE specifically?
