The International is always something special, and nothing can beat the buzz of the highest level of Dota 2 competition – except perhaps being a part of the magic itself. For Jared “Nomad” Bajina, caster, host, and for TI13, stage interviewer, this year was the first time he’d be a part of the event itself.
Esports.net sat down with Nomad on the final day of TI13 to discuss his thoughts about being a first-time talent at The International. Now a six-year veteran of the scene, Nomad took us through his journey to the pinnacle of Dota, and shared with us some of the highs and lows of his TI13 experience.
Nomad On What It Feels Like Work At TI13
Nomad’s interview with Ace was his favorite of the event. Image Credit: Valve
Starting off, with just the super obvious question: How does it feel to be stage interviewing at your first TI?
Jared “Nomad” Bajina: “I mean, it’s been super, super fun. It’s definitely something I’ll remember for the rest of forever, I’m pretty sure. It’s at the point where I didn’t expect the call up. I got the call up. And then I’m literally preparing every day for the past two months to finally be here. It’s gone by super quickly, but it’s also been super fun as well.
And everybody’s made the experience awesome. The talent I’ve been working with has made it that way. It’s super welcoming, super friendly, super supportive, super nice. The staff, you know, like PGL and even Valve as well, have been really, really nice as well, very supportive, very complimentary, you know.
It just made it super easy for me to kind of focus on my job and not have to worry about other things, which is incredible as well. The community has been really, really nice – My inbox is dead. There’s been so many people messaging me, so many people tweeting and posting on Reddit and all this stuff to just be supportive.
I don’t know, it’s been great. I didn’t realize that many people actually cared about me, but apparently there are enough people who care about me just enough to send me a nice message during the biggest moment of my life so far. it’s been amazing.”
Do you have a favorite interview from the event?
Nomad: “Honestly probably the one I just did [with Marcus “Ace” Christensen]. I really enjoyed talking to Ace because he just won this hype as fuck game in front of his home crowd. He was buzzing. We got a little bit in there as well where we did the ‘skååål!’ thing. I told him beforehand – I’m learning about how to execute plans beyond just interviewing – And I was like, alright, I’m just gonna grab him from the stage, gotta be quick, “hey buddy, we’re gonna do an interview and I’d like to get the crowd to go skål with you because that’s been kind of spammed throughout the game and I think it’d be a really nice part.” We get up and I ask him about the skål, and he really just goes, “skååål!” It’s not what I planned, but this is great! He shouts out the crowd shout back.
And just generally going out and facing a huge crowd. It’s gigantic, I mean it’s 10k people or something out there, just like a wall of people just screaming and you know you go, they made it to the Grand Finals and everyone just loses their minds. It’s this unbelievable feeling and you know at no point ever have I ever obviously thought they’re cheering for me. But they’re cheering for something which I’m super passionate about. I feel like my passion is kind of amplified by them and we kind of feed off each other yeah and that’s incredible.
Actually through the Road to TI, where we had no crowd and everything, I feel like my interviews were much worse. I felt like I was overthinking them. I was getting too involved in the questions. I’m not thinking about the human interaction side of things.
But when we’re able to come out on stage that just completely dissipates and it’s just about the moment. It’s about communicating with the player and I forget about everything else. I can’t be in my own head when there’s that many people looking at you, your interviewee, they’re expecting you to like… You can’t just ignore them and just rifle to your questions on the cue card. You’ve got to be there and be present. So I think that’s been really good for me. Stage interviewing is one of my favourite things I’ve ever done.”
Despite being a favorite of many, Nomad wishes he could redo the Boxi interview. Image Credit: Valve
You say that the Road to TI interviews you were kind of getting into your groove. Is there an interview you wish you could redo?
Nomad: “Oh, yeah, 100% the Boxi interview, which is a shame because it went really well. It was supposed to be cool as fuck. We got sunglasses on and everything. The problem was I couldn’t prepare properly at all. So I came up with this bit with the sunglasses. I ran it past Will to make sure that Boxi would be cool. But Will was like, “yeah, he’d be absolutely fine with that. He’s a very chill guy.” So I was like, great. So I went home, got my sunglasses, came back, and then I was ready.
And then the GG came a little early. And I had to get my mic pack on. So I had to run to the audio booth – entirely my fault, by the way – get my earphones plugged in, get my microphone, then run to the side of the stage, then the stage manager said “Go!” So I have to run out onto the stage immediately. I have to grab the guy for the interview, “Boxi, you’re with me.” And we get there and I’m explaining the bit to him on the way, what we’re gonna do. No time for small talk. I’m just like, “hey man, congratulations. Now, um, here’s, you know, if you’re cool with it, I’d like to wear sunglasses.” He was totally down, that was great. He was awesome. And then we stand on our mark and I just hear “and you’re live.”
That’s never happened, every other time it has been like a test and “are you ready?” And “yes I am ready, let’s go.” This time I stand there and the moment I stop: “you’re live.” I’m just like, oh my god. Every other time I’ve been pretty good at composing myself and doing some breathing exercises. That time you know like you can see me shaking on the camera and I’m not gonna pretend like I wasn’t.
…we stand on our mark and I just hear “and you’re live.” That’s never happened, every other time it has been like a test and “are you ready?” And “yes I am ready, let’s go.” This time I stand there and the moment I stop: “you’re live.”
Nomad on the TI13 interview with Boxi he wishes he could redo.
I was trying to get my cue card out and put my sunglasses on, you know, I got a mic in one hand, cue card in the other, so I’m gonna put cue card in my pocket, grab my sunglasses out, do the bit with Boxy, try to keep the interview flowing nicely at the same time. There’s 10,000 people in the arena watching me, there’s 150,000 people online watching me, and I’m trying to like, juggle this stuff and be chill and calm at the same time.
And I honestly feel like I was so close to just absolutely nailing that. It would have been like the most iconic moments for me. And I think it would have been awesome. Instead, it was still good. It was still great. A lot of people enjoyed that interview.
I think I divided some people because obviously people can see the nerves and some people are like, “oh, weakness! I would never be like that in front of 150,000 people.” Obviously I don’t care about those people. What I care about most is the people closest to me. And they’ve been super supportive, saying I’ve been doing a great job.
And I will always be my own worst critic, which is kind of necessary. But I’m also able to kind of filter through, “okay, what do I need to do to get better at my job” versus “how do I enjoy this moment?” And part of enjoying the moment is recognizing that I won’t be at the standard I want to be because this is something which is still new to me, but also I’m doing a good job, everything else considered, I like to think anyway, at least according to the people close to me. And I trust the people close to me. You know, they wouldn’t tell me I was doing a good job if I wasn’t.”
The Journey and Honing his Craft
Image Credit: Valve
So besides this being a first-time TI, it was also kind of a shift for you. At least I know you a lot for casting and you have done hosting obviously, but this is stage interviewing. How was that kind of shift? Was it natural or has it been a big adjustment?
Nomad: “So I’ve done a lot of interviews as a host where you’ve got a panel on, you’re kind of like a three-person group. And it’s mostly been online as well. In-person interviews I’ve only done once before at TI9 where I was working as press. And again that’s all pre-recorded, none of it is live. So basically I was really comfortable, really happy and put on like some of the best interviews I did before the event even started and then two days off the run up we sat down with the players, we had nice conversations and I was really in my element then. I crushed those interviews and everybody loved the finished product, they looked super clean, the editors obviously did a super awesome job with it as well.
So those sit-down pre-recorded interviews looked amazing. And then we got to the Road to the International, the live interviews were much harder. It took me a long time to kind of figure out the balance. I started to realize that I couldn’t actually pre-plan my interviews as much as I thought. I need to be much more flowing with it. You need to connect with the person you’re interviewing with. You can’t just sit there and raffle off questions. And that’s something I was, you know, I did that on my sit-downs, because that’s why they worked so well. But with a live camera on you, it’s just much harder. And they’re much more awkward as well, because it’s live. And so everybody’s feeling a lot more pressure. You somehow need to disarm the person you’re talking to, as also being disarming of yourself.
You need to be so comfortable, you’re projecting comfort onto the person. Which is like, okay, took me a few tries. But again, it’s something I learned very quickly. Again, I have that foundation of loads of interviews under my belt, so we were able to move pretty quickly. People were giving me feedback when I asked for it as well. Again, that’s a great thing about Dota talent, is that we’ve always put each other’s backs. Even someone like Tsunami, for example, has given me loads of advice here.
You know, we’re kind of working in the same kind of area now where I do interviews. He’s hosting an interview, so one would imagine that, you know, he’d have no interest in helping me out. But he does. There’s no rivalry. I think it’s just respect and a universal kind of desire to push everybody to be better. And if you push someone else to be best, then vicariously you’re pushing yourself to be better, because you’re raising the standards across the board, which makes it so that you have to do your job better. And it still blows my mind that there is that exists in Dota, but it does. And I also do it to myself as well, you know, there’s casters, there’s hosts who, every time it comes to me, advice I’ll happily give it to them because that’s what people did for me and still do for me. And it kind of gets passed down, so that’s wonderful. Yeah, it’s very wholesome.”
So which do you prefer then? Do you like the casting or do you prefer the interviews? If someone said, ‘hey what do you want to do?’ at the start of the event, which one do you pick?
Nomad: “Well it’s very difficult because I love new things, I like learning something new and I’ll always love castings. I’ve casted over a thousand games of Dota at this point and you get to be in the moment, you get to be in the game and that’s something which you don’t really get with any other role so it’s very hard for me to say I’d rather do hosting than casting.
But at the same time, hosting you get much more creative control. Casting you’re just there to do it. But hosting you get to invent your own fun, do your own bits, work with your panelists much more than, you know, a co-caster you don’t really get to run bits on a cast. And the same with interviewing now as well, you know, I’m getting comfortable with it. I try to run bits. A bit with Boxi, a bit with Ace where we did the skål thing.
It’s different experiences and I think at the moment I love them equally. If I spend a year doing interviews then who knows how I’ll feel. Maybe I’ll get bored of talking to pros but I don’t know. Another reason I enjoy it so much as well is because every time I watch a game of Dota I’ll be sitting there and I’ll be thinking like oh why did they do this? What’s the thought process behind that? What do they talk about in between the games? If I’m fully watching a game of Dota, you know, not second screen, like main monitor, fully immersed in it, I’ll be asking myself these questions.
And now I get to ask those questions, which is really fucking cool. Like, that’s just… that’s awesome. And I also feel kind of responsible for everybody else watching. Because if I think about that question and then the interviewer doesn’t ask that question, I’m a bit like, oh well, you know, I’m not mad, but I kind of would have liked to know the answer. So now I feel responsible for everybody like me who watches with loads of questions. I’m making sure that I’m watching every moment. I’m like, is there anything interesting which I want to get the opinions on, you know, filtering, making sure I tick all the right boxes while also making it natural. So that part of it is super fun as well. You’re the only person in the talent who gets the chance to kind of actually go past that barrier of talent and player. You get to cross the barrier, you get a very limited window to look into what they’re doing.”
Image Credit: Valve
On this TI a bit, do you have a favorite match that stands out to you? And I know you’re probably going to say the one we’ve just watched… (Gaimin Gladiators vs. Tundra Lower Bracket Finals)
Nomad: “Dude! Of course! Everything else was a 2-0 and this one was just one of the literal best matches in TI history. And then after that I get to walk onto a stage to this crowd which is just beyond hyped and ask this guy whatever questions I want and it’s Ace, he’s in-front of his home crowd as well, you know, we’re just up there absolutely buzzing.”
So when I first met you, you were casting in a theater hall in Birmingham for the Commonwealth Esports Games. And now you’re a TI. And that’s only a couple of years difference. Does it ever feel kind of surreal that that progression has happened and it’s happening quickly?
Nomad: “I actually attended my first Major like less than a year into doing casting due to the EPICENTER XL casting competition. So I had to kind of leap forward, which is actually, I think, in retrospect, really bad for my career. Because, I mean, you’re given a massive platform way too early. Everybody thinks you’re trash because you kind of are. You don’t get the proper introduction.
Then I kind of did the grind. Like, I did grind before then quite a bit, but it was not nearly as long as other people had grinded for it, so I got back on the grindstone and I think at that time I kind of felt completely out of my depth, I didn’t know what I was doing.
This time there’s much less of that. I have let myself enjoy it. You know, it’s been six years of working in Dota in one way or another. Four and a half, five years of full-time talent work, so of course it feels pretty crazy to go from not working in ESL One, and not working in any kind of major events with a live crowd. I’ve only done DPC and a few other things. So that jump feels pretty insane.
I don’t know how to process that still, but yeah, I’m just trying to enjoy it. I’m trying to… Well, I mean to be honest the main thing when I got the call up when I found out I was going to TI, I wasn’t going to be like “I’m gonna have a great time!” You know like it wasn’t like “I’m gonna sit back and enjoy the ride!” I was like “alright, I don’t want to just go to TI, I want to go to TI and prove to everybody that I deserve to be at TI.” That’s all I want. I was going to the event trying to be the most improved talent. And now that I’ve just done my final winners interview, I can say that I think I was.
Doesn’t help that all the other talents were amazing and didn’t really have nearly as much of a wall to climb as I did, but you know, we take those!”
