In today's Commentator Interview, we chat with Sonde, a long time commentator and staff member who has recently returned to commentating after a brief hiatus. Read on to learn more about Sonde and some of his upcoming projects in the StarCraft scene.
To start things off, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Sonde: I'm an 18 year old all American stud from Salt Lake City, Utah
I enjoy basketball, tennis, daily runs, watching commentaries, eating out and of course commentating. I'm currently finishing up my last semester of high school and I'm really looking forward to getting my life on the road.When did you start commentating, and how did you get into it all - the StarCraft scene, and commentating itself?
Sonde: I started commentating at the beginning of Summer '08, so I have been at it for about a year and a half but... I have unfortunately taken a couple breaks that lasted much longer then I pleased. I can promise though this time I am back for good and I will never ever leave! I got into the StarCraft scene after being introduced by my brother (mallius). It's funny because the first player I ever watched and began following was Julyzerg and I misread a post, so for about three months I thought that the Golden Mouse winner JulyZerg was from China.
You've worked on many StarCraft-related projects in the past, can you tell us a bit about them?
Sonde: Besides commentating, I have ran a couple tournaments, done some management work for teams as well as I running my own StarCraft team for a couple of months. I'm also working with SourceRadio to do some stuff that I will get into a little bit later, but really all of these projects have helped me better understand StarCraft and eSports as a whole.
You've been casting a lot of Winners League games lately, what are your current impressions on the teams and who do you thinking is looking prime for a major run?
Sonde: My impression thus far is that I have already fallen in love with this league once again. I enjoy every moment of it and I watch as many games as possible. As far as who will make the big run, its simple, Flash Rolster will continue to roll to the final stage. Flash can not and will not be stopped, expect no one else but Flash and his Rolster crew holding the Gold.
Call you tell us about SourceRadio?
Sonde: SourceRadio is a corporation that is focusing on 24/7 eSports stream. As far as my position goes, I will be doing some show hosting as well as some StarCraft stuff for them, but I can't get into details. All I can say is that there will be endless StarCraft entertainment coming from me in the near future.
Finally, StarCraft II - plans for it in the future?
Sonde: OoooOOOoo
I'm planning to commentate StarCraft II and also looking to get very competetive with it. I came into the competitive StarCraft scene way to late but this will be a fresh start for me as a fan but more importantly as a player. Expect no one else but Sonde to be #1 in the Power Rankings.____________________________________
I came into the competitive StarCraft scene way to late but this will be a fresh start for me as a fan but more importantly as a player.
____________________________________
I came into the competitive StarCraft scene way to late but this will be a fresh start for me as a fan but more importantly as a player.
____________________________________
To wrap things up, can you answer these ten questions, stolen from "Inside the Actors Studio" on Bravo, which stole these questions from French television personality Bernard Pivot, who took the idea from Marcel Proust's "Proust Questionnaire". Yep.
What is your favorite word?
Sonde: Nerdrage
What is your least favorite word?
Sonde: Brah (Mormon thing
after all I am from Utah... but not Mormon myself)What turns you on?
Sonde: Stork's reaver Micro
What turns you off?
Sonde: Jaedong's mutalisk control
What sound or noise do you love?
Sonde: Slashing of a DT on a drone
What sound or noise do you hate?
Sonde: The sound of the imbalanced burrowing lurkers ;p
What is your favorite curse word?
Sonde: damn son!
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Sonde: My ultimate goal after college is to become a DJ for a Radio station.
What profession would you not like to do?
Sonde: I would hate to teach, kids like myself would drive me out.
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear BoxeR say when you arrive at the bar?
Sonde: I would like to hear Boxer regret his change to Terran after he see's what I can do with a reaver.
Finally, any final words for the community?
Sonde: www.youtube.com/scteamrune please!
Also, I have some great stuff planned so just be patient nerds. Thank you sc2gg for all your support as well as a special thanks to BachHo. Cheers!Thanks Sonde, good to hear from you. You can find more casts from Sonde at http://www.youtube.com/user/scTeamRune. Stay tuned for more info about source-radio in the future! That's it for this interview, thanks for reading, and later days SC2GG.
Past Interviews ArchiveShow/Hide Spoiler
MattSC
Sample Piece: "Steve has some fantastic technical analysis, and a much keener eye than I do. It felt only natural that with his technical prowess and my knack for colorful play-by-play, we would make a good commentating duo. That, and we both hate Vent lag in dual/triple commentaries. I wanted to put an end to that. This was all before we realized Moletrap was so close by to help out! That was complete luck."
SCSoulSeeker
Sample Piece: "I've been playing StarCraft for a good year now.. probably six months on campaign/B.Net, a two month break and almost four months competitively on iccup. I'm going to say the one name that Lahv love me for..... Combat-ex. He brought me back into SC and without him, I wouldn't be here. At all. I wouldn't have dug up my brood war disk from the depths of my desk drawer. He inspired me and helped me get out of D- (100 points). So i don't hate him as much as everyone else does but i don't watch his commentaries any more."
Vorosh
Sample Piece: "I'd always been interested in commentating, but I was never confident enough to actually put myself out there in the infinite sea of flame and hate that youtube can be. Something in Obama's inaugural address inspired me, and I decided to record my first game later that night. "
DejaVu
Sample Piece: In terms of commentating, I started my senior year of college just doing casual commentaries of people around school playing each other or playing students from Carnegie Melon or Rochester or other colleges in tournaments. People seemed to like it and one of my friends referred me to sc2gg, where I started doing some commentaries for the star cup earlier this year. Then, I started doing pro commentaries this April when Phrank asked me to do a dual with him and now I have been commentating for about 5 months and absolutely love it.
Moletrap
Sample Piece: "I grew up watching Star Trek; I'm a big sci-fi fan. I did a lot of sailing when I lived in San Diego and still like to go sailing when I have the chance. I have done a lot of random stuff in my life (acting, newspaper editor, fencing, I can ride a unicycle, some web design, college ultimate frisbee team, etc), but never really seem to do any one thing for a long time or ever get very good at anything in particular."
Ranshin
Sample Piece: "I'm a fan of video games, anime, stand-up comedy and I like adding to my already massive porn collection. For those that wonder, yes I DO have a girlfriend and NO the porn doesn't bother her."
NukeTheStars
Sample Piece: "As far as hobbies go, I've been composing electronic music for about nine years. I have the necessary skills to become a club DJ as well, but gigs are hard to set up around here (Atlanta, here I come!). Being a journalist on weekdays and a club DJ on weekends would make me feel like a freaking superhero, so I hope this dream comes true!"
Kenny
Sample Piece: "Commentator Idol for me was an amazing experience. I not only met a lot of really awesome people, but I learned a lot about myself as a commentator and I gained a lot of really loyal fans."
Diggity
Sample Piece: "I am almost positive I will disappear under the avalanche of new commentators. It will be nice to be an anonymous ghost in the ether for awhile. I'm glad that Blizzard has thought to include commentator tools directly into StarCraft2. I am more excited about that than the game itself."
Sample Piece: "Steve has some fantastic technical analysis, and a much keener eye than I do. It felt only natural that with his technical prowess and my knack for colorful play-by-play, we would make a good commentating duo. That, and we both hate Vent lag in dual/triple commentaries. I wanted to put an end to that. This was all before we realized Moletrap was so close by to help out! That was complete luck."
SCSoulSeeker
Sample Piece: "I've been playing StarCraft for a good year now.. probably six months on campaign/B.Net, a two month break and almost four months competitively on iccup. I'm going to say the one name that Lahv love me for..... Combat-ex. He brought me back into SC and without him, I wouldn't be here. At all. I wouldn't have dug up my brood war disk from the depths of my desk drawer. He inspired me and helped me get out of D- (100 points). So i don't hate him as much as everyone else does but i don't watch his commentaries any more."
Vorosh
Sample Piece: "I'd always been interested in commentating, but I was never confident enough to actually put myself out there in the infinite sea of flame and hate that youtube can be. Something in Obama's inaugural address inspired me, and I decided to record my first game later that night. "
DejaVu
Sample Piece: In terms of commentating, I started my senior year of college just doing casual commentaries of people around school playing each other or playing students from Carnegie Melon or Rochester or other colleges in tournaments. People seemed to like it and one of my friends referred me to sc2gg, where I started doing some commentaries for the star cup earlier this year. Then, I started doing pro commentaries this April when Phrank asked me to do a dual with him and now I have been commentating for about 5 months and absolutely love it.
Moletrap
Sample Piece: "I grew up watching Star Trek; I'm a big sci-fi fan. I did a lot of sailing when I lived in San Diego and still like to go sailing when I have the chance. I have done a lot of random stuff in my life (acting, newspaper editor, fencing, I can ride a unicycle, some web design, college ultimate frisbee team, etc), but never really seem to do any one thing for a long time or ever get very good at anything in particular."
Ranshin
Sample Piece: "I'm a fan of video games, anime, stand-up comedy and I like adding to my already massive porn collection. For those that wonder, yes I DO have a girlfriend and NO the porn doesn't bother her."
NukeTheStars
Sample Piece: "As far as hobbies go, I've been composing electronic music for about nine years. I have the necessary skills to become a club DJ as well, but gigs are hard to set up around here (Atlanta, here I come!). Being a journalist on weekdays and a club DJ on weekends would make me feel like a freaking superhero, so I hope this dream comes true!"
Kenny
Sample Piece: "Commentator Idol for me was an amazing experience. I not only met a lot of really awesome people, but I learned a lot about myself as a commentator and I gained a lot of really loyal fans."
Diggity
Sample Piece: "I am almost positive I will disappear under the avalanche of new commentators. It will be nice to be an anonymous ghost in the ether for awhile. I'm glad that Blizzard has thought to include commentator tools directly into StarCraft2. I am more excited about that than the game itself."