Who was the third caster at the Asian Cyber Games 2013?

You may have heard David ‘GoDz’ Parker and Toby ‘Tobiwan’ Dawson cast the Asian Cyber Games two weeks earlier, but did you stop to wonder who the third caster was?

Muhammad ‘Flava’ Farouq is e-Club Malaysia’s only shoutcaster, and the only Asian to grace the commentary desk of the Asian Cyber Games 2013. The 24 year old resident of Selangor, Malaysia, is a Communications and Psychology student and has been casting Dota 2 for a little over a year.

Farouq started off his casting career commentating for small online tournaments via his personal Twitch channel. He would seek permission from organizers before doing so.
“I have the knowledge of the game, but […] I do not have the skills for it,” he said, of his choice to become a caster. “Rather than wasting my time thinking I can be a professional player in Dota 2, I realized that I can contribute to the Malaysian scene through casting.”
But little tournaments weren’t the fish Farouq set out to fry and he soon turned his sights on bigger companies. This was in February 2013.

“It wasn’t easy,” he said, of his attempts to reach out. “There were no casters for Dota 2 [in Malaysia] before, so the idea of being a shoutcaster is new.”

However his hard work paid off. e-Club, publishers of Dota 2 for the region, requested he send them samples, while Orange Internet Cafe – a popular chain of cybercafes in Malaysia – asked him to cast several of their tournaments to show what he was capable of. Though he still casts voluntarily for Orange Internet Cafe, e-Club ended up hiring him, and now pay him a monthly stipend.

“Flava had the drive and potential to be one of the best casters in Malaysia,” said Shaharun Nizam bin Shaharuddin, Project Coordinator in e-Club. Shaharun had been the one who passed Farouq’s name on to e-Club’s higher ups.

But anyone in any highly competitive field will know – it’s one thing to get the job; it’s another thing to keep it. In spite of being e-Club’s only official shoutcaster now, Farouq still casts every Saturday and Sunday for various tournaments, and occasionally has to bend his schedule to fit those of international tournaments, such as those held in India, Brunei, and Singapore. To date, he has casted for DotaTalk, Genesis, and the Nexon Sponsorship League, as well as several smaller tournaments in the countries mentioned previously.

Of course, the Asian Cyber Games Dota 2 Championship 2013 is his biggest achievement to date. The Singapore tournament was Farouq’s first time on tour outside of Malaysia; his other on-site experiences had always been within the country.

“It was really scary at first,” he said, of his experience casting with GoDz and Tobiwan. “I had to cast with Toby first rather than GoDz, which was a surprise. I was expecting to go with GoDz and loosen up a bit before going to the big man.”

Still, the tournament turned out to be a great notch on Farouq’s bedpost, with the caster even picking up a tip from Tobiwan. “He said I have a problem of talking too fast. I will need to brush up on that,” Farouq said.

Muhammad ‘Flava’ Farouq might be e-Club Malaysia’s only official caster, but he won’t be alone for long. Shaharun said that the company is “always on the lookout for good potential casters,” and that they are eyeing to pick up shoutcasting talent for CounterStrike: Global Offensive. Interested parties can send their YouTube recordings of their casts to him direct.

And if you’re wondering what advice Farouq might have for you – the aspiring caster? “Don’t stop what you’re doing,” he recommends. “Once you give up and can’t take criticism, it results in failure.”