Last week Toby ”Tobiwan” Dawson revealed that he wanted to get into CS:GO-casting. Now his first gig has been announced: to commentate the PGL CS:GO Championship Series.
– I actually feel really excited. I feel like it is the most rewarding FPS currently, with a blend of skill and strategy it makes for a casters heaven, Dawson tells Aftonbladet Esport.

For Dota2-fans and esport enthusiasts overall, Toby ”Tobiwan” Dawson is no stranger. He is most famous for casting Dota2 but originally started off as a Call of Duty-commentator. As the game developed and Call of Duty 5 was released he reached a point where he was ”ashamed of the game” and he withdrew from FPS casting. But now he will revisit genre as a CS:GO-commentator for the PGL CS:GO Championship Series.
– I actually feel really excited, I feel like it is the most rewarding FPS currently, with a blend of skill and strategy. It makes for a casters heaven mainly cause it is not just ”this guy kills this guy”, there is so much more depth than that, Tobiwan says.

”I jokingly suggested I should cast it”

The opportunity appeared through his previous work with the PGL staff. Originally they were working on a Dota2 project that due to complicated circumstances had to be postponed. Around the same time the Championship Series was announced.
– I joking suggested I should cast it instead and turns out they were happy with that idea, Dawson explains.

He already has a decent knowledge of CS:GO, but to cast on a professional level is a whole other thing. With that in mind he contacted a couple of friends within the CS:GO community. Along came Anders Blume and Robin ”Fifflaren” Johansson to help him prepare for the casting gig.
– Simple things like map names being understandable for a non-Australian audience (as I obviously know the Australian weird names), knowing how guns were patched and modified, standard roll outs for teams, how to pronounce players names. Basically any knowledge I can get my hands on which isn’t available in a database of results.

”There are skeptics”

As a caster, he considers his strengths to be creating a fun, friendly and energetic tone for the stream and his main priority is to make the viewers enjoy themselves. Even though the response has generally been positive, there’s also been skeptics, which does not surprise Toby.
– I have never seriously casted CS:GO and my older casts of CS was only in the Australian scene. Also I am a full time Dota caster. They have every reason to be skeptic, Dawson explains.

When asked to send the CS:GO community a message, Dawson says:
– Be gentle.