Season 1 of the WGLNA World of Tanks Gold League kicks off on Thursday, August 4, and it is time to unveil our newest casting duo! ESL would like to welcome James "Rockstar" Grieve and Dustin "Godspeed" Kane as the new casters for this season of WGLNA. We are excited to see how this casting powerhouse will bring energy and experience to this season’s broadcasts. If you want to learn about our new casters, check out their bios below and be sure to tune in on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5PM Pacific on twitch.tv/wglna to see them in action!
DUSTIN “GODSPEED” KANE
Gaming has been a huge part of Dustin’s life since he was only three years old, playing on the original NES. Since then, Dustin has played several games competitively starting with Counter Strike 1.6 while playing for several invite teams in the main circuit of California. Then, playing Dota, he participated in several tournaments throughout Southern California. Next, Dustin had some serious success with Netherrealm Studios’ Injustice taking a regional tournament and placing top eight in several major events including Evolution. Outside of gaming, Dustin loves to work on his 2016 Ford Shelby GT350 and 1966 Jaguar 4.2 Mark X, watch BBC’s Top Gear, watch movies of all genres, and take long walks on the beach.
Dustin started casting in 2011 when he was new to the Fighting Game Community on a stream called “Wednesday Night Fights” and then moved on to cast at Evolution. From there, Dustin was mentored by people such as Brian Compton, Alex Valle, David Philip Graham, James Chen, and Reepal Parbhoo who helped him to cast major events such as North Eastern Championships, SoCal Regionals, Winter Brawl, MLG, Evolution, Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament, SDCC, Combo Breaker, and Community Effort Orlando. In 2015, he was given a big opportunity to cast for ESL at the MKX Pro League and since has casted countless events with many different genres of games. Exploring storylines, watching teams/players evolve, and generally watching the esports scene grow have been his favorite parts of casting so far.
As far as what I’m most excited for, it has to be the level of competition itself. Being in this industry for so long has made me really appreciate the hard work, dedication, and sacrifice that teams and individual players take in order to be on top. As someone who has been fairly new to World of Tanks, I have to say that I’m incredibly impressed at how easily the game has pulled me in and really made me appreciate the basic levels of gameplay to the various nuances that make it a joy to watch at the highest levels of competition. I would like to promise this community that I’ll take in everything I can to be a great representative throughout the coming season and make every broadcast fun and memorable. I also promise to give James a hard time so that all of you watching can really enjoy every week with us. Thank you for giving me this opportunity! - Godspeed
JAMES “ROCKSTAR” GRIEVE
James got into gaming back in third grade when he would stay up watching his dad play Medal of Honor Allied Assault. Since then, he has played COD2, COD4, CS Source competitively before coming to World of Tanks. The name “Rockstar” was inspired by a character in one of the Ghost Recon books. In the World of Tanks scene, he has become successful in competitive play captaining the team Danger Close. Danger Close started all the way back in open league and have since worked their way up into Silver League, where they took second place in the regular season last year. James says that his strengths lie in calling, where he tries to control the battlefield and outthink the enemy. Besides gaming, James loves watching sports. He is a big Manchester City and Seattle Seahawks fan.
James recently started casting about a year ago when he took the opportunity from Wargaming North America to cast the Rumble in the Pacific Qualifiers between High Woltage Caballers and Elevate. Since then, he has casted several Clan League matches for the popular World of Tanks clan tournament over the last couple seasons. He enjoyed being able to observe the battles, look at what was going on, and break down the strategies while giving his thoughts to the viewers. At the time, he was casting just because he enjoyed it, but little did he know this opportunity would take him to the main stage casting WGLNA in this coming season.
I am most excited to see the changes within the returning Gold League teams and to see what the new teams from Silver League and the Qualifiers bring to the table. There have been some pretty big changes in this offseason and I can’t wait to see how they play out during the season. While new teams often struggle to find their identity and playstyle early on, other teams can sometimes struggle just as much to get a read on them, which can make for some pretty interesting matches. Secondly, as a caller myself and as someone who’s watched every season of WGLNA to date, I am really curious to see what new things these teams can bring to the table strategy wise. The new physics have opened up some very interesting positions and approaches that weren’t previously available, as was seen during the Global Grand Finals (thanks Applewow), and I am genuinely intrigued to see in what ways these teams continue to push the boundaries this season. - Rockstar
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