THE CASTER
THE NFL HAD JOHN MADDEN ; the NBA has Marv Albert ; LoL has Dom Roemer . Granted , he ’ s younger than those legends , and his league has less to do with defending a ball and more so dealing with monsters and magic . For four years Roemer has been a professional commentator — a “ caster ” or “ streamer ” in the gaming world — for the game League of Legends , a multiplayer battle arena game with upwards of 100 million active players each month , not to mention the millions more who tune into gamecasts to watch other players ' techniques and hear what the casters have to say . Roemer may be speaking to millions now , but the former computer science student started out making offhand play-by-play commentary with friends in his Muir dorm . He now lives in Shanghai and is a voice for the game ’ s Chinese league , providing real-time analysis of game play , team dynamics and colorful insight into individual players ’ stories . “ I act as an ambassador for the sport . I want to turn these five players into heroes , into people you can follow and support ,” Roemer says . “ I try to tell the stories these teams have gone through and what ’ s led them to where they are and celebrate their moments of victory . They put in countless hours of practice behind the scenes and you don ’ t always get to see that .”
CHARLET CHUNG Actress
COLLEGE : ERC ’ 05
MAJOR :
Communication
SPECIAL SKILL :
Voice of D . Va in the game Overwatch
_ BEN HINES
Senior DevOps Engineer , Sony PlayStation
COLLEGE : Muir ’ 97 MAJOR : Theatre
SPECIAL SKILL :
Accuracy to throw Kratos ’ axe on target !
_ STANLEY FU
IT Events Infrastructure Manager , Blizzard Entertainment
COLLEGE : Marshall ’ 04 MAJOR : Economics
SPECIAL SKILL :
All the PC gaming between classes that brought me to Blizzard .
THE CHARACTER
IT ’ S ONE THING TO PLAY as an avatar in a game ; it ' s another to actually be that avatar . Such is the case for Charlet Chung ’ 05 , an actress who ’ s been on a number of prime-time television shows , but is widely known as the voice of D . Va ( pronounced “ diva ”), on the game Overwatch , a team-based , first-person game in which a diverse group of heroes work together to combat a robot rebellion . Chung ’ s character D . Va is an animated young woman who wields a bright pink exoskeletal suit marked by twin fusion cannon blasters . Beyond the firepower , D . Va has been welcomed as a role model for female gamers — who make up about 45 percent of gamers in the U . S .— thanks in part to the her backstory in the game : she ’ s a former pro gamer who now uses her skills to defend her homeland . “ Landing the role of D . Va in Overwatch has changed my life ,” says Chung . “ It was the first game that I had been on that had a huge fan following . I feel very fortunate to be a part of the Overwatch community because of the fantastic fans and a team of leaders who really have a vision for inclusivity , diversity and exceptional gaming .”
36 TRITON | WINTER 2019