Midbox is a reference to an old Gears of War tradition of challenging another player to a 1 vs 1 battle using only gnashers, the Gears of War version of a shotgun. Is someone talking trash, saying they’re better than you? “1v1 midbox me!” This is a series in which I will conduct interviews with various players, coaches and developers in the Gears of War esports space so that we may learn more about them.
On this edition of Midbox, I caught up with Guy “Blaze” Spencer, MLG caster for Gears of War 4 about his transition from a competitive player to becoming the “Voice of Gears.”
How did you get started in competitive Gears?
“I got into competive Gears when I learned about GameBattles in 2006. It had a big following and was very competitive. It was a game that was one of kind and still is. I barely made it to my first event at MLG Meadowlands 2007. Back then, traveling for a gaming event was still unheard of. I didn’t know what I was getting into or how many teams were going to show up. The turn out, as well as the fire that every team brought, was amazing and even to this day, can’t be replicated. From that moment on I was hooked.”
“Hypefestation was very crucial with elevating the players in our community. A lot of people may not have noticed yet, but if you look at the old staff of Hypefestation you will notice that they all have a job in esports somewhere and if they don’t they’re on their way to getting one.”
“I would love to hit 30k viewers for the finals in Columbus. I would like to lose no more then 10k viewers for International tournaments. I want to sell over 100 team passes for our next North American Open. I think all of those are obtainable. In order to do that, we need developer support, which we currently have for the first time ever. We need a dedicated community, which we also have. One thing I think the community needs to realize is that it’s their job to create content and help bring new members to their community. I honesty love everything The Coalition is doing and how they are relaying more information to us. Now we need our core community to go above and beyond.”
What advice would you give to those looking to become on-air talent or just those out there who want to create content but aren’t sure how to do it?
“Just take a shot! Hell I was god awful when I started making content and casting, but after I tried I knew what I needed to fix. Don’t psyche yourself out before you get started, we all have doubts. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. I can make analogies all damn day but the fact of the matter is, it doesn’t matter how good my words are because until you get up off your ass and do it, shit wont get done. Go eat, feed the dream.”
