During his year-long transition from professional support player from Tempo Storm to one of North America's foremost casters, Wade "Dreadnaught" Penfold has developed a reputation as a critical but respected voice on the desk.

Bringing the analysis and interpretation of a former pro and a forthright willingness to call what he sees, Dread quickly cemented himself as a casting staple on the 2016 Heroes Global Championship circuit.

Before he took to the stage at the Anaheim Convention Center for BlizzCon, Dread sat down with theScore esports to talk about why he decided to move to casting, the advice he got from Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski, and why he doesn't feel obliged to unilaterally support North America.

I find the idea of entering casting to be almost like rolling the dice; it's such a scary proposition. It hit me when I saw [Josh "Jhow" Howard] tweet a picture of his empty office and announce that he was going full-time esports. First off for you, what drew you to casting? What is it about you that pulled you in that direction after you decided to retire?

It's weird, actually. I was originally a big fan of League of Legends, and played a lot of League and after watching when the LCS kind of came into play, I actually originally wanted to be a caster.

Largely because I realized I could never play League professionally, and I didn't have the time or effort to really commit to it. So I got into Heroes and everything else and found competitive success with [Symbiote Gaming] and Tempo Storm. But when I backed out of it, I thought: number one, I had a couple friends who told me I should consider getting into casting, because they felt like I would be effective at it.

But then, it was like those original aspirations — like I enjoy the idea of being a medium, kind of like a translator if you will, for what's happening at a competitive level to the consumer. So a lot of it I'd argue is just based off of my friends, and people involved in esports, saying I should give it a shot. And then also my enjoyment from competitive Heroes, competitive gaming in general, and being a way to stay involved in it while also trying to be that translator.

I think that describing yourself as a translator is interesting because a game like Heroes, which is casually approachable but has this depth at the competitive level which casual fans might not be able to interpret. Did you always approach it from that perspective, to make it accessible? Or did you just fall into that?

I think it's a little of both. I don't know if I'd say I pushed for it, but I wouldn't say that it's not natural for me, specifically. I can tell you that like, looking at some of the interest that I had in League for instance, I enjoyed casters that told me what I couldn't see. And I think that was something that was really appealing for me specifically.

So take that, and my position in the community was already kind of an educational [one], a lot of the time, and it seemed to be what people really enjoyed. And I realized I enjoyed it myself.

It made it very natural for me to kind of be that guy, or at least try to be.

Are you full-time esports right now?

I've been full-time esports right now, for almost a year and a half, two years.

I quit my senior year of college my very last semester, to try and pursue video games full-time. And that was before we got picked up by Tempo Storm, like four or five months.

What were you studying?

I was a double major in criminal justice and psychology.

What was that moment like, when you decided to go full-time?

A lot of it was my own philosophy on things, more than anything else. It wasn't so much that there was a breaking moment where I was like, 'you know what, I can do this.' I mean, there were a couple where I realized it might be a realistic goal.

But I view a lot of what I do in life as, I would rather all-in something and fail than split my interest and focus in two different things and be mediocre at both. And so I viewed it as, if I want to pursue college and everything else ― which I think is still a reasonable thing, and honestly I probably took the more radical route ― but I'd rather all-in to esports and fail, and then just come back and finish my schooling.

But I felt like, as you mentioned about "rolling the die," that window is a lot smaller, and I realized that mine might not exist if I didn't just commit then, so I went for it.

Seemingly you've picked the right window, as you'll be casting on the BlizzCon stage here. Were there any surprises during your transition that you didn't anticipate?

I think I was surprised at the work ethic you see from the other casters. It was something I maybe didn't totally understand.

But without a doubt, the one thing that did really catch me off-guard by a large margin was how subjective, but also firm people are in their casting preferences. And how you can provide the same information 50 different ways, but only five of them are appreciated, or are valuable to a large amount of the audience.

The farther you go up in the numbers, the smaller the demographic it kind of appeals to. It's as simple as repeating the same word ... I can almost the same thing, but if I said the word value three different times, suddenly I'm almost this buffoon that's trying to speak teach you about the video game and how simple those small things can be, and how big they are from an audience perspective.

Like, "You said it three times, nothing you say is applicable?"

It's like, "I can't even listen to you anymore because you didn't choose a different word," things like that I found really interesting.

You've casted with people who have been around esports a long time.

Every single person has been around a lot longer than me.

For me personally, my favorite pairing for you in Heroes has been Khaldor. For me, it's because you guys are willing to take little jabs at each other, but it's all in good fun. Do you have a preference for what kind casting dynamic you like to have when you're up there?

I think, first and foremost, making it exciting but not over-exaggerating the skill or the quality of the game while having fluid conversation, which I think is a huge part.

But also, being educational. I think those are the three major points that I look for as an ideal cast.

And that fun side can come from poking jabs, or it could be as simple as small joked elsewhere, they don't always have to come in that form.

My first major tournament I ever casted was the Spring Global Championship, and I got to cast with Artosis, and hang out with him. When I first got into casting I asked people, as somebody to learn from, who is the best caster in the world? And for a lot of people, his name was frequent to pop up.

I got to ask him about a lot of the philosophies he had on casting, and why he felt the way he did. One of them that he brought up, that I thought was really cool, was: you should view your cast as two best friends from college drinking a beer and watching your favorite game. And you want the audience to be the third guy. They want to be that third guy on the couch. And though they aren't going to be able to give that feedback, you want them to desire to be in your conversation.

Granted, I'm not sure I share that exact same philosophy now on my own, but I think it was a really good foundation to start on.

Shifting to the North American region, Astral Authority's CauthonLuck called you one of their greatest detractors in a recent interview.

I have never put my faith into them as a team, and I feel like a lot of it comes down to the fact that I don't think a lot of them have the common traits that you see on good or great teams.

I can see why they view that as unfair, but ... I'm not here to represent North America. In my opinion, I'm here for the best games in the world. If that is not something from the North American region ... I don't have that nationalistic perspective. I want to see the best team in the world vs. the best team in the world, and great games. If North America ― not even them specifically ― is not the one providing it ... I'm not saying it's wrong, but I've never really been the one to be like, "But it's North America, so my heart has to be behind it."

I always, in my heart, want to see someone take out the Korean team, any time that I can. But I also realize how good they are, and I've studied a lot of them to try and understand what they do that is right and wrong, and everything else.

I feel like, if those teams are consistently doing so well, it's hard for me to view the traits of things they do so well, and then not see that anywhere within your own region, and then be like, "there's still a chance because I want there to be one, not because there really is."

I can see how some people might view that as rude, but it's something that I've not really been able to wrap my head around.

What about Astral against their own region? In the Fall season, many people ― myself among them ― seemed surprised by their initial success. I think this is a very talented roster, but even in their own region they seemed to have been cast aside, with people saying, "There's no way they do it."

I did that. I did that to them whole-heartedly. And granted, after putting up the results twice, I was one of the first people to be like, I do think they are definitely the team [that should be representing NA].

I think, for me, why they see such success is ... when you look at what they do really well, it's bullying their opponents in the draft. I even referenced that in the Town Hall episode. It comes down to them bullying in the draft.

They will constantly attack weak hero pools and put you on things that you aren't very comfortable on. And whenever that happens, whether it be through draft or picking it themselves to isolate it, they always pick on the two weak links, or the weak link of their opponent. And that puts them in a position to have the upper hand in the draft.

Now, as long as they play reasonably mechanically and at a team level, they will be the ones to come out on top at the end of that game.

Now, every single team we see the teams like that go to the international level, suddenly you don't memorize what your opponent loves to play.

When it comes down to knowing your opponents to be successful, you're almost never going to thrive in the international perspective. You're good within your territory, within your comfort zone. But international play always pushes you out of it.

Looking at the games they've had here, they didn't do anything to attack a team like Please Buff Arthas, who showed they had holes in their draft. They have major comfort picks, and they didn't stab at any one of those. And they lost the games every time when they gave their opponents two of them, because there's two players that have that weak hero pool.

So if that's your strength in NA ... at the international level, the team that is by far the most weak in your area of strength, and you aren't willing to abuse that? I don't know what you want from me, as a guy who is supposed to support.

And again, it could be any region. I'd say the same words.

Josh "Gauntlet" Bury is a news editor for theScore esports. You can find him on Twitter.