How Student Esports Casters Bring the Action to Life

From “Rocket League” and “Valorant” to “Overwatch 2” and “Counter-Strike 2,” it doesn’t matter what game Syracuse University esports student casters Carson Kass ’28 and Ryan Blankenhorn ’26 are calling.

The play-by-play and color commentary duo has developed an uncanny ability to predict what the other is going to say during a competition. After broadcasting hundreds of matches, Kass and Blankenhorn have formed a back-and-forth rapport and an understanding of what it takes to effectively call esports for Orange fans.

“When I came to Syracuse, [Executive Director of Esports] Joey Gawrysiak said he wanted me to bring the broadcast element of what Syracuse could be as an esports program to our broadcasts. Working with Carson has helped me excel in what it means to be a color caster,” says Blankenhorn, who followed Gawrysiak from Shenandoah University to Syracuse and earned an esports communications and management major in from the Falk College of Sport and the Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Kass brought a traditional background as a sports broadcaster to the esports realm and says he prepares for an esports match with the same attention to detail as if he were calling a baseball or a soccer game.

“You have to get the color commentator involved explaining why something just happened. Ryan and I have called so many games together that we’ve formed this great on-air chemistry,” says Kass, who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in broadcast and digital journalism from the Newhouse School. “But how we cast a match is different for each game.”