{"post":{"id":"10013","title":"The GD Studio - Interview with Cristian \"Trance\" Tamaş","content":"Some time ago, I wrote up a recap article about the [ASUS ROG Tournament](http://scvrush.com/posts/9984-asus-republic-of-gamers-summer-2012-recap/), in which I raved about the production value put together by the **GD Studio**, James \"2GD\" Harding's esports independent studio project. I was able to talk with James' right-hand man and production guru, **Cristian \"Trance\" Tamaş**, and ask him some questions regarding the ASUS tournament, his role in the studio, and some other random things!\r\n\r\n![image](https://s3.amazonaws.com/scvrush/uploads/image/image/normal_gdstudio.jpg)\r\nFour members of the GD Studio, with Trance on the far left (Image Source: http://www.facebook.com/TheGDStudio)\r\n\r\n## 1. You've said before that you're a man of the shadows, so some people may still not know who you are. Can you introduce yourself (full name, where you're from, etc.) and quickly describe your role at the GD Studio, and also with Twitch?\r\n\r\nHey, my name is Cristian Tamas, I was born in Romania 28 years ago and I also carry a Belgian citizenship. I'm the COO and CTO of The GD Studio. I'm also contracted by Twitch.TV in Europe and the easiest sum up of my Twitch role would be saying I'm like an EU version of GunRun :)\r\n\r\n**2. When 2GD invited you to come work and live with him, was it an easy offer to accept? What were your expectations going into work there, and what (if anything) did you have to leave behind to take the offer?**\r\n\r\nWhen I moved to Sweden back in winter 2010 with my girlfriend, I decided to give working in e-sports a shot, I told myself I will try it out for a year and if by the end of that year I wouldn't be able to make an \"ok\" living out of it, I would quit and look for a regular job (I was a sys admin back in Belgium). \r\n\r\nI started off working with DreamHack on their events as they were looking more and more into streaming and in September of 2011 we secured the Twitch.TV EU contract and that was when James and I properly  started working together.\r\n\r\nThe funny part is, initially I wasn't supposed to be living in the house with the guys, I kinda moved myself in because I was going through some personal issues at the time. I have known James for about 3.5 years so I knew the studio idea was going to be successful, hence I did not hesitate making the jump.\r\n\r\n**3. How did you get to where you are today, being one on James' right hand men and the stream guru for Twitch in Europe? How did you become so good at what you do?**\r\n\r\nI have to say, a lot of credit for my progress in e-sports goes to James himself, he has helped me a lot with his connections and by trusting me to be besides him in everything he does. We kinda feed off each other in a positive way, which I think was one of the factors behind the studio's success so far.\r\n\r\nAs for the whole streaming part, it was all self taught, literally all of it. Back in early 2010 I didn't know anything about it, but being a tech-head I kinda got interested in it by watching the Level Up TV guys, who were doing QuakeLive coverage on a regular basis. They were looking for additional streamers, the only requirement back then was \"have a good pc and internet\" so I applied and just started learning myself on how to do it. \r\n\r\nNot long after I got in touch with XSplit who were in the early beta stages and I started working part-time for them, helping them develop the software to be more gamer-streaming friendly, running tests on various features and builds, etc. Coming from a tech background made learning about streaming much easier and very enjoyable, and if I enjoy doing something I apply myself 110%.\r\n\r\n###4. James has said you are the one that makes his visions come true with the studio. What does that actually mean?\r\n\r\nHaha it means exactly what he said. He's got all these great ideas we talk about, and then we decide to apply some of them. Then he draws a very vague general \"plan\" which I then take on myself, fine tune and actually apply every single detail to perfection (he says it's my OCD, not sure yet).\r\n\r\n**5. What other \"behind the scenes\" guys at the GD Studio should we know about? What do they do?**\r\n\r\nWell, we have Weppas and Skrff who help us on various shows, be it either producing or co-casting. Then we have recently recruited about 35 volunteers to help us out with various other tasks as we keep growing and it was becoming a bit too much to handle everything myself. They are all awesome and apparently called GDlings (©Robert Ohlen).\r\n\r\n**6. Let's talk about ASUS for a bit. How did you guys get that gig going into it? Did they come to you or vice versa?**\r\n\r\nThey came to us :) We always had planned to do live event production in the future but we didn't expect this to come so soon. It was 2GD of a chance to let this one pass-by so we had to give it a shot.\r\n\r\n**7. This was the studio's first major tournament production. What were your expectations going in? Compared to those expectations, how do you think you did?**\r\n\r\nThe whole thing caught us a bit off guard, we had to rush everything and try not to fuck it up. We literally had about 1.5 months, if not less, to plan and execute everything, quite the stress. At the end of the day the outcome was more than satisfactory (that OCD can sometimes really come in handy).\r\n\r\n###8. Did you enjoy the tournament experience? What was your schedule like? Were there any major bumps you had to work around mid-production?\r\n\r\nIt was definitely a different feeling from our usual studio tournament production, the smallest fuck-up here would equal to our biggest fuck-up in that studio environment. But I have been doing this for a decent amount of time so I didn't feel any kind of pressure when it came to production. \r\n\r\nEverything ran really smooth with just a very few small hiccups. When you plan things properly, do your testing and have a great production team like we had (of only 5 people) where everyone knows what and how to do things, you are set for a smooth sail. Always try and keep things as simple as possible, you can do a lot of great value production with so so little, I wish more people would understand that. The more complicated you make your production environment, the more potentially failing elements you add to the equation. \r\n\r\n**9. A lot of people seemed to really enjoy what you fellows did at ASUS. Will you be in charge of another event like that soon?**\r\n\r\nYes, something similar but at the same time not. Think of this as one of those annoying announcement of an announcement kind of things :)\r\n\r\n**10. Here's a few more personal questions... What is your favorite game that you guys cover? What do you play during your free time?**\r\n\r\nFrom the games we cover? Dota2 and QuakeLive by far. I play some occasional Dota2, BF3, CS 1.6 but lately I barely had time to play anything :(\r\n\r\n**11. Are we ever going to see a Trance-oriented show at the Studio? Even if we don't, what would it be about if there was one?**\r\n\r\nHaha I know James wants to throw me on camera more, so who knows. I rage a lot when I game, and the guys in the house seem to find it really funny, I know he'd want something around those lines. Not sure I want my rage exposed to the world though.\r\n\r\n**12. Who is your favorite person in the house? If you can even answer that...**\r\n\r\nOh man. I love them all in their own special way, picking favorites would be unfair. Semmler the cat murderer, Weppas the criminal mastermind, Skrff the pretty boy, Apollo the kid, and James the hobo. How can you not love these?! \r\n\r\n##13. Time for the obligatory shout outs. Do you have anyone you want to thank, and how can people follow what you do?**\r\n\r\nLet's see. First of all big shout out to all the guys in the studio who have made everything much more fun for the past couple of months. Another one for all our awesome volunteers helping us run the GD train-wreck to new heights, a special shout out to that hobo looking 2GD guy, he's helped me a lot to get where I am today. Another extra-special shout out to a very special lady out there who has been with me thru thick and thin (<3) and last but not least a big thank you to all our viewers, subscribers and supporters, we wouldn't be here without you. \r\n\r\nSack of shits for everyone!\r\n\r\n*Featured image source: [The GD studio's Twitch](http://www.twitch.tv/thegdstudio)*","image":"/assets/post_default_image.png","tag_list":["scene-news","interview"]}}