Gus “Upmind” Domingues – a student in Full Sail University's Dan Patrick School of Sportscasting – has made his skill and signature hairstyle known in the collegiate esports scene on Armada stages big and small. Hosting and casting for events including "Worlds Collide" and the "Armada Takeover," the aspiring Counter Strike: Global Offensive caster has made even bigger strides in grassroots gaming communities by being named ESEA Mountain Dew League’s Next Big Caster.

In this bi-annual competition, esports competitive gaming league ESEA selects three finalists from amateur casting communities and tasks its followers with voting in the selection for the Next Big Caster. Upmind, who has been a finalist in the competition not once but twice, felt his growth and experience in the time between competitions played to his benefit. “For this most recent one, I was a lot more established in comparison to the last competition,” he says.

It also helped that this time around, the caster had a better plan for how to get the votes he needed to win.

"I ended up reaching out to more niche communities," says Upmind. "I reached back into what would be my more grassroots scenes…I commentate Super Smash Bros, I'm a Brazilian CS:GO commentator, I've also commentated Rocket League. I reached out to see if they could draw me some support, drop a comment, anything." By leaning on his networking skills, the Sportscasting student was able to secure a close but satisfactory win.

"By the end of the contest, I ended up winning by like 200 votes to the guy in second," he recalls.

For aspiring casters looking to follow in his footsteps, Upmind recommends something that has been integral to his own development: accepting feedback.

"There will always be something that you need to fix in your commentary. Nobody is ever perfect," he says. "If you just keep studying, practicing, and just refining your commentary, eventually you will get to the point where employers will literally swoon to hire you."

Keep up with Upmind and his rise to success in esports casting and commentary by checking him out on Twitch.