Meet Dalaanii Cochrane

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dalaanii Cochrane. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dalaanii below.

Hi Dalaanii, thank you for joining us today and sharing your experiences and acquired wisdom with us. Burnout is a huge topic these days and so we’d love to kick things off by discussing your thoughts on overcoming or avoiding burnout

If anything, it’s been by forcing myself to step away, even if I don’t want to.

I feel I’ve developed a pretty nasty habit of pushing myself to continue on with a specific activity, even if it makes me feel gross or overwhelmed– mainly as a way to punish myself for time wasted on other things, you know? Like: why do that other thing when this could be done and over with if I force myself to do it?

Long story short: not the best mindset to have going forward, and it only led to a negative slope in results. Especially in commentating. There’s been days where I’ve felt incredibly burnt out and tired, and rather than just step back and take a day (or even a week or two to relax), I’d go right to work as if everything was fine.

It wasn’t, and my performance tanked! You’d think that some wouldn’t notice when a commentator is putting up a bad show, but trust me, with some broadcasts, the audience WILL know and WILL call you out on every little mistake you may make on air.

Now, I know my boundaries, I know when to step away and “touch grass” when I need to. I’ve found other hobbies and things to keep me busy during those burnout phases, mostly with my artwork, reading a good book, or just being around friends and family to keep me grounded and stable.

If anything, dropping the “no off days” mentality has been especially helpful, too. There’s no shame in taking a break to keep your overall wellness in check when stressed.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

My friends and family know me as Dalaanii: 22 year old UC Irvine Student and Art Major (Go Anteaters!). Most people online within the FPS and FGC communities, however, know me as “Ashurvok”: the #1 Caster-Vok!

I’m a commentator. I’m the voice behind esports broadcasts both online and offline at LAN events, and have been blessed to work with such tournaments and companies including Red Bull Gaming, the Apex Legends Global Series, Breakout Esports, Cxmmunity, Collegiate FGC (CFGC), and plenty more.

I’ve commentated quite a wide variety of tournaments and titles, and if I tried counting just how many games and genres I’ve provided my talents to, I don’t think I’d have enough fingers or toes to do so.

I’m also a Content Creator! I’m currently with Skyline as a member of their Content Creation team, and have plenty planned with them in regards to content for this summer and the remainder of 2024.

In being a commentator, it’s taken me to quite a few new places in my career. Traveling was never really my thing before being on air talent, but it’s now taken me outside of California— last year was the first time I’d ever been to Texas and Georgia! It’s also allowed me to network with plenty of new people, many of which I consider to be good friends of mine, now.

As of now, I’m doing my best in making strides in the FGC! Breakout Esports is where you can find me for Tekken 8 commentary, these days; Thursday nights @ 5 PM PST, specifically!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Three qualities: knowledgeability, persistence, and humility.

In being a commentator, I think it’s very obvious that not a single TO is going to have faith in someone who’s barely or hasn’t played their respective game one bit. Sure, you also don’t have to be a professional player to be a commentator, but it’s good to have basic or advanced know-how to properly translate to commentary. It’s that, and being equally entertaining to the audience! You can get your notations precise and rattle about how King’s b + 2,1 is effective, but do your best to hype that up! Give the audience a reason to be excited WITH you in watching the set.

If it’s one thing I’ve learned, just saying “it is what it is” to a lot of things won’t do you any favors in the long run. Persistence is what drives you in overcoming most obstacles, whether it be with commentary slot rejection, a bad broadcast, or negative comments that may come your way. The best you can do is step back, re-evaluate (and maybe take a day or two to rest), and return to form better than ever. Success may take months, or maybe a year or two— just keep going!

With humility, especially, you’re going to find out VERY quickly that you are not above others in this career path. Sure, you can be one of those commentators with the mindset of “I’m the best in the world!”, but this can only take you so far. I should know this, as I was literally in this same position just a year or two ago. I was unwilling to take any critiques and advice that came my way, and thought that my commentating was A1; I was nigh untouchable!

I was not.

All it took was one bad broadcast— ALGS Day 8 EMEA/NA to be specific— and I was knocked off my self-made podium into the biggest, nastiest pit of self-hate and embarrassment possible.

Since then, it’s been about soaking up as much information from others in my field, whether it be with cadence, game knowledge, or things as basic as on-camera etiquette.

Humility will help you greatly, and make you a better person and better commentator in a lot of aspects.

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

I can improve at commentary all day and grow my skills, but it’s that challenge seeking opportunities beyond T3 and collegiate— and just finding opportunities, at all— that has me just a bit stressed.

2020 provided people such as myself with a new field of opportunities in commentating games, but the moment that “COVID Bubble” popped, it’s been a struggle in getting gigs, let alone making it past the application stage to score an interview with a TO.

There are plenty of other factors that add on to the challenge of finding opportunities. Some may be as basic as a TO feeling that I may be “inexperienced” compared to another commentator, and others may be as confusing (and upsetting) as a TO holding a personal bias for one reason or another. It varies.

It’s partly the reason why I’ve expanded more into content creation as of late. I’m fully aware that with that window of opportunity beginning to shorten with commentary, it may be best to have another outlet for my work, should things go awry.

Contact Info:

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Leadership Development
Where does your self-discipline come from?

One of the most essential skills for unlocking our potential is self-discipline. We asked some

Productivity
Tactics & Strategies for Keeping Your Creativity Strong

With the rapid improvements in AI, it’s more important than ever to keep your creativity

Productivity
Working hard in 2025: Keeping Work Ethic Alive

While the media might often make it seem like hard work is dead and that