The shoutcaster is just as important to the world of esports as Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh is to the world of the GAA, and Quickshot holds claim to being the esports counterpart.

Trevor "Quickshot" Henry is the voice of 'League of Legends' tournaments the world over, and for him, "being paid to shout at computer screens all day" is a "dream come true" for him.

A veteran of the 'Battlefield 2' and 'Call Of Duty 4' era of esports, Quickshot realised that a job in video games was a viable career path.

Now one of esports most prominent on-air personalities, Quickshot is an elder statesman of the sport that has taken the world by storm.

Speaking to us at the opening of Riot's new state-of-the-art esports broadcasting facility in Swords, Quickshot said that Ireland is easily on a par with our European peers when it comes to esports.

He also said that while esports is as popular as it's ever been, it's never too late for someone to get their big break in the arena.

Going Pro

A veteran of a young industry Quickshot got his first taste of esports with 'Battlefield 2' (and told us he mainly served as an engineer - a noble part of the 'Battlefield' experience!) but it was his exploits with 'Call Of Duty 4' that led him down the path to glory.

After 'Call Of Duty 4' was released in late 2007, Quickshot quickly became a natural at the game, and the release of the "Proshot" mod for the game led to him playing the game at a professional level.

Quickshot was among the best 'Call Of Duty' players in South Africa in his youth, and quickly realised he may be able to turn a hobby into a living.

The South African native (although for the purposes of this interview he said he was happy to be referred to as Irish owing to his Irish passport) balanced work and play, but eventually, his love of gaming led him into working in the world of video games.

"I worked hard at university - I got my head down and got my degree in marketing and business management, but I always wanted to get into the gaming industry."

After a few industry odd jobs, a chance encounter with a friend in Berlin at the end of 2011 led him down the path to becoming a shoutcaster for esports.

"A friend famously said to me - 'Trevor, you talk a lot of shit, have you thought about commentating?"

Esports culture was still in its nascent phase in 2011, but Quickshot saw the potential for esports to grow.

"I interviewed at Riot Games to join the community team in 2012 and work on events and support and just interact with our player base."

"For anyone that knows Riot Games, its mission is to be the most player-focused game company in the world, so they invest a lot in the connections to the community and interacting with the community. And during every single one of my interviews for that role, I told everyone on the panel - and if you don't know, interviews at Riot are very drawn out - I think over 15 people I want to be involved in any esports project the company were doing."

Quickshot's interview process took place in early 2012, just as Twitch began to find its footing as the pre-eminent streaming platform.

"When I was interviewing, the esports scene was very nascent, no franchises existed. It was all grassroots, it was all small events or partner companies - it's nothing like it is now," he said.

Quickshot knew that esports was about to undergo a rapid growth, and wanted to be part of it.

"I could sense it was about to take off, I could see it was coming."

Within 3 months, Quickshot was a shoutcaster for Riot Games.

Quickshot has become the backbone of Riot Games' esports output, and said that esports will reach greater heights than ever before.

Shout, Shout, Let It All Out

With esports regularly raking up hundreds of millions of viewers, Quickshot is confident that esports will become as popular as other sports.

And for budding esports personalities or shoutcasters, it's never too late to get involved.

"There's never a ceiling in the gaming industry and in the esports industry -we haven't even figured out where we're flying yet."

"This is an industry and a scene where the airplane is being built at 60,000ft and we have no idea whether we're going to fly in the atmosphere, fly to Mars, fly to another solar system."

"What I can tell you is the future is incredibly exciting for every aspect of gaming, of entertainment, of journalism, of esports."

Quickshot pointed to the current cultural landscape as an example of where popular culture is heading.

"The nerds who were bullied in the playground are now the ones controlling graphics cards and computers, Marvel that is now dictating pop culture, the comic book and Dungeons and Dragons generation are the ones running pop culture."

"Give it 20 years and our kids and the gaming generation will rule pop culture."

Quickshot believes that Ireland has the tools and talent to become a part of this new cultural landscape.

"This applies for Irish developers, games, teams. You just need the right mentality, the right approach, and the right people and you can pop off."

While Ireland is certainly successful in other areas of the arts like film, music and television, success in the gaming world has eluded it somewhat.

According to Quickshot, this is a symptom of Ireland's size.

"Irish esports is no different to anywhere else in the world. There's no difference - the people, the passion, the drive, the players are all there."

"The capabilities are there for Ireland to become an esports hub," he added.

Despite the inherent appeal of video games among the Irish populace, in Quickshot's view, the video game industry has not caught up at the same pace, and this is somewhat of a barrier to Ireland's esports bona fides.

"The industry, however, is unfortunately just smaller and one of the challenges that Ireland will face the same that South Africa faces, the ability for the market to spend, the number of available players, the potential for pros or companies to generate revenue, it's just more challenging"

"Those are one of the things that we'll always face. But one of the benefits you have in Ireland is, first of all, it's part of EU, which the UK can no longer say. On top of that, there is the ease of travel, the good internet speeds, and maybe most importantly, the competitive nature.

"I would very much regard Ireland as being at the heart of European gaming, European esports culture and industry," he added.

With Riot's new state-of-the-art facility just opened in Swords and John Romero announcing his Galway-based studio is starting work on a new FPS, it is truly game on for the Irish gaming sphere.