There have been countless headlines lately

There have been countless headlines lately

Streaming successes
There have been countless headlines lately about the success of Twitch as a platform. Amazon purchased the streaming platform for $970 million, and it boasts over 100 million unique viewers per month POE currency trade . Those viewers tend to stick around, too: half of Twitch users use the site for over 20 hours a week. Watching someone play games has become part of many gamers’ lives. Sure, you don’t want to shell out $60 for Resident Evil 7, but you’ll watch a steamrunner go through it and hang out in chat while he plays. Some people have streams on at work, listening to the soothing tones of Michael “Imaqtpie” Santana, or switch on Zach “Sneaky” Scuderi’s stream while they’re relaxing at night. While there are plenty of games enjoying the limelight on Twitch (Overwatch and Destiny are two other games with massive communities), League is the king.

Between partnership, which allows viewers to subscribe to a stream for a $5 fee, ads, and donations, popular streamers can quickly rack up big dollars. The previously mentioned Imaqtpie, who shows up every morning wearing his plain white t-shirt and infectious grin, racks in thousands of dollars off fan donations and subscriptions every month. There are other big names, many of them former or current pros, who pop up on Twitch nearly every night: Sneaky, Bunnyfufuu, Dyrus, Doublelift, and so on. Of course, not every streamer fits into this neat box.


Outside the box
Some streamers, Imaqtpie chief among them, have been so successful that they dominate the current conversation around making a career out of League streaming. A recently published ‘guide to streaming’ by Riot highlights two kinds of streamers: personality and educational. This binary is a decent start, but it doesn’t quite encapsulate the weird, wild world of modern day streaming. While pros playing at the highest level bring in donations and acclaim, there are other players making a living while marching to the beat of their own drum. Just look at Kaceytron.

Kacey Caviness streams regularly—she’s mostly known in League, although she plays other games—under the “Kaceytron” persona. She plays League at the Bronze level, although she often brags facetiously that she’s meant to be Challenger. Kaceytron is a dark mirror of girl gamers, or at least the public perception of what a fake gamer girl is. You’re not watching for the gameplay (unless you’re really into seeing whiffed Syndra combos), you’re watching for the bizarre satire and deadpan.

Sometimes, a personality can go too far. Polygon wrote a fascinating piece on the infamous Tyler1, and how his over the top toxic nature has made him public enemy #1 in the eyes of Riot. Tyler still streams, and collects a huge audience. The more over the top toxicity he displayed, the more fans ate it up.So why does offbeat personalities and approaches succeeding on Twitch matter? Well, streaming for a living is becoming a more popular avenue cheap POE currency .