Whats your gaming history?
We both began PC gaming at childhood. Starting with top down strategies like Red Alert and later to first person shooters.
Blue’s first online experience was 2001 playing Alien Vs Predator 2 reliving his favourite movie moments. Queenie’s first online experience was 2006 playing Battlefield 2142. We both have a huge passion for managing clans, communities and large scale tournaments. In 2014 we were first introduced while competing in a Battlefield 4 tournament. We had so much fun together that we carried on playing after the tournament had ended. We both fought for top placed killer and met up in real life a number of times before deciding to move in together!
We both believe in the opportunities online gaming can create in making friends outside of your normal environment. Making friendships and creating adventures together has always been our driving force.
What’s your backstory of how you got into streaming?
We began creating Youtube double perspective gameplay content in 2014. The content creation process was enjoyable however we personally weren’t satisfied with the slow paced comment section of interaction. We realised that on Youtube we weren’t going to be able to build the strong community we wanted. We looked at other platforms and found Twitch’s instant interaction more for us. In 2015 we started our Twitch journey using a complex live double perspective stream setup. An extremely challenging task to run dual captures, mics and webcams back then!
2016 we managed to achieve Twitch partnership and in 2017 we were able to start streaming full time. In 2018 we started our campaign to become variety streamers and we haven’t looked back since!
Tell us about your channel and community!
We have been working together since 2015 to create a unique streaming experience focusing on community interaction. We engage with our audience by hosting viewer games and game servers. By creating a positive environment for our community to flourish, we have been fortunate enough to receive community positive awards from Nvidia Geforce, Twitch UK, Razer and Red Bull Gaming. These achievements have opened the doors to working with the largest brands, huge gaming publishers and various charity organisations.
With our couple team dynamic and history of community management skills, we’re successfully able to cover each aspect of what’s involved of being full time streamers and keep the focus on having fun with our community!
Tell us about your brand and how you’ve been able to obtain success!
Our focus has simply been on positivity and enjoying gaming with each other. We do often wish that we did start our journey with a brand focus mindset because the truth is we had no idea that Twitch would have exploded into the massive industry it is today.
Over the last 3 years we’ve seen a large increase in the UK influencer market. There are now a huge amount of opportunities. Brands now recognize what the potential of a Twitch streamer can bring to their brand. From this we have upscaled our production value and changed from quantity to quality.
How do you balance streaming and life in general?
Balancing full time streaming and real life is exceptionally hard. There are no established streamers who have mastered real life and full time streaming.
We started streaming in 2015 and became full time streaming in 2017 so the route of working 9-5 and then streaming for 4 hours across the 2 years was exhausting. It left no room for real life. However we are extremely fortunate enough as a couple team to be on this journey together and to help one another with the more difficult days.
One thing Twitch partners don’t talk about is loneliness connected with streaming and how being an established Twitch streamer changes your social online interactions. Analytics show that around 60% of new Twitch partners don’t make it 6 months as they become burnt out with no social circle support. Crucially it’s important not to be fake and the best thing you can do is make friends online.
If you are able to become a full time streamer then you’ve entered the self-employed rat race. Once you’re in that mindset it’s very difficult to find a healthy balance with life and gaming – we’ve yet to find a balance.
What tools/apps/extensions you use for your stream?
We use several tools to help automate our live stream so that we can focus on our content and audience.
We use both chat bots from StreamElement’s OBS.Live and StreamLabs ChatBot. Why pick one when you can use both?! StreamElements web-side has the advantage of being always online, even after the stream has ended while StreamLabs ChatBot has much more user friendly client side customisation with lots of tools for giveaways and timers.
The most important tool a streamer can get is Elgato’s StreamDeck software. Automat and template should be the goal of every streamer. With Elgato’s StreamDeck you’re able to set routines, timers, multi-actions and template your workflow. We have been using the software for over 4 years and by far it’s the most powerful tool in our arsenal.
We also use smaller light weight programs such as Reaper Plugins to help improve upon OBS’s audio management filters, Kappamon to display our little pug mascot and Voicemeter to help split audio lines. One of our more visually impressing plugins is the Move OBS transition plugin which is able to make your stream appear much more fluid and great for first impressions!
Talking about first impressions, artwork is super important. Remove the default templates and create something to fit your personality is key. We discovered this because as a couple we have to justify both being full time streamers so for us it was important to learn Photoshop and save costs. We create most of our artwork in house. We highly recommend new streamers learn art tools like Photoshop or GIMP(free).We simply use Twitch dashboard analytics to help home and streamline our content. The unique chatters data gives us an indication of the health of our community while the new followers data helps us determine if we’re able to sustain the channel in a specific game category.
What advice would you give to small channels trying to reach Partner?
Our advice would be patience, persistence and perspiration. For new streamers it’s important to know first impressions mean everything. There are currently 6 million streamers on Twitch. Find your way to stand out from the crowd. Once you do manage to find your feet in the crown, work hard and keep moving forward with positivity.
If you could change one thing about Twitch, what would it be?
We wish Amazon would increase the resources for Twitch to help build a consistant line for moderating streamers.
