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 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 POE currency trade .
A second avenue
We discussed the bright light of the LCS stages earlier, but the fact is, only ten teams with five players each can compete. (Okay, some teams have experimented with six to ten man rosters, but the point is that it’s a finite pool). The Challenger circuit may allow for a few more spots, but if you want to make a living off playing League for a living, you’re fighting with thousands of others of talented players.
Not only are up and comers smart to consider moving into streaming as an alternative to pro play, but pro players are dropping out of the LCS to stream. TSM Doublelift is one of the most notable cases from recent memory. After a successful summer split with TSM, and then a less successful run at Worlds, Doublelift stepped down from the most successful North American team to build a content brand. He’s following in the footsteps of Dyrus and TheOddOne on TSM, and they’re not alone.
The LCS schedule can be grueling. Scrimming, practicing, gym time, playing... It all adds up. If you want to aim for the top, you have to deal with the inevitable psychological fallout when you don’t eventually get there. Meanwhile, watch Imaqtpie for a few hours. There are no shots of him sobbing at his keyboard, no long interviews, and so on. This isn’t to say that these things are bad, but they are part of the package of pro life, and some players want to opt out.
The problem is that streaming life is going to quickly become saturated as the years go by. Not everyone can be a big name streamer—or even a B tier. The truth is, part of streaming success is a gamble. Do you play an interesting role? Are you competing with a big name in a time slot? Even former LCS pros have failed to make an impact on Twitch, while Kaceytron continues to make a living off her surrealist look at one girl’s gamer life. As Twitch becomes more of a viable career path, we’ll likely see pros trying hard to forge their own unique, memorable brand POE divine orbs for sale .
