Years’ new obsession was not isolated; League by the early 2010s, it had spread like wildfire through Internet gamers, prompting the rise of a new live streaming website called Twitch.tv. Launched in 2011, Twitch was already catching the attention of the best players in the world, who streamed on the site for hours and hours. Call of Duty trick and military level shots Starcraft 2 the plays attracted a spectator of players with capital letters and dedicated that, in 2013, reached the average 200,000 spectators of all the platform. A live chat scrolled alongside each broadcast, where fans sent dirty emails to emoticons and newbies asked questions in the style of the most frequently asked questions in the emerging class of microcelebrities.
Always extroverted, Years approached Twitch as an opportunity to make more gaming friends, specifically with other women. (There weren’t many in high school). He signed up in June 2013 and grabbed the handle of Pokimane, a combination of Pokémon and Imane, as he would later tell viewers, by sarcastically touching his forehead. She felt that she had earned the right to transmit herself only when she reached the platinum level of League competitive scale later that same year. He bought a $ 250 desktop computer at a classified ad website, went to Twitch, and played Go Live.
In a first clip of her channel, Anys’ face appears in a small box next to her League window. His character, Jinx, with a rocket launcher, defends his team’s nexus against five enemies. Years is hypercentric, cheeks puffing, as he catches an enemy and rockets, rockets a second, attracts a third to the base and rockets, chases a fleeing quarter and rockets and finally in poor health but bloody, until and all a little arrogant, shouting:Alas, give me the pen, friend! “ causes the fifth most at the base of your team before shooting them as well. Years dissolves into a fit of laughter.
In real time, Years was bright, cheerful and great, totally different from the stoic Call of Duty: Black Ops II i Counter-Strike: Global Offensive the serpentines crouched over the bright black keyboards muttering salty obscenities. She was obviously a good player. And obviously beautiful. But he also possesses enormous reach as a human being, a moment shouting “FUUUUUUUUCK” into the microphone after dying in a turret in League, and the next, promptly advising his viewers on how to get around with bronzer. It was aspirational, a balance not yet common but natural between femininity and play, the lord of the internet and the magical girl of anime.
At the time, Anys had enrolled at McMaster University in Ontario and was studying chemical engineering. In his freshman year, he balanced a 120 percent course load with a semi-regular Twitch transmission program, packing his classes in just a couple of days from 10 to 12 hours and transmitting to the afternoon or evening three days a week.
It wasn’t just about making friends; Twitch, for Years, had become a part-time job. And he was starting to pay back what he put in: to pay for college, he had hired more than $ 20,000 in student loans. The more he issued, the sooner he could pay his debt. Viewers donated small amounts of money ($ 5 or $ 10 or $ 25) attached to messages (“bad game !!!!”, “nice dress !!!”, “fail !!”), which he acknowledged and answered in a funny way. Behind her, in front of her webcam, was a slate full to the brim with usernames written in rainbow, a wall of donor ersatz for the bedroom set.
Many Twitch streamers cultivated patterns this way, earning a few bucks every hour to invest in a new graphics card, a professional microphone, maybe even an IRL bill or two. Some selected streamers also benefited from sponsorships, at the time, largely game-specific brands. These companies didn’t care that they were related to boys — and they were almost always boys — who sometimes shouted insults at the frustration of what are now euphemistically called “hot game moments” or who wrote their female counterparts as “streamers of titty “, regardless of how well the women played. Culturally, Twitch was the chest. Many of them were certainly not brand compatible.