EPTNow I have a twitch partnership. It's not on the account in my signature, but I won't advertise it here either.
This is why said I quit.
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When I made my blog that stated I had given up on casting altogether, it was before I had actually gotten a twitch partnership. As I said before, I should have quit sooner because I was actually making absolutely zero income off of it, and it was becoming a detriment to my academics as well as my future plans. That being said, I am now glad that I at least have something to supplement my present income. And I do not expect to make millions, or even thousands doing something like this, this is meant to supplement my present income with my minimum wage job.
This is why I was kind of raging / angry at other casters who got paid to do what they do while I got nothing.
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Ok, so I won't name the event or the casters involved (nor will I ask you all to go on email-writing campaigns to tournament sponsors), but I sent a PM to some guys here who were having a tournament that featured a large mix of Korean / Taiwanese / Chinese players. I told them I knew all about the Taiwan / China scene and that some of the people in on the Taiwan event were in the clan I am in that is borderline-pro. I, however, felt I was more qualified to talk about it with them on-stream or skype-call just as a "third wheel" maybe between games, get the insight of the casters at TeSL, etc. Instead, what they did was called me out on the stream in an extremely condescending tone of voice and said, "So many people are trying to get in on this." like I was some inbred retard who knew nothing about the scene. I will tell you all right now, that aside from Sen, they basically had no clue who else was a good player from TW. Outside of what was happening in-game, they had absolutely no clue what they were talking about. And even that was debatable, because they casted the first game in low quality graphics settings in SC2 on accident. "We have a stream available in Taiwanese at this link, and they have player-cams." then they post it in chat. "Oh, yeah, and the Chinese stream is available here." They were talking about the streams like they were available in two different languages. They were both in the same language (Mandarin), but because of international fire-walling and political reasons, the Taiwan stream (twitch.tv) and the China stream (fengyunzhibo.com) are on two completely different websites.
TL;DR here - Outside of the games they were casting, these guys had no clue what they were talking about and they were getting paid to do the same thing that I did basically for free. Made me think I was wasting my time.
TL;DR here - Outside of the games they were casting, these guys had no clue what they were talking about and they were getting paid to do the same thing that I did basically for free. Made me think I was wasting my time.
I am not looking to depend on streaming for a living. Yes, I would like to have a job in eSports, it doesn't have to be casting, per se, and I've been offered one before but I couldn't take it because I didn't have a degree (thus I could not secure a working visa while I was in Taiwan).
And, this much I just have to say right now. My target audience is presently too small to really truly and accurately cater to and make a living off of at the same time. To be honest with all of you, the only time my viewership ever spiked to 2,000+ viewers happened when I was streaming Sen. Sen is a symbol of national pride to the Taiwanese. I've told people that start their own tournaments this. If I don't stream Sen when I have the only stream available in Chinese (which has only happened one time), then I just don't get viewers. Honestly, there has only been one situation in which I have had that kind of privilege, and that is it. There's no way I can look forward to that every single day of the week. That is unrealistic. Which leads me to this next part...
Upcoming Projects
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I am taking March 5th - March 9th off to cast the IEM WC in Chinese. I accept this responsibility quite humbly, and I am honored in the essence that this will be the largest project I have ever had a hand in. The time for it should also be excellent. It starts at about 16:30 Taiwan time. Every other IEM qualifier that I casted happened in broad day-light in Taiwan and China, so people were either working or at school. If viewership is good, then viewership is good, and I will keep doing what I am doing now. But given the present trends that I see now, I will expect the worst and hope for the best.
I'm also in Negotiations to cast Taiwan eSports League (TeSL) in English with an actual in-game OBS position. I would rather appreciate this because of the people who enjoyed watching the Asia Starcraft League. Also, I notice that Taiwanese events have a much longer lifespan than western events. The ASL started in August 2012 and ended on February 7th, 2013.
For both of these events, my twitch partnership will be the only source of my revenue.
EDIT: I forgot to add this in. I had a skype-interview with AxelToss for the Observer job position available at MLG dallas this upcoming March (live in Oklahoma, just a five hour drive away from Dallas, Texas for the geographically challenged). He gave me some inspiring advice even though I knew from almost the start (99% certain) that I was not going to get the job. He told me to keep going with this because it is my niche. He said he was doing this for two years before he finally got paid to do it. Hearing this advice drove me nuts. It's like something I heard everyone telling me to do.
"Keep doing what you're doing."
"I need income now. I have to quit."
"Keep doing what you're doing."
"Did I ever tell you the definition of insanity?"
"No."
"Did I ever tell you the definition of insanity?"
