In this episode of the Fresh Fit Podcast, we have a special guest in the house, a good friend of mine, Awkward. Awkward is an avid Overwatch player and streamer with over 100k subscribers on his channel. We talk about how he got started in the gaming industry, how he became a streamer, and how he went from being a professional gamer to now being a full-time streamer. We also talk about his origin story in the video game industry, and what got him into gaming in the first place. We hope you enjoy this episode, and don't forget to subscribe on your favorite streaming platform so you never miss an episode. Fresh Fit is a community of likeminded gamers, and we are here to bring you quality content that's fresh, real, and authentic. FreshFit Podcast is hosted by FreshFit and hosted by R.R.Breeze and FreshFit. FreshFit is the home base for all things FreshFit, R.I.P. and Freshfit. We are live on all of the socials and socials, and are looking forward to bringing you more content that is fresh and real and authentic! We love y'all, and thank you so much for tuning in! - The Fresh Fit Crew. - Hosted by Freshfit Podcast - R. I.B. Breeze & Freshfit Hosted By: FreshFit Produced and Edited by: Freshfit and R.A. Burt & Fresh Fit Music: Freshfit Music: Fresh Fit (featuring: and Fresh Fit Music: "The Good Life" by Fresh Fit, Fresh Fit and The Good Life (feat. , Freshman Podcast, & The Goodfellas Art: The GoodLife Music: Goodbye, Mr. and . , and by Freshman, and Weepin' and by , & , by ( ) Thanks to: Freshman PODCAST, Weez ( ) and The Badass Podcast ( ) - Thank you for listening to this Podcast! We'll See Ya'll! , We'll Be Back Soon! (Thank You, and We'll Talk About It Soon, Thank You, We'll Get Back, Soon, And We'll Figure It Out Soon, Next Time, - We'll Hear You'll See You Soon
00:03:39.000Guys, we're actually going to have a Zoom call with Awkward after this, man.
00:03:41.000You guys are going to go ahead and be able to ask some questions, whether it's how to monetize streaming, how to become a professional gamer, et cetera, because there's ways to make money in the video game industry that you wouldn't have been able to do so maybe 20, 30, what?
00:05:14.000Obviously, everyone has their origin story.
00:05:16.000For me, for example, I got my first Nintendo Entertainment System and I played and then I was like, man, this game is hard.
00:05:23.000It was like nine different worlds of trying to beat the same goddamn Bowser and rescue this thought that keeps getting kidnapped, Princess.
00:06:17.000But I remember that, like, when the PlayStation N64 had their wars and everything, like, on the PlayStation side, you had WWF SmackDown, and then on the N64 side, you had, like, No Mercy.
00:06:30.000So it would be, like, the same thing but different brands, I guess.
00:06:32.000I know the issue was with the PlayStation multiplayer was terrible.
00:09:26.000And then I got on PC and I started playing Overwatch, but I played with a controller.
00:09:30.000Stupidest thing ever, because there's no aim assist.
00:09:31.000There's no aim assist and you're using a controller.
00:09:33.000It's like you're double handicapping yourself for no reason.
00:09:35.000So I was like, and I realized if I want to actually climb and get back into the Diamonds and Masters or whatever, I got to play with a mouse and key and it took me a few months.
00:09:42.000But I figured out, mouse and key is the way to go.
00:09:44.000I think for the audience, we need to put some foundation here.
00:09:46.000We were gamers before we started streaming.
00:14:31.000So for me, I had Charizard, Dragonite, I had Needle King with Earthquake, I had Pidgeot, because that was my friend from back in the day, you know?
00:14:46.000And then I had either Articuno, or I had like Zapdos.
00:18:26.000Well, this is the early, see, like, there was an era, right, where, like, if you played games, right, like, what, online gaming, like, from a competitive standpoint, like, was, like, the early 2000s, maybe, where, like, you had internet connection, you could compete against people.
00:18:38.000Then MLG kind of brought it in, where, like, that was, like, the first professional major league gaming, the first professional But after, I would say, what would you say when professional gaming really exploded?
00:18:50.000Probably, I think with Counter-Strike, Global Offensive, and League of Legends as well was pretty big.
00:18:56.000I think 2016, 2017 was when it grew super big.
00:19:17.000What was it like training to get to that level?
00:19:20.000Because I don't think people understand how much time you got to put in to even play at a semi-professional level with games that are super competitive.
00:19:25.000Yeah, you practically have no social life.
00:19:27.000You sit at home, play video games all day.
00:19:28.000I wouldn't recommend doing it, but back in the day I was so hooked and I was so good and I rose up the ranks.
00:19:33.000I started winning tournaments and just a competitive drive.
00:19:37.000Just want to be better and better and better and that's the thing that I was really good at.
00:19:40.000And games like that require a lot of what we call mechanical skill, right?
00:19:44.000Can you explain to the audience real quick what mechanical skill is?
00:19:46.000Because people might be nerding out a little bit too much here.
00:19:49.000Yeah, mechanical skill is basically the ability to see something on the screen, react to it with your mouse and hit the right targets in the head and just moving around flawlessly around the map without falling or hitting something or hitting your teammates or anything like that.
00:20:03.000Yeah, having very good aim, being aware, having quick reaction time.
00:25:22.000I'd be cooking, and then they'd be sucking, and I'd lose my shit.
00:25:25.000But the point is that I think to myself, like, all right, I do got to play better.
00:25:28.000And you're real good about that, like, letting people know, like, hey, man, if you're stuck in gold or in plat, which we're talking about Overwatch here, it's your fucking fault, which is true.
00:25:50.000Then what's the second thing you teach them?
00:25:51.000Second thing, well, you have to ask yourself, do you want to become really good or do you want to have a full-time job?
00:25:56.000I teach people who are like 50 years old.
00:25:57.000They have kids, they have families, and they're like, yeah, I just want to play with my kid, you know, just dabble with him a little bit just so we would have something to do together.
00:26:23.000Well, if you want to be pro, it has more training cycles.
00:26:26.000So you would be, first hour, you warm up, you play deathmatch, you just practice mechanical skill, moving your mouse, shooting targets, you know, the moving targets.
00:26:33.000The second thing, you probably just look at yourself play, you know, look at a video of you playing and be like, okay, and start noticing mistakes or start noticing good habits or good plays.
00:26:41.000And then you just log into the game and try to implement the feedback that you have learned by watching yourself play.
00:29:58.000I'm like, god damn, I played this game for a month, if you want to make me a pro, I'm like, sure.
00:30:02.000And then I played in a bunch of tournaments, in the country, outside the country, mostly international, like World Cup and stuff, World Cup, and just different lands across...
00:30:42.000Because people don't understand Overwatch.
00:30:45.000But I would like to make a real-life analogy, right?
00:30:47.000About improving the mindset and stuff.
00:30:49.000So, for example, you know, I... Realize that just playing video games and improving at them, just like any other skill in the world, right?
00:30:55.000I got into boxing like two years ago, something like that.
00:30:59.000And I was like, you know, I learned how to play better by watching other people and just being self-accountable and just like saying, it's my fault, what can I do better?
00:31:24.000And again, again, until eventually, if you're persistent enough and you're self-economic enough, you'll be able to achieve anything you want to achieve.
00:31:36.000Yeah, and I think, and that's great that you were able to take that mindset and adapt it into something else, which I want to talk about next here because you're real big on Going outside, going to the gym and training, not being like a typical stupid gamer that's fat and being a bum, which is another thing I wanted to talk to you about,
00:31:54.000So going back to the Overwatch, so you start playing internationally and then what?
00:32:01.000Well, I started playing internationally, and to be honest, in Overwatch specifically, professionally, to be honest, the money's not that good.
00:32:06.000Like, it's okay, but you can't really live off of that, yeah?
00:32:08.000Unless you're really, like, consistently winning all the tournaments.
00:32:12.000But even then, I started thinking, you know, I'm like 23, 24, like, what's next?
00:32:16.000You know, eventually there's going to be a younger version of me, somebody who's better, so what will I do?
00:32:22.000I'm going to be like 27, 28, and then no real-life skills?
00:32:25.000That's what most people don't understand.
00:34:37.000Can I add though, gaming itself, the concept of becoming a pro gamer, I think is great for the idea, but longevity, it is not sustainable at all.
00:34:47.000Because think about this, if you're going to have the pro game ability to learn the game, master the game, you're going to grow older.
00:34:56.000And like you just said earlier, there's kids from Korea, 15 years old, come to the game and are spending 20 hours learning how to play this game.
00:35:27.000Which, by the way, guys, we're going to have a Zoom call after this, so if you want to go ahead and make money from gaming and be able to actually monetize a hobby of yours, we're going to...
00:35:36.000And then put the money into real estate right after, or something like that.
00:37:31.000Like, the guys that were, like, very good.
00:37:34.000It depends, because one of the first things I would probably tell, when you're streaming, for example, like XQC, and a lot of people watch you and a lot of people are fans of yours, obviously you can negotiate your contract to be higher.
00:38:01.000Yeah, so what I'm saying is that you can negotiate your contract if you have a lot of fan base, which most people don't because they're gamers.
00:38:43.000Like, I don't want to get too much into it because I don't know all the details, but I would say that the amount of money it was making compared to what it was spending is just a net loss, I believe.
00:38:52.000Well, I mean, if you look at it, like, they had, like, huge fucking, like, arenas and all this other stuff and people were there and stuff, so...
00:38:59.000Okay, and now they got like the contenders.
00:39:01.000Can you explain like the new thing that they got going on with like contenders or whatever the hell it's called?
00:39:04.000Yeah, I'm not really following that much pro play.
00:39:06.000It used to be before the Overwatch League.
00:39:26.000Some organization will contract you, but most organizations don't want to be a part of Overwatch because, again, it's a net loss because there's not many people who watch it.
00:39:47.000You open up a League of Legends Counter-Strike, you open up Twitch or like a YouTube or a stream, you'll see like half an M view sometimes in big events.
00:44:19.000What happens sometimes though, like what he's saying, just random, not always happens, but the girl becomes pretty good because she's trying to prove to her boyfriend she's the one and she'll try to out-game him even though she really can't.
00:45:11.000The issue that I have with streamer girls is that maybe they will start with the idea or the fact that they want to show that they're good.
00:45:20.000What ends up happening is they end up sexualizing themselves a little bit.
00:45:33.000And then just, you started off as streaming because you wanted to show how good you are, but now you just drop that and all of a sudden, because it's just a money thing, realistically.
00:45:41.000Because there's a lot of simps on the internet, just the way it is.
00:45:46.000I can't blame it because when there's a seller, there's a buyer, right?
00:45:49.000Or when there's a buyer, there's a seller, sorry.
00:45:50.000I'm trying to think, like, these big girl streamers, like a Pokemon, whatever, did they start playing video games first, or were they just, like, thoughts from the beginning?
00:45:57.000I think Pokemon's story is that, like, she had a boyfriend that was playing an online game, and she just wanted to match him, and she became a player because of that.
00:46:04.000Alright, so, because I'm trying to think in my head, like, I'm trying to think of, like, a big female streamer that actually plays games.
00:48:09.000And the reason why is because they don't want to lose money because they want to sell the fantasy that like, oh yeah, you can potentially be my boyfriend.
00:48:15.000There was a girl playing Call of Duty.
00:50:03.000Like, my thing is, obviously, as you guys know, I've always made fun of video games.
00:50:06.000Because I quit video games in 2018 when I first moved to Miami and I said, fuck this shit, I'm not going to play no more.
00:50:11.000But if you get yourself to a certain point and you're able to, like, I don't know, like get yourself to a certain point where it's like, okay, I can play some video games and control it, right?
00:50:20.000So like I have a rule, like I'm going to go to the gym, I'm going to train before I fucking stream or anything like that.
00:50:24.000If you guys notice, I don't stream playing video games unless I've went to the gym.
00:50:28.000So I always go to the gym first, then come and I'll stream.
00:54:22.000Fuck, I'm going to play it because I'm going to stream it, play a game that I like, that I used to be really good at, and then also get into the gaming community.
00:54:28.000So for me, there was a bunch of reasons.
00:54:30.000Obviously for you, it's got to make sense why you would play.
00:54:33.000But a lot of you guys, let's be honest, a lot of y'all are not in a position to play.
00:54:36.000If you guys are fucking not over here, and I've told you guys this before, I think you shouldn't be playing video games recreationally unless you're making at least six figures a year.
00:54:42.000Get your fucking life in order before you decide to do this stuff.
00:54:46.000Unless you're going to monetize and be really good and make money off it.
00:54:49.000But the majority is most of you guys are not going to be able to do that.
00:56:59.000Okay, guys, just so y'all know, Cast Club Chats is what we're, you know, Cast Club Chats always go, you know, they get their precedents, man.
00:58:59.000Hey, FNF, I did a drawing for the merch last minute, but can't find your Gmail to send them, so could message me or something, I think one or two.