Video muted. Click to unmute!

00:05

1) 3 pieces of advice for your 14-year-old self …

I think a lot of people are scared. This might sound weird, but I think a lot of people are scared to follow dreams nowadays. They get comfortable with whatever job they're doing at the time, and they're just too scared of just following their own dreams. I've felt that, too. I was thinking like, "Yeah. Should I just finish? Should I just continue school? Do something I kind of enjoy," and just, like, and I'll take and I'll try another thing, try, take this opportunity. I would definitely say that to my 14-year-old self, to just work hard and be, be consistent. If you find something, just be consistent and work really hard with it.
00:49

2) What's written on your business card?

Eli- ... Well, in Swedish it would, Elias Lönn. That’s my name. I do streaming and YouTubing as a full-time job.
01:00

3) What's the coolest thing about your job?

I speak to, like, hundreds of different people a day, coming into the channel, you know, typing in chat, from all over the world, and it's real interesting to just get to know them. Even though there's a lot of people, you start, when you sit so much and you talk to everyone, every single day, you get to know them, even though it's just over the Internet, but you get to know them.
01:25

4) What are the limitations of your job?

I used to have trouble with the motivation. Speedrunning can get very - the thing I'm doing- can get very repetitive since you're just trying to get good times in video games. What it sounds like really weird to a lot of people. But finding strategies and stuff to finish a game faster, it's hard, and just trying to find the motivation to just, to just continue doing it every day. I spent one and a half year on one single game just learning it. Learning every single aspect of it, and it's finding motivation to stay active, and the reason I can do it is because I talk to these people. It's almost like I'm having a podcast on my own. Because I'm just talking to... I know the game so much that I'm just talking to chat. I'm just looking at the chat while playing the video game with mostly memory. It's a challenge, but it's also I like it at the same time.
02:29

5) What's your job about?

Obviously, I spend a lot of time at the computer. I do a lot of videos. I do a bunch of speedrunning on my both channels, and a lot of time goes into planning, like, how to do speedrunning and stuff. Several hours goes into that. Responding to messages from fans and stuff. I would wake up. I would eat breakfast while probably watching another channel on Twitch. I spend a lot of time there watching other streamers and I work out a lot. I have to, and since I spend so much time at the computer sitting still. Staying active, moving your body is really, really important, so I do that. Eat lunch, go home, edit a video, start to stream during the evening, go to bed around midnight. That's what a day for me looks like.
03:29

6) What's your background?

I've been playing video games my whole life. I got a Super Nintendo from my mom. I played Donkey Kong on Super Nintendo. Ever since then, I was hooked on video games. It's what I wanted to do, and after finishing school, I started working at this, place where I had to work with a lot of numbers, basically. I don't know how to explain it, but I did, did that for a summer, as a summer job, and after that, I started working as a Postman, and I did that for ... I don't know how long it was, 1-1/2 year or something, 2 years. I'm from Gavle, which is two hours north of Stockholm, and then I moved to my mom, which lives in Stockholm, and I worked as a Postman there, too, so, after that, I actually never told my parents I quit my job. I had a lot of savings, and I've been watching streaming and streams on YouTube channels a lot, and I was like, "What if I would try to do this?" So I tried, and, it was just something I loved, even though, in the beginning no one finds your channel. You have no viewers to talk to or anything, but you're trying to stay motivated anyways, just explain what you're doing on your channel, and someone's gonna find you and it takes a long time. You have to be consistent. It took me a month to break 30 viewers. I was living on savings back then. Sorry, Mom. I know you're watching. So I got this Twitch partnership so I can get revenue from adverts and stuff. It took me around half a year until I could realize I could do this as a job.
05:32

7) Could someone with a different background do your job?

Being a streamer, a YouTuber, it's a lot to do with your personality, with how you are as a person, so I would say my background has been very important in becoming who I am today. You could definitely do what I'm doing. I think anyone could, but you can't be me, you know? You can't be me. I think anyone can do it. You just gotta follow your dreams and work hard, and anyone can, but you just gotta have the guts to do it.

“I speak to a lot of different people a day, who are coming in the channel from all over the world. And it’s really interesting to get to know them.“ That’s definitly the coolest part of Elias "Elajjaz" Lönns job as a Youtuber and Streamer on Twitch. He was playing videogames his whole life and is just happy to be able to live from that now. His advice to his 14-year-old self? “I think a lot of people are scared to follow their dreams nowadays. They get comfortable with whatever job they are doing. I felt that too. So just work hard and be consistent.“

Thema

Gaming & eSports

International

Spannende Stories

Frans "Thirsha" Schouten

General Manager

“It’s really hard, if you don’t know from experience to stand in the players shoes. But if you are enough of a business man, you don’t need that experience,“ Frans “Thirsha” Schouten is convinced. His 14-year-old self nevertheless should have known that practice is essential to become a professional. As the General Manager of Lowlandlions the coolest thing for him at an event like Dramhack is “being with the players, supporting them and seeing them perform.”

Michael O'Dell

Pro Gaming Manager

“There are lots of satisfying things that I do. I travel the world every month, I see so much cool stuff, I’ve met amazing people”, Michael O’Dell tells about his job as Pro Gaming Manager for Team Dignitas. His biggest challenge is the financial situation: “It’s very hard to find new revenue streams, it took us three years to get our first sponsor, for example.”

Kim "Drayich" Larsson

Commentator

“When you run your own firm you just work all the time.“ Kim “Drayich“ Larsson job as a Commentator at Twitch is quite time-consuming but he really enjoys his job: “I like to be in the center of attention. I like to be recognized. I like to be heard.“ Besides streaming, commentating games and writing for websites, he is also going to work together with a school. Challenging for him is, that “it’s not just enough to commentate the game. You have to be able to give from yourself and hopefully you will get something back.“

Yannis "Slay" Ziakas

Bizdev / Art Consultant

“We are trying to be as close to normal sports as possible – in competitive feeling as in sportsmanship as in prices, organizations, fans“, Yannis “Slay“ Ziakas, Bizdev and Art Consultant at Oddshot.tv, is decribing his working environment. Oddshot.tv is a google chrome extension, free for everyone, and has the purpose “to capture the last seconds of what you have just seen on any Twitch screen, essentially instant replay, but it doesn’t require any software.“