Welcome to the Sott Squad!

If you have been part of my streams in any capacity over the last 7 years, please read:

Hey everyone

Some of you may have noticed I haven’t streamed for the last few months & haven’t been around Discord much either the last few weeks. I’ve been collecting my thoughts during this time. This post will be pretty long as I am announcing my ‘retirement’ from streaming & want to recap & appreciate everything that’s happened over the last 7 years.

In recent months, there have been some issues within the community that didn’t get resolved. I got myself involved in the issues to help fix things & it backfired on me. In turn this has caused me a lot of stress & anxiety, I have not been happy due to this which is why things have gone quiet overall on the online front. I tried to keep streaming for a while but inside it was bothering me therefore I isolated myself from being so active to give myself time to reflect. I’ve seen this as a bit of a blessing in disguise as it has helped me reach where I am now & has allowed me the time to contemplate without distractions at my own pace.

Anyway, outside of this, life has been great & I am happy with everything in the ‘real world.’ The last 12 months have been huge with buying my first house, getting a new job after 13 years in a completely different line of work, as well as Hooks getting into a new field of work in this country. The decision to stop streaming is not solely from the above issues. I feel content now with devoting my time elsewhere to focus on life & other ventures. I feel like I have had my time streaming, reaching incredible milestones I never even dreamed of.

Before I streamed, in 2014 on reddit I was researching and always remember this quote I stumbled across ‘Always give people a reason to talk, always give people a reason to stay.’ This stuck with me the entire duration of me streaming. This bought out something in me I never knew I had, to entertain, especially the first few years. Going by this helpful tip, it allowed me to express myself & the stream grew to incredible heights, being able to share an amazing hobby with so many people from around the world.

For some context, I had 2.2mbps upload for the first 2 years on streaming, then 1.5mbps upload for the next 2 years. I could rarely play multiplayer games without massive lag due to the low upload whilst streaming. I got away with some multiplayer with the community when I had 2.2 upload, but barely. It was difficult to work with this, but I did everything I could in my power to make it work the best I could. Streaming at 360p and sometimes at 480p with 700 – 1000 bitrate for the majority of my streaming ‘career’ and being able to achieve what we did as a community is crazy. I only got faster internet in 2019 where I could stream at 720p or 1080p with 60fps at a really high bitrate. Was quite funny to see people’s reactions when I went live and everything was crystal clear for the first time after 4 years haha.

I just remembered, speaking of low upload. Does anyone remember when you would watch me in 360p or less, my audio would sound like a slow motion demon? HAHA. DemonSott. This ended up being something on Twitch’s end, after just over a whole year it randomly got fixed. During this time I had to stream at 480p, be more pixelated due to the low upload, so people could actually listen to the stream normally LOL. From memory, there were a couple other streamers that had a similar issue, however it was extremely rare!
I don’t want to go on about every little thing, but I absolutely want to give an overview of some memories. The early days, Dark Souls 1 & 2, Binding of Isaac (trippin out like a mad c**t bro, MAD C**T!), Skyrim (FARKAS!) & Fallout 3 & Fallout NV (REX!) bought together so many people to my streams. Finishing all these games, sharing the experiences with you was so fulfilling. Sunday morning Rocket League, playing with viewers for a whole year once a week was incredible. Later on, moved onto sleeping giants for the channel such as Elite: Dangerous (DAMO!) & Euro Truck Simulator 2 (endless memes & clips!). I wanted an excuse to use my wheel on stream, prior to any racing taking place on there. I did 3 stints of ETS2, this game was enormous for my channel. I essentially turned it into a glorified chat room, such amazing fun using head tracking software plus the wheel, silly antics, always causing some kind of incident that the chat would get a kick out of. So many people would be captivated by ETS2, just chillin & hanging out, talking with myself & the community as we made deliveries together. Then toward the more recent times, Marbles on Stream became a hit & was a great way to interact with everyone, develop a racing narrative between all the races & viewers with ‘championships,’ keeping a track record on an excel document to develop more storylines. It really got people invested in something there was no control over, fantastic haha. Quick mention of the PUBG streams, oh my. When literally everyone was playing it, within our community and the extended community, incredible fun! Oh as well as the Tarkov streams, before it blew up from the Twitch Drops, also incredibly fun streams!

A lot of these games when played, also had song request in the background which was a huge part of the channel before the DMCA started up on Twitch. People being able to queue up songs while I was driving around, flying, dodging was all part of the fun. It always gave great moments when a certain song would play right as something happened in game. People in the chat would be right into it, posting lyrics along to the song, whilst I could sometimes horribly sing along, great fun. I prided myself as being very interactive & song request was one of many layers of ways to engage myself with the chat. Even in the viewer games in Rocket League, I remember people not wanting to be on my team as often I would stop playing to sing or get so invested in conversations with chat so much that I wouldn’t be moving my car hahah.
Speaking of song request, I can’t talk about the years on Twitch without mentioning the Queenstreams! Queenstreams were basically celebration streams when we hit follower milestones in where my bestie Georamavo would come round, we would play Xcom with viewer soldiers & sing Queen songs every hour or two, whilst doing giveaways in between. These streams would often be very long & some of the best fun I’ve ever had! Thankfully I highlighted all these & saved them to my PC before having them removed due to DMCA. Special memories.

A little bit of stream lore, the Queen streams were a natural evolution. I remember one night being up late, playing Dark Souls 2 when we hit 500 followers whilst also killing a DLC boss I was stuck on for ages. Both milestones happened within minutes of each other & an old viewer called ChaosRandom in the chat started typing ‘We are the champions’ over & over, so I pulled up the song & started singing along with the viewers. Each time a QueenStream happened from there, they got longer & longer, more songs were played, the giveaways got larger & more often, Georamavo getting involved & being a staple in the format.

Another part of streaming that has blown me away is in 2017 and 2018 I held a ‘Sottcon’ in which viewers travelled from around the world and within Australia to hang out and meet a whole bunch of the Sott Squad community. I will never get over that this was even possible, some great memories being able to meet in person and hang out, especially with such a large group. It felt like meeting old friends that you haven’t seen in many years, truly remarkable. Extremely thankful that people even had the thought to want to travel to meet here, the fact that it actually happened still stumps me. Of course, having the pleasure to meet viewers outside of this randomly when they were in my state or when I visited the US was been just as amazing to experience!

Also quick mention that I have used the same bot database from when I first started. I started using a bot about 4-5 months into streaming and ever since I have kept it backed up. Every minute ever recorded from a viewer is in there from that point on, so roughly from May 2015. It really puts into perspective how many people enjoyed being around the channel!

Something I didn’t expect at all was inspiring other people to stream. Many people that came through the channel ended up streaming due to hanging around my stream. Some of whom have gone onto bigger & better things which is amazing and others who have had a blast streaming now to their own communities. It makes me feel incredibly proud to have been a part of that.
I joined one ‘Stream Team’ Total Chaos in my time which was fun for a while, especially in the early days. To be honest, most of the people I already had met & cared about by this time, prior to the team were already part of its foundation in the beginning & I am thankful to still be in contact with most of them today. Most of these great people I had met in 2015 and 2016 & it is fantastic to see some still streaming whilst others pursuing different careers & succeeding at life. Shows how everyone has different paths.

A few weeks into streaming, I got raided by who many of you may know as Realms. At the time I didn’t know what a raid was, or that it was even a thing, I thought I was being botted haha. He raided me with over 30 viewers & at the time averaging 1-5, my mind was blown. I have to mention this as he found my channel playing Binding of Isaac & raided me later on when playing some Skyrim one night. Through Realms, I met so many amazing people. His streams were so unique, a vibe you cannot replicate & an absolute joy to be a part of. He was a massive inspiration in my approach to streaming. He saw something in me & helped me out so much over the years. I will never forget that night, I remember it like yesterday. I am so thankful that he found my channel & everything that stemmed from him choosing to raid me.

One part of streaming I wish I did more were charity streams. I didn’t think I quite had the pull to do them in the way I would have liked. I did participate in a couple charity streams with a bunch of streamers in which we did contribute great amounts & am really proud of. Also, I am proud to have helped Bluekii & Reborn in donation drive streams to get them a new iPad & a PS5 respectively through the help of the Sott Squad as well as Hooks’ Arcade, combining our efforts to come together to help old scholar viewers in need. There are pinned posts in Discord as to why these donation drives were done with a lot more context.

I have to mention as well, thank you to Bluekii for her amazing artwork. Any illustration you have ever seen over the 7 years whether it was emotes, BRB screens or display pictures have been from her talents & she definitely provided a look & feel for the channel and for myself. Incredible to see her art evolve over the years and always updating it for the channel. If you need any artwork commissioned definitely hit her up.

I can’t finish this without talking about HooksVS, previously Hooker4Oblivion, the COD Zombies guru. The most impactful part of streaming was meeting Hooks through an old mutual steamer friend’s channel in late 2015. He shouted me out, she followed me and 6 years later we have bought a house together. She has changed her life to be here with me the last 4 years, moving from the US to Australia. There have been a lot of ups and downs during this, I mean a lot. I haven’t been the easiest to work with, she really has put up with a lot. All the processes in getting her here, everything we had to provide to prove our worth, even once living here, restarting her life has been so difficult, especially later in life. We have made it work and we couldn’t be happier. She is an incredible person, she’s extremely brave, too hard on herself but also can be soft & sensitive, always putting others before her. I love her so much & am excited for what the future holds for us.

She is an integral part of the community, always at the forefront helping out whether within stream or outside of it, constantly supportive & encouraging for me to stream all the time. Always surprising me by making great snacks to keep my energy up. On Saturday night streams she’d cook up something special and share it with the stream, so many good memories. I share so many interests with her, even more now than ever. We first bonded over Dark Souls and at the time it was when The Happy Hob achieved his first Dark Souls no hit run which was an 8-9 hour run at the time, we watched most of it together and the rest is history. Who knew, streaming would lead to such incredible life milestones.

I want to thank my moderators for the past 7 years. Honestly, we have had it quite incident free at least compared to how bad things can get around Twitch. We had some botting issues back in the day and a few pipsqueaks to put up with, but nothing crazy. Thank you for looking after the community & having the streams best interest in making people feel welcome & part of the Sott Squad. You guys are an extension of me and I feel that is really important when looking after a stream community.

I know I’m already going to miss streaming however this is something I need to do for myself & my life. I do want to say never say never, perhaps the odd stream here & there but at this stage, unlikely. I needed the last couple months to know I am making the right decision. Thank you to those who sent a message during that time to see if everything is alright. I am not going AWOL, I will still be around. Once I post this I am going to be active in Discord again so you can message whenever <3 I will be leaving the Sott Squad Discord server up if you still want to use it!

If you have made it this far, thank you. It would seem overkill to a lot of people writing this much to say goodbye from streaming, but I do take this very seriously as I couldn’t have done any of this without you. To be able to do what I did since early 2015 has impacted my life so much, being able to entertain you during the majority of that time, getting to know you on all different levels throughout the years. I had no idea I could entertain, you enabled this and we elevated each other throughout the years to enormous heights. Thank you for sticking by me through all the ups & downs of my life during this time. I do not forget all the support I had toward the end of 2015 during a really rough part of my life. You guys helped me so so SO much I will never forget it. Thank you for your support, your viewership, your company, your friendship, your relationship and most of all, thank you for being a part of one of my favourite times of my life. As I conclude in writing this, I am now thinking of the early days of Binding of Isaac, Skyrim & Dark Souls & thinking that there are still people in this community from my first days of streaming which words just cannot explain.

I want to thank people individually, however there are so many and I know I will miss people. If you are reading this, you already know :) Thank you to each and every one you for supporting the stream in various ways, whether through word of mouth, actively chatting, lurking, subscribing (Twitch & Gamewisp), raiding, hosting, donating, retweeting, liking posts etc. I cannot express how thankful I am. Thank you for spending ANY amount of your free time with me. This is such a big deal to me. You could be doing anything in your spare time or spend it with so many other people, yet you chose to be around me for so much of the last 7 years.

I want to reiterate, that the best feeling I had from streaming is seeing someone that is new to your stream come back the next time you’ve gone live, it is so heart-warming and difficult to convey. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Sott Squad, you have literally changed my life.