Streamer Spotlight: PointCrow
PointCrow, aka the most aggressively mediocre streamer on Twitch, has *almost* done it all, like exploding pure sodium on his stream, or watching paint dry on his wall for ten hours. He is best known, though, for his unmatched chaotic antics in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, such as completing the game with a single stick, by playing with no weapons at all, or using a Dance Pad as a controller—just to name a few.
How did you get your gamer tag?
I know crows are pretty smart animals, and I always liked the idea of flight (aerospace nerd here). The “Point” in PointCrow comes from the writer of an amazing Reddit story, Streetlamp Le Moose. Basically, I wanted to create a name that was easy to say and easy to remember, and it happened to end up this way!
Is streaming your full-time job? What does your day-to-day look like?
Contrary to popular belief, with the recent channel growth and the size of the stream, content creation is not a full-time job for me. I’m currently a 4th year engineering student in university studying Materials Science Engineering, with a focus on Chemical Engineering. It’s absolutely crazy, though—after I get my degree, it makes more sense to dive into streaming, rather than apply for engineering jobs.
My day-to-day isn’t very interesting! A lot of my time is spent on my computer coordinating between other streamers, my channel moderators, artists, sponsors, and YouTube editors, as well as and planning out future content. It’s a very communication-heavy gig. I think a common misconception of streamers is that you just “go live,” and that’s it. I put in about twice the amount of work outside of streaming than I do while streaming. No one tells you about the emails and DMs when you start out!
Are there any particular moments on your stream that stand out to you?
There are so many moments that stand out to me, I won’t be able to tell them all! The time I beat Breath of the Wild with a single stick was a particularly crazy challenge I put to myself. I spent seven hours in the final boss battle doing three damage at a time, whittling away at the combined HP of 16,000. The relief after I was finished was incredible, and the pop-off was so worth it in the end. Beating Breath of the Wild with a Dance Pad was crazy as well. The setup for it was insane, and the physical prowess it took was impressive all in itself.
Overall though, I think the most effort I put into a single stream was coordinating a race between 20 different streamers to see who could feed all the dogs in Breath of the Wild the fastest. The prize pool was $1000, and I was color-commentating the entire thing while switching between racers and conducting interviews. It was quite a sight, and maybe my favorite stream I’ve ever done. All the racers were so enthusiastic, and it was so fun to create!
What is one thing about streaming and mental health that you wished others knew about?
It’s so easy to talk about the people who actively hate you, but what I find especially taxing is people complaining and asking questions where the answer can be found in two seconds of looking. For example, I get the question “what are you doing on stream today” a decent amount—there’s a title on the stream. It’s RIGHT BELOW THE WEBCAM. Another common question—and I understand why people ask, but it’s still taxing—is “when do you stream?” or “what’s your stream schedule?”. I can name more than ten places where I post my stream schedule—hell, you can even google it, and it comes up! Backseat gaming is a huge issue too, with people always telling you what to do and how to do it: if you don’t play the way people want you to play, they’ll let you know. Of course, these examples appealing to the loud minority and rule-breakers. There are so many genuinely kind and nice people in my community, and I’ve met people I will probably remember for the rest of my life.
If you could voice any video game character, who would it be?
If I had the voice of Matt Mercer, really anyone! I would love to voice a main character in any game with a heavy story involvement, like Horizon: Zero Dawn or The Last of Us.
Thanks, PointCrow! You can check out his streams here.
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