Twitch suffered a huge blow when its most popular streamer, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, moved to Mixer on Aug. 1. But shortly after, one of the most popular Fortnite streamers on YouTube, Nicholas “Nick Eh 30” Amyoony, switched to Twitch.
Nick Eh 30 has enjoyed a successful career following his move to Twitch. He’s now the fastest-growing Twitch channel on the platform in September with an increase of more than 400,000 followers, according to Twitchmetrics.
Nich Eh 30 talked with Dot Esports about his current experience with the Twitch community and the state of Fortnite during this turbulent period. Although he’s an independent streamer right now, he said that he’ll “never say never” to joining an esports organization in the future.
Since YouTube has a different audience than Twitch, how have you experienced the new culture?
Nick Eh 30: You can definitely tell that Twitch has a different audience. They like to watch different types of content. I’ve noticed that a lot of the popular streamers are doing competitive Fortnite, people really enjoy that kind of stuff. So what I’ve been trying to focus on is getting back into competitive, working on tournaments, and practicing these scrims every single night. Of course, people are still very accepting of my old content and old types of streams. For example, I used to do Fortnite random duos, high kills, and trick shots at the end. People love that kind of stuff but I think that a lot of the Twitch community definitely likes competitive as well. Overall, I’m doing a mix of everything so it’s been a really great experience and I’m super happy with the results.
So you’re a streamer and a competitor. Will you be prioritizing competitive Fortnite over your stream?
I won’t necessarily be prioritizing one over another because let’s say I’m a competitive streamer for one game, and let’s say that game gets unpopular. After a few months or a year, let’s say I don’t perform well. I would hate to have all of my eggs in one basket and only be known for someone who is competing at the top level but then not be able to compete at that top level because I mess up or don’t perform as well. That kind of pressure would get to me. Also, it’s nice to just have that fun aspect involved and it’s not just competitive all the time because that can wear down on you. So I try to mix it up and I try to do other stuff. I would even say that I like to be a fine breed of a content creator and pro player and I’m constantly changing it.
Before your Fortnite career, you made Last of Us videos on YouTube. Did you ever think about going to a less family-friendly atmosphere like other streamers?
I would say that I’m a family-friendly person. You are never going to hear me say anything negative or hateful, any of that non-family friendly stuff. I like to think that although my games could not be family-friendly, I will always tell my community that I will make sure to put PG-13 in the title and all that stuff. I do my best at trying to keep it family-friendly for everyone to watch.
The thing about trying new games is when The Last of Us was my main game on my channel, that was the game that was getting me the most viewers, the most views on my videos and livestreams. Then I tried something new. I tried Fortnite and, believe it or not, that got me fewer viewers at the time when it came out. So after sticking with it and constantly playing it, people could tell I was starting to enjoy it more than The Last of Us because I played it for like three years. People started to accept that and I started to grow in skill. I was teaching people tips and tricks. People started enjoying it and that’s what blew up my channel. I think in the future you can definitely expect to see me play new games. I just don’t know what that game will be yet. But I’m always open to different games on my channel. Now that I’ve moved to Twitch, it’s very accepting of different games.
There’s been quite a lot of controversy surrounding Fortnite, including the B.R.U.T.E. Where do you see the direction of Fortnite heading?
So with regards to the controversial stuff, I always remind people that the vocal minority is very vocal, exactly that, like on Twitter. I feel like Epic Games has a lot of stats that we don’t know about. You know the mech might be controversial to the professional scene and the competitive scene, which I would argue with the vocal minority, but the 99 percent of people playing and the people that have a nine-to-five job who are coming home and playing for like an hour or two, they are enjoying that kind of stuff. I mean, Epic has those stats and I don’t think they would put that kind of thing in the game if it wasn’t bringing new people in. I’m sure they are testing this stuff and seeing what it’s like. Maybe it’s keeping people playing longer, which in turn will allow people to spend more money on them because they enjoy it.
So at the end of the day, the changes, sure they might be controversial to the pro players, but I genuinely enjoy them. I still have a good time playing the game. The key is balance. When you come to Fortnite, it’s a fun experience. I think the direction of Fortnite will only get better and better. I can only see it going up and up.
Would you say you enjoy regular public matches more than competitive Fortnite?
I am so hyped up to compete in competitive Fortnite. I think it’s all about what people have done in the past. In my past, I’ve done content, just casual games in public matches, so I never really dug deep into competitive like I am now on Twitch where I am grinding every single day in scrims and all that. So for me, I honestly enjoy the competitive scene even with all of the changes like the mechs and everything. I think they are doing a great job of balancing it. So I’m enjoying competitive a lot more than public matches and casual matches now. I would say it just all depends on what you have been doing in the past.
You’ve played Fortnite for years. In your opinion, what changes would you make to the game in its current state?
That’s a good question. So right now, I would say the one thing Fortnite does incredibly well is that there is new content, a new update, something new to tweet about, stream about. As a streamer and someone who is trying to entertain people, playing a game over and over again… for example, The Last of Us. When there is no new content, that stuff gets old, stale, and repetitive. With Fortnite, what they have going for it is that there is always new content to work with. I think that is one of the most important things, constantly keeping your game updated, fresh, and exciting, it keeps people coming back.
What would you say was your favorite season or meta to play in?
I would definitely say it was the season in which you could double pump with the shotgun. You could have two in your inventory and swap back and forth with no delay at all between swapping. It just allowed for so many cool clips. When you were solo-vs-squads, you could take out entire teams in a second because of how strong and powerful the pump was. Also, the fact that you could hold two and you could have that fast fire rate, I would definitely say that, especially for Friday Fortnite tournaments that were kill based.
You’ve grown an individual brand. What are some of the reasons why you haven’t joined an esports organization like other streamers?
I guess at this point, I am doing my own thing. I mean, never say never. If the offer is right, maybe something could come up, but as of right now, I am quite happy where I am at. I am signed with an awesome talent agency and I have a lot of awesome people supporting me, such as my family. I have them helping me out doing a lot of the stuff that an organization would do. My parents are managing my email, fan mail, sending out this and that. I have so much support behind me that I never really thought about signing. But never say never.
