When a creator first sits down to record a video or broadcast a stream, most of them have an idea of the content they want to put into the world. And if they don’t know what niche they’re targeting with their content, finding that initial audience or breaking out of a rut will be even more challenging to pull off in a highly competitive market.
That’s one area of potential struggle Eric “PointCrow” Morino keyed in on early in his content career, using his success as a speedrunner and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild streamer to pivot into a popular variety channel.
For nearly three years, PointCrow has been splitting his time between challenging himself in games like BotW and Pokémon with mods and restrictive rules, to content where he semi-tortures himself by streaming for over 500 hours. And that’s all while trying to deal with his totally not cultish audience that’s always along for the ride and reminds him about his collector’s anxiety.
On the back of his continued growth as a content creator, having surpassed one million subscribers in January, and the continued escalation of his projects, PointCrow spoke with Dot Esports to share his insight into dealing with burnout, expanding into new types of content, and the chaotic method behind his creative process—along with a few teasers for some large scale projects coming soon.
When you made the leap into a more variety-based content approach in March 2020, your first “break out,” so to speak, was simply you watching paint dry for 10 hours. What made you take the first leap into gradually scaling insanity?
PointCrow: That wasn’t exactly my first leap, but it was the deepest one. The one where it kind of sunk all the way in and I could say Breath of the Wild is a fun game and all, but sometimes you want to stream more. There are more games and ideas out there.
My first breakout was the Sidon glitch, where I could take Sidon to different parts of the map. That was my first viral hit, but you never know when something will just break out, so you want to make sure that sticks. And I knew for a fact that there was no way something like that would stick if I just kept doing the same thing.
How many TikTok creators have you seen where they do the same dance for like a month and then you never see them again? I had that same idea around virality back then where I just wanted to make sure people watch the content for me. So I started delving into things like chemistry, the paint drying stream, Animal Crossing esports—I even played Barbie as well. It was a whole bunch of variety because I wanted to make sure I was diversifying.
If I recall, one of your reasons for trying to branch out was a battle with burnout and trying to reclaim your enjoyment of creating content to an extent. Can you talk a bit about how even a creator who started with such a varied approach fights with that creative slump?
I’m one of the rare streamers that still have that footage of their first stream. It was Breath of the Wild, me doing a three-heart challenge until I beat the game. Now that sounds tame because things have scaled, but back then that was so crazy and difficult. Plus I really enjoyed it.
But as things kept scaling and the ideas kept getting crazier and crazier with the different challenges I was doing, I realized that it kind of felt like I was going through the motions. Like, you do this task and then do this task, and eventually, you beat the game. It was the same thing over and over again. And even though I was having fun and it is a great game where you can fit so many different creative ideas into it thanks to that open world, it gets to the point where you just want to play more and do other things.
If you just go live with the same game over and over again, you’ll burn out. So I stopped doing that and swapped to other things, one of them being Pokémon. I love Pokémon. It was the first game I ever had as a child and the first game I personally owned. I think I have like 800 hours on my Pokémon FireRed cartridge because it was all I had to play for like a year—so I wanted to bring that into my content to combat the burnout.
That’s how I combated the slump and how others can too. What I determined was, if you have a content niche, like being known for Zelda, what you need to do is look at the content you want to make and create a video better than any other video like that on the platform. It is hard to do, but I wanted to make Pokémon and IRL content work on my channel, so I worked to make the transition work.
If you want people to really watch that Pokémon content you can’t just half-ass it. You have to be the person people go to when they want to watch Pokémon content. I found that little niche of Zelda challenges and was feeling burnout, so I looked at Pokémon and no one was doing that content over in that space, so I did it.
So you made something that no one else was doing at the time in that space rather than going with something basic like just playing a Pokémon game with a slight twist for a “Let’s Play” since you didn’t want to go the niche route of someone like Chuggaaconroy?
Exactly. No one does Let’s Plays like Cuggaaconroy. Personally, I watch all of his stuff, but I wanted to carve out this nice little niche of my own. So I went with someone who goes in and covers some really cool Pokémon fan games in super succinct, digestible ways within a single video.
There are people who want to play those games but they want to know if it is good before they play it. So I made my channel the place to go if you want to see that kind of content, and from there I just branched out within that Pokémon category more until I decided to add something else to the list too because, by then, I was already known for that content.
You have become known as a creator who takes ideas that you may have seen done before and pushes them to their absolute limits, what with videos like watching ice melt for 10 hours or breaking games to add new levels of challenge and intrigue. How did you settle on this type of content after breaking away from your BotW niche to an extent?
Simple answer? It’s fun. I just find it incredibly entertaining to take something like a concept that a lot of people have done before and switching it up.
Let’s say you have a Pokémon Nuzlocke, just a standard one. It’s not anything special anymore because every creator in that space has done one and the only reason someone would watch that on my channel is because they like watching me. And while that is nice, I want to take that and make it special again with a new twist. Let’s add a randomizer, but not a small one, make everything as random as possible so you are fighting Pokémon with a literal kitchen sink or using Vine Whip on Youngster Joey.
A better example for creators now is the subathon model, you have so many people doing those where you go live for a couple of days with a sub extending the time by a minute or something like that. Ludwig popularized that, so when I did mine I added my own twice by randomizing the subathon time.
Whenever someone would subscribe it would add a random amount of time to the timer. It could be anywhere from zero to 60 seconds, with a small chance of being a Legendary Sub where you would add five minutes, so everyone wanted to see what they got by subbing. I gamified it, made it my own, and I ended up being live for like 25 days.
Talking about gamifying something. What do you view as the “hardest challenge” that you have taken part in over the years? And, is there one that you would never do again?
I can answer that in two parts. The first challenge is time because I never have enough of that in a day. But for the videos, the hardest challenge I completed was one of my most recent ones—the Breath of the Wild speedrunner vs. hunter challenge that is obviously a twice on Wilbur Soot’s idea that Dream popularized in Minecraft. I actually did it with two hunters after that, which was even harder.
But there is one even harder one that I attempted but never completed and likely won’t ever go back to—beating BotW without touching the ground. In BotW there is this glitch called Moon Jump that basically allows you to double and triple jump endlessly. You can continuously jump and hover over the ground.
I did the entire game like that until the final boss fight where you take on Ganon and the Blights. I got through three of them, but with Thunder Blight Ganon you have to break his shield in order to hit him. So I’m doing that fight while mashing X to jump at all times and also pressing Y where I can to slash, which drops you closer to the ground. And even with some of the strats we had, like pinning him to a wall and shooting bomb arrows at specific times, my hands got destroyed from spamming and double clawing the controller for so long.
I could do it with enough time, but I don’t think I would have functioning hands afterward. I got tendinitis after speedrunning Calculator for Nintendo Switch. I’ve given blood, sweat, and tears for this channel [laughs].
With the varied content you make, what kind of setup or gear do you tend to utilize beyond the basics of a camera and mic? Anything specific you always turn to when doing a shoot or an area you recommend new creators focus on?
I wish I could show you my setup because the way I have it laid out and it somehow still functions is insane. But the main thing is audio because it is by far the most important thing for any YouTube video or stream. I mean, first you need a good idea because that is actually the most important thing, but your audio being good is the bare minimum.
I use a Shure MV7 because I personally think it is one of the best mics on the market because it is cheaper and more portable than others that I like to use like the SM7B. With that, I have an audio switcher where I can press a button and the sound goes to my speakers or to my headphones. I also have a really nice camera, but that matters less because a phone camera would work as long as your audio is good.
But the rest of my setup is where things get special because I have a bajillion cables everywhere. That is because I run capture cards through all of my consoles like the Wii U, Switch, and stuff like that—but I also have cables because I need to use them to help spoof things like my Switch controller for my computer.
I have a second computer in case things go wrong or so I can offload a stream or other programs over there and display it on Twitch since sometimes I run a lot of programs that would overload one rig. And then I have a bunch of custom stuff like this Titan Two, which lets me run code for things like Twitch Plays through consoles instead of just a PC program.
The coolest thing about all of this though? It somehow works basically every time. Every guest that comes over and sees this remarks in some way like, “how the hell does this work,” because it’s not supposed to in some cases. For example, the weirdest thing was starting to happen where my capture card would have staticky audio. And so because there was some sort of ungrounded thing in my setup, and I couldn’t figure out what it was, I just moved my capture card and it is now on the ground. It’s literally grounded and works perfectly. Patch it up and ship it out. It’s really janky but it only needs to work once right?
Speaking of BotW, you still focus a lot of your content around the game via mods, challenges, and more. Is there a specific reason you continue to come back to the game that helped you start it all? Or is it simply because you like it that much?
I do like the game that much. It is fantastic, but the thing that keeps me coming back is the ideas. If I didn’t have any ideas for BotW I’d stop fully. If I stopped having ideas tomorrow I would move on, and there have been a few times where that has happened and I go dry for a few months at a time.
If that happens and I can’t think of something I put other content out, but I keep coming back because of the innovation we can get away with in the game. We just developed the multiplayer functionality and that opens so many doors. All the ideas are flowing, maybe a little too much since I can’t put too much of the game onto the channel, or I’ll ruin my variety.
It’s still on the channel because the ideas are flowing. There are a lot of things you can do with the game, it’s crazy.
Out of all of your BotW projects, what is the one that stands out to you the most as something that, when looking back, you are extremely proud of putting out there?
I was just talking about this with one of my editors Zoey after she got done with the video, but every time a new video comes out from her or just in general on the channel I feel like I say it is my favorite. She rolls her eyes but I have to say like “I promise, the one you just made is now the new favorite.”
The next one we’re going to put out is most likely going to be my next favorite. It’s just how it kind of works because I had this revelation about 10 months ago when I started meeting a bunch of creators for the first time. Some of them were following me on Twitter and subscribing to my YouTube channel, some people who I looked up to, and I caught myself saying “I hope they watch only these videos to see my best stuff.”
Once that happened I started reflecting and asking “why wouldn’t I want them to watch all of my videos? Why am I putting the other ones out.” That made me take a step back and start working to make sure the content that I’m putting out is something I’m proud of. And now we are at the point that if a video goes out and doesn’t do well, I’m still happy it’s on the channel because I know I put the most effort into it I could. It’s the most basic thing, but why else would you put a video out? I feel like sometimes you forget that.
Going back to a broad view, but as someone who essentially has to keep scaling their content and finding new ways to challenge themselves either via new ideas or ways to involve other people, what is the hardest part of your actual creative process?
The hardest part is the idea. I don’t know how I come up with some of this stuff, but I kind of have a mind for it now after doing way too much research into what works and what doesn’t while storyboarding it in my head.
I always question if an idea is interesting and engaging. Would I click on that idea and questions like that. I don’t have a formula for this stuff outside of the fact I take a lot of showers and, I kid you not, that is where 90 percent of the ideas for the channels are from. Just in the morning taking a shower and boom, I don’t know.
The one I remember clearly is making YouTubers retake their high school exams. I just knew I wanted to do something live with my content creator friends and I wanted to make them do something they wouldn’t want to do. I just kind of think of things. I wish I had a more objective approach to it. And maybe I should in the future, but it’s more like, what sounds fun. I do put those ideas through other people’s filters, like my manager, and she will tell me if it is a good idea or not during those brainstorming sessions.
On that note, how do you actually make these challenges work on a technical level? I know you frequently collaborate with other creators or the devs behind specific mods, but on top of that, how does your setup and preparation play into your videos?
Way more than people think. A lot of people just think a streamer goes live and plays a game before stopping, but Twitch and YouTube content is like 30 percent of what I do. The other 70 percent is management, organizing ideas, and making sure things like the BotW multiplayer get done and work.
For Pokémon, we have these map randomizers that are done by myself and three developers—AtSign, XLuma, and Turtleisaac—who have helped make this really awesome tool to randomize the map and Pokémon. But we also work on other mods with only half of them actually getting finished, and then only half of those are streamed.
It is the same thing with the ideas I mentioned earlier, we have tons of them but I know we have scrapped at least 10 videos this year just because the idea wasn’t good enough to make it on the channel even if I have streamed part of it. And this is a constant thing too.
Behind the scenes, I have six employees, two different development teams, and people like a lawyer, financial advisor, CPA, and all of that stuff that never pops up in content because it is on the business side. I’m just the person in front of the camera saying things.
I wish I could leak some stuff to you, but I can’t because we have huge productions in the works where we are putting more than a quarter million dollars into just one for later this year. Those are huge productions or stuff like merchandise that takes forever, so I have other people to help manage that too. A single marketing decision or announcement can have dozens of hours put into it, and one has like 200 or 300 in it right now just to make sure it goes out fine.
So I would say 70 percent of my time is off-stream production because it’s important to work on things that are good rather than things getting out things to get for the sake of getting out things. And that is without getting into the time element for me if I was doing this all myself. The reason I got a manager in the first was to essentially pay to save time for myself right?
If you can give me an extra hour in the day to make it 25 hours a day, man, the money I would pay to just get an extra hour is insane. Time is the resource I don’t have. Well, actually money is also something I don’t have because I have so much tied up in production [laughs] but if you have any spare hours lying around your room I’ll take it.
How do you explain the cult you have created? Yes, one of your catchphrases has become telling your chat that you aren’t a cult, but do you actually believe that with how your viewers continue to show up and help in your fall into potential madness?
At this point, I think we’ve fully embraced that if you subscribe to my channel you’re part of a cult. It happens. But at least we have free dental.
For real though, it’s nice to have this community where I know people as crazy as me will watch what I put out and think it is absolutely nuts in the best way. It’s so fun, but it can also be overwhelming to see these numbers.
I have over a million subscribers and I get around a million views per video. I can’t picture a million people watching my videos or subscribing to me. So it is easy to get lost in that number, but I can’t thank people enough for it.
On the other hand, I just love going live because I have this awesome audience who interacts with everything. It is fun for me to see the shock and awe when I can show them something like the BotW stream where the game gets weirder with stacking mods when I take damage. And then, when we announced we got multiplayer working in the game, those reactions make everything worth it.
Just seeing people laugh, people have fun, it makes me smile. I can feel the energy when people are having a good time and that’s what really sells it. So I really love my audience for that reason, because they’ll just go along with it, you know, they’ll just have fun with whatever I put out.
Is there one project you have on your mind that you are just waiting for the right moment to pull out and get cracking on? Or is it just kind of a “follow the idea that suits you when it comes up” kind of creative process for you?
Well, I can’t leak anything, because I have so much money and effort going into these things [laughs]. It is going to be over a quarter million dollars going in, and I know other creators have had this idea in the past, so marketing it now might open the door for someone to step in and do it first somehow. Not a fun feeling.
Just in general, I want to do more with big budgets even when I am limited. The YouTubers taking their SATs video cost somewhere around $10,000 but it made sense because it works out that it would eventually make that much. But then you have stuff like me sitting and watching ice melt for 10 hours that cost like $300 to deliver the ice.
In simple terms, we have two productions coming later this year that will be split to cost around $100,000 and $250,000 each. These are only funded because I’m not making any money this year, I’m taking all the profits, every single dollar I earned this year, and putting it just back into content. Just reinvesting in the channel. That subathon that got me to the 16th most subbed streamer ever? All of it went into the projects.
