Stream your Future
So, yeah. You want to pursue a great career in gaming, Streaming League of Legends. What a great way to start your journey with Twitch and all the tools that it provides for you to start earning great amounts of money in so little time. While you are playing the video games you love, with the safety that your house provides. Some of “regular” working friends may feel jealous and some members of your family may not “understand. But when they see the amount of income they may start feeling happy about you.
Now, this type of “gaming career” is still too young. There is no actual assurance of their reliability when you get old. Not like a regular “job” where your office is your second home and you are safe. As long you follow the rules and continue with the “never-ending” working flow. But just like any other “new waves” of earning money (bitcoin for example) it can be exploited and produce savings for your future.
League of Legends is one of those games that keeps getting a large community of viewers on Twitch. It rarely drops below “top 5” which kind of means two things: One, you got a lot of competition for Streaming League of Legends. But (this is a huge BUT), if you succeed; well you can gain a lot of income every day.
Without further due, let’s get started or we better say, Let’s get streaming!
Hardware Required for Streaming League of Legends
If you want to have the greatest top-notch technology for streaming, depends on you. But for Streaming League of Legends, the required hardware is not that much demanding. Just remember that you are going to stream the same resolution you’re seeing to everyone else, so its recommendable that you have a Hardware that can sustain 1080p. There’s also the thing you have to look about is quality. Usually, the best know streams show all the high settings activated in the game. To be more precise, let’s check the important parts that you need to notice when you’re building the ideal Streaming PC.
CPU and the Required Motherboard:
These two components usually are combined in a combo. Its recommendable that you get at least the latest generation of I5 (or Ryzen 6 equivalent). This is the most important part of your computer and it needs to be fast. Remember that while you’re running the game, the streaming process takes place and it requires a good amount of power. Anything higher than an I5 (I7 for example) can help you in running more programs in the background.
Memory (RAM):
It’s crucial that you have at least 8Gbs of Ram with an excellent “bus” speed (at least 2133). The RAM is required to keep the game and stream going. Since Streaming League of Legends requires loading one single ma
p (most of the time), having more than 16 isn’t needed. Higher “bus speed” can help, but you still have to wait for other 9 players to load. So it means that you don’t have control for the loading times.
Storage:
It’s recommendable that you acquire a mix between a Solid State Drive (SSD) and a Mechanical Hard Disc Drive (HDD). The SSD is advisable that you use for the O/S (operating system, Windows for example), the game and the required streaming programs. For the HDD you can store the captured videos of your stream for personal review, or for editing if you’re on Youtube or something similar.
Video Card:
This component is probably the most difficult to narrow. There are too many models and the prices can change quickly. But in the end, it comes to personal preference. ATI cards are cheaper but Nvidia cards are more “reliable” when it comes to driver support. The other thing to take into consideration is the resolution you want to stream with. The higher the resolution; the higher the amount of RAM needed in the video card.
Gaming keyboard and mouse:
These kinds of hardware even though it’s more expensive than the “regular” ones, it’s highly recommendable that you acquire the “gaming” version. Especially while Streaming League of Legends. Why you may ask? Because of the material these components are made, they can last longer than usual. For example, a “normal” mouse can easily break in two weeks or less while playing. The amount of clicks you do while gaming is too higher than their usual purpose and some buttons may stop working properly.
Two monitors:
“Two monitors?! Are you serious?!” Well, yeah. You see its advisable that you keep “in touch” with your audience. And there is no better way than keeping an eye of your “Twitch Chat” all the time. That’s why the “Two Monitors” thingy comes into play. Now, I know that some of the streamers use their cell phones to keep track of their chat, but with a cell phone kind of makes things a bit complicated. You have to activate your phone, load the app and/or wait for it to connect just to see the last messages (tedious huh?). With another monitor, you always have the chat activated, and enough room to see every “constructive comments” from your viewers. The second monitor can be used as well to check your own stream to see if everything is going well.
Make your own Rig
After all those tips to consider when you acquire the right hardware, you’ll probably think that it may be too expensive. And well, it might be. Just for the “tower” (where every crucial component goes in, like the CPU), you may have to expend at least $750. Like I say, the prices can vary and sometimes you may even find used parts for less cash. The other components can raise the amount to a possible $1000, and yeah it looks like a lot. But well, this thing is going to be your gold mine and it needs to be capable of giving a great performance. Plus, a good longevity for it to last for a couple of years.
Software Required
Besides having the Operating System and the game of League of Legends installed on your hard drive. There are some other tools that can help you to achieve the beloved streaming process. After you already setup your Twitch and/or Youtube accounts, you require a program to capture your games or anything else on your desktop. In this article, we are going to check some of the most popular programs for streaming and it’s up to you to decide which one suits you best for your needs.
OBS Studio:
One program that is a free and open source for streaming is this amazing tool. The only downside is that requires a little bit of time to set things up, but once you got it running, nothing will stop you. It can be installed on Windows, Mac or Linux which makes the O/S free for you to choose. The other plus side is that its updated regularly for better performance and can be set up to stream in different web pages at the same time (Twitch, Youtube, Facebook, etc.).
Streamlabs OBS:
This is another amazing tool for streaming. Like the OBS Studio, it can be installed on any O/S and set up on different websites. This is a great option for starters in this particular part of the internet because of its interface and automatic optimization. This comes with a price because it lacks some of the options that OBS Studio has which can make your custom content a little bit tedious. But if your main focus is just streaming, look no further.
Nvidia Shadowplay:
This program already comes with the updated driver for your Video Card. It’s really simple and with a couple of clicks, you’re good to go. It’s less demanding than the other streaming programs and can easily capture any gameplay. The downsides can be easily spotted when you want to stream anything else apart from the game. Due to its simplicity, this program cannot capture anything beyond the game or if you go to desktop it may get a little weird. Another problem is that it lacks streaming websites to set up and lacks customization for your streaming (overlays for example). Another “problem” comes from the source of the program, this means that if you bought an ATI Video Card, you won’t be able to use it. For those cards though, they have the option to install Radeon ReLive instead.
Whatever you prefer, these programs can help you in setting up your streaming and get it running. I advise though, that you try these programs as the mentioned order. If you find the program that you installed somehow complicated, then move down to next… and so on.
Internet Speed Required
This part is a little bit tricky because the number that you have to focus on is the upload speed. It doesn’t matter if you have a terrific (I mean really fast) Download Speed in your Internet connection if the upload speed is atrocious. To give you one example, you need at least 5mb/s upload speed to set up a “decent” stream. By decent this can mean a stream with a resolution of 720p and 30 fps. If you want to stream with a resolution of 1080p and 60fps, you’re going to need a very fast upload speed to keep all the details online.
The other thing to have in mind is that if you share this Internet Connection with some other people, well you have to make sure they don’t use too much bandwidth or your stream is going to suffer. Luckily Streaming League of Legends doesn’t require too much detail to keep everything in track. Is not like fighting games were they need to have a constant 60fps gameplay in order to see all the correct animations. If you can afford a powerful Internet speed, go for it. But remember that League has short periods of updates and with 30fps still can be seen “fine”.
Average Time Needed to Stream
It all depends on you and how much time you can share with the “people out there” over the Internet. Just remember that its better quality over quantity. I have seen streamers that turn on their channels after work in their free time. Other people try to stream as much as they can and sometimes even brake their “records” by streaming more than 24 hours straight.
Whether you get the chance to stream four hours or even eight hours in a single session, keep in mind that you need to keep the stream entertained and full attention on your chat. The only thing that can be really important in this subject, is that you need to be constant. Keep one schedule for your streams and try to respect the indicated hours as much as you can. People will try to remember the hours that you’re available online and create a routine with your stream.
The Streamers Personality
Talkative:
Comfortable for some and loathsome for others, its recommendable that you talk almost all of the time when you’re streaming. It may feel a little awkward at first. But the more you pass the time streaming, the more insignificant It’ll get. One way to ease this important “chore” is to play with a party of friends. Where most of the time, they are filling the conversation gap instead of you. Either that or answering inquiries from your viewing population, your voice needs to be known by anyone in your stream.
Friendly:
All the audience of your stream needs to feel that they gain one “friend” when they see you streaming. There’s no need to work hard on this point, just “be yourself” and you’ll attract some type of people that feel related to your emotions. Let’s be honest here, this type of website will only appeal to video gamers, nothing else. In other words, talking about video games (especially about League of Legends if you want to focus only on this game) will be pleasant to all your viewers. Just give your point of view on anything related to this topic and be open-minded to any critics.
Tolerant:
Well, talking about critics and now this shows up (Yeah, I know). This is probably the hardest part for any streaming video gamer. We all hate to lose, especially on that video game that we devote a lot of time to become some kind of expert. But when the inevitable comes and you lose a match, it hits you hard. Now you don’t just lose a game like before, but now you have one audience reviewing every mistake you made and even laughing at them.
Insults may come and go, not only by your teammates in League of Legends but also from your own viewers. It’s up to you to keep the “cool” and ask for respect if things are going out of line. Some streamers at this point shut down the video or mute their microphones to have “liberty of speech”. Either the case, you have to find a way to release the anger before it gets worse.
Respectful:
We all have been in this situation when some teammate or a random person over the Internet tries to be “funny” or “smart” and writes/says some harmful comments. It’s in our right (or sometimes or duty) to answer back with so much fury that you release all the anger within. Yeah, it feels great afterward, but when your streaming… Some things have to change. I know that isn’t fair, but remember that this is the Internet. Whatever you say maybe distorted to some people’s convenience. This means that if you treat someone somewhat “insulting” it may come back and haunt you in the future.
Streamers have been banned for a couple of days/months because they “exploded” to another player online. So, in order to avoid anything related to this, let it go. Mute the mic from the stream if you want to bent some stored anger. On the other hand, being nice and respectful to others can give you a lot of points over the Internet and give you a great image to anyone that watches your streams.
Funny:
Some little jokes from time to time can help you boost your viewers really quick. Sometimes being funny doesn’t come naturally to some of us. But the more you stream, the more comfortable you become towards your viewers and the jokes just come easily. Another way to get better at this, is to do the same thing as before, bring some friends and joke with each other. Some teasing jokes can be shared with your friends from time to time. Your friends know that your intentions are not mean or harmful towards them, which won’t turn back on you later on.
Things to be aware off before you start streaming
Watch some streams:
Before you start on this journey about Streaming League of Legends. Look out for something that streamers do to keep their viewers entertained. Do they joke around too much? Or do they start making amazing plays that somehow work and makes them win the match? What type of words do they use? How do they react when things get tough? Keep track of those moments and learn from their mistakes. Look for those common things that people enjoy about the streamer and how can you make it better.
Setup your account:
In case you haven’t done this right now. Go spend some time in setting up everything that needs to be filled on your Twitch account. At the same time, look for your profile and try to make it unique. Place some images that can identify you and appeal to the community. It’s recommendable that you get everything set up before continuing further, your image is the most important thing.
Twitch Partner Program:
This is a special program that Twitch can offer to all their users. When your stream gets famous enough, you’ll be able to apply for this program and earn a lot more income than before. The requirements for it though are somewhat difficult. Which are the following: First you need an average concurrent viewership of at least 500. Second, you need a regular broadcast schedule of a least three times a week. For the last part, you need to agree in some “legal” forms in order to keep things in order with Twitch.
Dashboard
Like the bits about the Twitch account, fill anything you can add on the Dashboard. In this part of your little “website”, you can place some Ads if you have some contracts with other companies. The other thing that can help you from the start is to place some links for donations. In the first months of your Streaming life, donations are going to be your one and only income, until you start to get some fans and your stream gets more famous. Besides Ads and donations, you can also add these elements to your dashboard:
Short Q&A about yourself:
Add something like 10 questions and answers about yourself. Usually, write those questions that everyone does to you the first time you met them. Something general but at the same time questions that can distinguish you from the rest.
Chat Rules:
In this part, you can write those rules that you want anyone of your viewers to follow from your Twitch Chat. Placing clearly those rules on your dashboard means that if someone crosses the line, is their own fault. You can set what languages you want on your chat, how anyone should treat others, etc.
Schedule:
No rocket science here. Just write the days and hours that you will be streaming for the week. In this part, you have to be concise and respect with your schedule as much as you can. Depending on your free time, you can stream from 4 hours to 8 hours daily.
Computer Hardware:
Depending on what “rig” you got for streaming, in this place you can write all those amazing parts that compose your computer. This can help your viewers to build the same computer you have and get the same performance as you do when they play your games or try to stream themselves.
External Links:
Here you can add different social media links that you have. For example, Twitter and/or Instagram. You can also place some ads or donations links in this area.
Honorable Mentions:
For this part, you can write the Twitch accounts from those viewers that have shown support for your stream. Place a “top 5” for those people that give the highest amount of donations and later on, the longest subscriptions.
Subscriber Benefits:
Take a deep thought before writing this part, because everything that is in here you need to comply exactly as you write it. When you get the chance to be a Twitch Partner, you’ll get some benefits that can make your stream a lot better. For example, you get to add custom Emotes that represent stuff you like or memes about yourself. Other cool stuff to add here is having once in a while some custom games with your viewers and get to know them much more in the process.
Twitch Chat
Sometimes one informative place to anyone that is new to the game, other times just a place full of random stuff that most of the time shows insulting stuff that no one wants to see. Well, either a blessing or a curse is a good part of the streaming community. The contents on the Twitch Chat depend on you and only you. With the tools that Twitch can give you, there are options to censure some unwanted words or even phrases. You can even change the time of your viewer’s replies to prevent any spamming.
This part of the Internet is probably the more complicated for any streamer. You see, when people aren’t showing their real names or faces, they tend to be more “liberal”. Some people only need a little bit or fuel and they burn everything they can. Giving you the need to stop them before things get worse.
Keep the control
This may seem a little bit “terrific” but don’t worry, you can control it for your convenience. Look at the Twitch Chat as a little kid that is starting to go to school. This “Kids” are new in this different environment and will try to act or copy as the others do. This means that if you want some respect in your chat, you need to endorse it from the beginning. Likewise, if you want only chaos in your chat, you can allow anything without caring for its contents. Whatever you want for your Twitch Chat, is crucial that you ask for respect (or lack off) to your first viewers and they’ll help you mold the people that comes afterward.
Help from others
There is another tool that can help you in controlling any annoying comments from you Twitch Chat is to have some help from another people. This comes in the form of “Mods” which means that some of your viewers will have some privileges above others. They can temporally mute one unwanted “guest” or even permanently ban them from ever posting a single letter on your beloved chat.
How to succeed in that place
Now you really want to start earning money as soon as possible. But on the first months, you may feel that everything is going a little bit slow. People come and go, but rarely someone stays for more than one occasion. Well, to help you in getting some success on Twitch, here are some interesting points to look for in order to gain more viewers (for that Twitch Partnership) and great revenue.
Being a Mod:
Before you start your adventure with your own Twitch channel, it may be useful to be a Moderator is someone else’s channel. The better you are at it, streamers with more prestige may want to be part of their personnel to keep the Twitch Chat from become a total chaos. At the same time, you can ask from those streamers you work with to “host” your channel. This means that all their viewers that are currently present when the “popular” streamer goes offline, pass down to you. Depending on the streamer you’re working with, the more viewers you can easily get on that “special” occasion. The last thing for you to do is to win them over with your charming skills. When you have one stable streaming channel, you can forget about being a moderator ever again.
Being Unique:
Some streamers can easily win over lots of viewers just by being unique. There have been lots of cases were one person with fake wigs or some funny looking hat have become famous on Twitch in just a couple of weeks. There is even one particular case was the streamer had a motion capture program and instead of being him on the web camera, there was a 3D modeled dog that copied every single movement that he made with his face. Peculiar examples like that come and go in the world of Twitch, and who knows, maybe you can come up with one brilliant idea and get viewers ASAP.
Being Lucky:
This defies everything that is possible and somewhat impossible on Twitch. Streaming like usual, some new people got “raided” (just like being hosted) by a famous streamer without any consent. In a couple of minutes, their follower count went up the roof and received lots of donations from the new viewers. This rarely happens today, and more than once people can handle the number of viewers and the chaos from their Twitch Chat. Which in return, creates more conflict in the Twitch community instead of being grateful for the opportunity.
Being a Pro player:
This is probably the easier way to get to the top in any kind of video game on Twitch. This doesn’t mean that you need to win a tournament like “League of Legends Worlds” or something similar. But, it can mean that you need to be in a really higher rank (diamond o master for example). Even though is somehow difficult to achieve but once you get there, streaming will be a lot better. At the same time, all your games will be a lot interesting and there may be great moments between them.
Sub Goals and/or Giveaways:
This is kind of expensive but gives a lot of success to attract new viewers for your streams. You can start by giving some League of Legends skins (especially the new ones) when your “following number” reaches a certain point. For example, “One new skin when I reach 250 followers”. Twitch has some amazing tools to pick one of your viewers at random with certain characteristics (like if he/she follows your channel) and pick the winner with ease. After a great number of followers can give you the amazing Twitch Partnership, you can change the requirements for “subscriber number”. The more you do this kind of things, and the better the prices; the more people will be attracted to your channel. As I said, this may be a little expensive at first, but it helps you in the long run.
What people really want to see in League of Legends
There are some elements in the League of Legends game that raise more attention than other stuff. For example, what roles are more enthralling than others? Or What modes are more attractive than others? To respond to these questions, here are some suggestions to consider when you start Streaming League of Legends:
Roles to Play
In this point, I’ll place the roles that you can pick in League of Legends from best to worse. It doesn’t really mean that you should never pick that position ever, but there are some elements of the game that just are built that way. Some roles are more thrilling than others, and they get the “victory” almost all of the time in your matches. Without further due, here are the rankings of the roles in League of Legends:
- Carry: Yeah, this is the most engaging role in the game. Like any other MOBA, the carry starts slowly in the first minutes. But once you get the gold and nice equipment, you’re good to go. The messages on the screen and the sounds from the announcer react to almost everything you do in the match. You get the kills and the flashy plays that everyone seems to admire.
- Mid: This role is probably the greatest to play when you’re streaming. Not only gives you the freedom to move around the lanes for some kills but also gives you an important role later in the game. Being a Mid Player makes you automatically the key player from your team. You get to decide what elements of your team need your support and what enemies need to be taken care off. Some of the streamers that fix this role in their matches tend to carry a lot of knowledge of the game. Which attracts new players and other people that want to step up their game.
- Jungle/Top: Both of these roles are equally important in any match of League of Legends. They both start slow, killing minions or monsters. But tend to create killing opportunities once they have some abilities or equipment ready. They aren’t that much exiting as a carry or mid and sometimes tend to fall in the later game.
- Support: Being one of the vital parts of any match, they should be at the top of every list. Sadly, this is not the case. Not only when you’re Streaming League of Legends, but also in every MOBA out there. At first, you’re the guardian of you carry. Keeping him/her of any hard and producing fights if is required. But you can’t do anything by yourself. If you leave the lane, it may be bad for your carry. Which can give you a quick defeat and some “blessings” from your teammates.
This comparison cannot be 100% accurate in League of Legends. Especially in a game that has a lot of updates that can easily change the way that a lane behaves. But it tends to have this kind of tendency that has been with us for more than a couple of years. If your dream is to become the famous streaming support player out there, don’t let this stop you. Sadly, though, you need to have a lot of experience in being a greater support if you want to catch a lot of attention.
Modes to play
There are a lot of custom maps that can appear from time to time in the interface of League of Legends. They can be good or bad, but they bring something new on the table. Sadly, all those maps aren’t that amazing to keep your Stream alive. It may be amazing to try with some friends the new maps and try to beat the hardest difficulties, but the fun may last a couple of hours.
For Streaming League of Legends, there is nothing better than the traditional “Summoner’s Rift”, there is a reason why after so many matches we haven’t got tired of it. We know that every time we load that map, something else is going to happen and make it all different. Different champion’s compositions and player’s performances tend to keep this map alive. In the streaming world, this has no difference. People keep seeing different tournaments every year on the same map and never fails to entertain us. In other words, stick with the traditional map on this one, it never fails to amaze.
Conclusion
It may not be the easiest or the cheapest thing to do right now on the Internet. But if you take some time to plan every step meticulously, there are higher chances that you’ll be able to succeed on Twitch. Either by a bit of luck or showing out of this world gameplay. The amount of revenue that you may have by Streaming League of Legends can be too generous for your pocket. Just remember to write every little detail that you can place on your dashboard, respect your schedule, have the right attitude and learn from other streamers as well. But above all, enjoy every single part of the ride. If you feel that League of Legends is a lot changeling and fun, why not showing your experience to others as well? And earn some extra cash by doing the things you like.
For Further Information about League of Legends, you can read these amazing articles:
How to Master a Champion in League of Legends