(Photo courtesy of Anthony Silva): Freshman Anthony Silva sits in his streaming setup next to his Blue Yeti microphone. Silva streams daily for 3 hours through his Twitch account “SmallS1lva1”.
Silva triumphs over streaming setback with supportive community
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Freshman Anthony Silva carefully connects his microphone, PC, and cameras to set them up perfectly for the stream. Suddenly, a viewer pops in. Then two more arrive and soon, a flood of viewers are watching his stream, putting a grin on Silva’s face.
Silva began his streaming journey by playing “Rocket League”, a vehicular soccer video game, on May 29. Soon after, he would switch to various genres, such as third-person shooters and horror video games. Although Silva was nervous, he was filled with excitement when beginning his channel on Twitch, after growing his audience on YouTube.
“I really loved the streams of ‘TimTheTatman’,” Silva said. “I saw them and was amazed by the number of viewers he had. That made me want to get to that level in the future.”
Recently, Silva lost his account due to age policies on Twitch, forcing him to make a new one. He lost over 700 followers and all of the progress he worked for went down the drain. A feeling of despair engulfed Silva.
“I was really upset and it was devastating,” Silva said. “I didn’t know what to do, but I needed to find a way to reach my community. I needed to do something with so many passionate people supporting me.”
Hopeful, Silva did not give up knowing his viewers would continue to support him. He started a new account @”SmallS1lva1”, where he streamed daily, and informed his previous viewers. This helped him stay connected since Silva’s supporters are his primary motivation to release content to show his appreciation. He does so by replying to comments and giving shoutouts to their Twitch channels during streams.
“My followers mean the world to me because they take time out of their day to be with me and they motivate me to keep pushing on,” Silva said. “Because of that, I realized this would be a new opportunity for me and the viewers who actually care about my streams will continue to watch me.”
Thriving more than ever, Silva amassed over 100 followers, continues to earn money, and participates in the e-sports group Team Hitmen. In the future, Silva would love to make streaming into an official career.
“I am proud of how much I’ve grown in the past months,” Silva said. “I put a lot of time and effort into streaming and it’s very nice to see the progress paying off.”
