Streamer Spotlight: Lachlie
Twitch may have originated in the US, but it’s a global platform with streamers and teams worldwide. Lachlie, along with fellow Aussie rat_emoji, have just set up Aussie Pride as a brand new stream team to celebrate and support LGBTQ+ streamers on the far side of the world.
Though small so far, the team is already forming a tight network of streamers and allies with charity work in their sights. But Lachlie brings his own considerable following to the table too, through the friendships he’s found online.
Read on to find out more!
When and why did you start streaming?
I started streaming in August of last year. I had a few friends who were streaming, so I thought I’d give it a go and see if I enjoyed it. I eventually started building a community and especially at the beginning of this year I found so many people who were returning to my stream and it inspired me to meet new people. And that’s the main reason why I did it: to meet new people, talk to them, make new friendships, but also to entertain people.
What games do you prefer to stream?
I definitely change games a lot but at the moment it’s a lot of Dead By Daylight, Overwatch, Among Us. I stream Just Chatting every now and then just to talk to people. It depends on game releases too, when Pokémon came out I played that for a hot minute. Definitely a bit of everything!
Do you find your viewers change based on the games you play?
Yes, I guess I have certain people in my community who come to whatever stream they can, but I have some people who can’t watch my Dead By Daylight streams because they hate horror! So it all depends. I think Just Chatting is best to interact with people because I’m talking straight to them rather than commentating on games.
What can people expect from your stream?
An unorganised mess! A lot of people comment on me being Australian, and I know it’s not a unique feature but it’s less common to see an LGBTQ+ Australian streamer compared to how many LGBTQ+ streamers there are [globally], so I guess that’s a surprise to a lot of people. I’ve found that my personality has changed over the past year and I’ve got a lot more confident. I guess I’m a clown and people like to laugh at me and I like to laugh with them. To be a mess, but an entertaining mess!
Why was it important for you to set up the Aussie Pride Team?
It started earlier this month, I started it with another streamer: rat_emoji. When my viewership was rising and I could see potential Partner on the horizon, I started thinking about ‘oh I don’t see a bunch of Aussie LGBTQ+ streamers’. I was so interested in making a team of people just from this community, a spot for all of us to talk and hang out and for people to find a bunch of us. That was the premise behind the creation of the team.
Personally I don’t really know many partnered LGBT Australian streamers. When I got Partner I found myself fortunate enough to have the platform and ability to make this community even though it’s small. And everyone who joined it has been happy to join, it’s been fun!
How will the team support its streamers?
I have been inspired by other teams, especially Rainbow Arcade and how they do charity events and fundraising and highlighting their streamers. Just really focusing on the team and the members, really making it a platform to highlight people and charities and to work together to do something good that may inspire others. I really want to focus on highlighting these streamers and getting them the recognition that all of them deserve. I feel like it can be a difficult market and I think that Aussies need to be more seen!
Is Twitch popular in Australia?
From my point of view, I think Twitch is popular in Australia but not too much in the LGBTQ community. I think all the big Aussie streamers aren’t in the LGBTQ community – they’ve been successful and I’m extremely happy there are Australian streamers who have been successful, but I’d say it’s not so much the LGBTQ community. There are definitely successful streamers who are LGBT who I know and I’m friends with, but compared to the big streamers here, the gap is quite large from what I see.
Until Aussie Pride starts!
Yes hopefully working with rat_emoji we can help continue building this and finding more streamers and build a nice little family!
The team is also inclusive of allies – why did you choose to include them?
This is something that we both thought about when creating the team and thinking of who we’d love to join. We have so many incredible friends who are such great supporters of the LGBTQ community that we’ve gotten help from these people in terms of growing our own channels, or helping find other channels that are LGBTQ. And we wanted to include the close allies, the ones we consider to be part of our family even though they don’t identify as LGBT. I know there are conflicting thoughts on this, not just Aussie Pride but allies in general. We just wanted to have a space for them as well, if they felt comfortable and if other members felt comfortable. We always check everyone is comfortable with what happens and who’s part of the team.
How do you find being an out LGBT streamer?
Personally I consider myself to be fortunate enough to not experience too much negativity in my streams. I know it’s not the same for many other people. I’ve very rarely had trolls come in or homophobic people come in, if they do I just kick them out. It’s easy enough for me to do that. The amount of times I’ve had people come into my stream and tell me that because of me they’ve come out to their family or told their best friend or accepted it for themselves is incredible and it makes me so proud. I feel like I’ve helped someone, to see that happen makes me very happy. I know there’s many people that have had that happen and that’s an excellent side of Twitch, or just in social media in general. But Twitch is such a personal one-on-one, especially with smaller streamers, where the streamer can talk to viewers and make those connections and friendships. It’s such a great platform for that reason.
What’s your main goal personally as a streamer for the future?
I want to go into 2021 really trying to keep pushing my Twitch channel and keep making new friends. Even people I’ve met in the past few months have been so incredible and I just want to keep building a community and, it sounds cringe, but keep inspiring people to be themselves. Keep having fun! When the entire team has built more of this presence and community in the Aussie LGBTQ streaming community, I’d love to be able to connect with other teams out there and work together on events or fundraising – that’s really a goal team-wise.
What’s the best thing about being a streamer?
This answer’s probably changed a bunch for me. But for me it’s been meeting all these new friends. I’ve made so many new friends just through Twitch that my life would be so different right now if I’d never started Twitch. I wouldn’t have made these friends that I spend literally every night talking to, playing games, connecting with. So my answer is community and friendships.
What advice would you give to gaymers wanting to start streaming?
Just do it! My confidence has built just through streaming. Obviously Twitch can take a lot of preparation – mentally and software-wise. The best thing is just to do it, give it a shot. And persist! There will be hurdles along the way but just push through it and remember that it’s hard to see numbers after a stream. After a stream it’s all numbers numbers numbers but I started really enjoying streaming when I ignored those numbers. I turned the live viewing count off and I just talked, played games, and streamed just to have fun. It’s so important to just be yourself, don’t put on a facade of someone who’s entertaining, just be you and be fun.
What’s the game that got you into gaming?
The earliest game I can remember playing is probably Ratchet and Clank on the PS2. And I played that non-stop as a kid! I think that’s what developed my love for gaming, even though I don’t play on PlayStation or Xbox, I don’t play on those consoles anymore. It definitely sparked the joy in video games. And then I moved to Nintendo and that’s when everything was like ‘oh Nintendo! Pokémon!’.
What’s the game you’ve enjoyed the most this year?
Easy, Breath of the Wild! Either that or Animal Crossing. I got Breath of the Wild last year, I originally hated it as I thought it was too complicated. But I got stuck into it and streamed it just when lockdown happened in March and I sunk too many hours into that game! I streamed the entire playthrough, I had so many new people come into my stream just for Breath of the Wild alone. That really helped me out. I think it’s just a gorgeous game, I’m very excited about the sequel coming out next year!
To find out more about Lachlie, catch him streaming on his Twitch channel.
Streamer Spotlight is a weekly column from Ed Nightingale about highlighting LGBT+ streamers who are creating communities that are diverse and progressive.
