🌸🌱 Embrace ANZ’s Blossoming Talents with DreamHack’s Blooming Creators! 🌱🌸
With spring in full swing across Australia, we venture into the world of emerging talents featured in our Spring Showcase. 🌼🌟
Say hello to MissCanon’s domain, where chaos and coziness unite. She’s a true-blue nugget enthusiast, proudly reps the Xbox Game Pass as an Ambassador, carries the flag for Ubisoft as a Content Creator, and fights the good fight for Game on Cancer. Her journey kicked off with Destiny in 2014, and then, armed with a hand-me-down 980PC, she was streaming by 2017. You may have seen her light up DreamHack’s streaming studio just this year. MissCanon is all about mixing things up with her streams, creating a space filled with laughter and genuine vibes.
We’ve been lucky to pick her brain with a bunch of questions. But now, the spotlight’s on you, MissCanon! 🌷
How did you first get into gaming and streaming?
Way back in 2014 I was massively into Destiny and it consumed my life like most 😃. I one day stumbled across twitch as I was looking for groups to complete the VoG raids with and found an amazing community that were happy to take people through on raid runs. Fast forward 2 years and I was still enjoying myself and the people I had surrounded myself with and they started encouraging me to try streaming myself, back then I had one of the all-in-one PC’s and when I say it chugged along like a little engine that could, it DID! From there i managed to get my hands on a second hand 980PC (Which I still have and runs my cooking streams! ) and thus flourished my soft launch of streaming in 2017!
Could you describe your streaming style?
My streaming style has transformed over the years but I’m happily a variety streamer, I can ever stick to one game or style. My community best describes our space as cozy-chaos . If we’re cooking, gaming, talking, we’re ALWAYS laughing. No topic is off the cards when we talk, no one has a right or wrong opinion we keep it real, honest and true to ourselves.
What obstacles have you faced along the way, and how have you worked to overcome them and grow your channel?
Starting out can be hard, but being yourself is important. As humans, we can generally tell if someone isn’t being their genuine selves, so keeping your core values as a person is important and hold yourself accountable to them! Never let anyone change you. The online world is a large place and it’s easy to get lost along the way and burnout is REAL. I was always so scared to take breaks from streaming, you always heard that people lost their communities if you took time away, but thankfully we’re in a space now where self care is SO important and those that truly matter in your community will understand and always be there for you. Only recently have I really focused on myself and my own content and my own mental health and it was the best decision I ever made in my space. I decided that 2021-2022 was the year I was going to put myself out there and take leaps into opportunities I thought I would never get and now I’m doing things I had never dreamed of. Take a leap! It never hurts to try!
How do you interact with your viewers and foster a positive and engaging community on your channel?
Interaction is CURCIAL for a streamer to build a community. Just think about how you like to be greeted when you enter a new streamers channel and foster that in your own streams. In our community we greet anyone who comes through, ask then a random question and make them feel welcome where we can and see if we can include them in our current topic of conversation.
A tip from me: I like to do a pronoun check with new people, that then gives me a chance to alter their name in mod view on twitch , I’ll quickly add a note to reminder me who/where they came from for next time( it works kind of like a cheat sheet for streamers).
Always say hello to those new followers, even if they don’t reply in chat, those people may end up lurking for hours, might be your next sponsor or brand deal , you don’t know who you are truly interacting with, so treat people with kindness , have a laugh and be yourself.
What are your aspirations for your gaming streaming channel?
Next year for the channel I’m getting back into cooking streams when we have a new gaming PC come through, the current one will migrate to the kitchen space! I Love to cook and people enjoy watching the crazy that can happen, coming into berry season I have a lot of jam’s to make
Its a nice change of pace, currently were getting ready for more IRL streams as we transform our back yard come summer time.
In the gaming space I’m going to venture into more bigger AAA titles on the Game on Cancer Twitch channel as I recently took on a new role of Streaming Coordinator. Starfield is about to consume my Sep/October and I’m SO very excited for what’s to come! (Sorry, no spoilers here!)
On my own personal space we’re currently addicted to Palia , I’m hoping this is a new MMO that keeps me entangled for quite some time as it has stunning potential to flourish in the cosy game space.
Can you share a standout or memorable gaming moment from your streaming journey so far?
In 2022 we saw the Birth and death of snapcam (RIP) and the ever illusive @CornBoiiii – (Twitter) . This was one of the most hilarious segments that our channel had for quite some time. Just me as a corn?! Being a free kernel. You’ll have to search the Vod’s for that though, I wouldn’t want to ruin the hilarity. If anyone ever knows how to get the original corn snap filter back, please get in touch hahaha
How do you manage your time between streaming, personal commitments, and possibly work or studies?
The work/life/streaming balance is an act all in its own right. In my work life I’m a Disability support worker who does the night run (10pm-6am) week on/off. My streaming schedule is 3-7pm mon/wed/Friday and I volunteer for Game on Cancer & stream + stream on their twitch as well.
Busy huh??
Being good at scheduling is a must but so Is downtime. For me, I turn my brain off on weekends or I’ll hit burn out. I’ll spend a Sunday afternoon for 3-4 hrs doing my week forward schedule, my VoD thumbnails, checking emails for the coming week in games or commitments I’ve promised to. I’ve found over the years that you really need IRL time and I personally will cancel stream plans to make time for my partner, family and friends without and guilt as its a core value of my own that IRL things will always come first before streaming. I’m surrounded by the best mods and community in terms of short notice schedule changes, they fortunately understand and will always turn up next stream.
Have you collaborated with other streamers or content creators?
Collaborations can be fun and they can be a disaster, I’ve had my share of both!
You can go into a collab with another streamer , you mesh well, make jokes, plan a stream but on D-Day you don’t realise that they don’t have the same streamer etiquette as you and you get uncomfortable and everything goes down hill from there. The biggest things I learnt from those interactions though was what I expected from myself and what I expected from others in my own space. I’ll set out what I expect from others now, DM them so we’re on the same page with etiquette and I don’t mean that in a self absorbed way, just so that both our spaces and streams are respected and neither party feels overwhelmed, obligated or uncomfortable. I find it easier to collab with person on their stream and actually not stream myself, so I can give them all my attention, speak when spoken to or make a joke at the right time.
Could you share some details about your streaming setup and the tech you use to ensure a smooth and high-quality stream?
My streaming set up: I run a boiled potato that cries when I stream HAHAHA
I built my first custom PC back in 2019 not really knowing what I needed and I was on a budget of $1300. I used parts from my old PC and built a 1060 which I’m still using , gaming and streaming from! I’m low-key proud its still turning on after the torment I’ve put it through since its conception. I’m a lover of white peripherals, white corsair keyboard, white G502+ mouse, white G733’s x2 , white Samsung monitor, white PC case ,ram, fan etc .
It might not be high quality, but it’ll get the job done!
How important do you think it is for streamers to give back to their community and beyond?
Outside of own stream, I spend a lot of time with the crew at Game on Cancer. I joined the team in early 2022 as a streaming & gaming assistant along with Shane, Morgan, Cameron and Shannon learning about Superhero Streamers and Holiday spectacular, there’s a fair chance we’ve hit up a lot of your DM’s before I streamed a few times for Game on Cancer before I joined them as Cancer research is always something I’ve been involved in outside of streaming and once I learnt that I could collide worlds, I went for it! I’ll shamelessly do anything (within reason ) for a charity stream!
(Shameless plug incoming) If You’ve ever wanted to get involved, please reach out to us on twitter and join the fun!
Running a charity stream for the first time is hard. Its a whole new experience and can be overwhelming . New alerts, new interactions, knowing about the charity you’re advocating for etc is a lot on a streamer. Even for a seasoned streamer it can still be a lot to organise, the new Twitch feature for charity fundraising has been a real game changer but I’d still encourage to research who/where you’re raising funds for.
As a viewer, If you’re ever in a charity stream please remember that while it can be exciting and loads of fun, its also a lot on the streamer, so be kind & be patient while they’re doing things behind the scenes ❤
Big thanks to MissCanon for taking the time to talk to us! And if you’re itching to catch her Twitch streams, you can find her every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 3 PM AEST. 🌱✨
