Been to Rainbow Six Siege (R6S)? Do you know eSports on Rainbow Six Siege? Been to Player Unknown BattleGround (PUBG)? Been to Twitch? So, you know, without a doubt, Scok. We had the opportunity to interview him, here is for you:
Scok, can you introduce yourself?
So, my name is Guillaume, I am 28 years old, I am from Nevers in the middle of the diagonal of the void and I am now in Toulouse. I used to be a dental technician and now I'm a castor and streamer. My nickname is a very old nickname, from a good dozen years ago, with friends, simply.
You weren't on the side of Nantes?
No, no, I'm in Toulouse and the project is that we move to Nantes with my girlfriend.
Why Nantes?
Well, why not actually, that's the main question! We spent a few days there, we thought it was super cool. I also admit that the 33° of Nantes would please me more than the 36° of Toulouse currently.
Otherwise, you can come to Lille, it's even less hot …
Yes, no, but Lille we don't have winter clothes yet.
The foreigner?
Ah! It can be very, very good too.
How did the idea of streaming come about?
I started a little before arriving in Toulouse, about 3 years ago. I discovered Twitch with the StarCraft 2 game I was playing and suddenly I started watching the competitions. I discovered Twitch and eSports at the same time and I loved it. I loved being able to watch the casts Ogaming did just like I loved watching the games. At first I really watched the games and then little by little I realized that I really liked the cast, what the casts did.
So, I started on Twitch doing small games of StarCraft 2, sometimes Rocket League. Then, little by little, I started casting StarCraft 2 (in front of 30 people at most).
Finally, Twitch launched a little by itself with the discovery of StarCraft 2 and eSports.
So you started streaming 3 years ago, you stopped working right away?
No, it happened much later. For me, at first, Twitch was really leisure, it was fun. And then R6S happened… At first, I wanted to be a player, to compete and in fact it didn't work too well. I was starting to no longer be too "young" to embark on such a project. So, I told myself I was going to stop.
Some players from the French R6S community said to me, "Why don't you try casting? There's the spectator mode that just came out, you have a voice that goes well" [We confirm!]. So I tried casting, I liked it a lot. At the same time I started streaming and I saw that there was very good feedback, so it encouraged me a lot to continue and that's what I did. One thing led to another, it grew, grew, until … Until June 2016 when I decided to leave my old job to do it full time and try to make a living from it.
So, it was really R6S that made you fly so much.
Oh, yes! Oh yes, completely!
The subs have arrived…
Yes, late. Since I started streaming from February/March 2016 and the subs arrived in September 2016. That's when it started to get "profitable" in quotes. From that moment on, there was a real financial dimension behind it, so streaming could become a profession.
On Twitch there are a lot of "characters" (Dr. Disrespect, etc.), but, you, finally, we have the impression that when you stream, you are like in everyday life …
Yes, I realized that. On Twitch you have several ways to seduce people, either by having a character who makes them laugh, at least moves them, or by being "crystal clear". With my role as a castor, it was perhaps complicated to create a character for me. So I decided to be natural, with my kissing side, my rants (which I sometimes lacked) trying to be as straight as possible … And it seems to please.
My goal is not to have one day 20,000 viewers and 12,000 euros of Twitch salary, I am happy with the current level where it pleases a small community that grows and comes to have a good time.
A "small community" of 400/600 people …
Yes, I'm happy with that. What I like about my way of doing things is when viewers come to me and tell me "we had a good time" where they were able to laugh, talk, feel listened to, that's something that gets lost a lot on Twitch France: listen to your viewers when you're streaming and your community outside.
As a rule, I try to reply to all Twitter MPs. Replying to all tweets is difficult, but mps anyway I do. I try to be as accessible as possible because me, what I didn't like when I watched streams was when I came to contact the streamer to learn things, but, for him you are "nothing", you are just a guy like that, you are a random … We must not forget that we, if we are a streamer, it is thanks to the people who watch us.
You had a sentence one day, it almost "shocked" me because you were quite absent (moving, etc.). You thanked your subs, you said, that you were very little present at the moment and that it bothered you a lot, I had never seen that before … And it was sincere!
We live in a world where to eat, you have to work and if you miss your job, you don't get a salary, so you don't eat. There, I was shocked by the fact that, yes there were months between May / June / July, where over a month I had to stream at most 30 hours … It's nothing! Yet, the number of subs remained very high and … I hallucinated. I was expecting a big loss, it was significant, but much less than I imagined. And so yes, it was mandatory to thank these people who continue to support you while you no longer offer them anything.
You have a YouTube channel, it still feels like it's not your priority
Not at all. Before, long before Twitch, I tried to start a YouTube channel with a buddy (jAhk) I've known for a long time. Then, I realized that I liked it but it was not my cup of tea either in the sense that there is already; Editing is something that doesn't bother me particularly, but it's not a passion either; and the interaction with viewers that I don't like. The fact that people watch and leave a comment, no, I really prefer to do live. So I use it for best of, for match vod, but I don't make videos like R6S youtubers can do, it's not my goal at all and I don't think I'll come to it. They start from a video where they play and they manage to make a video, to tell it, to make it interactive, it's not something that I know how to do Youtube it's really secondary, for people who have not been able to
see the lives and who want content on YouTube. I myself only consume YouTube occasionally, for example in the evening, when I go to bed on the phone, a few videos and that's it.
So your job is more like a castor or streamer?
It's really both. Time is divided between the two. I spend more and more time on casts because with the evolution of all this, the fact that it grows, it really needs to professionalize more and more. Now, more than before, I realize the amount of work that must be done upstream to offer a cast that will really appeal to people who want to learn tricks and want to go further than a simple match commentary. Streams also take a lot of time. Really, both, caster and streamer.
You talk about the preparation before the casts, can you say a little more?
My ultimate goal is to be able to offer a cast on which I could talk about strategic anecdotes about both teams, their style of play in the past, how it has evolved, how it is today, anecdotes about the players, know them, each one, be able to tell where they were before, what they were doing. Have the maximum knowledge so that you, when you come as a player, you learn a trick. You see a game and on top of that you live a story with the team you are.
So you have a contract with Ubisoft? CDI? CSD?
Yes. None of that is the provision of services regarding the casts that I do for them.
You "only" cast for Ubisoft?
I did several things for Ubisoft, I cast the pro league, and several French events (Summer challenge, Six cup, etc.). I also launched the game For Honor where I was invited to host the evening with Olivier Morin who worked at the eSport club channel. But, there is no op, when I do streams on the launch of games (For Honor, Ghost Recon) it's really personal pleasure. Ubisoft never asked me to stream their games, we are not at all in this kind of contract.
You are very present on Twitter, very present on Snapchat. Is this something that will make you progress professionally?
Twitter serves me two purposes, to feed my entire community, to be able to respond to them if they wish and to be contacted. Twitter is also a showcase for the professional side since it is the showcase in eSport and in the cast. Snapchat is really leisure, to please the community. Facebook I don't use, I find the page system very poorly designed, I can't even go to private messages, notifications because it lags to open this kind of stuff.
You are a bit of an "ambassador" of R6S in France, you are a bit of a reference when we talk about R6S on the Twitch Fr.
Yes, Ubisoft, when they got into it, it was their first time in eSports in terms of France, so they gave me "carte blanche" on how to manage streams, pro league broadcasting etc. So, yes, this place of "ambassador", I took it a little. Giving me "carte blanche" was both a good thing and … A less good thing, in the sense that I made mistakes, such as giving my opinion on things so I shouldn't have gotten involved. This is something that I was criticized a lot a few months ago (for example a year ago, I sided with a player who was banned for cheating thinking he was innocent. It's a mistake, I should never have done that as a castor.). The "carte blanche" was a very good idea, but not necessarily easy to manage properly when you come out of nowhere as it was my case.
How long have you been playing it at R6S?
About two years. It was on alpha (March/April 2015)
Finally, what do you like so much about this game?
A bunch of stuff… a bunch of stuff!
- The operators who, for me, have a totally awesome design and design. The gadgets they offer are so varied it's really interesting.
- The maps are beautiful and very developed, whether on verticality, walls to destroy, reinforcements …
- This concept of 5v5 with an ounce of realism without it destroying the gameplay too much.
- Weapons that are well balanced between accessible to all but must be able to master to be good.
- The follow-up of the Ubisoft team, listening to the community.
- The release of new free content every three months.
When R6S came out, it was a breath of fresh air. This game has been making me vibrate for 2 years, it's been a very long time since I had a game that makes me "kiffer" like that. If I'm so focused on this game it has nothing to do with the fact that it allows me to live, it's above all because I like it.
What are the things you don't like or would like to improve in R6S?
The spectator mode that is not yet satisfactory. In the future, have the opportunity to vote for a map when playing matches against the same team. Finally, little tricks, but no big changes/improvements.
Some people sometimes say that you get carried by pro players, how do you perceive that?
On my beginnings I took these remarks quite to heart. It bothered me. Now it goes over my head, since I don't play for a level, to pretend to anything, I play to please people watching. So, yes, I sometimes get accompanied by people from the pro circuit, because they are the ones I work with and frequent the most and with whom, above all, I get along well. I play with the people I like.
After, regarding my level, this season, much more than previous seasons, I played solo and I still finished Platinum 1. So, if I get carried … What I see is that there are people who enjoy coming to watch, who learn stuff even if I'm bad. If people do not understand that streaming and playing alone has nothing to do with it, I advise them to go make a game by answering a few questions … In terms of concentration, it's complicated.
To really conclude this kind of criticism, I tell myself that if I did not bring anything to the people who come to watch, people would not come back. So if there are people, it is because it pleases and it is therefore not a story of level.
What future for R6S?
Whoa! Big future. I think I've been saying this speech for a year and every time people come to me and ask me the question after I've already answered something like that, I believe in it even more than the previous time. It's getting bigger slowly but it's getting bigger. In almost two years, the game has done a lot. To offer major competitions to three-quarters of the planet after a year and a half is huge.
The regular comparison to Counter Strike (CS) is not valid. CS, it's been around for 20 years, it's not really the same scale. I think there is a real future. Even with this season on Operation Health, everyone complained but everyone is still here! The player base is even bigger than before. It's a game that is much talked about, since as the developers are very accessible and open to criticism, players are open to criticism as well and it speaks loudly from all sides. We saw the release of Overwatch which did not hurt the game, as well as the release of BF1. Quite frankly I think R6S will continue to grow both for players who just come to do singles to have fun with their friends and both for players who are in eSports.
Why didn't you manage to go professional on R6S?
It was a matter of time at the time since I had my job. It was a question of age also because I came from StarCraft 2 and on StarCraft 2 the career of a professional player stops at 25, after your body starts to tire with tendonitis in the wrist. So I said to myself, I'm 26/27 years old, I'm not a war machine, I don't have a gift, so there's a lot of work to do on it, was it really worth it? No, I didn't have the motivation and I didn't feel able to reach the professional level with the time I had available.
Now I guess you're not interested at all?
It would amuse me today if I was told "Come on, you have six months to become a professional player, give it your all!" I will, but I don't want to leave the cast. But, since I could not do both at the same time, the question does not arise and it does not generate particular frustration.
You had played with the Vitality Black.
Yes, I had a qualifier with them, a great experience! I had a lot of fun, we did well. Finally, personally, I was relatively happy with my performance for the training I had. It was a pleasure like that, a service rendered because they needed someone. I thank them very much for asking me.
Would you be interested in coaching professional players?
No, because I don't have the vision of the game and the professional experience in the game to bring this kind of thing. Sometimes I give advice to friends I have on pro teams about what I've seen, but I don't allow myself to tell them what to do or how to do it.
You also play PUBG from time to time, what do you like about this game?
I had played a lot of arma III, it's a game that looks a little bit like it (especially the realistic side without it being too annoying for the gameplay) and then the arena principle, Battle Royale, is very exciting. It's a game that I like a lot, that is very, very fun to play and on which I like to compete, at my small level, when I can.
What are the things you don't like or would like to improve in PUBG?
I am not sure enough to be able to answer that question. I have no particular criticism to make at this time.
PUBG was at gamescom with a big tournament (and big cash prizes), surprising?
It doesn't shock me. H1Z1 did the same, it's very good, they are fully behind their game. Now the big question about PUBG is its success in eSports and its long-term success. I have doubts about it, I'm afraid it's a fad about eSports. I don't know if it's really going to attract crowds in the long run because 100 players on a map, you still have 40 minutes of play, 25 minutes where it's not very interesting. I don't know, I don't judge the games that launch with big cash prizes on the first competitions. Gears of War did it with a million-dollar competition, we don't hear from them anymore. Halo did it, we don't hear too much about them anymore. I prefer a more modest format like Rainbow where they go little by little and the cash prize climbs climbs climbs rather than swing everything at once, it makes noise but in the end it does not really touch the players.
You've done tournaments on PUBG, where you've been invited to a team. You explained that you didn't want to lead a team where you don't know the players. Your vision of the game is good, wouldn't you be tempted to create your own team where you would be the leader?
I would like it very much. On PUBG I feel sensations sensitive to those of Arma at the time and on an Arma I have very often heard that I was a "good lead", I was able to move people to take advantage of opponents. So I feel a little bit these things on PUBG and I will take a huge pleasure in lead, the problem is that I need to have emotional with people to tell them what to do. I can't tell someone I don't know do this, do that, no. I'd rather be a leader when I don't know people than say we're doing this, but afterwards, it brings me frustration and nervousness because I don't agree with the decisions made. But I would like it a lot, now we come back R6S, I don't have time. I'm a little interested in casts on PUBG, it could be interesting. I'll see if I can try, I know the French cast (Pacifae) who asked me if I was tempted, we'll see what happens. Casting PUBG, it would tempt me one of these days.
As for you, how do you imagine your future?
Interesting question. In the medium term R6S at 100% or 99% if another game arrives. Rainbow six, a game I believe in a lot, especially in the coming year. If this project does not work or if the game runs out of steam and what prevents me from starting another game that I like? The future is really to continue this casting/streamer project until the day when, either it goes perfectly and it will be my job, or it will not work anymore and then I could go back to apply in companies in which I know how to do stuff. It's as simple as that, it will sadden me because I love what I do very much but if you have to eat, you have to eat.
Right now, your passion is what makes you eat.
Exactly.
Financially speaking, can you get by?
Financially, today I am an average/acceptable level. That is to say, I eat, I go out, I go on vacation a little, I live normally. I don't live badly, I don't live in luxury. I lived a little better with my old job, but in terms of living comfort, today it's so much higher that earning less doesn't matter to me. Getting up for something you want to do, it more than makes up for it.
Thank you Scok, do you have any last words to add?
Go baguette!
We thank Scok very much for his kindness and availability. Do not hesitate to take a look at his website , where you will find, among others, his Twitch channel, his YouTube channel, but also his shop and his Twitter, you will not regret it!
