Maltese Streamers – The State of the Scene

Background of Streaming

For those of you unaware of the concept of streaming, it is basically when people broadcast a live video of themselves playing games, creating content, or chatting, while viewers watch and interact in real time. This can be done on multiple platforms, such as Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, Kick as well as TikTok. However the platform that started it all was Twitch.tv or better known as Justin.tv back in the day. In brief below we’ll be tackling some of the biggest events that happened in the streaming scene  that played their part in growing the industry both economically and culturally.

In recent years, streaming has taken a more calm approach, and while new faces pop out of nowhere, the greats of streaming since way back, are always the main attractions for long-time Twitch fans.

Maltese Streamers Key Figures

Now, onto the main section of the article, the streaming scene in Malta. Let’s start off from the beginning by mentioning one of the earliest Maltese streamers who adopted the twitch streaming meta. He started his streaming career somewhere around 2014 and made a living out of broadcasting his Hearthstone gameplay. If that doesn’t give you enough information to deduct who I’m referring to, it’s Neville “Neviilz” Caruana. Since we are unaware of Neviilz current affairs, we were unable to reach out to Neville to get more insight into his streaming life, however, thanks to lovinmalta article he contributed to, we can paste a quote that is still relevant today.

Don’t go into streaming with the mindset of making money. Although you have to treat it like a job to make it viable, keep in mind that only 1% of streamers can viably do it on a full-time basis.

– Neviilz

Captaingecoo

Second in the list of our timeline is none other than Beppe “Captaingecoo” Grech, a name which is certainly familiar if you have been in the local gaming scene for quite some time. Gecoo has always done his utmost to include himself in the local gaming communities, especially League of Legends and Counter-Strike. He’s also had interactions with big streamers such as TimTheTatman as he had raided Gecoo’s stream, not once, but twice! Another figure whom Beppe is close with is the CS:GO/CS2 community figure, Anomaly. Nowadays, Captaingecoo plays a variety of games on his stream, especially League of Legends and frequently interacts and co-streams with other streamers alike.

Kurt0411

Kurt “Kurt0411” Fenech is a former FIFA professional player now turned streamer and content creator. At his peak of his FIFA career, Kurt had reached the semifinals of the FIFA eWorld Cup in 2018, an accomplishment that speaks volumes, especially for someone from Malta. Kurt is as Maltese as a Malteser can get, mainly due to his constant and unfiltered critiques of the game and the developers, EA Sports. In 2018 he was barred from taking part in EA-Sponsored events, and later in 2020 he was banned indefinitely from all EA games due to “abusive behaviour”. Despite all this, Kurt is still a significant figure in the gaming community, especially in the football related parts. He frequently streams and discusses football or FIFA related topics, and occasionally also hosts watchalongs when a big football game is happening.

Jokerd

Daniel Gobey, more commonly known as Jokerd, is popularly known for making history in World of Warcraft Classic. After the game had just been released, Jokerd became the first ever player in the world to have reached lvl 60, which at the time was a pretty big deal. What made it pretty big however, was that Jokerd was streaming all of his progression live on Twitch, a stream that amounted to a total of about 3 days and 7 hours. Years and months later, after some controversies which conspired he is still a big figure in the World of Warcraft community. Nowadays he streams WoW regularly to an impressive average amount of 2,000 consistent viewers, a feat that is not to be underestimated.

Torkie

Terence “Torkie” Portelli kickstarted his streaming journey in 2013 through World of Warcraft. He continued to grow through Warframe, and his partnership with the developers, which eventually led him to stream Escape from Tarkov helping him gain an even bigger fanbase. Torkie is also known for his down-to-earth and entertaining personality while also keeping up with his regular morning streaming schedule ensuring that all his viewers get all the Torkie content they need to get the day started.

Spooner

Natanael “Spooner” Aquilina was hooked on the idea of games since the first gameplay video he saw on YouTube. He started off creating Borderlands videos, which then transpired into recording his gameplay of horror games with his partner Kim “Rogue” Stanton. Spooner thought of this as a potential way to make a buck or two alongside his main job while also growing his personal brand. He saw positive numbers on YouTube and shortly after was tempted to start streaming on Twitch, showcasing more Horror games gameplay as well as some other single-player games. Here’s Spooner quickly going through what happened in his recent years as a streamer:

It’s fair to say that by now he’s become one of the biggest (and still active) streaming figures in Malta, broadcasting a variety of games, especially shooters.

TyKy

Someone that had a similar introduction to the gaming scene is half-Canadian, half-Maltese Tyler “TyKy” Franssen. He is mostly known for his horror game playthroughs but also for streaming a myriad of other titles. Namely: Call of Duty, Fortnite, Apex Legends, some VALORANT, and many other Single-player games. In recent years he’s been quite a big part of the streaming scene in Malta, always being involved whenever a streaming community event was being hosted. Such as Playcon, the Video Armageddon, the Lockstock Gameshow, as well as the streamer friendly football matches. Nowadays, much like Spooner, TyKy is also actively streaming his play-throughs of single-player games as well as catching his frights whenever broadcasting a horror game.

ImJoelll

Joel “ImJoelll” Ellul is the go-to man for any Call of Duty: Warzone content and is as dedicated a streamer as you can find! Back when he started, Joelll’s main selling point was his in-game skill and sleek movements when dropping into the Warzone. However after some months into streaming full-time, he also recognized that he could tap into a different streaming persona, one which is more comedy and entertaining based, rather than just streaming from a competitive player standpoint. He is currently not actively streaming on Twitch, as he’s shifted his focus onto his biggest platform, TikTok. At the time of writing, Joel has a staggering amount of 834.9k followers which view his content on a regular basis. 

As someone that knew Joel quite well at the time, it’s fair to say that his growth was extremely rapid, going from an average of 600 views per video, rising to 2,000 average, to then reaching the milestones he’s ticked off now.

MalteseKnight

For the past 8 years or so, MalteseKnight has been streaming his gameplay of World of Warships. As mentioned in his twitch bio, MalteseKnight started off as a casual player, and after improving massively at the game, he found himself joining some of the top competitive clans on the North American server of WoW. He currently has a total of 30,3k followers at the time of this article, and streams quite regularly according to his schedule. MalteseKnight also frequently uploads on his World of Warships-specific channel, giving his insight on ships and strategies to those not so knowledgeable about the game.

DarrenZeus

Darren “DarrenZeus” Waite can be described as Malta’s 1st ever VR (Virtual Reality) Content creator. Undoubtedly his biggest channel is his YouTube, boasting over 110k subscribers, and having his most popular video reach 1M views. He is also one of the few in Malta to achieve the Twitch Partner Program, making his channel more reputable and is given more access to how his channel can be monetized. Darren streams VR chat almost daily over on his Twitch channel, creating all the moments necessary to upload all types of content on his YouTube.

Honourable Mentions

One of the honourable mentions for the streaming scene in Malta has to go towards education based esports organisation, Level Academy. Through the years they have consistently put the gaming community first, as well as its streamers. Through some shape, way or form, they’ve tried to involve streamers as much as they can in their events to not only gain more traction, but also to help the streamer himself grow his brand, by allowing individuals to host and stream, Level Academy partnered events on their own channels. We’ve seen numerous examples of this in the past, and it’s truly helped shape and grow many of the streaming figures we know today.

Challenges and Opportunities

Here’s what some of the scene’s brightest figures had to say with regards to challenges they’ve faced and how they see the scene has evolved as a whole:

Streaming locally has changed, before it felt more fun and non-competitive but it feels like now with a community being so small everyone wants their share and wants to be the best local instead of helping the community and having fun.

– Captaingecoo

The streaming scene in Malta has grown in both the number and quality of streamers. This is evident in the success of few Maltese full time streamers that are managing to earn a decent living. Although the number of successful Maltese streamers is very low and can be counted on one hand, this demonstrates that achieving high levels of success in this field, even for us Maltesers, is possible. However, success in this sector requires significant hard work, dedication and investment. Content creators must quickly learn a wide range of skills, including video editing, scripting, social media management, marketing, photo editing, gaming proficiency, PC hardware knowledge, studio lighting, trend research, etc.

– Spooner

Streaming is a physical and mental roller coaster. Unless you have a solid plan on how to tackle such a subject beforehand, you’re gonna have a rough time adjusting to the learning curve and sacrifices needed to maintain consistency. Luckily, nowadays there are several experienced streamers on the island who devote a good portion of their life to streaming where inexperienced newcomers can gain insight and learn from their mistakes. Right now, it seems to be on the lower side of things but there are those dedicated to seeing the local streaming scene thrive. It will take some time but with the right attitude, streamers taking initiative, some luck and no small degree of charm. I believe in the next few years we could see a change in the local streaming scene for the better.

– TyKy

The Streaming Scene in Malta Nowadays

Despite mentioning the names above, and giving insight into the history that we’ve got in the streaming scene in Malta, I still think that it’s currently experiencing a heavy decline when compared with years past.

Most nights I find myself going on the Twitch following tab, scrolling to the very bottom, with hope to find any streamer from Malta broadcasting live to his community, only to be let down by a very empty list of Maltese presence. Whether this is due to unfortunate timing on my part, or some sort of scheduling conflicts some active streamers may be facing, I can’t help but think that the streaming scene will remain stagnant, out of life and creativity.

Who knows? Maybe this article is a wake up call to all those inexperienced and now inactive streamers that are not present in the streaming scene in Malta. Perhaps those that have held back from taking a chance on streaming and content creation, are willing to give it another shot in a step forward to bring back some of the most fond memories I have as a member of the local scene.