Teacher emulates internet personality Ninja through Fortnite livestreams

Science teacher Jeremy Wade holds online livestreams of popular video games such as Fortnite.
Wade began holding livestreams on the platform Twitch last spring, and continued to do so during summer vacation. He said he typically played Hollow Knight, but his favorite video game to play is Fortnite, due to its unique look and gameplay from a third person.
“When I started building my PC, I made it properly to both support high quality gaming and fine video streaming,” Wade said. “I wanted the optimal quality of gaming experience for the game I was playing: higher frame per second, [and] better graphical resolutions. I also built it with an idea that it would be able to stream while [I am] playing games.”
While he said he did not think it was a successful effort in terms of view count, he wanted to stream because he liked how lots of other people were watching him play games.
“I saw many people streaming my favorite game [Fortnite],” Wade said. “Their way of entertainment by talking to their viewers and followers was joyful to watch.”
He said after witnessing the growing popularity of the “let’s play” genre of video content, as well as the growing number of online streamers, he was inspired to make livestreams himself. An example of such a streamer is the recently popular Tyler Blevins, more famously known as “Ninja”, his screen name.
“Ninja’s streams [looked like] a lot of fun to do as a hobby, [and] I think that I have the kind of personality and the visual quality that streamers need to have,” Wade said. “So, I decided to give it a shot.”
Wade said he will eventually be able to do a few more streams, but only after he finishes all of the work he has to do for his job as a science teacher. Over the summer months, Wade said he attempted to hold livestreams on a semi-daily basis on weekdays from 12pm to 3pm.
“It was really hard to follow the schedule that I put on for my streams,” Wade said. “I found it difficult to maintain even for one week when I was active.”
Although he attempted to stream regularly, Wade said he does not let his hobby interfere with his job as a teacher.
“It is a hobby I don’t have to worry about,” Wade said. “[Livestreaming] has not affected my work in any way.”