gaming

xAnomaLee is Now Loading...

Loveleen Kaur / ONE37pm

Published Oct 20, 2022

It's quite a tall task when you're looking to keep up with your streaming duties while also trying to maintain one's own professional career tasks. Somehow someway, xAnomaLee juggles her life working in the medical field and her devotion to being a variety streamer in the most efficient ways possible. When she's not fulfilling her work at nursing school, she's hopping on her Twitch channel to show off just how nice she truly is in faves such as Apex Legends and Rogue Company. For our next subject of the Now Loading... series, xAnomaLee opened up to us about her gaming origins, how she keeps up with her nursing/streaming schedule and a whole bunch more.

ONE37pm: Did you grow up playing video games? Or is it one of those hobbies you picked up much later in life?

xAnomaLee: I did play video games when I was younger. When I was about six years old, my dad bought me the Nintendo 64 and it came with Super Mario 64. I had so much fun playing this game as a kid. It definitely sparked my flame for gaming. As I got older in my pre-teens, I played lots of Nintendo games on my Nintendo DS. Games like Mario, Sonic, Donkey Kong, Animal Crossing, Nintendogs, Kirby, etc. It wasn’t until I hit 17 years old that my brother asked me to play call of duty with him.

I honestly knew nothing about shooters, so at first, I turned it down. But he said he’d teach me, so I went with it. Little did I know that day would make me fall in love with shooters so much. I played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops. Now at this point in time, I was only a console player, and I was getting pretty good at using the controllers. Then I transitioned to keyboard and mouse, so now I play games like Rogue Company, Fortnite, Apex Legends, COD, and Valorant.

ONE37pm: What are the games you consider to be the greatest of all time?

xAnomaLee: Honestly, the games that are the greatest of all time are Mario Party and Mario Kart. I say this because it brings so many people together, it takes people off their main games, and allows us to bond. The mechanics of Mario games are very easy to navigate and learn quickly. I really love that when Mario Party comes on, everyone stops what they are doing to participate. It really is a family-friendly game that we can create memories and share together. Reasons why I keep my Nintendo Switch close by!

ONE37pm: When and why did you make the decision to get into streaming on Twitch?

xAnomaLee: Oh, I love this one. We can give a big thanks to Fortnite. After that game came out, everything went downhill in a good way. I started playing Fortnite at 23 years old off of my brother's account. so if anyone adds me to the game, they will see my secondary name as "Yung-Drifftz." Aha, it's really funny! I played pretty frequently to the point that I was falling in love with the game. I needed to play this game on the computer with a keyboard and mouse instead of a controller.

So, I started searching on YouTube for Fortnite videos to learn how to play the game well. I came across a Valkyrae video and during it, she said, "I'll be streaming live on Twitch” and I was like “What’s that?." That was when streaming became something I wanted to experience. I wanted to try it and stream my games live for people to enjoy and watch. I honestly had no idea how Twitch worked, but I wanted to try it. I was currently working at the time too, so I started picking up overtime so I could buy myself my first PC. After two months, I was streaming. Best decision I ever made, to be honest.

ONE37pm: What games would say you enjoy playing the most while you're streaming?

xAnomaLee: I enjoy playing Rogue Company the most. It was my first competitive game. I grinded to the highest rank in this game and I was sponsored by Rogue Company a few times as well. This game not only helped me get better at playing shooters, but it led me to meet so many people and create the foundation of my community. I honestly did not expect to even get partnered with the game. It happened so fast and before I knew it, I was streaming on their main Twitch channel. Being the first black female to do it. I was nervous and I talked it out with my community and they had my back. They were there every step of the way during my journey with Rogue Company and still are.

ONE37pm: Congrats on becoming a Rouge Company partner! How has the experience under that new role been thus far?

xAnomaLee: It has been so amazing and I honestly would do it all over again if my life reset. As I said, my community foundation was built from my playing Rogue Company. It took me a while to realize that I was representing black females in the community. I had no idea how many were watching me. I was excited to represent and help them achieve their goals with the game as well.

When being a part of the partner program, we got free codes for in-game emotes, skins, battle pass, etc. So most of the time instead of using the codes for myself, I would just give them away to my community. It made them happy and in return made me happy. Soon, the Rogue Company devs saw that the creators were giving away their codes so they would give us more to share. It was amazing.
Streaming live on their main channel was a huge achievement for me and my community and I will never forget that experience.

ONE37pm: I peeped that you're currently in nursing school. How is it trying to juggle that and your Twitch streaming schedule?

xAnomaLee: Oh boy, it is honestly one of the hardest things I have ever done. I still to this day do not even know how I am doing. I just do it. I love my community and I miss them when I go away for long periods of time. I try to make sure when things are bothering me, that I am comfortable enough to speak on it during stream with my community. We talked about it last year, doing one stream per week and though they were sad about the news, they were happier that I was even able to stream once. Once a week is better than waiting until the semester ended. So that motivated me.

I have to do three 12-hour shifts a week for my clinical rotation, I have homework during the week of the course, and I have an eight-hour class each week. With all this happening, my community motivates me to get my work done so I can see them. I get so happy when I finish my homework on a Saturday night because I know when I stream on Sunday, I won't have any mental blocks and I can give great energy to my community and spend time with them for at least six hours before I have to restart my week all over again.

It really is my happy place and I look forward to it. Nursing school is no joke though and what you see on social media is true sometimes, but I want this. I already got hired to be a Labor and Delivery nurse when I graduate and it is very competitive to get this position, so I am very happy and proud of myself for juggling so much. I was so excited to tell my community, I felt like a kid on Christmas day.

ONE37pm: What are three essential pieces of advice you think every up-and-coming content creator/streamer should know?

xAnomaLee: My advice for every up-and-coming content creator/streamer would be to be yourself when you start out. It is easy to lose ourselves when we watch others on TikTok, Twitter, or Twitch. We start to compare ourselves quickly, do not do that. Be yourself and people will appreciate that!

There is a community for everyone! I mean EVERYONE! So, if you feel like there is not a community for you, make one. Seriously, make one and create a space. There are tons of room to do so. I promise you the hardest part is going to be keeping up with all the messages you’ll get.

Also, make sure you use all outlets of social media to promote and push your content. Use TikTok, YouTube, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Use those sites to your advantage. You do not have to be consistent with streaming every day at a certain time, you must be consistent with posting. That is the key that I have learned, noticed, and experienced.

Finally, give yourself mental break days. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed and so you want to take time to yourself through it all. Whether that be going for a walk and catching up on shows, visiting friends, learning a new skill, or anything that is not dealing with social media. You owe yourself that because you will work so hard that you forget to take a step back and live in the now moments. I hope this makes sense.

Be sure to holler at xAnomaLee on her Twitch, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. And tell her we sent you!