What's Happening

Whew. So, this past month has been absolute hell for me in terms of streaming. Mainly because I haven't been able to stream at all.

Well, that's technically not true. In fact, technically I've streamed more last month than I ever have; just to a second test account I have, several times a day, hoping in vain that I won't get frame drops. And for a while, I don't. But every single time, whether it's 5 seconds, 5 minutes or 50 minutes, it'll happen. Every single time. Frame drops, on and off, my connection dropping to about 500kb/s, much lower than what it was when I used to stream before I got fibre-optic.

So, I tried as hard as I could to fix it. I tried every single little trick I could think of. Streaming via Ethernet cable, using my tethered phone as a proxy router, connecting TWO routers via a LAN-to-WAN cable, trying every Twitch server under the sun, etc. Nothing worked. One time, I had no drops for over 3/4 of an hour; I had even connected my controller and mic, got my splits and emulator and IRC client ready and everything, thinking that I had finally fixed the problem. But just before I started, it dropped. Again. Every single time.

I contacted Twitch; three times. The third time I finally got a reply, from a guy who helped me a lot. He sent me a lot of graphs showing exactly what the issue was, and I'm not going to go into detail but it seems almost certain that it's my ISP's fault.

As for my ISP; I've phoned them at least five times, posted on their forums, had TWO engineers round on different occasions to look at my connection. Right now, I've been told to expect a call from a 'Complaints Manager' ASAP, but in fact the issue is still ongoing.

So, how am I able to stream right now? I got fed up and got a free trial for a VPN. Finding out that I got accepted into ESA is amazing, I can barely believe it. So, I owe it to the people who are gonna watch me that day to give the best performance I possibly can, both to increase the number of donations for charity and to increase awareness of Tekken speedrunning. I LOVE speedrunning Tekken, it feels right to me. I want to show people how much potential Tekken has, and to do that I need to be at 110% when I play. So I can't wait for my ISP to fix the issue any longer. I can't wait any longer without streaming. I HATED not being able to stream, some days I felt bored and lost, like I didn't know what to do. Not being able to stream has pissed me off so much, almost to the point of tears at times when I just can't find a solution and I'm just stuck here waiting for my ISP to do something. And I can't change ISPs until our contract runs out later this year. So I can't wait any longer.

Yeah, I'm using a VPN. I've tested it, it works, I can stream fine. It's a two-week free trial, and if my ISP hasn't fixed my connection by then I'll pay monthly until either they have, or I'm able to change ISPs. Simple as that. It's frustrating as hell, but that's where I'm at. And I don't want to wait any longer to stream, I miss it too much and I need to be at my A-game for ESA. I feel like I owe it to myself for everything I've worked for and everybody else in the community, too. I might not get another chance to represent Tekken in this way with Uni coming up, so I want to do the best I possibly can.

So, what's next for the stream? The blindfolded run will be coming up as soon as I get my NTSC PS2. I've been looking for some and I've found one I want to buy, which I should be doing soon. I'm also going to buy NTSC copies of Tekkens 1/2/3/Tag Tournament. Shoutouts to Whip for helping me figure out the exact PS2 model I need. I'll be spending pretty much all of my time grinding on Tekken 3, along with a bit of Tekken 2 on the side to keep things interesting. I'm also going to be doing a blind YuGiOh FM race with Hoody in the near-future cus lol why not, and after ESA and sub-hour Tekken 3 All Endings 1 Round Medium, I'll be learning TTT1 on-stream, which I am REALLY looking forward to running. Also, NEW EMOTES :D

Last thing, I'm still undecided on whether to accept donations for ESA. I do have enough money to cover the costs, but I don't know exactly how much I'll have left after. I'll see how I feel after the next couple of weeks, as they're going to be busy for me. Got my birthday coming up, I'm right at the end of the college term (which means I gotta grind out those last assignments), and I've got tons and tons of prepping for ESA to do.

Alright, that's it! Thanks for reading all of this if you have, I have no idea how you managed it! Take care guys. It's good to be back.