What Being "Popular" Would Mean To Me

After PBing in Emerald with a 2:30, many people have complained that I am not as popular as any other top tier Pokémon Speedrunner, such as the likes of Exarion or Gunner. These are just casual statements, not really "actual" complaints. They are, however, rather increasing —and don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the love that I receive from this community (I've always been loved by it, which is why I am still here and not somewhere else after almost four years), but I just want to make clear that I basically give zero fucks about popularity.

Now, this looks more like an edgy comment than the actual truth. It's very easy to just outright lie about this and look like some sort of humility hero, especially considering how I once tweeted about "being able to get used to having 50+ viewers". There's a clear distinction between not caring about having viewers (let's use these as a popularity meter for all it's worth) and doing whatever's necessary to experience such growth. This is far more important than it seems: people who are popular with these games are either really skilled at the games they play, play for a bunch of hours or are very charismatic. You need at least two of these three to succeed, and playing for a long time is ABSOLUTELY ALWAYS a must. I won't do specific mentions in case someone thinks I am just assuming they are not skilled at the game, but I will mention those who are obviously skilled at what they do: Exarion plays for 6+ hours at least and he's really good at Pokémon Speedrunning. This is just so key for success. Same goes for Gunner (these are honestly the only two examples I can think of. Pokeguy and Wsopboy91 also come to mind, but I don't think they streams for that long, really. They are, however, very skilled at what they do, and people do not appreciate this enough).

There are a couple of exceptions for this: Werster and Keizaron. The former was basically one of the first at doing what he does, which always comes with big rewards if the idea becomes popular. Also, he used to be extremely charismatic—just watch one of his very old reactions to, for instance, Wally getting a shiny Ralts. Not only does it prove my point, but you will also have a good laugh. I don't know whether he was exaggerating his reaction, but it surely made people laugh and have fun. The result? These people would go back to his stream. Everyone talked about him on social media (particularly reddit I suppose), and the word would spread because he was doing something unique and he was a great personality at it.

Keiz, on the other hand, basically accomplished all three: spending time at what he does, being good at what he does, and being charismatic. This is why he grew a bunch in the span of a year. Some people don't like him, but I can tell you from personal experience that he deserves what he got and more.

I do not want to go off-topic, however. What I want to make clear is that I do not push towards popularity with charisma. Why? Well, however charismatic I am can only be increased by changing my personality or faking it. I have never, ever faked anything on stream in my life, absolutely never. If I get a shiny  during a speedrun, I will react however I would in a regular situation. And changing cannot be controlled, really; unless you force it, which involves faking your personality to some extent. I could also just be better at what I play and do it for longer (the former is subsequent to the latter with proper mentality, in my opinion), but I am close to having a job and I'm a college student, so you already know that that's basically impossible unless I'm on vacation.

In any case, and despite all I said, I don't want this to sound like a negative piece of text; I did, in the end, thank those who appreciate what I do and are upset that I don't get more recognition (I would shout them out, but there's actually quite a bit of people, which makes me really happy). I also don't want to sound like I'm contradicting myself by saying that I appreciate viewers after saying that I give "zero fucks about popularity". Perhaps this was an overstatement. The whole point of this was just to thank those who care about me and to make clear that I will not fake my personality in order to become more popular. The only thing you can expect from me as a speedrunner is attempting to push the limits of a game and becoming good at it.

Thank you for reading this.

PS (making these in digital formats is idiotic, but I don't want to change the whole Werster paragraph): I am by no means stating that Werster isn't good at what he does just because he is an exception. He's the former record holder of more than a dozen of games, and an incredible router. Never read between lines! At least when I'm the writer.