Beanomm – FIFA Streamer Shares His Livestreaming Journey Through the Pandemic

Tell us your history with video games 

I first started playing games with the GameBoy so many years ago. I forget what sort of games I used to play but remember that the screen didn’t light up so you had to buy a separate light that shines on to the screen to see. The first game that really made an impression on me was Black Ops 1. That’s my most favourite game I’ve played still to this day. I used to sit in the same spot for hours each day trying to get more kills than the last game.

I didn’t really play any games growing up with other people, it used to always be just multiplayer online on BO1 for hours on end.

My gaming name only originated about a year and a half ago, my nickname when I was younger was Beano - and my last name starts with an M so I just put them together and it worked! ‘Beanom’ was already taken on Twitch and I didn’t like the look of the underscore on my name, so I added an extra M onto the end and that’s where Beanomm came from.

What sparked the passion for gaming was seeing videos on YouTube of all these COD players hitting trickshots on all these maps. I always wanted to try to recreate them and upload them. I never did hit any crazy clips on COD back then so there was nothing to upload!

What’s your backstory and how did you get into streaming?

I remember the first day I wanted to start streaming. It was the Black Hole event in Fortnite when it changed into Chapter 2. I was watching SypherPK sitting on 80k viewers for hours watching old videos of him and talking to his chat having a great time. I thought I’d love to be able to do something like this, so two weeks later I bought a webcam and a microphone and started streaming.

I first bought a webcam and a cheap microphone. I barely talked because the quality of the mic was so bad and I was very nervous when I was streaming. Nobody came into the chat anyway so there was nobody to talk to!

I think the main thing about streaming is to be talking the whole time either to your chat or explaining everything you’re doing in whatever game you’re playing. I always judge everything like ‘if that was me doing it would I stay here and watch or just turn the stream off’ so I always try to make the most entertaining streams for people to watch, I love making people laugh so hopefully knowing I can do that is great.

Tell us about your channel and community

My community on Twitch is full of great people. It’s a mix between people who are chatting the whole time or people who turn on the stream in the background while they’re doing something. I’m grateful for all the viewers that decide to come in and watch/chat. I’ve also met so many great creators on Twitch as well that I talk to every day, we’re always talking and asking each other for advice on things about streaming and everything else in general.

I usually stream FIFA 21. It’s the first year I’ve properly played Ultimate Team, before streaming I barely played FIFA but now it’s all I play. I used to always play the latest Call of Duty but since Warzone came out I’m not a big fan of it. I’m useless at it so that's probably why I have no interest in it.

If I wasn’t streaming I probably would still play FIFA but not near as much. I think I can speak for everyone when I say it's a love/hate relationship with FIFA. The game is in a strange state and hopefully they fix it for FIFA 22. I’d love to be a variety streamer but there isn’t much else to play out there that I’m interested in at the moment.

I used to play a gamemode called Pro Clubs with viewers but it got very complicated and hard to run because so many people wanted to play in the same positions ETC so it was tough. But definitely going forward I’m going to start playing more with viewers, I’m not sure what game it’ll be in but I’m sure a new big game is coming soon.

Tell us about your brand and how you’ve been able to obtain success

Everything you see on my stream is my true self, it’s the exact same way I am in real life. I think that the key to retaining your audience is to be yourself. Having proper conversations with people in the chat, always asking them how they are/how their day has gone is important in my opinion. If you have a proper conversation with someone in the chat they’re much more likely to come back the next time you’re streaming.

The first few months were very slow in channel growth on Twitch. My first ever stream was on November 6th, 2019. It was only an hour-long stream playing Fortnite but I enjoyed it. The chance of getting a great clip and posting it on Twitter/Instagram was always the main focus for me at the start. When COVID-19 hit in March is when I really started to stream properly and put a lot of time into it because there was nothing else to do. By this time I was playing Modern Warfare and had a webcam pointing down to the keyboard not showing my face at all. Nobody knew that I was streaming, I didn’t tell any of my friends or anyone that I was streaming.

Tiktok is really where my channel started gaining views and more followers on Twitch. I started to upload quickscoping clips on Tiktok in June I think. They were getting a couple of views here and there but nothing major for the first while. After a few months a few videos starting to get lots of views and now I’m sitting on 82k followers on Tiktok in just under a year.

The biggest challenge/obstacle you face when streaming I think is streaming to 0 viewers for the first while. It can be very demotivating streaming for a couple hours and seeing 0 viewers, but it’s all part of the journey.

My biggest achievement is definitely reaching Twitch Partner. I hit Affiliate on May 6th, 2020 where I was averaging 3 viewers. I hit Partner on May 7th, 2021 so I thought that was a really funny coincidence. In the space of a year I went from averaging 3 viewers to 100+, so it was a huge accomplishment for me.

I haven’t gone full time streaming yet but that is definitely the goal in the future. I absolutely love streaming/making videos and uploading to YouTube/Instagram/Twitter etc. There’s nothing better than seeing people watch your videos and enjoy them. My main focus is making people laugh and I hope to be doing that every day on stream in the future.

What’s the best piece of feedback you’ve ever received from a viewer?

The best advice I’ve received from a viewer is definitely to turn off viewer count when streaming. It’s always better not to know how many are watching, because it should be the same for 10 viewers or 100 viewers.

What’s the most interesting thing that’s happened to you because of your streaming?

The most interesting thing that’s happened to me is the amount of interaction I get on TikTok and Instagram every day. When a video starts gaining views on TikTok the comments/likes are crazy. One unexpected moment was when I was up in Dublin and a few young lads started shouting over at me saying ‘83, 83, 83, nice, nice, nice.’ That’s a bit of an inside joke in the streams, so I got a good laugh when they started shouting it over. 

How do you balance streaming and your day-to-day life?

The days when I do stream always entail trying to think of anything new I can add or do in the stream to make it more entertaining. Before streaming I always make sure the lighting and everything is good and make sure the music is on, I have the right title and then ready to hit ‘start streaming’. Once I’m done streaming, I spend a few hours downloading the VOD onto my PC and then taking out funny clips from the stream, edit them and post them to socials. If it was a big stream where a lot has gone on I spend a few hours editing it for a YouTube video. I get great satisfaction from uploading a YouTube video and seeing it do well. I think Youtube is also a great way to get your stream noticed, putting up highlight clips from your stream is a great tool.

I’m not working at the minute due to COVID but I’m looking around and hoping to get a job as soon as the country starts opening up again.

My friends and family didn’t have any reaction at all really when I told them about streaming, they just said that I should have told them earlier and I was stupid for trying to hide it from them!

Tell us what tools you use for your stream

I use OBS Studio as my streaming software. I tried Streamlabs OBS but it was too hard on my computer. The CPU usage on Streamlabs was so high so it made the streams lag. Once I switched to OBS studio the CPU usage was lowered and the lag wasn’t near as bad. My PC is a bit of a dinosaur so I'm hoping to upgrade it soon to make the streams more enjoyable.

The donation software I use is from Streamlabs, it gives a link to your PayPal and it’s the easiest one I’ve used.

I only use Nightbot on my streams. I use the commands for the social media platforms, the discord link, what camera and microphone I use and things like that. It’s a great tool to take advantage of rather than answering the same question over and over again.

I have a Discord channel, right now there over 330 people in it always talking about Football and FIFA, and other streamers promoting themselves in it. I never used Discord before streaming but it's essential now, for just chatting to people and  updates about the stream etc.

I created most of the graphics on my stream myself. Sub badges, emotes, starting soon screens I made myself. My camera border right now is a Team Of The Season overlay made by TotalCK. My camera borders change every so often to represent what’s going on in FIFA generally.

I don’t use any extensions at all!

I don’t really look at analytics that much at all. You could have a great stream where the chat is flowing the whole time with only 30 viewers and you can have 100 viewers and the chat be very slow. So I rarely ever look at analytics because It doesn’t give a true representation of the stream.

What are your favorite streaming resources?

I got my scene transitions from Alpha Gaming. I have no idea how to edit anything like that so having the free transitions from Alpha Gaming was very helpful.

Which 3 streamers inspire you the most?

Pieface23. He’s just a normal lad that started streaming FIFA a few years ago and now he’s getting 10k+ viewers every time he streams, he’s naturally hilarious and his streams are always great. Pie would be my main inspiration in streaming.

What are your top 3 streaming tools? 

1. OBS Studio I think is the best streaming software out there. It’s very simple to use and has everything you need right there.
2. The main thing I would say is to have good lighting. Having good lighting could make a €25 camera look like a €250+ camera. Have 2 lights right in front of you to your left and right, mess with the exposure settings in OBS until you find the right settings for you.
3. Always have a bottle of water there when streaming as well. Talking so much can dry your mouth out so it’s always good to keep hydrated when streaming.

What advice would you give to small channels trying to reach Partner? 

The main advice I would give now is to use TikTok. It’s the easiest platform to go viral on now, you could make a page and only upload one video and gain thousands of followers from it.

Post funny clips on Instagram/Twitter, and every few weeks compile all your funny clips into a Youtube video.

If you’re starting off from 0, make a new account on your phone and have your stream open. There's millions of people streaming to 0 people so if you’re streaming to 1 person you’re already easier to be discovered.

If you could change one thing about Twitch, what would it be? 

The notifications for when you go live, the Twitch notifications only go out to barely half your followers. Nearly every stream a few people come in and say that they didn’t even get a notification that I went live so it can get a bit frustrating.

What are your plans for the future? 

I have no plans for the next 5 or 10 years anyway. Obviously becoming a full time streamer is the main goal but I’ll take it steady and see how it goes over the next few months. You never know what’s going to happen tomorrow so take every day in your stride.