Field Trip: Twitch Con 2016

If you’ve been around the blog before, you have definitely seen that I have written about Twitch quite a bit before. I had the awesome opportunity to attend Twitch Con this year and connect and experience the community and platform on a whole new level.

Expo Floor

The Expo floor is where all of the booths of merchandise, new games, and products were, as well as some exhibits and the meet and greet area. There was a lot of cool stuff happening, like a charity row with different non-profit organizations that connect with gaming, and indie game area where people could try out new games, and lots and lots of streaming. I spent so much time at the Ubisoft booth watching streamers play Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege, I ended up getting a free shirt from the booth. Also, because Twitch has the Creative side as well, there was so much awesome art on display, being made right there, and on sale. Also, I have to mention the Twitch Merchandise booth, because they literally sold out of everything they had. I managed to get a shirt before it all went away.

Panels

Although many of the panels were about the logistics and reality of streaming, and I don’t plan on starting a stream anytime soon, there were some excellent panels that I did get to attend.

The first panel I went to was Mental Health and Streaming, because it caught my attention as a mental health advocate. RawrSnacks, EddieRuckus, TigerWriter, Scarletr0se, and Brotatoe were the panelists and spoke honestly about their mental health struggles and the world of streaming. It was definitely one of my favorite panels because it highlighted a serious topic while making it enjoyable and informative.

I also went to a panel about how to use Social Media as a streamer, which was certainly interesting and beneficial for those wishing to pursue streaming more seriously. The last, and probably my top favorite, was Managing Broadcasters’ Twitch Communities, because it was interesting to see the behind the scenes of some big streamers and who helps them out, like RawrSnacks, Lucky_Misfit, HiItsBrant, EffigySr, GollyMsMollie, xNikkiB do. And as a chat moderator for a few streams, it would be awesome to be able to work with some of them on the level of a community manager.

Events

There were other, bigger, events that happened besides the panels, including the Talent Show and H1Z1 Invitational. The events I attended were the Cosplay Contest and the Twitch Party.

The Cosplay Contest was seriously amazing, where everyone streamed the creation of their cosplay until Top 5’s were picked for 4 differed categories: FX, Larger Than Life, Armor, and Needlework. The grand prize went to hokuprops who made a monstrous Reinhardt (Overwatch) cosplay, shown below.

I wasn’t planning on going to the Twitch Party, but ended up saying “Hey, when else am I going to be able to do this?” and went, and it was so much fun. The opener was T-Pain, which felt like such a throwback to middle school in a good way. The main act was Steve Aoki, who was phenomenal and definitely brought so much hype. I left after his set because I was worn out from how epic it was and wanted to leave on a high note, even if I missed Darude.

Overall, Twitch Con was an amazing experience where I got to learn more about Twitch as a whole and also meet friends of mine through the communities I am a part of. 10/10 would go again.

What Con do you really want to go to? Share in the comments!