Earlier this year, when we announced our new community outreach program Club Wargaming, we said we'd start by looking at the most popular World of Tanks livestreamers. Well, we picked out the cream of the crop, said hi, asked a few questions, and got some great responses from these popular broadcasters!

Read on to see what they have to say in this introductory Club Wargaming round-up.

JunkersHiryu

How did you first get into World of Tanks and what hooked you?

Well, the tanks obviously, ha! When I first read about this game, the words "MMO" and "Tanks" caught my eye immediately! Battles without the infantry or the thought of being hit with a 1,000-pound bomb from a fighter sounded simply amazing to me. Once I got my StuG I was in love! The game brought the feel of a traditional shooter with the added element of armor to twitch shooting, and all of the other tired tropes of the genre didn't really apply. Throw in the fact most of these vehicles saw real-life service in battles across the world, and you've got an instant sell for me! I am addicted to WWII games and up until this point I played flight simulators so I became curious what it would be like to fight the good fight on the ground for a change!

Are there any other streamers that you watch/look up to?

Sadly, I had no one to look toward when I was coming up with this Idea to stream for the community, as there were very few English-speaking WoT streams. Though I was still very new to Twitch, all of the big streams I watched were the complete opposite of how I wanted to form a community based on helping each other. As time progressed though, other streams began popping up and one of my personal favorites is Zeven, a current Clan mate. The way he is able to very calmly decipher enemy movements in a game is unreal most times. I still learn a lot of thing from watching his stream and I've been playing this game since Beta! Other streams I watch when i'm not streaming myself are PhlyDaily, Nolan1243, Besneyepnu, RatZ1LLa and Anfield_US.

Do you have anything new and exciting planned for your channel?

I have changed the days work on the stream to work a certain way to ensure everyone gets to see something different every day:

• Mentoring Mondays: I take players with very little battles and introduce them to basic items and skills needed in the game (e.g., game modes and which class they should play)
• Tutoring Tuesdays: For the players who need a refresher course on the "meta" changes, or who just need to ask questions about tanks and equipment/skills/new lines
• Whatever Wednesday: Random day, random Platoons -- "play4fun" with lots of jokes and and tons of fun.
• Team Battle Thursdays: I grab a ragtag group of players and call them to victory!
• Friday is usually a day off because I couldn't think of a good name =]
• Saturday/Sunday: Both are dedicated to my Subs on Twitch to thank them for their continued support!

I feel this layout will help people pick times that are convenient to watch for the content that they wish to see.

How did you first get into World of Tanks and what hooked you?

I first got into World of Tanks because of the WGLNA. I've been playing videos games professionally and competitively for 11 years now across a huge range of games. The WGLNA had so much more to offer than the other leagues I had been playing in, so I brought a bunch of other competitive gamers over and we all began to play. I was hooked when I actually experienced the amount of support the WGLNA offered tankers. I had so many staff members reach out and try to help us learn the game; I was floored. After doing all right in our first tournament, we knew this was a game we wanted to be a part of.

How would you describe your streams?

My streams are definitely eSports focused, but I try to make it as open and honest as possible. I've always felt that one of the reasons eSports has become what it is today is the fact that the people who watch can interact with the people who play, and both groups can get a lot out of it. For me as a professional World of Tanks player, interacting with the people watching my stream and the WGLNA stream lets me tailor my stream to what they want to see. For the people that watch, I hope it helps give them more of a vested interest in eSports.

If I had to sum up my stream as concisely as possible, I try to help people care and understand more about eSports while still having fun with it. World of Tanks has a lot of vocal people that don't always like eSports but my goal is to get them in stream, have a discussion about what they think is wrong with it, and try to make it more entertaining for those people.

Do you have any tips for new and upcoming streamers?

I think the two main rules of streaming to start bringing in numbers are talk with your viewers and be on a schedule. It always amazes me how people are so surprised when a streamer answers questions and talks with the viewers in the stream. When you stream full-time, the people watching essentially pay your salary, so the stream should be all about making sure they enjoy it. No one enjoys being ignored. The other point I mentioned was being on a schedule. People need to know when you will be on so they can watch consistently. If I stream an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening randomly, it can be hard to build up regular viewers. In case anyone was wondering, my current schedule is 9 AM - 5 PM ET every day of the week, with evening hours Sunday-Wednesday usually as soon as I finish dinner to around midnight.

Zeven

How did you first get into World of Tanks and what hooked you?

I first got into World of Tanks because some of my friends were playing in the Beta and they asked me to play with them. I was intrigued by this style of progression-based strategy-shooter and could see the potential for a lot of fun in the game (I tend to think of the game as a less twitchy Counter-Strike). I did not actually play that much in the Beta because my friends stopped playing. I started playing by myself a month or two after release and have been playing pretty consistently ever since.

If you could make any improvements to World of Tanks, what would they be?

Two things, really. One, make the game more rewarding for dynamic play. It is too late in the development cycle of WoT for this, but it is an important chord that is familiar to long-time players. It would make the game more exciting to watch, generate more eSports interest and draw more people into the game. No one wants to watch tanks sit around for eight minutes and then have 60 seconds of action (yet that has been the meta-game for the majority of the premier WoT eSsports league in NA).

Two, add a spectator mode. WG added spectator modes relatively recently to training rooms, but it would be helpful if we could spectate random battles (where the majority of all games take place and [have] a significantly larger mental undertaking). You could make it Platoon-only and where the spectator cannot switch to watch other tanks. Why? [Because] WoT has a steep early learning curve. Having a spectator mode would allow someone to "ride along" without having their own stream set up and without having to control their own tank. It would allow people to generate interest from new friends in the game by having them ride along in higher tiers, and also allow them to give these new friends pointers in real time as they learned the game in lower tiers.

Do you have any interests/hobbies/occupation outside of World of Tanks?

When I am not playing video games, I cycle and hike. I used to play a lot of roller hockey (retired because of knee injuries) and am an avid sports fan.

Anfield

How did you first get into World of Tanks and what hooked you?

I first started playing after my character on a MMO I used to play was hacked, [and] my friend suggested I play this tank game. I wasn't sure at first, but I'd always loved military history, so I gave it a go. It's difficult to determine what really hooked me, but I think a big part of it was the goal-setting of unlocking new vehicles -- I'm very competitive and at the time I wanted to get a higher-tier tank than my friend.

How would you describe your streams? And tell us a bit about your streaming setup.

I try to strike the balance of high-level game play while also being engaged with my audience, reading their comments as I play (which isn't always easy). My streams can vary from trying to particularly play well to just plain messing around and other general 'shaking it off' and merrymaking.

For hardware, my PC has an Intel I7 3770k and GTX 660ti. Of course for streaming and even playing World of Tanks, the CPU is most important. I built this computer while I was working and at college a few years ago, and I wanted to make sure I got a good CPU at the time. I'd probably upgrade it now if I had the means.

Anything else that you want to share with the World of Tanks community?

It's never too late to learn to get better, even if my stream doesn't float your boat there are many many other fantastic streamers who are more than happy to help. In fact, that's how most of us get started, there are guides on WoTLabs and videos on YouTube in great numbers. If you put the time in, you can improve drastically. May RNGesus be with you.