Watching an esports event on Twitch is different from other viewing experiences.
For example, it's pretty rare and frowned upon to loudly voice your displeasure in
a movie theater. There are of course worthy exceptions.
"Pikachu. Why won't you get in your Pokeball?"
"It's because..." [Crowd yells]
"It's because I always want to be with you."
But on Twitch criticizing the broadcast itself can be part of the enjoyment. And viewers have
taken up several emotes as weapons in this conflict. Of these emotes WutFace
is the first and the most popular of today's episode. The origin of the
shocked expression is simple enough. Esports commentator and host Alex Mendez
also known as Goldenboy was sitting in the audience at MLG Anaheim 2014 for
Game 3 of a series between OpTic Gaming and Team EnVyUs' Call of Duty teams.
When the camera found him this happened.
[Casting.]
But... WUT... is it used for?
Come on Miles, that was good.
During esports broadcasts, WutFace is generally a response to audio problems:
N0Tail: "I think right now we are kind of at the point where we can't be considered underdogs." [Mic feedback]
And unpleasant, loud noises.
"We have, Power Gaming!"
[Screech]
But part of the emote's appeal has to be its versatility. Outside of esports it can be used to express
fear, confusion or shock.
[Muddled sneeze]
While WutFace remains one of Twitch's most popular
emotes, the second tool of ridicule we're going to talk about is a little bit less
common. But damn if it isn't a good story.
TTours is a weird purple camera emote with the word tours under it. If you've seen it
chances are it's because an event observer failed to catch something
important.
[Casting]
You might also see it being used when a stream's on-screen
visuals do not match their audio counterpart.
[Casting]
So the usage of TTours is
pretty straightforward and satisfying, but I'm willing to bet that you don't
know where it came from. And that's because the person that explained it to
me said that no one had ever asked about it. That's right people we're making meme
history again.
Since Google came up short on this I had no idea where to start but
I reach out to Twitch's PR director Chase and before you come at me for not
including his last name, he just goes by Chase, okay.
Chase: My name is chase, just chase.
"One name? Who are you, Seal?"
Listen this guy has his own Twitch emote and you
probably don't so he can do what he wants with his name. Anyways it turns out
that TTours is basically Twitch's equivalent of the Canadian superhero
team Alpha Flight.
"What the f*** is that kid."
"Holy sh*t, look at this f***ing thing."
"Holy sh*t that thing is big, Jay what is that thing it looks hurt."
"Oh my god, what the f*** is that bro? It's a baby f***ing wheaaaaal man."
Alpha Flight was a top-secret project of the Canadian government in the Marvel
Universe that never reached its conclusion — a fate that also befell
TTours. If you spend a lot of time on Twitch
you're probably familiar with the concept of a raid. Followers from one
channel pile into another, often announcing their presence in a
grandiose fashion. The idea is normally to support the streamer.
Summit: "Okay, I like this guy's style we're gonna raid him, alright? I really hope he doesn't hate
that we raid him. Guys we're gonna raid this guy tell him Summit says, 'sup."
"Am I getting raided right now? Is this Summit's raid. Oh no f***ing way dude. No way dude."
And that's what TTours was supposed to be used for. Chase told me he loves
watching smaller streamers and wanted to create a project that would help viewers
discover new channels. To that end he created the idea for a Twitch Tours
program, where he would organize a tour group and do some good-natured raiding.
But because his workload picked up Chase was never able to finish the project. The
emote on the other hand was never removed. In time, TTours the emote was
unearthed and repurposed by Twitch users, taking on a life of its own as a means
of drawing attention to poorly broadcasted moments.
[Casting]
Now the next time the audio or
camerawork on a stream get dodgy you'll know exactly what to spam in chat.
Man it's a good thing we don't have any production f***-ups on this show.
Miles: "Yeah, we run a pretty tight ship I'd say."
Listen, I just got these imported Korean chainsaws you want to see me juggle these bad boys?
Miles: "Of course I do, that's an easy million views."
Alright, let me get these revved up.
[Chainsaw revving]
Alright, here I go.
[Chainsaw noises]
Miles: "Holy sh*t man that was amazing."
That's actually the first time I've ever done that did
you get all that?
Miles: "F***."
Oh sh*t.
Miles: "There's another one." No, no. Just do a zoom-in.
Right? Cut to a, cut to a zoom-in. Miles: "Cut to a zoom-in of?"
I mean, like, of me. Just zoom it in.
Miles: "I can't just zoom it in." You can f***ing zoom it in. I see you do this sh*t all the time.
Miles: "Yeah but like that's when you like, you gotta say the line."
Okay, then we need to do the first line off camera. 'Cause I can't.
Miles: "You can do it?" The whole thing? Miles: "Yeah. I believe in you. You've done harder than this. Josh. This is nothing."
Miles: "This is what we put all those hours in the gym for, okay? All those repetitions for moments like this."
Alright, okay.