Welcome to Streamers on the Rise, where we find streamers who are growing their channels, content, and audiences in extraordinary ways. Each week we’ll talk with a creator about what goes into livestreaming–both on and off camera.
It was all an accident.
That’s what Repullze says when you ask him how he ended up on Twitch.
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He’s always been a gamer, and he’s always been gregarious and majorly outgoing, with a level of energy that sometimes reaches a little loco, according to his mother. Despite his extroversion and how, through his Call of Duty expertise, he’d fallen in with well-known streamers like Nickmercs and TimTheTatman, he never considered going live himself. As far as he was concerned, he already had a career as a licensed physical therapist and just played CoD on the side.
Then COVID hit, and his day job bookings dried up.
That’s when he figured, “Screw it,” he says. He was going to try. And not for him–for one of his friends, DiazBiffle, who’s “quite literally the best Call of Duty player in the world,” he says, “but he was always too scared to stream.” Diaz agreed to do it if Repullze went live for him and they played the game together on Repullze’s channel. It was never meant to be a big thing, but it “blew up,” Repullze says.
He became absorbed in streaming, and when bookings at his day job resumed, he spent every day waking up, going to work, then coming home and streaming from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. The schedule was brutal, but all the hours he put in broadcasting (as well as publishing lots of content across YouTube and Twitter) began to pay off.
“I don’t know what happened,” he says. “I was just having this conversation [with DiazBiffle] in, I believe, April of 2021. We went from zero subscribers, absolutely, just in it for my friend, to a year later being the number six most subscribed channel in the world.”
Now Repullze is a full-time streamer who’s using his platform to boost other creators and circle up the Call of Duty community around his new podcast, Pullze Check.
We’ll let him tell you the rest below.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tubefilter: Give me a little bit of background about you and how you got on Twitch.
Repullze: It’s funny, I just had this conversation on stream last night. If you ask me, how did I start this? I guess I’ll give you a short version of that. My name’s Hector or Repullze, you can call me whichever. I am a mainly Call of Duty Twitch streamer. I started out, and this was all an accident. I’m going to be honest. I feel like things like this always happens. I never expected this to happen. Before streaming, I was a licensed physical therapist assistant in the state of Texas, and COVID happened, and I’ve always loved gaming. During COVID, I said, “Screw it.”
Oh, to be honest, one of my best friends, DiazBiffle, he is quite literally the best Call of Duty player in the world, but he was always too scared to stream. He was like, “Hey, why don’t you stream and I’ll just play with you.” Literally, I was just like, “All right, I guess so.” I didn’t even start streaming for myself. It was more to put my friend on and show the world like, “Hey, this guy’s really good, man. People should watch him.”
Then that happened. Things blew up. He started streaming. Thank god. I really wanted him to succeed. I don’t know, it was a big shock. I don’t know what happened. I was just having this conversation in, I believe, April of 2021. We went from zero subscribers, absolutely zero, just in it for my friend, to a year later being the number six most subscribed channel in the world.
Tubefilter: That’s amazing.
Repullze: It’s crazy. It’s funny I was saying this. I would literally be scared to go to bed because I was like, “It’s all a dream. I’m going to wake up and it’s all going to be over.” I dabble in some Warzone content. I love to do Just Chatting streams. I think one day my channel will take that direction. For me, my passion is talking to people. I love humans. I love people. That’s what I hope one day for my channel. For now, Call of Duty is what I’ve always loved. I really do enjoy it. I have a podcast Pullze Check where we go over literally anything and everything Call of Duty, Warzone related. That’s been doing really great. We started that this year. High energy always. We got lasers, smoke machines, anything. You name it, and we got it in the stream.
Tubefilter: Do you remember what made your friend hesitant to stream?
Repullze: Yes. It’s funny because we’re complete opposites. I’m very out there. I’m a people person. He’s the most introverted person I’ve ever met in my life.
Tubefilter: Oh, that explains it.
Repullze: He’s not really a fan of people. He’s very quiet. He’s definitely gotten out of his shell more, but he’s still– I don’t know. He doesn’t like the attention, and he doesn’t really like things like that. He didn’t want to stream. It’s funny, Nickmercs pretty much told him, he was like, “Hey, I want you to stream it. You’re way too good to not stream.”
He was like, “All right.” So if it wasn’t for Nick, none of us would be here right now. Nick pretty much told him, “You need to stream.” He’s streamed for the two and a half years of his career without a facecam, and now, finally, he’s transitioned to that. That’s how we all started.
@repullze the new proximity chat in warzone 2 is amazing 😂 #repullze #cod #callofduty #gaming #warzone #warzone2 #warzoneclips ♬ original sound – Repullze
Tubefilter: This is your full-time thing now, so how have things evolved and what’s your current streaming schedule?
Repullze: I think the biggest misconception when it comes to general content creation is that, oh, we just get on and play the video game, or we just get on and stream, and that’s it. At least for me, I’m going to speak solely on myself. Streaming is just 20% of the work. It’s a lot of time to put in like 24/7, no days off, but I love it. I enjoy it more than anything in the world. I’ll even say this, obviously, I was in the medical field. I used to unload tires out of trucks in 120-degree weather. Really hard labor stuff. But streaming is the hardest job I’ve ever had to do, and it’s more mentally taxing.
As far as the schedule, I just switched my schedule a week ago, but for the last three years, my schedule was 8:00 PM to quite literally 4:00 AM. I’ve been on a crazy reverse sleep schedule. I would go to bed at 8:00 AM every day. Wake up at 3:00 PM every single day. I finally said, “You know what? It’s time to switch things around.” Now, I stream at 4:00 PM every day, 4:00 to 12:00. I did dial it back four hours. I’m liking it. We’ll see. That’s my normal stream schedule at the moment.
Tubefilter: I think you’re the first person I’ve spoken to at least for this column who had an overnight schedule.
Repullze: Really?
Tubefilter: Yep. What made you originally choose to stream at night?
Repullze: I guess with the way my schedule was working before, I’d wake up, go to work, and then come back home, work out, and immediately after, it was around 7:00 PM. That’s when I started and I was like, “Okay, this is just getting my schedule.” I started streaming and then COVID happened, and then I just kept going. Because of COVID, my stream schedule was always 8:00 PM to 4:00 AM, so I was always that late-night guy every single night. I was honestly just too scared to change it, but I made that decision last week. I was like, “You know what? For the mental health, I really need to try to be somewhat of a normal person and have a normal schedule,” so I switched it to 4:00 PM.
Tubefilter: Have you noticed any significant differences yet, or…?
Repullze: I don’t know if it’s because definitely the vibes are a little bit different, but the amount of love and just the streams in general have been insane, and I don’t even know why. I would assume it’s because the podcast that I have has been doing so well. Maybe it’s transitioned over to regular streams. That’s the only thing I could see that makes a difference. I did it more for the mental, but I’m very blessed that the streams actually have been doing really insane. It’s been really fun. It’s been really cool.
Tubefilter: That’s good. What gave you the idea to do your podcast?
Repullze: I had the idea last year in August, around this time, and I noticed there was a hole in the space that nobody was taking. It was a couple podcasts, but people weren’t really consistent, and it wasn’t really as in-depth as a consumer, as somebody who wanted to watch as I wanted. I was like, “You know what? Let me plan this.” I had my man, ZooMaa. He has his own podcast for the CDL, which is the competitive Call of Duty. He has a podcast on that, and I was like, “Hey, there’s really nothing for Warzone competitively or a regular podcast.”
I said, “Screw it.” Last August I had to put the plan in motion and started working toward that. I think it wasn’t until February that we launched everything, and it’s been insane. We’ve done podcasts and watch parties. Then ZooMaa was a big influence. I had a long conversation with him and just saw market that wasn’t taken. I knew that for me I was always an entertainer first, but I was very competitive in the Call of Duty space, and found a good amount of success there.
I always knew that my passion wasn’t really competing. Like, I’m okay at video games, but I love to entertain more. Transitioning from competitor to the podcast/entertainment was probably one of the best things I ever did. I’ve seen a lot of success and just people love it, man. I personally love it. It’s been great.
Tubefilter: That’s good! I know you mentioned people are coming over to your stream from your podcast, and there’s more hype on your streams because of your podcast, but one thing I have talked about every person in this column about is just the difficulty of growing an audience on Twitch. I know you also have a YouTube and you have a strong presence on Twitter. I’m curious about how you’ve been able to build your audience on Twitch when Twitch doesn’t really have good discoverability tools yet.
Repullze: You know it’s funny. I actually just had a whole “revelation” with myself. I came to the conclusion that I really try to think five steps ahead after two, three years in the space. Starting off with the success that we had early on, I was very blessed. It happened out of nowhere and it was just very organic. It had a lot to do with COVID. At least I feel like it was a perfect right place, right time. After COVID, things started to die down. I had a conversation with my boy Swagg and he was like, “Real content creators are tested in times of where the game’s bad or when numbers are down. That’s when you see what you’re really made of.”
Seeing all the numbers go down when it comes to this, I started to learn it really is all about content. Going back to discoverability and all that stuff, it really comes down to your content. I always ask people, and I was told this. His name is Uli. It’s Nickmercs’ right-hand man. He’s really great guy. He was like, “Hector, you need to ask yourself, what do you bring to the table that nobody does? Stay in your lane. Don’t try to be something that you’re not, and just be you, and figure out what you bring that nobody else does, and attack that.”
My mom always told me, “Hey, you have way too much energy.” She’s like, “You’re crazy.” In Spanish, she would call me loco. At the beginning of streaming, I was very scared to be myself. Then after a couple months, I was like, “You know what? I’m just going to be me. I don’t care if I’m too crazy and people don’t like it. I don’t care.” For me, I always tell people, “Find what makes you different. Find something that’s not in the space. At the end of the day, it’s really is content.” For me, tying it back to the podcast, it’s like, that’s great. The energy is awesome, but I feel like I want to bring more to the space. I want to bring something that’s bigger than just me. Something where I can have content for years and years to come.
That’s how I started the podcast/watch parties, and bringing something to the table that’s not just Hector or Repullze. It’s something really broad. We could talk about making an impact on the space when it comes to Call of Duty, and we know that that’s a space that definitely needs a lot of help. We’re trying to use our voice to make the game as good as possible and just help it in that regard.
Tubefilter: Can you tell me a little more about that aspect of things?
Repullze: Actually I’m releasing a video on this in a couple days. Call of Duty is known as one of the most toxic communities in the gaming space in general. My goal is to try to be a light in that space. I try to always spread positivity and always try to just be a light in that regard. Again, it’s hard. I’m going to be very transparent with you. Just being blunt. The amount of comments, hate comments, death threats even, that I get for just…It’s something that comes with the territory, whether it be in the Call of Duty space or even just as a content creator. I try to, regardless of everything that’s going on, just try to be a positive influence in this space. That’s my goal.
Tubefilter: That’s so nice to hear. I don’t play Call of Duty but I do play Apex, which I think is less toxic overall, but I still don’t get on mic for obvious reasons. It’s nice to hear when men especially are really positive voices in communities like that, fighting off toxicity.
Repullze: Again, I really try to be an advocate for people. Growing up, my pops, my family, always taught me to love everybody. I try. I try my best. Again, I’m a human so I will make mistakes. I will mess up. But I try to always just put humans first. Like I said, I’m a big people guy, so I love people and I try.
Tubefilter: Genuinely lovely to hear. When you do your streams, do you have a split between Just Chatting and gaming?
Repullze: Normally what I do is I’ll spend the first hour to two hours doing Just Chatting, just hanging out stream, bringing out my lasers, smoke machines, just hanging out. This is the current stream format at the moment but things will change when the new game comes out in November. It’s about two hours of just hanging out, vibing out with my chat, and just making sure I have that personal relationship with everybody. Then after that, it’s about like six hours of gaming. I normally get on ranked and we just grind ranked with my boys. Also, not taking it too serious while also being entertaining while doing ranked. You normally go to ranked streams and it’s just full 100% locked in and all seriousness. I try to always be locked but at the same time, let’s say we win, we go crazy, throw a laser show, go nuts, and keep it fun as well. That’s the schedule for me at the moment.
Tubefilter: That’s a very difficult balance, to keep ranked lighthearted.
Repullze: Yes, it is. It’s very hard. Very hard.
Tubefilter: You mentioned earlier that streaming is only 20% of your work. Clearly, you’re maintaining your presence across a lot of platforms. I’m sure you’ve got brand deals and stuff going on. What goes on behind the scenes on the business side?
Repullze: Being very transparent, my girlfriend helps me significantly with a lot of these things. She’s been my girlfriend for about eight years now. She helps me with literally everything behind the scenes and making sure that I have things ready to go as far as planning. As far as content-wise, it’s a lot of conceptualization. For me, I never want to get complacent. Every day I’ll take an hour, two hours, whether it be YouTube, whether it be planning for certain streams, planning for watch parties, planning for things ahead. It’s a lot of constant like, “All right, what’s next? What’s next?”
Like I said, it’s a 24/7 job, but normally the schedule would be, wake up, whatever time that’d be. I just changed my schedule, so I’m waking up at noon now. I know that’s pretty late for a lot of people. I used to wake up at 3:00 or 4:00. Now, wake up at noon, and then for the first two hours, it’s planning, whether it be YouTube or like I said, streams, content in general, and just trying to think of what I can do next. That’s how the podcast and watch parties were formed for me, is just thinking of what I could do to continue to progress and make myself a better content creator.
It’s a lot of thinking, I will say. It’s a lot of sitting down in a quiet room, writing notes on what I think I could do better, what I need to do. Getting ready for sponsored streams or whatever the case may be. It’s a lot of things, the little things, if that makes sense. Again, I feel like I put a lot more effort into that stuff than it is to streaming. For me, I just come on and just be myself. It’s not “hard.” I just have fun. As far as the other stuff is where I like, okay, I have to actually think about what’s next. How do I keep on progressing? How do I not get complacent, and so on and so forth.
Tubefilter: Especially with streaming, you’re right, there is that misconception that you just get on and you just talk and you make a billion dollars and it’s fine and it’s easy. Streamers put in so much work. With this column, I’m glad to get to have these perspectives, because I really feel like people don’t understand.
Repullze: I think another thing is like time off. There really is no room for time off, or at least long periods of time off. In my opinion, unless you’re at the top, unless you’re like TimTheTatman, Dr DisRespect. Unless you’re at that level, then you can. My opinion, being very transparent, I consider myself a small streamer. I want to get to those levels, but it requires a lot of work. I can’t really take a lot of time off, but that’s okay. I’m in my 20s and right now is the time for me to work really hard so I can enjoy the fruits of my labor when I’m, let’s say–I love Tim so I can say this–when I’m old like Tim.
That’s the goal right now is to just really put in the time, really put in the work, and really grind. I want to take care of my family one day and I want to retire my mama. The goal is just to keep grinding.
@repullze what would be your reaction 👀 #cod #warzone #repullze #callofduty #gaming ♬ original sound – Repullze
Tubefilter: Retiring Ma, that’s always the goal. That leads right into my last question, which is, do you have any plans or goals for the future? Any projects you’re working on? Any cool things you want to talk about?
Repullze: Yes. I guess for goals, people like Nickmercs, Swagg, all these guys help me in this space. I dedicate a huge part of where I’m at because of them and to them. I want to help people out. Obviously, the goal for a lot of people is to retire their parents, that is a huge goal of mine. I’m working on it.
The next goal in my life is to set up a huge space and a warehouse for me and my boys to stream from. I want to take the next generation of talent and try to help them. I live in a house right now. This is my home, but I have five people living with me. I want them to succeed in the streaming stuff too. My goal is for all of the people that live with me to take this their main source of revenue and be able to do this long-term. That’s where I’m at in all this. I really want to give back and try to help my boys and the people around me. That’s my end goal. As far as individually, I would love to make Pullze Check grow to insane heights. Very transparently, right now there’s only a three-month tournament scene for the Warzone community. I really would like to turn that into a year-long thing like Apex. Apex does amazing job at it.
Tubefilter: Yep, ALGS all year round.
Repullze: Yes! I would love to have and help progress Warzone forward in that regard when it comes to competitive. Just in general, the game, I try to be very vocal when it comes to “fixing the game.” Devs hate me because I’m constantly messaging them, emailing them, telling them, “This is what I think could be improved.” They’re great. We have a really good line of communication where we can just talk about things.
I will say they don’t listen to the majority of the things that I say, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to stop. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying. I really do try to help the community and try to get what the community actually wants in there and give a lot of feedback as much as possible. I guess end goals would be just put the people around me on and help them do this for a living and really just grow the Pullze Check podcast into something that I hope can progress them outside of wars and eventually, but really just to grow the Warzone scene and hopefully start an even bigger competitive scene.
