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.
Emily Wang has always been a gamer, but she knew something was different when she discovered auto chess games.
As a kid, she was into early 2000s classics like RuneScape and Neopets, and then while in law school, she played a lot of League of Legends, Fortnite, and PUBG. Then she found auto chess: games where players place characters or other game elements on a digital game board, then watch their assets battle it out until one of them is crowned the winner. The genre got its name because, like regular chess, it’s a strategy-heavy game that takes a lot of thinking through which piece will move where, which attack will do what damage, and much more. There’s also RNG elements that can affect how games turn out, but in most cases, a player’s superior strategy will carry them through.
Subscribe to get the latest creator news
And that’s exactly what appeals to Wang. Her first auto chess game was Dota Auto Chess, but her favorite is TeamFight Tactics.
“I would play for 12 hours a day when I had time, if I could, or 12 hours plus,” she says. “Even to this day, it’s been about three years of playing TFT, and I still really, really enjoy it.”
Lots of people enjoy watching her play it, too. She started streaming TFT on Twitch while working as a lawyer in Chicago, and in less than a year, “it grew to a point where I thought it would be good for me to do it full-time,” she says. “I just quit my job. I was like, ‘Okay, I’m done.’ Then I started full-time streaming.”
She’s now been streaming TFT full-time for two years, and has grown her Twitch channel to 220,000 followers. This year, she intends to take her love of TFT to even higher levels by competing in more tournaments.
“My plan is to actually take the next set which is coming out pretty seriously, and then take the set after that very, very seriously, because I do want to go and compete and do well,” she says.
Her TFT tournaments will be a little later this year, but if you’re interested in seeing her strat skills in action soon, you can catch her playing with 23 other Twitch streamers during a Tekken tournament March 8 and 10.
Check out our chat with her below.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tubefilter: Let’s dive right in. Imagine somebody is reading this, and they don’t know anything about you or your content. Tell me a little bit about you, and where you’re from. I know you ended up going to law school, so I’d love to hear about your early life.
Emily Wang: Yes! I grew up in Michigan and I went to school in Michigan. My parents worked there. Then I went to law school in New York, and then after law school, I actually worked at a pretty big law firm in Washington, D.C. for a while. Then after a couple of years there, I moved to Chicago, worked more in law there. That’s when I started streaming more.
After a little bit, I think about after streaming TFT part-time for about half a year to a year, it grew to a point where I thought it would be good for me to do it full-time. I just quit my job and I was like, “Okay, I’m done.” Then I started full-time streaming. I think it’s been two years now since I’ve been full-time streaming TFT.
Tubefilter: That’s amazing. That’s quite daring, to quit being a lawyer for streaming. How did you reach the point where you were comfortable enough to go full-time in streaming?
Emily Wang: I think financially, it was always, I knew I could live off the amount I was making at that time. I also just saw quite a bit of growth in my streams and I figured, if this continues, even if I don’t grow anymore or even if I become a bit smaller than I am, it’s still livable.
I also kept my law license active during that whole time, just in case something happened. I knew there was always something else I could do. Always having that backup plan, knowing that even if it failed, I could always go back was something that was reassuring.
Tubefilter: Have you always been a gamer?
Emily Wang: Yes, I have. When I was young, it was just RuneScape, Neopets, certain PlayStation games, stuff like that, but then when I went to college, I got really into League for a little bit. I played a bit of League of Legends and then when the shooters were becoming more popular, like PUBG, Fortnite, stuff like that, I also played those.
At the point, I started playing auto chess games, which is what TFT is. That was when I think I was just like, “Oh, I’m not too sure about games.” But then I was really, really addicted to auto chess games. Back then, it was Dota Auto Chess, and then it became TFT. My passion became TFT later on. I really, really love those games. I would play for 12 hours a day when I had time, if I could, or 12 hours plus. Even to this day, it’s been about three years of playing TFT, and I still really, really enjoy it.
Tubefilter: Interesting. I’m a big gamer, but I actually have never played TFT, and I’m not very familiar with auto chess games. Can you give a little bit of context about auto chess games and what TFT is like?
Emily Wang: Yes. Auto chess games, it’s basically, you can think of it as like Hearthstone or a strategy game. You and your opponent both have boards that look like chess boards and then on these chess boards, every turn you have an opportunity to use econ, your money, in-game money to buy certain units to place on your board, and then they fight.
There’s also things like augments, portals, like RNG factors, but in the end, I think it’s mostly strategy game. There’s a lot of understanding the game, the board strength, econ behind it. Yes, I think that’s the best way to describe it, like a strategy chess game-ish with RNG factors within.
Tubefilter: Interesting. What keeps you from getting burned out on that? What keeps that game so interesting for you?
Emily Wang: The game, Riot does a really good job about updating the game. They completely change the game every four months, and then they have biweekly patches. Like right now, we’re at the end of, we call it a “set,” the end of the four months. At this point, yes, it’s a little bit boring because it’s been so long, but we know next week, a new one, the fresh one is going to come out. I think that’s what really keeps it fresh.
Tubefilter: I saw you’re also doing a lot of Just Chatting streams right now? And you’re also playing Tekken.
Emily Wang: Actually not too often. It’s just I think for these past couple of weeks, because it’s towards the end of a set, and there’s not really much going on. Usually for the majority of the set, I would say three months out of four, it’s 95% TFT. Yes, just right now, it’s a little weird. It’s downtime, so I do a bit of other things.
Tubefilter: What constitutes downtime? Just that there’s an update coming soon?
Emily Wang: It’s downtime as in there’s no tournaments right now. Really, the ranks don’t matter at all right now, in the chat. A lot of things just don’t really matter to fight for, so for a lot of people, streamers, TFT streamers right now are just chilling. A lot of people are in Valorant. A lot of people are in Tekken. A lot of people are on vacation. [laughs]
Tubefilter: Well deserved! When will things pick up again?
Emily Wang: In a week. Next week is when the new set releases, so a lot of people will start creating content. Actually today, we have a play test for the next set for creators. That’s in a couple of hours. You get to see what it’s like. Then next week is when it comes out. For about a week, people are creating a lot of content around the new set, and then two weeks later is when the set officially releases. Then that’s when everyone really starts the hardcore grind again.
Tubefilter: This is a segment of gaming I’m totally unfamiliar with, so it’s very interesting to hear about. It’s very cool.
Emily Wang: Yes, it is very interesting. I think the community is really tight-knit. I was just going to say I’ve been playing Tekken recently because there’s a big new streamer Tekken tournament being held in a week and a half, so I’ve been training.
Tubefilter: Oh, I see! Do you pretty regularly compete in tournaments?
Emily Wang: In TFT, yes.
Tubefilter: What’s a tournament like?
Emily Wang: The way the TFT roadmap usually is scheduled is there’s three major tournaments every set, and then that leads into regionals and worlds at the end of the set. They’re usually a weekend long Saturday, Sunday, and you play six games each day. You accumulate points and then the points will tell you whether you make it to regionals and then in regionals, it’s across three days. That determines who goes to world.
Tubefilter: What’s the furthest you’ve gotten in a tournament?
Emily Wang: I got first once. It was my clip that was used for the Streamer Awards. I think I won three or four games in a row. That was a major tournament, but it was the earlier half of the major tournament. I feel like for me, I haven’t super focused– Even though I do the tournaments and I do make the cutoffs to get into them, because I think it’s usually top 100 or so who compete, I think for me, I’m a little less on the hardcore, like, “Oh, I need to be rank one, be the best at the game and everything.” I feel like that takes away a bit from my stream, because then I get more angry and I get more stressed. My streams are a little bit more chill and I try to incorporate more fun things.
Tubefilter: What does the average stream look like for you in terms of structure? Do you have a just chatting segment or what’s your time split between talking to chat and playing games? I feel like strategy games, they take a lot of your focus.
Emily Wang: Yes. I was thinking about maybe incorporating a 10- or 15-minute just chatting section on my streams, but I haven’t yet. I just start and then I chat while I’m in queue because our queues in Challenger are usually 5 to 10 minutes. Not super long, but it can be a little bit long.
Then there’s after you get into queue or the game starts, there’s a loading screen. There’s quite a bit of downtime, I would say. Then once you get into the game, I think when the set first releases, it generally takes a few weeks for you to get used to the units and how to play the game again. You have to relearn it. After that, I can generally autopilot the game decently after a bit. Then it turns to be more like a talking-to-chat while playing stream.
Tubefilter: What other fun things do you do? I see a wheel behind you.
Emily Wang: Oh, yes. I do drinking streams now and then, not too often. Sometimes we do those. Sometimes when a game comes out that’s interesting, I’ll play it. Piano streams happen once every half a year. Then Tekken streams happen not too often either, but yes.
Tubefilter: What’s your current stream schedule look like?
Emily Wang: Right now I stream mornings. I streamed mornings pretty consistently for the last couple of years. I used to stream starting at 7:00 AM but these days I’ve been a little bit more relaxed, 9:10 a.m.AM. I might start streaming earlier again soon. I feel I’ve been a little bit more relaxed on my schedule lately. I could start anywhere between 8 to 10, sometimes 11 today because I slept really late.
Tubefilter: That’s interesting. Most streamers I speak to stream in the evening or even through the night. Are you just a morning person? What drew you to morning streams?
Emily Wang: Oh, no, no. I’m not really a morning person.
Tubefilter: You are so brave then.
Emily Wang: I don’t even know if I’m a night person. I feel I’m just an average person. I don’t like waking up super late is what I realized because when I first started streaming full-time, or not full-time, but just streaming, I would stream at night because then you had time off after work. Then when I started streaming full-time, at first it was at night. It would be really late at night.
Then I didn’t like it. It felt weird, just always being awake when there’s no sun. Then I also realized, at that time, that streaming mornings was way better for viewership because a lot of EU people actually play TFT, and a lot of the Asian population, there’s quite a lot of Chinese, Taiwanese, a lot of Japanese people who play the game and actually watch my streams. A decent amount of my viewership is actually– 10% I would say is Asian.
I figured streaming 7:00 AM was best for that because it was okay, time for NA, good time for EU, good time for Asia. Then it was also nice just because you wake up and the first thing you do is you start stream and then you stream and then afterwards you can do whatever. That’s why I started and I just kept it up.
Tubefilter: You have evenings free to yourself.
Emily Wang: Yes.
Tubefilter: That’s good. I wanted to ask, your growth on Twitch, I know it can be difficult because Twitch’s discoverability can be a little bit difficult to work with. What do you think was the biggest factor in growing your audience on Twitch?
Emily Wang: At first I think it was maybe my rank because I was pretty high rank when I first started streaming. Then afterwards, I think the most important thing, at least for TFT streaming, is having fun or making fun content that people actually enjoy watching and that you make people laugh, you do interesting things, fun things.
I do think I was able to do that more and more throughout my career in streaming. Also definitely getting to know other streamers who do stream TFT and doing stuff with them and stuff like that has helped too. I think a lot of things.
Tubefilter: What’s been your favorite part of being online, being on Twitch?
Emily Wang: I don’t know. It’s just really fun to stream the game you like to play and then interact with your audience. I really enjoy actually talking to chat and just having something like having– I don’t know how to describe it, but when I play off-stream, it’s a little boring. It’s having that excitement. It’s like I’m entertaining them, but they’re also entertaining me, sort of. That’s nice.
Tubefilter: Do you ever play TFT off stream?
Emily Wang: I do. I did quite a bit this set actually, but normally, the set prior to this, I really tried to not do it too much because I think that’s a great way to burn yourself out. I definitely did some of the set to try to rank at certain ranks for the tournaments.
Tubefilter: I am very curious. Maybe I’m self-conscious, but playing a strategy game on stream, I feel like, is very brave. Did you ever have self-consciousness about being watched playing or was it just naturally a good fit for you?
Emily Wang: I think in the beginning I was a little bit, but then not really that much because for me, I’m usually top 50 at least. I know people who backseat or people who tell me what to do or people who say certain things. I recognize it as like, “Oh, they’re probably not right,” because a lot of people say very strange things sometimes.
I feel like it’s something that you get used to at first. You doubt yourself. You’re like, “Oh, maybe they’re right and I’m not.” Then it’s like after a while get used to it and you start thinking more and you’re like, “Wait, that doesn’t make any sense.” Then you just have to trust yourself and be confident rather than be self-conscious about what other people are saying you should do and stuff. Because in strategy games in general, I think backseat driving can be such a big thing.
Tubefilter: What are your plans over the next year or so for growing your channel?
Emily Wang: I think TFT has started to do big LAN events once a year. My plan is to actually take the next set which is coming out pretty seriously, and then take the set after that very, very seriously, because I do want to go and compete and do well. At the same time, I actually got a new YouTube team and I’m trying to work with them to learn have better YouTube content.
TFT aside, I am trying to collaborate with some people outside of TFT more often, maybe once a month, once every other month or so, instead of just being in the TFT bubble.
Tubefilter: What kind of YouTube content are you thinking of focusing on?
Emily Wang: A lot of gameplay, but then also me and one of the best players in North America, we’re doing a guide series. I think those do really, really well. Not this set anymore, but starting next set, we’re going to really churn them out and we’ll see. I’m excited.
Tubefilter: You mentioned earlier that you have a playtest tonight for the next set. Do you work directly with Riot?
Emily Wang: Yes, it’s Riot. It’s a lot of the devs and then a lot of people who work there, and then they invite the creators in the partner program and we go through a PowerPoint of everything on the set. Then they give us accounts to film and play the new set. Then there’s a time that an embargo lift where we can release the content afterwards.
Tubefilter: How did you become part of the player program?
Emily Wang: Oh, I don’t even know. It was a while ago. I think they just invited me. I was like, “Okay.”
Tubefilter: That’s cool. They had an eye on what you were doing on socials. Any other cool plans or things you want people to know about you? I know you just signed with Loaded.
Emily Wang: Yes, we signed recently.
Tubefilter: What made you choose them?
Emily Wang: I just felt I wanted, I guess, a group that I felt would be there for me for a long time. And also I felt, talking to them, I really resonated with them. Then they also just made me feel like they would be on top of things really well.
Tubefilter: To wrap up, I would love to hear what your number one piece of advice for a new TFT player would be.
Emily Wang: For a new TFT player, I think it’s just play a lot of games, and just maybe look up a simple pump to play. Play it 10, 20 times in a row, to understand how the basics of the game works, because there’s a lot of things. There’s econ management, you have to learn how to roll down, learn how to manage. Look for the units you want to find. There’s so much going on that the best thing is to look up a really, really simple pump that you want to play. Then just repeat it many times while trying to have fun.
