Leslie AKA Fuslie is a variety streamer on Twitch. After taking a year off before starting graduate school she picked up League Legends and has been streaming ever since. We talked to Fuslie about her journey, life, friends and everything that has helped get her to this moment.
Streamlabs: What was going through your mind when your fiance proposed to you on stream? Were you expecting it?
Fuslie: When Edison proposed to me, I had no clue. I had actually no clue. We had talked about it like a lot as like a joke or we’d like been memeing about it on stream, you know. It was like a thing in my chat to be like, it’s time and there’d be a ring anytime. It pretty much was just like an ongoing joke, but when he actually like pull out the ring I was just in shock. Genuinely, if you go back to the clip I genuinely thought it was a chipotle burrito. Like he pulled out a bag and I’m like, I remember thinking like, is he proposing? And then I remember going, no, he’s not, that’s ridiculous. Like there’s no way he was proposing. So then I was like, what is it then, Chipotle burrito? I was like so confused and then he pulls up the Rubik’s cube and I was just like, no way. Like I had imagined getting proposed to so many times as a kid growing up, you dream about getting proposed to and to have had that moment now and have it surpass all of those expectations, he’s a keeper.
Streamlabs: What type of content do you usually stream?
Fuslie: I would consider myself a variety and community streamer. So essentially I stream whatever I’m feeling. I do play games. I play TFT right now, but I’ve played league of legends, counterstrike, Overwatch. Pretty much any game out there I’m willing to try. But ultimately I stream a lot of stuff with my community and for my community. I have a talent show coming up, um, called FusFam’s got talent. I do sub interviews, I like to travel and I stream on the IRL backpack, I guess wherever life takes me, I want to bring the chat along with me. So that’s why it’s definitely a variety of content.
Streamlabs: How did you first get into live streaming?
Fuslie: So I lived with three guys, Alex, Billy and Raymond and at the time was taking a year off, after I graduated from UC Irvine and before I was going to go to graduate school for teaching. In that year I was just tutoring, trying to get some experience so my application would look stronger for getting my masters. And in that year, those three guys, they introduced me to League of legends and I couldn’t remember a time that I had more fun with a group of friends than playing league. And I realized like, wow, I’ve been missing out on like gaming and just this whole experience I’ve been missing out on my whole lif. I’d played Pokemon in the past, but really for online gaming, the closest I’d done was neo pets when I was like a kid.
League was the first real PC gaming ever did. That introduced me to Twitch because my roommate Alex would watch the streamer named Becca. I’m sure you’ve heard of her. And then I asked him what he was doing. And then that led to him telling me that I should stream and then I felt inspired and I started streaming in 2015. Um, number five.
Streamlabs: What was the hardest thing about streaming when you first started? Do you have any advice for new people?
Fuslie: The hardest thing for me was growing probably. Obviously, the biggest obstacle with streaming, especially at the beginning, is how do you get viewers, how do you get people to watch you?
I wasn’t super concerned about it when I first started. I remember being excited that there were people, like even five people to like nerd out about League of legends with me. Because when I talk about league with my friends, everyone would be like, no, but online you get all the support, like, yeah, new patch notes! But as I started to stream more and more and more, I started realizing, oh, like how do I get people to watch me? And I think the biggest, the biggest advice I would have is to get involved in a community. Don’t just start streaming out of nowhere and expect people to just watch you. Like, why is someone going to watch you? If you’re part of a community and you’ve been involved, maybe like other community members will come by and say, hi, stop by, drop a follow because they know you from that community.
That’s not to say you should only join a community just so you can get viewers for yourself, but if you are already like really involved in one or you genuinely are part of another I’m sure a lot of those other members would love to come support you.
Streamlabs: Were there other streamers that you looked up to inspired you when you started streaming on Twitch?
Fuslie: Yes, 100%. When I first started streaming I did a little bit of research and I found Pokimane right off the bat and I thought her streams were so great. I thought she had such a wonderful personality. She held herself so well. I remember just being really inspired by her.
Also, AnglesKimi, right when I first started she had just started just before me. And I remember like looking at her profile being like, wow, she has everything together. Her panels, just the way she holds herself, everything. So I was really inspired by Kimmy and Pokey, and Janet, xChocoBars as well.
Streamlabs: Did you ever think you’d be creating content like this full time?
Fuslie: Just as I read that question, I just like had a moment that like, that’s what I get to do.
I think in high school and college I always dreamed of creating content. Yeah, being a content creator always just seemed like the dream, but I never admitted it to myself or anybody around me because it just seemed like I didn’t know how to start. I didn’t want to my peers to see me fail either.
So I just made a few videos here and there. Some people found them, but it was always like a deep-down dream of mine to be able to be a content creator and to collab with some of the people that I have already collabed with, which just blows my mind too. It’s opened my mind to so much and I feel so fortunate, I never thought I would actually get to a point where I could say that I’m a full-time content creator. Just to be sitting here and doing this interview is just like, yeah, it’s making me really realize how lucky I am.
Streamlabs: What goals or aspirations would you like to achieve this year and in the future?
Fuslie: I’m always wondering like, what are my goals? What’s next for me?
I just want to create content that I’m really proud of.
I think as a content creator, you can fall into this trap where you’re making content for other people because you know it’s good for viewership or you know this is like the Meta, this is the kind of content that everyone else is creating. And you start to just forget why you make content. This year my focus is creating content that I’m proud of and that I want to do and say, you know. Viewership is great, but if it’s for something that I don’t want to be doing or I’m unhappy doing, then I don’t want to be doing it.
Streamlabs: When you aren’t live streaming, what are some things you enjoy doing in your free time?
Fuslie: I love, love, love traveling. I think that’s something I realized after traveling so much this year. Berlin, Korea, Vegas, just all over the place. I want to see more and more and more of the world. So when I’m not streaming, I’m like planning a trip or I’m looking up like places in the world. I’ve been doing VR a lot lately just off-stream, just like getting lost and I think I like to just talk to other people, get outside of this little bubble and just see what the world has to offer. And so traveling, daydreaming about traveling, that's something I love to do and I want to do way more of it.
Streamlabs: Has livestreaming opened up doors or opportunities you weren’t expecting?
Fuslie: 10000%. I think I’ve mentioned this in the previous questions, but I’ve gotten to collab with so many content creators that I never dreamed of collabing with. I’ve gotten to go to so many events, travel to so many places, meet so many people. Sometimes I have to slap myself, like how did I get here? Like I just look around the room a lot of times around all the content creators and normally I’d just be at like a huge fangirl of all of you. I’m a very big fan girl. So when I watch somebody that I meet them, I like can’t speak. So when people come up to me and they fangirl over me, I’m just like, Whoa, calm down.
It’s so weird. It’s a very surreal feeling and I’m so freaking blessed and lucky that people have supported me to this point. I don’t understand why to this day, but I’m very fortunate for all the opportunities streaming has brought me.
Streamlabs: Is there a specific tool or feature from Streamlabs that you couldn’t live without?
Fuslie: Too many. Honestly, I have been using Streamlabs since I first started streaming. I downloaded it in 2015 and ever since then I’ve been using it. But I think the number one feature for me is the alerts and the ease of uploading, like your custom alerts, it just like ups your stream to the next level. It allows for so many funny interactions. There’s so many great moments where chat has just like trolled me or like timed a donation in the perfect way. Streaming just wouldn’t be streaming for me without Streamlabs and the alerts. So I think that’s definitely the one.
