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Red Bull concluded its 2022 Valorant calendar in December by hosting one of the biggest esports tournaments in the game's history. The Red Bull Campus Clutch World Finals witnessed collegiate rosters from around 50 different countries convene in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to compete for a €20,000 prize pool and the title of world champions.
Ahead of the World Finals, reportedly, around 6000 Valorant teams from all over the world competed in their respective regional finals for the Red Bull Campus Clutch series. Once the top representative from each region was selected, a total of 47 teams made their way to the Estádio do Pacaembu in Sao Paulo to fight for the 2022 edition of the Red Bull Campus Clutch.
In addition to the 47 teams that participated in the World Finals, Red Bull hosted various esports and gaming personalities, including popular Valorant streamers, the G2 Gozen Valorant squad, and a few professional players.
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Keeoh talks about his career as a Valorant streamer and impact of collegiate events like Red Bull Campus Clutch
In an exclusive interview with Adarsh J Kumar of Sportskeeda Esports at the Red Bull Campus Clutch World Finals in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the renowned Valorant streamer, Joseph 'Keeoh' Winkler, shared his thoughts on the game's growth. He talked about his career as a Valorant streamer and the impact of a global event like the Red Bull Campus Clutch, among other topics.
Q: You're renowned all over the world for the unique content you produce. What inspired you to go down this path?
Keeoh: I just got into Overwatch initially, and that was the first competitive game that I was really passionate about, where I wanted to grind and get a better rank. After that, I kind of just snowballed into where I am today.
I just really found a passion for what I wanted to do, like making unique content and stuff, and it kind of just came very naturally. There wasn't like a big spark where I was just like, "Oh this is sick, let's do it!"
Q: You've grinded your way to the top of the Overwatch ranked ladder quite a few times. What do you think about the current state of the game after the release of Overwatch 2?
Keeoh: I think it's much better. Compared to Overwatch 1, it is a significant improvement on, just like, having fun in the game. Overwatch 2 still has its problems, I think.
In a competitive game like that, with how many Heroes they have in the game, there is always going to be a meta to go to, and generally, whenever I've played that game, I've never followed it because I just don't find it very fun.
Q: You've played a lot of Overwatch and Fortnite back in the day. However, Valorant has been your main focus for the last two years. What do you think sets Valorant apart from all the other FPS titles, and why do you prefer playing it over Fortnite or Overwatch?
Keeoh: The biggest thing is the watchability factor of Valorant. If you know nothing about the game and if you watch a full game of Valorant, you will understand the majority of what's going on. Obviously, there are a lot of really niche things, like the utility of the different Agents going on, but you can get the general premise and feel hyped about watching the game.
If you were to watch a full game of Overwatch or League of Legends, it's just so chaotic, and you need to have weeks of preparation to really understand the game fully, that's one of the biggest factors.
Q: You have attempted speedruns for almost all of the Agents in Valorant. Which one out of the lot would you consider the toughest or most challenging speedrun?
Keeoh: Honestly, the hardest one was Skye. When she was released, she was a lot harder to play than what she is now. When you threw out your flashbang, there was a massive delay in pulling out your gun.
I can't count the number of times I would flash in a corner when the enemy would become completely blind, and then they would be unblind, and I would still be pulling out my gun. It was the most frustrating thing I've ever done. So Skye was definitely the hardest one.
Q: What according to you is the most challenging part of streaming?
Keeoh: Probably just being animated for so long. In almost every other career, even in the creative industry, you kind of have breaks to grab lunch or go out, not talk to anyone and be by myself.
I generally stream for six to eight or even 10 hours a day, so there isn't really a long period where I'm not going to talk to anyone. You're on for that entire amount of time that you are live. So it's probably building endurance and stamina, being able to not only be present but entertaining at the same time. It's very taxing over time, but you'll learn to deal with it for sure.
Q: You have performed some of the craziest Valorant challenges known to mankind. Which among those would you say was the most fun to do?
Keeoh: I think probably the most fun challenge I did was the Nuzlocke that I did in Valorant. It was just such a unique series.
Basically, I gave three lives to every Agent I've done a speedrun on. Every time I lose a game, I take away a life. By the time I lost all my lives, I had to end up on Radiant on my main account, which was the goal.
It was such an interesting concept, and no one was really doing stuff like that, so I'm stoked with how it turned out, and it ended up being fun.
Q: You're popular as the "backflip guy" in Valorant. You also have a trampoline in your studio, which is perhaps one of the most ambitious set-ups any streamer can have. What inspired you to take up such a challenging and unique approach to streaming?
Keeoh: I was a competitive springboard diver for 10 years and won three national championships for the three-meter Springboard event. That's how I kind of how I incorporated backflips into my content before the trampoline. I have a lot of experience with acrobatics, trampoline, and diving.
But about three years ago, I had the idea that I should put a trampoline in my stream studio. Valorant wasn't even out at the time, I was playing Fortnite when I had that idea. But I just put everything into doing it because I figured that, first off, no one else in the space is doing anything like this.
Secondly, there are very few people who would be able to do something like that and do it well. So I'm just really stoked with how it turned out, and I'm excited to continue making content with this.
Q: You represented Cloud9 as a streamer for over four years. What made you leave the organization earlier this year?
Keeoh: That was a pretty tough decision. I've been with them for four years, and I'm very grateful for all the opportunities they have given me. The direction that they saw me going in in the future didn't really line up with what I saw my content being in the future. I kind of wanted to break out of that and change things.
That's why you see that over the last couple of months, I've been uploading and streaming a little less, just because I'm kind of pivoting in the direction that I want to take my content.
Q: We're currently on an international stage with contestants from around 50 different countries competing for a grand title. What kind of impact do you think a global event like Red Bull Campus Clutch has on Valorant's grassroots level?
Keeoh: I think it has one of the craziest impacts in the world, especially the teams that do really well at Campus Clutch here. Last year, Egypt won, and the social impact that it had on esports in Egypt was insane. It completely changed how the country viewed esports.
It was one of the most ground-breaking things that enabled people to actually start respecting esports in Egypt, which is crazy to be able to make happen on a collegiate level.
Normally, you kind of see it at a higher level where there's a lot of money, but to have that happen at the collegiate level and for it to make that big of an impact speaks volumes about where this industry is going.
Q: What piece of advice would you give to young, budding streamers from all over the world?
Keeoh: There are a couple of different layers. There are people who have not tried streaming, and if you want to try it, you just need to do it. That's the first thing, you've got to go live and make it happen.
And then for streamers that have already established a little bit or have tried streaming a bit, the biggest thing you can do is take time when you're not streaming to use the content you've already made on stream to promote yourself on social platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Tik Tok, and all the other platforms you can think of because that's where you're going to grow the most.
That, in return, will help your Twitch grow. That's the biggest advice I can give to all the budding streamers in the world.
