GimR at work © Robert Paul/@tempusrob/rmpaul.com

In modern-day eSports, streaming is the lifeblood of many communities. On any given weekend, there is likely to be a major tournament stream to watch. Whether you enjoy Starcraft, League of Legends, Dota 2 or Smash Bros., you’ll have the opportunity to sit down with your popcorn and witness the best of the best clash against each other in a high profile tournament setting.

But while it may be hard to believe, there was a time no so long ago when streaming was not the multi-million dollar industry it is today. Especially for a grassroots game like Smash Bros., streaming often goes unrewarded. Up until a few years ago, all that any Smash stream could claim as profit was the feeling of a job well done. Calvin “GimR” Lofton was one of the first Smash streamers to break out into the big time; these days, wherever a major tournament is going on, his company VGBootCamp is likely to be. GimR’s journey hasn’t been without its pitfalls, but his story is one of hard work, determination, and in the end, success.

An Average Start

GimR may be known as the largest Smash streamer now, but when he first started at Smash he was just a regular kid excited about the latest game. “I actually started Smash with 64. I saw the commercial – really, the training mode clip that shows Luigi vs. Mario on an unplayable stage - at a local Funcoland. As soon as I saw that, I knew I wanted the game. When it came out I sold my Super Nintendo and all of my games just to get it.” He played with his older brother (and eventual VGBC co-founder) Matthew every day after school, and they loved every minute of it.

A young Calvin "GimR" Lofton, at Pound 4 © GimR

But, as with any other figure in the community, GimR was eventually exposed to the full potential of Melee. “Sometime in 2004 I saw Shined Blind. I was absolutely astounded and was trying to figure out how the fox player was moving across the ground after the reflector. Upon my quest I eventually found Smashboards and learned about the competitive scene from there.” GimR played several characters, eventually spending a significant amount of time on Mr. Game & Watch. “In 11th grade I switched to G&W because he was funny to me, plus I thought I'd never be known as the best Falco or Marth. Looking back, it was honestly a mentality that I hate today. I told myself, ‘I can at least be the best G&W right?’” He had fun in his early Melee days, but never won tournaments; he was, bluntly put, an average player with average finishes.

On Top Of The Brawl

Brawl, however, was a different story. “When Brawl came out, I instantly jumped on it. I wanted to be the best.” GimR decided that the best way to do that was to experiment and experiment a lot. “I'm a lab monster and I came up with a lot of tech in Brawl. For example, I discovered Bowser's Chain Grab. I also discovered that aerial releases gave a 20 frame advantage and stuff like that. I remember when made the "Peach's Bair Trap" video it got 5,000 views in the first day, and I flipped out.” These early Brawl videos laid the foundation for VGBootCamp. GimR and his brother, Matthew ‘Aposl’ Lofton, started coming up with ways to make their business into a reality. “We talked about how hard it is to get into the community, and how awesome it would be if we made guides to help people get better and learn, so that it was easier to get into the scene. We decided to make the name generic in case we ever veered off from Smash. He drew the logo on a piece of paper and I made it in Photoshop sometime in late 2008. We still use the exact same logo we started with.”

The Brawl instructional videos took off, and series like “Metagame Minute” were widely watched in the competitive community. But around that same time, GimR and VGBC noticed the rise of streaming, and decided to try their hand at it. It took GimR some time to acclimate to the new format, however. “Honestly I can't really remember [how I learned to stream]. I just messed around with stuff and kept improving. I'd ask the greats like Spooky for tips from time to time, and my oldest brother is a film major and knows a ton about all that stuff, so I also hit him up for advice from time to time.” Once GimR got a strong handle on streaming, VGBC started broadcasting tournaments – but it was far from smooth sailing.

GimR, watching EVO 2014 with The Crimson Blur © Robert Paul/@tempusrob/rmpaul.com

A Bumpy Ride

VGBC officially started streaming in 2008. It was satisfying work for GimR, but it was far from financially safe. “At the time we lived with our grandparents. We both had very low paying full-time jobs and we basically put all of our extra money into going to events or saving up to try new equipment.” Money was tight, the hours were long, and over the years several business hiccups threatened the continued existence of the company. “We were approached to do Apex 2012 with the same percentage cut and we were kicked out two months before the event. We were promised Sktar by Keitaro after that because he thought we were great and also felt bad for us for what happened. He forgot and hired Clash Tournaments instead.”

It was a hard run of things, for certain. But eventually, VGBC got the break it so desperately needed: Melee FC10 R. “It was our first partnered Twitch tournament that we streamed. I was actually about to quit before that tournament; at the time we were going to event for free and losing a ridiculous amount of money streaming them. But Melee FC went great and gave me fire to be the best.” It was also where he started to create the connections that would jumpstart GimR’s career. “At Melee FC we talked to Juggleguy about The Big House 2 and got that event. At the Big House 2 we talked to The Crimson Blur about Kings of Cali and got that event. It's actually funny how things worked out - randomly running into people at tournaments started two of my strongest relationships in the community.”

#FreeGimR

After that, things got a lot better for GimR and crew. It also got a whole lot busier, especially after the Smash Brothers documentary’s release. “The Smash Doc came out in October 2013, and it was insanely popular. I noticed and decided I was going to kill myself going to any event possible and stream it while people were still interested in Smash from the documentary. The way I like to explain it is that the Doc was the catalyst that sparked the interest, and my 2014 run was the container that kept the reaction going.” Gimr streamed his local weekly ‘Smash @ Xanadu’ every week, featuring every Smash game. On top of that, he traveled to 26 different weekend events throughout 2014 – one every two weeks, on average.

GimR's trademark look - no hair, all beard © GimR

The success was great, but long hours weighed on GimR. “It was really unhealthy. That plus my 40 hour a week job was killing me. I was getting no sleep. It was bad, which is why I made the initial video for the #FreeGimR movement.” GimR asked VGBC fans for support by way of Twitch subscriptions so that he could focus full time on streaming, and the fans answered. With a huge showing of support, GimR and VGBC were able to get enough financial support to focus full-time on Smash, and their top-level streams have been present at nearly every major tournament since.

GimR still wishes that VGBC’s biggest supporter –his grandfather– could be here to see the success the company has achieved. His grandfather passed away last September, but GimR still thinks about him all the time. “Our grandfather was the one person in our family that fully supported what we did. He knew it was a crazy venture but he was still 100% positive about it…he constantly told us it took five years for a startup to turn a profit, and it just so happens it took VGBC five years to do so.”

On To the Next Event

GimR and VGBC have cemented their spot at the streamers of choice for the coming generation, and they have no plans of stopping there. “Obviously we'll continue to stream all of the major events, but we want to jump back to our original goal and make our website into a hub for people to learn and get better at Smash.” And when they find a way to make that happen, they’ll have quite an audience to turn to. Just today, the VGBC YouTube channel surpassed 100,000 subscribers. With numbers like that, it’s easy to see why VGBC is synonymous with competitive Smash today.

Check back next Tuesday for another installment of Friendlies, our weekly series chronicling the people of the Smash Bros. community.