Hey Team Dignitas fans, Maleok here with my second installment of Content Creators spotlight. This week I caught up with League of Legends content creator and educator Foxdrop! Foxdrop is a Diamond Jungler with a lot to say about his role. He's known for his lengthy and in-depth jungling guides on ever Jungler who is and was ever meta (and even those who weren't). Here he is now explaining his content and some jungling info!

In your own words what would you say your occupation is?

Foxdrop: Quite bluntly, I would say I am a video maker and educator for League of Legends.





Why is League of Legends your game of choice?

Foxdrop: To be honest I didn't really choose the game, it wasn't an active decision I made. It was more the fact that I was playing a lot of League at the time and had become really good at it. Since I was good at it, and had some time on my hands, I thought I would try and teach people. It started out as a hobby and it grew from there. It helps that League is arguably the biggest game around in terms of player base and e-sports. That helps with growth, because you know if I was doing Club Penguin videos I probably wouldn't be as big as I am right now. *laughs*





Jungler is obviously your favorite role. Why is this and how did it become your main?

Foxdrop: That is a good question. I didn't start off as a Jungler, I was playing back in Season 1 where the meta was off the charts. When I was trying to find my role I played loads of different stuff. I remember creating a team with some of my friends and deciding which role to play for that. This was during the "Tank-Plank" era, where you would get Warmogs, Triforce, and Atma's Impaler, so I quite enjoyed playing Gangplank and AP Nunu Jungler. I really took a liking to those two and Jungler eventually became my best role, obviously since I was playing it a lot, so I stuck with it. It's fun, it's a challenging role, I think it's the most unique role in the game. I think with the other lanes you can transition easily between them with some practices. However I think it's the hardest to transition from a different lane into the Jungler and, to some extent, vice versa. A big reason for that is that it's more of a mental game, it's all about the knowledge. You need to structure the game on a Macro level and then making decisions on a micro level to execute the strategies. It's a lot of fun playing those mind games and making big decisions.





If there was one piece of advice for becoming a better Jungler you could give, what do you think is most important?

Foxdrop: I'm guessing I can't say watch my videos? *laughs* That's a tough question because I can only choose one thing...I would say that a huge thing is that you need to accept that the role is all about decision making. You need to accept that in certain situations you will be faced with decisions where you decide where you are going, whether or not you need to counter-gank, or whether someone doesn't need a counter-gank to survive, or whether you try and save a person or lane. It's a tough decision whether you try and gank someone who is getting behind to try and bring them back into the game or ignore them and try and snowball a different lane. All of these things are questions I get all the time but there is no black and white answer to any of them. it all depends on the game and how it is unfolding, but even in game you may have all the information displayed in front of you and you still can't make a correct decision. Sometimes it's not clear what you need to do and you need to just make a decision of some kind. You need to not be afraid to make a bad decision, because if you get caught up worrying too much or over thinking it you will end up doing nothing which is the worst thing. I think that's the best advice I can give, recognize that jungling is all about decision making and you can't be afraid to make the wrong decision as long as you just go for it.

Foxdrop with more tips on improving your Jungling

You are very much a teacher in the League of Legends community, why did you choose this style of content?

Foxdrop: I think it was just me knowing my strengths and weaknesses. Everyone's got them, for me it was being good enough at the game to be in a position to teach people. Even though you might have the proper knowledge in your head, not everyone with the knowledge is necessarily a good teacher. Fortunately enough I like to think I had that talent, it's something which comes naturally to me. Most other content creator's talents are for entertainment, which I like to dabble in, but my forte is definitely teaching people.





Which content do you enjoy making more, your educational videos or your comedic videos?

Foxdrop: That is a tough one...First of all I enjoy all of them and none of them are things that I have to dredge through. I think to an extent I can enjoy educating more. That is because it's easier to make and it comes more naturally to me. I can pick a topic to talk about, and I don't know if this is a blessing or a curse, and I can talk for ages about it. So to that extent I prefer doing educational stuff because that is more my expertise. Comedic stuff also has its own benefit. I would consider myself quite a witty person, so I like to be able to pluck in that sort of stuff and see people's reactions. When you are doing educational content the reactions are never as strong. Even if you make the best educational video in the history of mankind, the comments are never gonna be like, "Woah I learned so much I am blown away!".

No one does that with educational stuff. People will appreciate it and think it's good, which is fine, but if you read the comments of a video where you made people laugh those are always quite uplifting. You like to laugh, I like to laugh, everyone likes to laugh so comedy is a very universal medium. Whereas if I am teaching someone about a specific champion, in a specific role, in a specific game then you might not give a s#[email protected] about that. So to that extent it's always nice to be able to appeal to a wide audience once in awhile with the comedic stuff. Overall I would say the enjoyment is 50/50 between the two types. If we are looking at the ease of making a video, I generally have to think a lot harder about what I want to make a comedic video about. It's not like it's forced or anything but it's a bit trickier thinking about how I want to present it and how I want to do it. It's a lot easier for me to fail at a comedic video than it is to fail at an educational one.





Do you feel pressured to get your content released regularly?

Foxdrop: Yes definitely. There is always a pressure now considering that this is my job. It's the same type of pressure that makes you get up at seven AM to get ready for work at a normal job. I definitely feel the pressure to make videos. There is always more pressure on me personally because there is very little actual pressure if that makes sense. I mean I could literally sit here and do nothing, and I wouldn't get fired because I'm not bound by those restrictions. However if I do sit here and do nothing I am gonna fade away and lose my audience. As your own boss, when you make your own schedule you need to motivate yourself to do things. Especially if you haven't done anything in awhile and it is just this nagging feeling in the back of your mind for a very long time. Even if it's not enough to motivate you to actually do anything, you know it's there and you can just feel it. So that is something that is irritating but I am not complaining at all, it motivates me to do this job that I am ridiculously lucky to have.

Foxdrop's latest Jungler guide. This one is for Tahm Kench

What is the biggest issue you find with your content creation?

Foxdrop: I think there are probably two issues which sorta meld into one. The first one being motivation, and the second one being the video making process. When you look at the process to make a video it looks like quite a lengthy thing. This is the process: Think of a topic, think of structure, draft what I am gonna do, write a script, edit the script, record, edit the recording, find gameplay footage, edit that, edit any other prompts or info, render it, then do the meta data. So when you think about it like that it is quite a lengthy process and it can be kind of overwhelming. So the term, "Making a video", is all these things together. It's much easier to say that I need to write a script. If you do it in pieces it becomes much easier to tackle. Finding the motivation to do it, when you have a low amount of real pressure, can be tricky. Especially when you have the kind of work setup that I have. I spend probably 98% of my life in one room, because my bed and my "studio" with my computer and recording devices are all in one room. So when I am sleeping in one room which is my hub, it is really hard to distinguish between professional and personal time. It becomes very difficult to switch between a professional and personal frame of mind.





Do you see yourself continuing to do this for a long time?

Foxdrop: I would love to keep doing this for as long as I am able. Right now my underlining platforms are League of Legends and YouTube, so if either of those two die I am gonna be in a bit of a pickle. The more you can diversify the better, and the safer you will be for the future. I also think that being an educator is, sadly, a bit of a specific niche that doesn't transition too well over to other games, unless you get very good at said game. Whereas if you are an entertainer and you make people laugh it doesn't matter what game you are playing. I think of Dunkey who plays any game he wants and he just makes it really hilarious, so he has perfect job security. I am going to go as long as I can, and try to diversify as best I can.





Finally, is there anything you would like to say to your fans and to those who haven't seen your content before?

Foxdrop: For those who haven't seen my content, I would like to say what on earth are you doing with your life? come on, pick it up. *laughs* I'm only joking, but seriously we miss you, we need more cool kids watching these videos. To all of the people who watch my videos, I already said today that I am ridiculously lucky to be able to do what I do for a living. As much as I am the one who brings the content, you guys are the one that make it all happen. I am only as strong as the number next to my name. That is nothing to do with me that is all you guys. Everyone who watches my videos, is subscribed, and whoever has ever glanced at my channel or ever spoken about me in a positive way, eternal thanks to everyone who has done that. It's always really tricky to put into words the appreciation of these kind of things. It's really tough to do without sounding a little insincere, but seriously mega thanks to everyone who supports me. I will keep trying my best to give you the best because that is all you awesome people deserve! Obviously you are the best types of people because you are watching my videos. *laughs* Thank you so much and I will do my best to make sure your time investment is not wasted.

As always a huge thanks to our guest Foxdrop for sitting down with us! Keep being the amazing teacher you are for the community and we hope that you keep going strong with many years ahead of your great content!