Hi everyone, for today’s version of our interview series, we’ve been able to get TSM Daequan! For those who don't know him, he is a streamer known for his hyper-aggressive playstyle on stream, preferring to win by constantly pushing and dominating enemies through intelligent building and shotguns. He recently crossed the 1 million subscribers mark on his Youtube channel, and we're really happy to be able to get him to answer some questions for us!





Congratulations on hitting 1 million subscribers on Youtube. Could you tell us what this means to you on a personal level?





It is an amazing feeling, I feel like its my next huge accomplishment in my life. I never thought that it would happen so fast; I uploaded my first video only about a 5 months ago.





You’ve been a gamer for a really long time with a very long list of games that you’ve played at a competitive level. Apart from Fortnite, what were these games? And which were your favorites?





GunZ the Duel is my favorite game ever. I also believe it’s the most mechanically intensive game ever created and being one of the best in it felt amazing. Other games that I played at a high skill level were Kritika, Black Desert, Wildstar, Guild Wars 2, Smite, and Devilian.





Did you have any moments in those games that you were particularly proud of?





Mainly just being looked at as the best or one of the best players in each of those games made me feel accomplished. That my time, grind and hard-work had paid off.





What prompted you to pick up Fortnite?





A couple friends and I were in a place where no games were grabbing our attention so we were all just game hopping from Grand Theft Auto Online, to random steam games, to any other game that came out that we felt we might enjoy. Then Fortnite came out and my friends suggested we all try it out. We did, and we loved it.





Here’s a hypothetical: say something happened and Fortnite was entirely erased from the history of this planet. Is there a game you would have in mind that you would start streaming and aiming to go pro in?





I am very interested in games that have high skill ceilings. Fortnite was the only game that I could find that required you to be extremely versatile and constantly outplay your opponent to be victorious. For most shooting games, for example, all you have to do is have good aim to be an amazing player. But for Fortnite you’ve got to have aim, be able to build, and have a chess player’s mindset when going up against someone else who is skillful. There are currently no games that require that type of skill level in my opinion that I would want to compete in. I would only want to compete in games that I genuinely find fun and have a high skill ceiling.





Your playstyle on stream is very focused on fast-paced aggression and non-stop pushing, which is a large contrast to most of the players in the Ninja Vegas ‘18. Do you think you’d play differently in a tournament setting?





If I am playing solos, yes I would still be very aggressive, but I would play the field in a more intelligent way. But if I am playing squads or duos, I can easily adjust my playstyle without hurting myself to do what is best for us as a whole.





In a duo tournament, who would be your duo partner?





Its crazy how this worked out. Before I joined TSM it would be Myth or Camills. But now that I’ve met Hamlinz as well, it would have to be between those three. Its impossible to decide which I would choose.





Two of the hallmark features of your stream are you saying “what d’you mean” and “doo-doo” comedically. Where did these ‘catchphrases’ originate?

A demonstration of said catchphrases









I have always said what d’you mean since I was a wee young lad. My voice was always not as deep as everyone else's, in an oddly unique way, so whenever I put a little twist on words that I said, it became something that a lot of people around me would just start saying and it would spread like wildfire. There will be a lot more catch phrases to come!





As a follow up to the last question, how do you feel about the fact that even your teammates have started to use those phrases?





I think that its awesome. I always had this effect in person that people would pick up on things that I said, and just to see that my teammates as well as a huge portion of the Fortnite community saying these phrases makes it that much more special to me.





Have any of your teammates’ habits started to rub off on you?





Hamlinz saying “brother” and “My high ground now” all the time has definitely rubbed off on me.





How receptive have your family been to your recent success?





My family is extremely supportive and overwhelmingly proud of me. It’s a great feeling and I’m glad that I could become more than everyone ever expected of me. I’ve always believed in myself in anything that I wanted to do and it’s great to see the fruits of that.





What was your reaction to being recruited by TSM?





I never really watched much esports until I started playing Smite in 2014. But I had always known that TSM was a huge figure in the esports world and to hear that someone with such prestige was interested in me felt incredible.





Do you have any final remarks or shoutouts you’d like to give?





I just want to shoutout Dakotaz. Before I met him I was just a random guy with only my friends watching the stream. He got me into the early Fortnite invitationals which I dominated. Winning the most invitational matches in the world which were the highest level of competition in Fortnite with many huge and well-known Twitch streamers and Youtubers brought me a lot of exposure. My first time going over 100 viewers without a shoutout or host was also my first time reaching 2000 viewers which was absolutely incredible. He also was my inspiration to upload daily on Youtube which the fruits of that are also showing. Dakotaz really gave me a platform to perform on to show what I was about. I also want to shoutout all the people of the Fortnite community because neither I or anyone else who really got their lives changed by Fortnite would be where we are without you guys. Shoutout also to TSM for being genuinely amazing people, players, streamers & employees alike. Love you guys.









Follow TSM Daequan on Social Media:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbJ9W-EexsJSMc4wMPOA9pA

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TSM_Daequan

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/tsm_daequan

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tsm_daequan



