From zany antics to hardcore racing, community streamer ds_lily's stream has it all to keep you entertained! We sat down with Lily to find out what their life is like outside of gaming, check it out!

Hi ds_lily, thank you for taking part in the interview! Please introduce yourself.

Hi I'm Lily. You can find me streaming at https://twitch.tv/ds_lily. I usually participate in races in HCSSF, typically placing in the top 10.

When did you first get into Path of Exile?

I first got into Path of Exile a little bit after its release in late 2013. Youtube recommended a video from Kripparrian, and I thought that it looked like a more modern version of games I played growing up that I enjoyed.

What one thing caught your attention in the beginning and what one thing kept you coming back?

Having a fresh start and new builds to play every few months is definitely what kept me coming back. I basically only play games that have a huge replayability value and the league systems / balance changes make the replayability value practically infinite.

Are there any highlights from your time playing Path of Exile that stand out in your memory?

The main highlight is probably my “brain lag” incident which was during the Awakener kill event during Metamorph league. I was probably about 4-5 hours away from getting to the fight and this was also before anyone had got there as well, so I was pretty close to being one of the first there (I was also rank 1 in XP at the time). However, I was awake for about 30 hours at this point and for some reason I decided it was time to do normal Elder. Well in my sleep-deprived brain I forgot to run to Zana bubble at the end and died.

Do you have a favourite build?

Not really, but I tend to like builds that stack a high number of projectiles (buff molten strike).

Which expansion has been your favourite so far?

Sentinel league was my favorite league that has come out so far. Primarily for the fact that it enabled a lot of builds without it just being a glorified item editor like harvest and it gave value back to a lot of special mods you could find on gear that are otherwise pretty much worthless.

What's one thing every Path of Exile player should hear?

Stop doing things you don’t want to do even if it isn’t maximum efficiency.

When did you first start streaming? How did you get into it?

I first started streaming in April 2019 when I noticed that PoE has really, really good growth opportunities for streamers compared to basically any other game. Basically be good at the game and you will have viewers. A great feature for streamer growth is also the in-game announcements, so I decided to start blasting on the XP ladder at league starts which will broadcast your name to everyone. Adding all those things together and I also noticed that there were no girl gamers doing this, so I decided it was time to git gud and there was a wide open market niche to become a popular streamer.

What can people expect from your stream and schedule?

I don’t really know how to describe my stream other than weird antics and lots of beef. My schedule is typically starting stream everyday around 9 AM PST, though I am trying to start a bit earlier.

What were you doing before you started streaming?

Sitting in my room playing video games, not much has changed.

What hobbies or interests do you have outside of streaming?

I don’t think most streamers do anything but stream. Cars are pretty cool though.

How has your life changed from before you were streaming until now? What role has streaming played in that transition?

Not much has really changed overall, except now I see video games as a job and I don’t enjoy them that much when not streaming. If I’m playing a game off stream I pretty much just feel like I should be streaming it.

Is there anything you'd like to see more of in the streaming community?

I think the PoE streamers are probably the best community on Twitch, so I feel like other gaming stream communities should take some notes from us. No real drama, everyone in the category is pretty well connected to each other, pretty much everyone is included, etc.

Do you have any advice for people who are looking to make their own career out of streaming?

You need to bring something different to the table than all the other creators if you really want to succeed, the opportunities for this are pretty slim though.

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Thank you so much for participating in the interview! If you'd like to follow ds_lily, you can do so on Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch. Also, don't forget that you can support both ds_lily and the development of Path of Exile by buying microtransactions from her Nexus page!