A new ARD documentary deals with the German Twitch and accompanies streamers at different points in their careers for a few months. DoktorFroid, a group led by YouTuber LeFloid, is planning to professionalize it on Twitch. Shurjoka (25) wins the German Gamer of the Year award, but struggles in a boycott of Hogwarts Legacy. A young Berliner begins a career as a full-time streamer.
When can you see the documentary? The one-hour documentary “OFF-CAM: How German Twitch Stars tick” will be available from Tuesday, August 15th, in the ARD media library.
We at MeinMMO were able to see the documentary in advance.
Twitch like television
This is how DoctorFroid is presented: The group around LeFloid just set up a new headquarters for €250,000 and wants to “make Twitch like television”, but with direct feedback through the chat.
The topic of this part of the ARD documentary is above all how to reconcile the engaging job as an influencer with family and private life and how to work professionally with people who you see as your friends.
Frontman LeFloid is on his phone 12 hours a day and is teased by his colleagues that he can never switch off. Now that he has 3 kids, LeFloid has put on muscle, takes care of his health, and works out like a maniac. He hardly ever puts his cell phone down. The 35-year-old explains that his life with his mobile phone is wrapped in a “permanent cotton fog”. He has to swipe there, click there, ask here. The entire life and work life takes place on the cell phone.
At one point, one of his partners asks him if that’s why LeFloid has such a hard time taking vacations because his phone is quiet.
LeFloid reacts with a lack of understanding of what this is supposed to mean. His cell phone is never quiet.
His partner Olli gets involved in setting up the cameras correctly: He says that on Twitch you have to do the balancing act of remaining authentic on the one hand, while everything is becoming more and more professional. He can also be seen at home with his wife, who is currently doing a 7-day stream of her own on Twitch. Everyday life also requires a lot of coordination and planning.
The third in the group, Paul, is responsible for the finances in the team. He took his partner with him to work. The two host a big show for Twitch together: To this show “Just So!” the passage also revolves around DoktorFroid. Twitch just like television, with star guests, budget and always one more camera perspective.
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This is the key scene: In one of the most beautiful scenes of the documentary, the three of them have a barbecue with their families in the countryside: Olli has a sausage in his hand and explains how great and idyllic he thinks it all is. Beside him, LeFloid almost mechanically picks up the phone and stares at it, hypnotized.
Olli just looks at him, points at him with a finger and starts to laugh. LeFloid looks up, asks, “What? – I just…” – Olli turns away laughing and says: “Everyone, as he can.”
The streamers know each other, know each other’s weaknesses and strengths and have apparently learned to deal with them over the years.
Twitch as a tool in the fight against patriarchy
This is how Shurjoka is portrayed: The 25-year-old streamer Shurjoka begins the documentary with a win: she wins the German Computer Game Award as gamer of the year. But her part of the documentary is also the one with the greatest external conflict.
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Shurjoka has also become more professional: she employs 2 people and has a partner, her friend, Freiraumreh, who urges her to pay more attention to her mental health. Because Shurjoka has thrown himself into a conflict about the Harry Potter game “Hogwarts Legacy”, even called for a boycott of the game because of the transphobic statements by the author JK Rowling and is now receiving tons of hate messages that bother her more than she might want to admit .
She should have it deleted, she is accused of having a psychosis. There is also talk of threats of violence and fantasies of rape. How to deal with it? Freiraumreh is for “slow down, take a break”, but it doesn’t help the queer community if Shurjoka breaks it. But the streamer just laughs helplessly: it goes without saying that she puts her job above her own mental health. She is surprised that this is even being discussed.
The documentary gives Shurjoka plenty of room to present her own position, and Shurjoka uses the space to present herself as someone who fights for the good without taking herself into account:
But you can see how much the constant conflict affects her over time, during which the ARD cameras accompany her. She just can’t find any distance on the subject, she says. It’s just too close for her.
The documentary oscillates between intimate moments showing Shurjoka in the woods with her dogs, where she talks about her depression and her bipolar personality, and exuberant live stream scenes in which the assistant jumps onto the stage while still wearing a plastic dinosaur costume and makes you laugh.
The part of the documentary also shows: Twitch is no longer a “young woman with a microphone alone in her room”, but already an office and employees, but everything is two or three levels less sterile and professionalized than DoktorFroid in its €10,000 rental fee -month studio.
“Tell us something we didn’t expect, cis-straight man”
This is the key scene of their part: In a scene from the documentary, it becomes clear why Shurjoka is so polarizing.
The 25-year-old responds to YouTuber The Dark Knight of the Parable, who explains why the Hogwarts Legacy boycott is doomed to failure: Just because an author on the internet commented on a topic that most people had nothing to do with a large part of the public is not willing to give up a game that is also part of their own childhood. He doesn’t care about the boycott call.
Shurjoka shakes his head in disbelief and says, “Tell us something we didn’t expect, cis-hetero man.”
At the end of her part of the documentary, it is revealed that Shurjoka slipped into the next shitstorm after the end of filming.
Twitch if you want to make a living from it but can’t
This is the required part: Bdarf is a Twitch streamer from Berlin who actually wants to build a career first but has decided to go all in and start streaming full time.
He doesn’t seem to see many options other than Twitch for himself and his life right now: he doesn’t want to go back to his old job, on construction. Selling drugs to finance party life in Berlin is also out of the question for him. So twitch.
He sets himself a goal of €800, which he will earn monthly on Twitch. At the end of the documentation it’s 200 €. the former installer painfully realizes that commitment and will on Twitch do not lead to immediate success. But still wants to continue: Only those who dare win.
His environment supports him in the idea of trying it with Twitch, but nobody really believes in his success. Even the streamer himself repeatedly hints that he actually faces an unsolvable task. Because he has neither the contacts nor the unfair advantage to take off in such a way that Twitch is really an option for a living.
This is the key scene of his part: At an event in Leipzig he meets the big Twitch streamer Tanzban and has to muster all the courage to speak to him. He then starts with “Do you remember me?” and gets an “Unfortunately not anymore” back. Ultimately, however, Tanzban remembers a scene from earlier, hugs him and leaves a subscription.
Bdar know how the game works. Ban on Dance could push him, give him the boost on Twitch he so desperately needs with a raid or a shoutout. But ultimately the meeting will remain without consequence.
Significant: Both streamers are accompanied by their friends at the event, who both just stand there and listen to it without saying a word.
ARD documentary shows how different and unfair Twitch is
Is the documentary worth it? Yes, it’s worth it as long as you don’t expect groundbreaking new insights.
The documentary gives a brief overview of how the German Twitch works “behind the scenes”. But the authors have taken on a lot to accompany 3 such different projects, less would have been more.
DoktorFroid and Shurjoka are also unique projects and can hardly represent the “typical Twitch”:
The history of both of them is missing in the documentary, how they got so big in order to be able to finance their own rooms and employees.
The authors of the documentary let the streamers tell their own story and only hint at the breaks and problems in the narrative. Especially if necessary, one wishes that someone had explained to him how difficult it is to finance his living with Twitch before he goes “all in”.
Even with Shurjoka, who feels a lot of headwind, one wishes for a more critical voice than Freiraumreh, who advises her to pay more attention to herself.
Ultimately, the documentary shows how diverse but also unfair Twitch is: Because the individual streamer without money, contacts and reach competes with people and companies who have been in the business for years for the same viewers and the same “placements”, i.e. advertising deal.
Streamer Shurjoka has involuntarily become a topic on Twitch in recent months:
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