Esports News UK editor Dom Sacco interviews well-known UK League of Legends content creator Phy about the challenges of being a YouTuber, making content with his brother Foxdrop, his brief time in esports and what’s next for him.
Check out the full video interview below, and some of his comments in text form on the following topics:
On being a YouTuber
“Videos can take me like four to five hours to make from my side, then my editor takes another four or five hours. For a five to ten minute video, people assume that’s how long it takes to make, but it takes a lot of skill and time and practice.
“It’s the easier and best thing ever when you’re not doing it seriously. But once it becomes your income and your job, there’s not as much fun in it anymore.
“It sounds strange when I have to say ‘sorry I can’t go out for a drink I’ve got to work’, I’ll edit a video or something. When you’re doing it seven days a week, 10 hours a day… you know, when I started I was doing it 12 hours a day, seven days a week. I didn’t have a life! It takes a lot to get bigger, but once you get there, it’s worth it.”
On YouTube changes and challenges he faces
“For me it’s not that bad because I don’t swear in videos and my stuff is very edited down, but the more gameplay-focused stuff is harder because you’re trying to record reactions. And if you want to talk about anything sensitive, it’s not gonna really work as well.
“But it’s definitely changing a lot on YouTube right now, and for the next year nobody really knows what’s going to happen at all.
“It hasn’t hit me that bad, and League in general isn’t that bad because Riot let us do what we want with their IP, which is good, but for other games it’s getting a lot worse.
“We’ll have to see. I’m guessing Twitch is going to become a much bigger thing soon, because a lot of us don’t want to have all our eggs in the YouTube basket.
“YouTube is so competitive – everybody does it now. Every streamer now has a YouTube channel as well, so it’s not just Twitch and YouTube, it’s just content mixed together. So everyone has to step up their game and everyone’s getting editors. You can’t get away with lazy content anymore.”
“I think League of Legends would be dead by now if they didn’t patch it every two weeks, because the game changes and everyone stays up to date with content.”
On shifting metas
“I’ve been playing the game for seven years now and I burn out sometimes. It’s also my job so it saps a bit of fun out of that as well. But I really like meta shifts in general because it changes the game a lot. It keeps it fresh and a lot of content is based around that.
“I think League of Legends would be dead by now if they didn’t patch it every two weeks, because the game changes and everyone stays up to date with content.”
Phy (right) took part in a special Yasuo vs Riven League of Legends content challenge with his brother Foxdrop (left) earlier this year
On his time in UK esports
“When I was part of esports, it was mainly when I was actually good at the game!
“For a little while I played for London Conspiracy and I had my own team for a while. Anybody could do it because it was so small. We would play on ESL online for fun, I used to play against Kasing and stuff in ranked 5s. I was Diamond 1 before Master existed and then we got Challenger in ranked 5s, but that was a long time ago.
“I don’t keep up to date with it as much anymore, I don’t have a lot of free time I guess, but I have some friends who are players, like Deadly who won the tournament earlier. I know most of the casters in the UK scene, because they’re involved.”
“For a little while I played for London Conspiracy and I had my own team for a while. Anybody could do it because it was so small. We would play on ESL online for fun, I used to play against Kasing and stuff in ranked 5s.”
On his brother Foxdrop being a content creator too
“His channel is doing pretty well, he’s changing a lot of stuff and keeping up with everything.
“When I first started I was known as his brother, and not my own separate thing, and that used to bug me. But I think now that I’ve established myself anyway, it’s really cool.
“We’ve always grown up together doing stuff, like we’ve played sports and hung out together. We live in the same house and get under each other’s toes a bit, but we’re good friends, so when we do content together it’s really funny as we muck around. It’s nice, I’m proud he’s made a good go of it.
“A lot of the content stuff that gets thrown our way is because we’re brothers and it’s that unique angle that nobody else has got.”
“It’d be nice to get my face into my videos a lot more. I think I’m good at getting views on a video but I’m not good at getting people to know who I actually am.”
What’s next?
“I’m going to try and do more events, it’d be nice to get my face into my videos a lot more. I think I’m good at getting views on a video but I’m not good at getting people to know who I actually am.
“That’s the thing I sucked at and didn’t bother with, because I could get views without that. But now I want people to watch because it’s me making the video. So that’s gonna be the next step, but that’s gonna be a long and hard process. Hopefully it works.”
The brothers also took part in a special 1v1 challenge with Esports News UK for charity earlier this year (above)
Follow Phy on Twitter, YouTube & Twitch here
Check out our interview with Foxdrop here
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
