In continuation of our Streamer Interview news series, we reached out to Chistor, a popular streamer from our Russian community, to talk about his streaming career and history of playing Path of Exile.
Hi, thank you for taking part in the interview! Please introduce yourself.
Hello, my name is Stanislav, known as Chistor. I stream on twitch.tv. Nice to meet you.
How long have you been streaming for? How did you get into it?
I started streaming in 2015. In 2012, following the release of Diablo 3, one of my teammates gave me a link to the channel of some guy called Kripparrian, he was pushing for the world first hardcore Diablo kill. Prior to that, I didn't even know it was possible to broadcast games and interact with viewers live, that blew my mind.
I didn't have a chance to try out streaming back then as the internet in my city was really bad, so I kept studying in university, doing a few sporting activities, playing random games and online poker when I had free time.
Then, a couple of years later my internet improved and streaming became possible in rather ok quality, so I decided to give it a go. At this point, I wanted to quit online poker, even though it was going pretty well, but that was something I didn't want to do in my life, so I cashed out all of my money from my poker account and made a streaming setup with it. I didn't have any plans or expectations of it, the idea was - if I play video games, why not also stream it.
What can people expect from your stream? What kind of schedule do you follow?
I treat my viewers as a group of friends. We play games together and have fun, anybody is welcome to become part of it.
You can find me online at twitch.tv/chistor_ from midday to evening (CET) every day with very few days off. At the start of every league I push on stream non-stop. I stream in Russian but also do speak English, so feel free to chat and ask questions, as I always tend to help players with figuring out the game.
In terms of content, you can expect pretty much anything - exploring new league content, making different fun or effective builds, pushing endgame, testing new strategies, checking out some interesting game releases and so on. Whatever is fun and enjoyable. There's no limit for types of content.
How and when did you find out about Path of Exile?
You may guess - Kripparrian played it on stream. That was the first time I found out about Path of Exile, haven't had a lot of free time during those days, was watching Kripp more than playing it myself.
What was the moment that got you hooked on the game?
I returned to Diablo 3 to try out its new seasons system in February 2015, during Season 2 and started streaming it. A few months later someone told me about this game called Path of Exile, which was getting official localization in CIS by Garena. At this point I stopped watching Kripparrian long ago, as he became a Hearthstone streamer and also hadn't played Path of Exile for a long time, so it was pretty much a fresh start for me.
Was switching between PoE leagues and Diablo 3 seasons back and forth. As the time passed by, D3 was receiving less and less updates, while Path of Exile started rapidly improving. Eventually I knew Path of Exile was coming a long way, so I quit Diablo 3 and made Path of Exile my main game for streaming. Now that I look back, that was probably the best streaming decision I made.
What hooked me about the game is its non-linearness in terms of character customisation, content and updates philosophy.
Path of Exile developers seemed to be really open minded, not afraid to try out new things and do risky moves, which is really rare for gaming industry nowadays. So I thought, game designers with such passion won't sit back and watch their game decay. I put my hopes on them and wasn't disappointed.
Also, it's worth mentioning that the Path of Exile Atlas and maps system is one of the best endgame systems that I've seen in any ARPG so far.
What are the top highlights from your time streaming Path of Exile?
I enjoyed Delve the most. Exploring the mechanics of that league and adventuring through endless depths for the first time made the best moments for me. I really hope this idea will be evolved in the future. Endless randomly generated content with increasing difficulty is one of many aspects that make ARPG's fun in my opinion. If it feels like a small game inside of a game, then it's made well.
Is streaming your full time job? If so, what were you doing for work prior to streaming?
Yes, I have been streaming full time for almost three years now.
As I mentioned earlier, I was studying and doing some other activities prior to that.
What hobbies or interests do you have outside of streaming?
I enjoy listening to music, watching movies and TV series, reading books, swimming and camping in the wild.
I like learning new science, logistics and sociology facts. My favorite topic is space colonization.
I also like architecture and history - especially about Roman Republic.
I have a few other small hobbies that I used to enjoy but haven't had much time for and might eventually get back to is basketball, tennis and painting.
If you could say one thing that every Path of Exile player should hear, what would it be?
That is a really important topic, in my opinion. I'd point out several things.
As a new player, don't let yourself be overwhelmed by diving into every game aspect all at once. Take it step by step. Path of Exile's world is much wider than you might expect as a newcomer.
Also, when you watch a streamer or youtuber, and his character is better and faster than yours, he farms more currency than you or whatever else might upset you, don't worry about that. Play your own game, work on your character, enjoy your achievements and remember, when you start exploring something new, it's the funnest time, don't rush it, enjoy the moment. Eventually you will get to desired knowledge and skill level.
And one more - don't get used to the meta, a certain build or strategy for too long - balance shifts frequently in Path of Exile, nothing stays OP forever, not even the Occultist.
How much pressure is involved in being a streamer? How do you manage it? How has streaming affected your life?
I wouldn't call it pressure, more of a responsibility. When people open Twitch, they want to have fun and as a streamer you should be there to facilitate that.
The first year after I got partnered I was pretty much no-lifing it. I wanted to give it my maximum effort and see what happens. It went well and improved with every league, which is actually still surprising to me. Nowadays I'm trying to find a balance between life and gaming, which is hard if you are a game nerd. I push hard at the start of every league or interesting game release and then have stable schedule to keep content "stream" flowing as I enjoy it.
There are many new streamers looking to make their way in the Path of Exile community. What advice do you have for them?
As a new streamer, if you want to take it seriously, you will have to try harder than everyone else nowadays to get somewhere.
Think about what can make your stream special and work on making this aspect noticeable, master it and then start thinking what you can add up to expand your spectrum of content.
Also, always be real and honest with your viewers.
Every day think what you can do better, even if it's something small. Don't get trapped in the "everything is good enough" feeling if you want to grow.
Interact with viewers, keep self-improving, try different things and don't forget to have fun on stream, otherwise it's not worthwhile!
Is there anyone you want to give a shout out to?
I would like to give special thanks to Kripparrian for introducing me to Path of Exile and streaming, Stronkdota aka Alexander_GGG that we were cooperating with since Garena days, Arthas and Silvername for bringing many new players to the CIS PoE community, Zizaran and Quin69 for being great people and streamers, Grinding Gear Games team for creating and supporting this amazing game for us. I would also like to mention the Russian community content creators - Cursedone, Golaya, NoobNation, Pathofexilebota and of course Rebyatke - no joke, best viewers on twitch.tv! Shout out to the whole Path of Exile community, you all are great!
Do you have any projects on the horizon you want to share with the community?
A lot is coming. I have many ideas and plans for the future. Will be implementing them when the time comes.
Also I'm moving to a new place soon, so that I can finally have the best streaming quality and then will start working on other interesting things. Really excited about the future and upcoming Path of Exile updates. Thanks for having me and best of luck to everyone reading this!
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Thank you so much for participating in the interview! If you'd like to see more from Chistor, check him out on
Twitch or
YouTube.