Former standout scores successful avenue off and on field

Kolby Shea | Reporter

As streaming, which is playing video games online for others to watch, has taken the entertainment industry by storm, one former App State football player now makes a name for himself in athletics and in gaming.

Chicago Bears running back and former Mountaineer Darrynton Evans has capitalized on this movement while he continues his career in the NFL. He has amassed over 21,000 followers on the popular streaming platform Twitch, and over 10,000 subscribers on YouTube under the channel name ItzLiveee.

Evans started playing video games as a kid on the PlayStation One with his older brother. Though his controller may not have been plugged in, he still fell in love with the world of gaming. He said gaming brought his family closer together and was something they could bond over. Two of his cousins went on to find success in the professional gaming industry, one playing Madden NFL and the other playing Call of Duty.

As he grew older, he continued to game, but it was in college he decided to try streaming for the first time. His family saw his talent for gaming and his charismatic personality and pushed him to begin recording content.

Evans said he wasn’t getting many views at first, but it became something he enjoyed doing. Once he got into the league, he had to overcome the stigma that gaming as an athlete was synonymous with a lack of focus on their profession.

“Once I stopped caring about what everybody else was going to think, that’s when I started to see success and the numbers started growing and everything went up,” Evans said.

During football season, Evans tries streaming at least three to four times a week, but during the off-season, his content is produced at a higher volume.

He said he felt he had enough skill in the mainstream games, like Call of Duty, Madden or NBA 2K, but wasn’t sure fans would watch his content when they could watch professional gamers do the same thing he was doing.

He found his niche in NCAA 14 Revamped, which is a game that allows players to take control over their favorite college football team.

EA Sports, a video game development company, hasn’t launched this style of game in nearly nine years, enough time to produce nostalgia among the fans of the game. Evans’ content capitalizes on this nostalgia that many gamers and sports fans share.