How Sliggy does it all

In all of Valorant, there’s nobody quite like Sliggy.

Every single day, Sliggy wakes up and opens up VLR.GG to check and see what marquee matchups are available for all four VCT regions. He then usually costreams matches from all of them, sometimes spending most of the day live on Twitch, watching pro Valorant. We sat down with Sliggy to talk about how he balances costreaming with personal life obligations and if he ever plans to return to coaching again.

You were one of the coaches in the early days of Valorant where you were bringing a more strategic mindset towards things. How does that perspective help in costreaming? What are the specific nuances that you feel the casual audience wouldn’t understand that you always do your best to explain?

I like to have an understanding of why I believe a team won or lost. It really helps if I can remember a set game plan or how a certain team is using a comp. 

You always notice these things really early in the game. The three rounds I always pay attention to most for this are pistol, bonus, and fast buy. These are the three rounds where you need to hone in on what they are doing to exploit whatever the other team is doing. Then, when it gets a little bit later, it’s like we have this all set, we’re just going to do whatever. But those three rounds are where the actual VOD review from the coaches takes place, and the impact of each coach is really noticeable. They exploit what they believe to be the weaknesses of the other teams. The whole level of game plans has been great. Certain teams stand out more than others, but there’s been some cool maps, and it’s been fun to watch from a tactical side.

How do you keep track of all 48 teams? Do you keep a set of notes, or is it all in your head?

I do a bit of both. I used to try to take mental notes, but because I do Plat Chat, it’s a lot better for me now to write things down. Every time I watch a map, I’ll go away. I like to just walk around my house because I sit down for so long. I like to just walk around and get notes up in my phone and just write. I like to think about what I was thinking of, what the main talking points were, so that I can reflect on it more during Plat Chat. It’s nice to have notes and be like, yeah, that was this game. That is what I was thinking at the time.

You had a very analytical mindset as a coach for Liquid.  Are your favorite aspects of coaching highlighted through costreaming?

Yeah, it combines all the stuff I love from coaching, which is the analytical stuff. I definitely have a set way of thinking when it comes to how the game should be played, and it’s a lot on the tactical side.

Costreaming combines the parts of coaching and observing in CS that I really loved, like controlling the camera and dictating what you see. It’s actually just a perfect blend of that because I am watching the mini map all the time just to predict what’s going on.

That's why it's worked out. The whole stream is way more successful than I thought. I started streaming at the beginning, thinking about how I would be so happy if I got 200 viewers. Now, it has exceeded all of my expectations. And I do love it, to be honest. It’s a really great blend of everything, and somehow it's way bigger than I thought.

I want to follow up on that walking part and some of the stuff you do outside of Valorant. Can you walk me through your day-to-day with streaming?

My sleep schedule is pretty normal from Monday to Friday, but on weekends I do a four-hour split. So when it gets to Friday night, I'll go to bed at 3am, and then I wake up at 7am to watch Pacific. And then after Pacific is done, I'll then have a four-hour nap, and then watch America's from 9pm to 3am, and then repeat that. 

Other than that, I enjoy doing a lot of things outside of VALORANT, Monday to Friday, which means I spend a lot of time with my girlfriend. When I was coaching, I was very, 100% focused on the game. 

I spend a lot of hours watching VALORANT, but I have a lot more free time. I can actually separate it and go chill out with my girlfriend. I can watch some stuff, go out for meals, etc, without constantly needing to be in-person for things.

When I was coaching, I just struggled to think of anything else. It's very nice to have that separation. I live in Iceland at the moment, so I try to see my family every so often and fly back to England. It’s actually really chill. I’m not the most social person. I like to socialize every so often, but I do just like to chill at home, watch some kind of series, watch some kind of movie, and then go to the gym in the day. 

How many hours are you working in this lifestyle, and then how many hours do you think you were working in Valorant as a coach?

My brain was always on for coaching 24/7. The first year and a half, I was doing a minimum 14-hour days. I would probably extend that to 18 with a six-hour sleep instantly, just for no life commitment. When I was coaching, VALORANT was my everything, and I really enjoyed it. My original plan was that I was going to segment three years of blocking everything out and just do that non-stop. With streaming, it’s not too bad. I would say the average day is probably 12 hours. So, it doesn't actually feel like a mental toll, and it's kind of nice interacting with chat some of the time.  

How do you go about those conversations with your girlfriend? How do you explain to her that you are just going to sit in a room for 12 hours?

Yeah, it’s a weird one. She’s insanely supportive, and it is awesome.

 I don't think I'd be able to do what I do about the level of support. We have a very healthy relationship in that regard as well. It’s nice to get a lot of support, and we had those conversations very early on. I feel like outside of the blocks when I’m working, it’s pretty good in terms of the time that we spend together as well. It’s just a great balance, and it seems to just work. But she’s just very understanding, especially on the 18-hour days where she basically doesn’t see me. If she does, it's for maybe three minutes every hour or so.

It seems like the part that you really enjoy about co-streaming compared to observing and coaching is that you have more control.

I think the main thing is that I've spent the majority of my life observing. It's a very important role for what everyone's doing, similar to coaching, and you just get none of the praise for doing your work. So nice to have 10 years of doing something that you didn't get that much praise for, and then going into something where it's nice to get a lot of feedback and just see that people appreciate what I'm doing. 

Everyone's so nice in my community. It's kind of crazy. Like, all the kind words and what people are saying. Dude, it’s so nice to go from not having that for 10 years and being, in my eyes, a little bit underappreciated. To be fair, when you are an observer, that's like what you sign up for. You only get noticed when you've done something wrong, and you only get flamed. 

Did you feel like people wouldn't really latch onto it? Is it because you felt like your personality wasn't what people would be interested in, or something? 

I felt like the main core audience wouldn’t really resonate with the type of content I am interested in. It’s a niche subset of what I like about VALORANT and how I view the game. A lot of people, especially the casual viewers, are drawn more to impressive shots. There are normal watch parties like Tarik and stuff, where they get really excited for normal shots, and that’s what most people like as well.

I didn’t realize the niche of viewers watching for the tactical side would be this big. I thought I would get a lot of players and coaches, but I wouldn’t get other people watching like casual fans. I just didn’t think people would be as interested in the niche side of tactical FPS.

Before you came to Valorant, you were talking about a five-year goal. Can you talk about that? 

Yeah, I normally like to break things down into five-year increments. I think it's the best way to do things, but it doesn’t always work out like that. 

I like to look back at things and have no regrets. I think it's important to work towards that top percentage of how you work and ensure you get everything out of yourself. I don’t want to go back and be like, Oh you could have done more here. I like to look back and think, Oh man, you put everything into this. That’s why I don’t regret half-assing anything I set my mind to. So yeah, that was the plan.

In 2022, I took a break from coaching and was planning to come back in 2023, but streaming went so well.

Liquid offered me a content creator contract at the same time teams were offering me coaching contracts. I weighed my options, and I was just like, I enjoyed the six months of just costreaming so much that I re-evaluated my three to five-year goals. 

Something I also wanted to go back on was that you also had tier one offers to coach. Was this just in EMEA, or was this in all regions?

I had every region apart from China offer me a coaching role in 2023. I was in talks with nine teams, and I received four offers. 

There were some pretty good teams there for sure, especially in the Americas. I would say that the offers from there were top teams.

What’s the goal that you currently have with this specific arc as a content creator, and how are they different from your time as a coach?

I think goals at this moment always go back to that five-year plan because five years is how long it takes to get good at something. I got my contract signed with Liquid back in 2022, so we are in the third year at this moment, and I’m just like, "should I re-evaluate my goals at the end of this year?" I still get team offers every year as well, and I ask myself if I should join or if that matches up with my lifestyle at the moment.

It’s worth re-evaluating every year and asking myself a bunch of questions during reflection. The biggest question I always ask is how much sway is there to go back to coaching and winning in comparison to what I am currently doing. That’s the only thing that would really pull me back. I really do wanna win, and I think on a personal level, I want to prove it to myself. I’m pretty confident I can win something, but I ask myself a lot if I should take that risk and scrap something that is really going well. That’s the only thing driving me. 

You have talked about how this lifestyle feels perfect with costreaming and you haven’t really experienced burnout. What are the cons of streaming for you? Is it mostly that aspect that you don’t get to compete, and you can’t win?

That’s pretty much the only thing. I just really want to lift the trophy. That’s the only thing that would make me go back to coaching. It’s nice to have the bonds with a lot of the players and go through the ups and downs with them. It’s really nice to all work towards one goal and to experience that all together, especially with Jamppi. He feels like a younger brother, and I really want him to succeed. I actually kinda want to see him succeed more than myself at times. He is such a nice guy, and he is so talented, and I want him to achieve stuff.

I want to win, though, and it might sound delusional, but I know I can win. The only question is if I am willing to take that risk and prove it to myself right now. But no joke, I genuinely enjoy this game so much. I get so excited opening up VLR and looking at the matches. Some days, I’ll get incredibly pumped for some matches. So, as of right now, no cons with streaming. Maybe that changes in a couple of years, but honestly, streaming is excellent right now.