Creator Spotlight - Carrillogang

In our latest Creator Spotlight is the one and only Carrillo (and his gang). Donning his spectacular captain’s attire, he’s here to make sure we’re all ship-shape! We asked him some questions about his Voyages across the seas so far, and what experiences those travels have brought him.

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[Q]: What was your introduction to the world of games?

[A]: Well, it’s hard to remember when exactly it was that I was introduced to gaming, but one of my fondest memories when I was but a young child on the night of Christmas Eve, I couldn’t have been more than 5 years old. My parents were separated at the time, and my father drove all the way to my house after work to deliver my present, the house was full of family and everyone was celebrating. It was an awesome surprise to me, his present that year was my first console ever, a Sega Genesis bundled with Aladdin. That’s where I would say it all started for me. I spent hours trying to beat that game, never could get past the Cave of Wonders Escape level though. Maybe I can revisit it one day during my content-creating journey.

[Q]: How did you become part of the Sea of Thieves community?

[A]: Like many other sailors out there, my love for the game started way back when I first watched the E3 2016 trailer followed by the Gameplay Reveal video where a bunch of sailors were thrown into the sea against each other. It was really a magical moment for me. I knew immediately that I WANTED TO PLAY THIS GAME! There wasn't a single doubt in my mind, I knew Sea of Thieves was going to take over my life. After that night I began following the game everywhere, I participated in the Alpha testing and eventually the Beta, I made videos and everything! The rest is history.

[Q]: How did creating content become your ‘thing’?

[A]: My love for creating came to me at a very early age. I was about 15, around the time that I was really starting to question what I was going to do with my life after high school. YouTube was just becoming this huge thing on the internet, and I was a very competitive gamer back then. I started off by uploading competitive gameplay videos with no commentary, recorded on a cheap digital camera capturing my TV. I eventually learned about capture cards and asked my parents for a Dazzle Capture Card for Christmas.

Then I really started getting into different kinds of music, and I would play my games to loud bass-driven music. I started having these ideas and scenarios in my head of very smoothly edited footage to epic music, and one day I thought “y'know what? Let’s give this a shot”. Took me a long time to teach myself how to edit videos properly but I got to the point where tons of people in the Gears of War community were coming to me to edit their montages. I spent a long time doing that and I was very good at it, but like most things it got very tedious and I wanted something else.

That’s when I was introduced to PewDiePie and that REALLY got the ball rolling. Say what you will about him, he’s definitely up there with the people who inspire my type of content. I stopped making montages and started playing horror games and such, posting Let’s Plays all over my channel. So I’ve been at this for quite some time now lads, it started at 15 and I am now 29, though I would say I've only been on the full-time content creator train for around six years now.

[Q]: How do you decide what kind of content to create?

[A]: This process has evolved quite a bit over the years. As I said before, I started by making montages for random players who were much better at killing a string of enemies in PVP fights than I could ever be. I also participated in editing competitions, but back then I was part of a team, so things were quite structured.

Once I went solo and began my content-creating journey, it was very much all over the place. I would buy random games that looked like they had potential to blow up one day and I would create Let’s Play series for all of them. Ended up being a big waste of time in the end. Instead I tried concentrating all my time on one game. This was before Sea of Thieves was released, so at the time I was playing a fighting game called For Honor and I found some pretty good success in that community with my videos. Applying all my skills, I learned it was quite easy to make content depending on what was going on, maybe a new update was announced that needed to be analysed or some game-breaking glitch was being exploited. Whatever the case, I made sure to cover it IMMEDIATELY and on the normal days when there was nothing to cover I’d make content around my favourite character or class of fighter.

A lot of times I just have these ideas for a video out of nowhere, and I absolutely have to execute it or I won’t be able to sleep. Most of my ideas these days are for very short epic videos revolving around things that happen to me during my adventures on the seas. No matter what I’m doing though, whether I’m making a full 15-min video or a short 2-min video for Twitter, I HAVE to make sure I’m having fun. My ultimate goal is to make people laugh. I love creating a place for people to be able to come hang out and relax, and forget about the rest of what’s going on around me, so I try not to be so serious when making content. Even though my content has changed tremendously over the years, that’s one thing I’ve always stayed true to. It’s all about having a good time and enjoying yourself.

[Q]: What are some of the challenges you’ve faced while creating content?

[A]: There are many obstacles and challenges I’ve come across during my journey, a lot of them dealt with learning how the system worked and what I could and couldn’t do. When making videos there are essentials you’re going to need like music. Sometimes the games I played would have copyrighted music in them and I’d have to cut out a whole part of the video. There are services you can pay for that will give you access to huge libraries of music that you can use without worrying about copyrights, and if you’re someone who spends a lot of time making content, these services are LIFE SAVERS.

Another thing that became challenging over the years was editing. Even though I’ve become rather proficient at editing videos, I’ve also come to really dislike editing things, which is a big reason why I stopped uploading so frequently to YouTube. Editing just became so time-consuming to me and I feel it really contributed to my poor mental health all those years ago. I’ve learned it’s best not to dedicate so much time to it, you can make the best edit in the world but it’s honestly not worth all the time lost day after day. I’ve noticed that a minimally edited video will do just as well as if not better than your best-edited video.

You’ll go through a lot as a creator, but there’s always a balance, you have to find your balance. Otherwise you’re going to find yourself spending too much time in your room away from family and friends to the point where it becomes very unhealthy. When creating, it’s very important to take care of yourself. I can’t stress this enough, make sure you spend time with family, make sure you eat properly, make sure you get up and get some physical activity. Find that happy place where you’re staying healthy while you’re grinding, you’ll love that you did! I promise!

[Q]: What different channels do you have?

[A]: Well, I have many things, it’s very smart to branch out and not just stay on one platform! This is important to creating, you have to make sure you can get as many eyes as possible watching your stuff!

I have my main channel on Twitch. You can find me there daily around 3pm Pacific, currently getting a nice schedule going so start times should be earlier in the day.

I also have my YouTube channel. I haven’t posted videos on YouTube in over a year, but I do have plans to start up again so be on the lookout!

My main social media platform is Twitter. You can find all my emergency updates and all my interest on there, I also often post really short stream highlight videos there to make you laugh!

[Q]: What’s been your most memorable Sea of Thieves moment so far?

[A]: There are so many memories I’ve made on the seas with so many friends! I remember the night I reached Pirate Legend with my brother Krotukk, we both reached Pirate Legend that night by selling ONE GOLDEN CHICKEN to the Merchant Alliance. I also remember the time I taught SayHeyRocco how to bark like a true Sea Dog in The Arena! But I have to say I think my most memorable moment was the time when the Meg first arrived on the seas, and I stole some poor sailor’s Sloop. My Galleon crew was being attacked by the Megalodon, so I did what any other pirate would've done and commandeered the Sloop to go save my crew! The Sloop’s owner eventually spawned back on the boat, and as I was trying to explain the situation the Meg came up right next to the Sloop and jump-scared us by biting the ship and killing us both. I made a video of the whole encounter and pinned it to my Twitter profile.

[Q]: What do you enjoy most about the game now, and what are you looking forward to in future?

[A]: I have to say that I absolutely love where the game is today, we’ve come a long way! Literally anything can happen and that’s what keeps me coming back almost every day. You can set sail to go get some Commendations done and then you’ll find yourself saving a poor Sloop of inexperienced sailors from the Kraken, claiming that the Kraken snatched both of their weaves and completely making someone’s day! True story, by the way. I met two sisters on a Sloop and they still to this day swear that the Kraken stole both of their weaves – when I say anything can happen, I mean it.

Speaking of the Kraken, there is something I’d like to see in the future when it comes to threats on the open seas. We already have many water-based threats like the Megalodon, the Kraken and emergent skelly crews. What if we had an aerial threat? Hear me out! The Devil’s Roar! An ancient foe waking from its slumber! Giant flaming wings spreading open from the peak of the tallest volcano in the Roar! A FLAMING PHOENIX! A foe so great it would bring the community together to work as a team to bring her down, we would need ships to harpoon her to slow her and maybe do extra damage by bringing her into the water! Okay, I'll relax now, but I'm just saying! Experiences like The Hungering One are some of my favourite moments in Sea of Thieves and we need more things like that.

[Q]: What’s something you’re particularly proud of accomplishing in gaming?

[A]: There are many things I’ve done in gaming that I’d be proud to boast about actually, like how I’ve held first place all-time ranking in leaderboards in past games I used to play on a daily basis, or all the times I’ve come across famous creators in different games and was proud to have died by their hands. All of which doesn't really mean much when it comes down to it, but they’re still things with a story behind them and it’s always nice to go back and reminisce.

On a more serious note, I think the one thing that means the most to me at this point is just how far I’ve come in gaming and in the Sea of Thieves community. Games have changed my life in so many ways, none more so than the creation of The Captain. The Captain is the persona I created for my Sea of Thieves streams, it was honestly something I never saw coming. It was just supposed to be a one-time thing, I never thought it would become a thing in my everyday life. I remember when I met Joe Neate and Jon McFarlane at TwitchCon 2019 in San Diego, I had never been to an event like that before. It was my first time doing something so big and eventful, just the thought of putting myself out there like that was an insanely huge step for me, and I went there dressed AS THE CAPTAIN! My first time going to a convention cosplaying and roleplaying for the community! I never would’ve done that without Sea of Thieves. I made sure I shook Joe and Jon’s hands and thanked them for giving me a place to call home on the seas, for I probably wouldn't be where I am today if Sea of Thieves didn’t exist. I’m happy and proud of how far I’ve come in the last three years because of this game.

[Q]: How did you come up with your channel name?

[A]: Funny thing, my mother actually came up with this name. Back in the ’90s when the internet was blowing up, I must've been around 7 or 8 years of age when I asked my mother to help me make my first email account so I could communicate with my father better. I was just a child and didn't know what to name my email, so my mother, knowing that family meant everything to me, said to me “How bout we just call it Carrillogang, since Carrillo is your last name and we’re always together like a big happy family?” I loved the idea of course and immediately said YES!

So, time passed, and eventually online gaming was born, and I took my first steps into Xbox Live when I purchased my Xbox 360. Now, it wasn't my plan to use Carrillogang as my gamertag when I first created my account, it was originally supposed to be something like ‘Twisted Dude’ as I was trying to be cool, but every form of the tag I entered kept receiving the “gamertag is already in use” error message. Long story short, I was young and impatient, I just wanted to play online! I did what any other impatient teenager would do and just started spamming the A Button and somehow my account defaulted to just using my email name as my GT. I said “Whatever! I’ll just change it later!” Famous last words ’cause I never actually did, it’s stuck with me ever since. I don’t think I’ll ever change it.

[Q]: What advice would you give to a new content creator?

[A]: It’s going to be a long road. Be patient, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Hone your craft, quality above quantity. Learn the ins and outs, understand what you’re working with. Above all, TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF! No one ever really tells you what it’s like to live the life of a creator. It’s very lonely and it’s too easy to slip into bad habits. I used to sit up in my room for 8-14 hours a day recording, editing, rendering and uploading things to YouTube, it was the unhealthiest lifestyle I’ve ever had. I missed out on so many opportunities to spend time with friends and family, I became a recluse – not that living a solitary lifestyle is all that bad, but when you live like that while not eating properly and getting little to no physical activity, it becomes a problem. Maintaining good strong mental health is key to the longevity of your content-creating journey. Many things feed into mental health, including family, friends, fitness and general health, so look after yourself and you’ll be surprised how far you can actually go with this dream.

[Q]: What’s one thing you would advise a content creator not to do?

[A]: Don’t jump in all at once. I know how exciting it can be when you first start out. I made a lot of bad decisions when I began my journey, including over-spending money that I did not have at the time. There are only a few things you need when starting out: a recording device, a decent microphone and internet! Everything else is less important. You can do so much with just the essentials, so don't go spending all kinds of money on a super-expensive microphone or a facecam right from the get-go. Also don't get lost in your numbers and analytics, it’s easy for that to ruin your mood. Just remember everyone has to start somewhere.

One last thing: this isn’t a competition. You’re going to make a lot of friends along your journey, you’ll see many of them succeed, and it’s important that you show love and support and don't turn it into jealousy. We are all on the same path, we all deal with different obstacles, treating it as a competition is not the way to go about it. You will not succeed with that mindset.

[Q]: Could you give us one more random fact about yourself?

[A]: Well, I’ve always had a passion for music and all throughout my years in school I played some kind of instrument in school bands. Started off with saxophone at an early age, in high school I went on to become a bit of a percussionist, played in the drumline and the pit. I even taught myself how to play guitar when I was 12. It’s been a long time since I was in school, but these days my passion for music is still as strong as ever. I’ve had massive amounts of fun incorporating music into my everyday streams on Twitch, from playing guitar live for the viewers to singing shanties while sailing the seas. I’m very happy I was able to find a way to bring all my talents together for all my fans. Bringing it to my streams has been an absolute dream and I can’t wait to see what other things I can do for my content in the future.

That's all for today’s Creator Spotlight. Thank you to Captain Carrillo for letting us look into his life as both a creator and a Sea of Thieves fan! If you see a ship with a very well-dressed captain at the helm, watch out – we know we will!

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