Alex “Byfield” Byfield has been a staple of the UK scene for a long while now, but that doesn’t mean this always stays the same. Recently, he’s ventured into the world of content creation for TikTok through both streaming and posting clips to his account.
Byfield has also ventured into a new team as of late: Team Valor. Despite the unfortunate circumstances surrounding his team’s attempt to qualify for UKIC Season 7 Masters, Byfield remains in high spirits about the roster.
Byfield returns to EPIC.LAN 45 with some familiar faces within the UK Scene, including the likes of Max “MiGHTYMAX” Heath and Thomas “Thomas” Utting. Byfield‘s expectations for the event are to just have some fun with friends, as he puts it, they’re friends before teammates.
Speaking to UKCSGO, Byfield touches on all those topics and more within his recent journey through competition and content creation.
You’ve recently started posting a lot of content and streaming on TikTok. How has the transition been from Twitch to TikTok?
First off, I have to give a massive shout-out to Endpoint, Jamie from Endpoint, Pete, and TJ from Endpoint. They are the guys who had the vision for TikTok for me. Initially, I never would have thought to stream on TikTok. I understood that I should be posting clips on TikTok, but to actually stream on TikTok? That was never on my mind at all.
Pete sent me a message: “By the way, we’re building this TikTok agency and we actually believe you’d be fantastic for this.” Initially, I was thinking about turning it down because it didn’t make sense to me, and I didn’t want it to interrupt what I had going for me on Twitch. It was actually my Mum who said, “Alex, you’re being an idiot. Say yes, go to Sheffield, sign up, test it out, see what happens.” When I did test it out, it was a disaster.
The first three streams were horrendous. I streamed Faceit with no viewership. I played an Anubis game, also on TikTok, you can’t stream with a delay. I played this Anubis match, I lost, I got destroyed, and one of the guys from the other team followed me on TikTok, and I just thought, “Oh my god, I can’t do this.” I kind of had this defeated feeling about TikTok. Then one time before an official, I had to get my warmup routine in, and I promised Endpoint that I was going to stream that day, and I thought, “What am I going to do?” So I thought, screw it, I’ll just stream the warmup.
At that point, I almost didn’t care. I didn’t think it was going to work. I was almost preparing to tell Pete, “Thanks for thinking of me, but I don’t think this will work.” Then I streamed the warmup, and I was answering questions, and I was fully engaged. People are asking me questions, I’m answering them, my viewership is going up, I’m hitting forty viewers. I’m getting followers and donations, and I’m thinking something’s changed. Whereas before, when I was streaming Faceit, I would die, there would be no content for one minute. The average attention span of people on TikTok is about that one-minute mark.
I was just siphoning viewers and not in a positive way. Whereas when I was doing the warmup, I was able to speak consistently, fluidly answer questions, keeping a consistent conversation in chat that kept viewer retention, that kept the growth. Then I started turning the best questions into TikTok, and that’s where I’ve never looked back. I had 1.3 million views last month. I’m never looking back, I’ve got more sponsors coming, big things to announce next week. TikTok’s been the game changer for me, and it’s also built my Twitch. My viewership on Twitch has gone up by about 30% since streaming on TikTok.
Did it feel strange streaming on TikTok? Or because you were comfortable with your warmup routine off camera, did it make it easier to transition that to TikTok on camera?
I was really happy; it was almost like serendipity for me. because one of the big fears I had, and I actually vocalised this to Endpoint, I didn’t want to cause a divide between my Twitch and TikTok. for example lets say I was streaming on both at the same time and I was reading chats and I would say “oh tom great question blah blah blah” but the guy on twitch doesn’t see that question, he’s thinking “what the hell is Alex talking about” whereas actually, having them divided, there’s been no problems.
In actuality its cause a really good onboarding process for my stream because people come from the TikTok they go “oh your 3.5k elo when are you playing Faceit?” then I say “I only play Faceit on Twitch click my link in bio it takes you to my Twitch and Discord” I’ve even grown my discord by over 20% in the last month, nearly 250 members there now. It’s been a real blessing that they haven’t crossed over because that was one of my biggest fears.
It makes sense as well because when I was actually looking at TikTok, the biggest streams were conversations. People streaming, talking to the camera, people streaming their hair or makeup routine. That’s when I thought, me talking and the conversation is really important on TikTok. Whereas on Twitch is about the highest quality of gameplay, the vibes, the cosy feeling, and the community. On TikTok, people aren’t there for that because they’re in and out so quickly.
You mentioned you joined the EndpointLive creator program, and you had to do streams for Endpoint. How has Endpoint supported you in your TikTok creation? What was the benefit of joining that in the first place, as opposed to streaming independently?
It’s been incredible to be honest with you, and the support that Pete, Endpoint, Jamie, and the whole Endpoint team have given me has been really massive. I’ll give you some examples. Every Friday now I front page of Faceit on my Twitch channel. Now my Twitch on Fridays is getting about double the viewership it usually gets, 80 to 100 viewers, average 50-60 viewers, double what my stream usually does. And I’m playing in the UKIC Endpoint clan, but that’s from Pete, from Endpoint, got me that deal with Faceit, and I’m playing in UKIC.
So the EndpointLive program, they’re helping me on my Twitch as well, which I wasn’t expecting, so I’m very thankful for that. They give me access to new sponsors and new brands. One of the adjustments that Jamie [Sloopy] he told me I should make one adjustment to my TikToks, I made that adjustment, and it quadrupled the viewership, because he understands the algorithm, and he’s part of the agency. That’s just some of the benefits they’ve given me in a very short time, so it’s only going to grow and get bigger.
Talk to me about the UKIC Master’s qualifiers with Team Valor. How did they go, and what was your takeaway from those after unfortunately failing to qualify?
The mood in the team is still very strong. Obviously, we’ve failed to qualify for the UKIC Masters. However, one of our teammates had some serious life events happening that week, and he couldn’t play. That sort of set our expectations lower; we couldn’t play with our full roster. Even if we have good stand-ins like Ryan and Dobbo, we’re still going to be mixing it in these best-of-threes on maps we’ve never played with these people before. It’s unrealistic that we’re going to make this happen.
You’re going to see the best version of Byfield on this team, mark my words. I’m going to shock people this season and next season, they’re not going to be ready for the level that I will show.
We set our expectations low and focused more on the process of how we were playing in those matches, and whether we had good communication. Good atmosphere? Were we teammates in those qualifiers? We knew we were fighting against the odds because we weren’t playing with our full roster, and Wazz is a big part of our roster. He’s a star rifler, one of the most vocal players on the team. A lot of the set rounds on the side are based around him. But to qualify for these sorts of things, you do need to be a fully fledged roster and we weren’t able to do it this time, but I’m very confident we’ll do it next time.
How did the team come together?
My last team folded, I was playing with Rim3, and he got picked up by Eternal Fire Academy. Fantastic player, fantastic talent, 18 years old, FPL, he’s going to make it to Tier-1. My team folded, and one of the people we trialled to replace Rim3 was log1ks, and unfortunately, the team was never going to be the same without that kind of rifler. I was really impressed with Richie [log1ks] in trials, and from that we decided to start playing together. We ended up having great synergy and communication, chemistry, and respect for each other. Then we decided to actually build a team together, and that was expected to be a long a difficult process, but actually it was a lot easier and smoother than expected.
We had Mox from Richie’s last team, Richie. He’s been a fantastic in-game leader for us, a fantastic leadership figure in the team as well. It’s been nice because I just turned 28, and I’ve always been the oldest in the team, and when you’re the oldest, you’re always expected to sort out disputes with the players. Be the most vocal in the mid-round. But actually, on the AWP, I just want to shoot people and focus on me, but I’ve always had to be this dad role in the team. It’s been really refreshing playing with an IGL that’s older than me, who takes that responsibility away from me and allows me to play better.
You’re going to see the best version of Byfield on this team, mark my words. I’m going to shock people this season and next season, they’re not going to be ready for the level that I will show. I’m now no longer the brand of the team, the IGL, the dad of the team, the everything of the team. Now, though, all I have to do is kill people with the AWP, and it’s been a breath of fresh air.
What goals do you have for the team between now and next Masters, and what competitions are you going to be playing in?
We’re going to dominate UKIC Division 2. We will qualify for Master’s. Just look at Log1ks viral clip with the Mac-10. A lot of people would be jealous of the attention he’s getting; they’d be annoyed that he’s bringing it up on social media. Instead, we did the opposite; we helped him to do the tweets, we encouraged him to do posts, and we helped him on which posts would do well. Mox was a massive part of that. We are here to help each other, and the first time I’ve had that on a team in probably two years.
At this level, everyone is out for themselves, and everyone wants to go pro. No one wants anyone else on the team to be a bigger brand than them, because that means they’re not going to be the one to be picked up by the next team. Whereas on this team, there’s none of that bullshit, we’re here, we care about each other, we’re genuine teammates, and I haven’t had that in years, and it’s going to make a massive impact on our performance.
How did you roster here at EPIC.LAN 45 come together?
I’ve known Max [MIGHTYMAX] and I’ve known Thomas for nine, maybe even 10 at this point. I was joking with Thomas yesterday. I remember when I trialled Thomas for one of my first ever teams about 10 years ago because I thought his IGLing was bad. In my defence, it was quite bad 10 years ago. Obviously, now he’s very good, so times have changed, and he’s gone on to do much better things than I inside the server. But I’ve known these guys for so long, you’re going to see it on the stream, we’re going to be so relaxed, we’re going to have so much fun. There’s no pressure, we could even get grouped and still have an amazing LAN.
I’ve been dealing with some very serious things in my personal life. Liam has been dealing with some very personal things in his personal life. I know Thomas and Max haven’t found teams yet; they’re under stress in their professional life. We are here to run away from those things and to enjoy the fact that we are all amazing friends. Liam [LogaN] is the heart and soul of the team. He’s one of my best friends I’ve met through Counter-Strike, one of my best friends I’ve got, period. He reached out to me and said, “Hey, you want to come to LAN?” I didn’t know who was even on the team. I just said yes, and then it turns out it was Max and Thomas. Again, we are friends before teammates, we’re here to have an amazing time and make this one of the best LANs we’ve ever been to.
I’ve been dealing with some very serious things in my personal life. Liam has been dealing with some very personal things in his personal life. I know Thomas and Max haven’t found teams yet; they’re under stress in their professional life.
You say you’re here to have a great time, but I imagine you have some form of expectations of yourself?
We really don’t, we are going to be drinking during the groups, we could get grouped and still have an amazing time. If we were to put ego into this, it’s going to cause tilt, it’s going to cause frustrations. We are too good friends for that to happen. There have been some parts in terms of competing that have been good for me. Playing lots of Faceit, doing lots of server time as well. I have probably learnt more in the last week doing offline server time with MIGHTYMAX and Thomas, the two best in-game leaders the UK has produced in the last 10 years, than I have done of two years of playing the game. Why? Because I’m able to ask questions.
I have probably learnt more in the last week doing offline server time with MIGHTYMAX and Thomas, the two best in-game leaders the UK has produced in the last 10 years, than I have done of two years of playing the game. Why? Because I’m able to ask questions.
Also, for MIGHTYMAX and Thomas, these guys aren’t usually teammates, so a lot of the time, they’re competing against each other. When I’ve been chatting to them and we’ve been building up some of our defaults for this LAN. I say to them, “Hey, I’m AWPing on this map, what should I do here?” Thomas gives me one opinion, and Max gives me another, and they actually disagree sometimes. Then I get to hear that and understand that. Even MIGHTYMAX has been watching some of my scrims with me, with Team Valor and giving me input and giving me insight there and helping me. It’s just been such a learning experience for me because I have this unique experience of playing with the two best minds in the UK. Yeah, I’m just improving so quickly and so rapidly.
What are your thoughts on the EU teams coming to EPIC.LAN this time around?
I think more on the Iberian Soul because they have smooya he’s won the event before, he’s a UK player, and is a player that puts a lot of pressure on himself. He thrives under the pressure, and he needs that pressure to lock in and play his best. He jokes and says he plays best when he’s tilted. I believe that. So there’d be a lot of pressure on them, it’s whether the rest of their teammates can handle that on Iberian Soul.
I have also played Spanish tournaments, I’ve even won GameGune, the Spanish LAN, and I know that when you come to compete at a foreign tournament, you have less pressure. You don’t know the guys you’re playing against. But I don’t think that’s the same because of VRS. VRS means every game matters, and it is going to give a different feel to this tournament. I think the European teams that can handle that pressure will be the ones who walk away with the victory.
