Aprendendo com os mais novos

I'm kicking off this post to talk about one of the main inspirations behind the new content format I've adopted for Teach Yourself Portuguese: a 26-year-old Norwegian guy who plays video games for a living.

I'd love to share with you just how much I’ve learned from him when it comes to content creation, work ethic, storytelling, and above all, how dedication and commitment drive real results.

As you probably know by now (or as we say in Brazil, "at this stage of the championship"—because of course our idioms are about soccer, haha), I love gaming.

I have been a gamer since I was a kid! It’s a deep-rooted passion for the stories, the aesthetics, the mechanics, the entertainment value, and the fantastic, interactive universes they offer. I enjoy some super chill ones (like Hozy!) and some chaotic ones (like Supermarket Simulator).

But there’s a third category that really hooks me, both as a player and a viewer: highly competitive games.

And it was within this third category that I found an incredibly addictive and engaging hobby that awakened my competitive spirit: Trackmania Nations, back in 2008 or so.

At the time, I was a teacher at a computer school (my very first teaching job!) and the game allowed for LAN matches (meaning all 16 computers in the school were connected locally).

The other teacher and I would sometimes organize matches and tournaments with the students just for fun.

It’s a racing game, but it's heavily focused on "time attack," meaning you're strictly racing against the clock. Much like my favorite sport, rally racing, the goal is to finish the track in the fastest time possible, and there’s a global leaderboard where records are immortalized. Good times!

Anyway... after MANY YEARS of not even hearing about this game, a video about the current version—Trackmania 2020—randomly popped up in my YouTube recommendations one day. And with it came my first introduction to the streamer I want to talk about today: Wirtual (Øyvind Iversen).

At first, the nostalgia factor played a massive role in creating an instant connection with his content. But as I dug deeper, I realized he wasn't just some random guy playing my favorite childhood game.

Because of the nature of the game (the "time attack" mode I mentioned earlier) and the global leaderboards, people from all over the world fiercely compete for the top spots. The older the track, the more prestigious it is to crack the top 10.

People who turn beating games in record time into a profession are known as "speedrunners".

And Wirtual makes these incredible documentaries about Trackmania speedrunners. That was when I was introduced to the storyteller who completely captivated me.

Wirtual doesn't upload very often on his main channel. Sometimes he goes months without posting a new video. But the reason he does this is that every single video is a meticulously detailed, information-packed documentary. He takes a specific record or a major event within the game's community and breaks it down so perfectly that literally anyone can understand it, simply because of how well it's contextualized and narrated. In my opinion, he is one of the best storytellers on YouTube.

His videos are amazing, but his catalog is relatively small, and I’ve already binge-watched all of them. So, where do people go when they run out of videos to watch on his channel? They tune in to watch Wirtual live in real-time during his streams! Almost every day, he spends hours playing and interacting with the massive following he’s built.

Naturally, since this is more organic, unedited content, it’s a bit different from watching his highly produced documentaries.

Since he's a dedicated single-game streamer, he broadcasts his own attempts to break personal records, tackle challenges, and sometimes pull off absolutely absurd feats.

For instance, he streamed roughly 200 hours of gameplay just trying to beat an insanely difficult map called Deep Dip 2. Even though he wasn't the first person to clear it, he later went on to break the world record for the fastest completion time on that exact map.

Because of these streams, he created a secondary channel so he wouldn't mix up his high-production documentaries with his more organic livestream content. He segments his streams in such a smart way that his editing team can almost instantly chop them up and publish a video—often on the exact same day the stream took place.

I find him incredibly organized, smart, and efficient for structuring his live streams like this. I rarely watch his full VODs (Videos on Demand). Some are 2 hours long; others drag on for over 8 hours. I just don't have the time or patience to sit through all of that.

What do I watch? The highlight videos cut from those streams.

That’s exactly why, during one of my brainstorming daydreams about how to fix my inconsistent YouTube upload schedule, I realized I needed to do something similar. Or at least try!

And that’s how the current Teach Yourself Portuguese livestream format was born: A Stream in Three Acts. I do proper "intros" speaking directly to the camera as if I were recording a standard YouTube video, and I also do an outro mid-stream (which always confuses the chat, haha: "Is it over already?").

The stream kicks off with a heavy focus on community interaction and participation: The Question of the Week. Every stream, I drop a new question so viewers can send in their answers and be featured in the following broadcast.

A warm-up using the game Termo (which is basically Wordle, but in Portuguese). The goal here is to get the chat engaged, guessing the word alongside me. I'm usually terrible at it, and you guys always save me.

A gameplay section where I give the viewers in the chat a specific communicative task while I play. At the same time, I challenge myself to explain what’s going on as clearly as possible for those who are still learning Portuguese.

Unlike Wirtual, I don’t have tens of thousands of people watching me in real-time. But first of all, that’s not the main goal. After all, the content is meant to be edited down and turned into a standalone recorded video later!

And secondly, I genuinely love hosting my small, cozy streams with my 12 to 20 dedicated regulars. That's my average viewer count, even with 12k subscribers—which honestly just shows how terribly YouTube's algorithm handles pushing livestreams to a broader audience.

Having a smaller crowd actually makes it much easier for me to give everyone in the chat my full attention and ensure no message goes unanswered. I think it feels much more intimate, making the stream a cozy and welcoming space for newcomers who just happen to stumble in.

Another thing Wirtual has that I don't is a whole team of editors working around the clock to turn his streams into videos and design his thumbnails.

That’s exactly why, after hitting the absolute verge of burnout from trying to juggle way too much—managing my website's schedule, platform schedules, private tutoring, content creation, video editing, community management, AND trying to turn my weekly streams into three separate videos—

I finally decided the streams won't be weekly anymore.

But this recent run of 8 or 9 streams has taught me a few things:

• 1) Organization is freeing: It is possible to establish a format that makes my life easier as a creator. It also makes things better for you as students and viewers by offering some predictability about what to expect each stream.

• 2) Community is the heartbeat: Community interaction is the heartbeat of the stream. It’s exactly what keeps my drive to bring in new ideas alive and pulsing.

• 3) Frequency is a matter of time: Streaming weekly just isn't feasible with my current schedule. However, I truly believe it will become a reality in the future!

And all of this, guys, I learned from a 26-year-old from Norway who discovered that our shared passion—Trackmania—ignited another passion within him: telling stories.

He loves sharing the incredible feats achieved by the dedicated, passionate speedrunning community and bringing something he loves to a wider audience.

His charisma is unmatched, and his sheer skill as a communicator makes his channel a blueprint for success and a massive source of motivation for this teacher right here.

Is this just another one of my parasocial relationships? Probably! Hahaha.

PS: Wirtual actually used to live in Brazil! So, Wirtual, if you ever end up reading this: Thank you for being such an inspiration!