Miss Baffy interview: ‘If somebody joins my stream and they’re sexist, I literally just tell them how much of a fucking idiot they are!’

Miss Baffy is one of the UK’s most popular League of Legends streamers, and she recently joined UK esports organisation LDN UTD.

She hopped into a Discord call with Esports News UK editor Dom Sacco to discuss what the partnership will involve, nearing 100,000 followers on Twitch and how she became a streamer, including opening up on her difficult past.

Congratulations on your partnership with LDN UTD. What will this involve and why did you team up with them? 

So, joining an org was never really like in my plan, but a few orgs reached out to me and I saw the benefits in them when I was doing my research, thinking, you know, it’s actually a really mutually beneficial thing. So if you join an org, not only can you help them spread their message, but they can help you spread your message too. 

And so I was kind of thinking, okay, this could be a really good idea. So, I was looking around and LDN UTD reached out to me via Joe [Creasey, head of content] and he was just basically telling me about their message and how they’re a little bit different because they’re trying to battle the war against toxicity in video games, which I agree with. 

I don’t know why gaming has to be so toxic. It’s a little extreme sometimes, and I think that something should definitely be done about it, especially when a lot of people are struggling with their mental health already, and then on top of that, they play a game to relax and try to take their mind off that and, you know, get told to kill themselves and stuff. It’s pretty crazy. 

The main thing is just so that we can bounce off each other. I like their message and I am excited to grow with them. Like, instead of just growing by myself, having a little bit of a helping hand, in terms of social media, helping me with my YouTube, starting out my TikTok and stuff like that. And yeah, so all of that combined just kind of made me think this is a really good idea. 

Absolutely. It’s good to see streamers like yourselves teaming up with esports orgs, because sometimes there’s a bit of a disconnect between the two. It’s been encouraging in the past to see streamers like Foxdrop really getting involved on the esports side more with hosting and casting. Do you follow esports much?

I did when Worlds was on, but right now I’m not following it. I’m not following the LCS, LCK, LEC, stuff like that… but my boyfriend watches every one, every single game in the LCS and LEC, he watches it all. 

You started streaming back in January 2016 – please tell us about your streaming journey and your early days on Twitch.

Okay, so when I was probably around 14 or 15 years old, all I ever did was play games. I used to skive off of school just so that I could play games. I’d bring my Nintendo DS into school, I was really sucked into the gaming world.

When my friends kind of grew out of playing games, I never did. I always felt a little bit childish and some of my friends, you know, kind of thought they were… not looking down on me per se, but like, they saw me as quite childish because I was still playing games all the time, you know? They didn’t think I was a weirdo or a loser but they just thought I was a bit of a kid, you know. 

I’d come home and I’d play Call of Duty and stuff like that. I was introduced to League of Legends around Season 2, so I started playing that in 2012. Then I was introduced to Twitch by my brother – we used to watch a guy called RF Legendary together and I dove into the world of Twitch a little bit more. 

I was watching Gross Gore, and I never used to chat in streams. I would just watch on my TV. I used to just sit there and think: ‘This is what I’m going to do, like 100% what I’m going to do. I don’t want to do anything else in life other than stream. I want to do what they’re doing.’

I used to see RF Legendary thanking people for subs and I just used to think that was so cool, that people subbed to him. It was just like the dream, you know. So when I was really young, I’d sit on my mum’s PC and I would make overlays for my future stream, you know, for the one day that I’d get to stream. I would make some overlays for League and ask my brother if they looked good. I’d never use them. But yeah, it was just the only thing that was in my mind.

Then I went to college, and I literally was not interested in anything there. The only subjects I chose were the ones that I could just do with my grades, like, whatever was available to me, I would just do that. 

I ended up just being so uninterested in everything. I hated college. I hated being there. It was just really horrible. I I felt really alienated because during the six weeks off in the summer holidays, all my friends were using that time to socialize and meet new people and their new college friends, and I spent that whole entire time just playing League with my brother. Honestly, we would never ever leave the house. I didn’t see any of my friends. 

So when I returned to college I kind of didn’t have any friends left. And I found myself just following everybody around, just feeling sorry for myself. You know what I mean? Just feeling like a bit of a loner, and I was just really embarrassed all the time. I don’t know why. I was just embarrassed to be there. I thought everyone was looking at me all the time thinking, how much of a loser I am and stuff. 

And so, I ended up dropping out of college.

“It’s kind of like a stereotype that girls are boosted in games, which is frustrating sometimes. But that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to get Diamond by myself, with zero duo queue games played, so I could say: Hey, fuck you, girls aren’t boosted. Look, I did it with nobody but myself – what are you going to say now?”

And then my mum moved countries, so I was living by myself, quite young at 17 years old. I picked up a job which my sister would drive me to. I saved up enough money to buy a PC. I was only making £78 a week, so it took me a while to save up for a good enough PC. But I was kind of really embarrassed to stream, because I was just an embarrassed teenager, you know! Like back in the day, I was embarrassed about everything, but I was really embarrassed to stream because I thought my friends, my online friends, would laugh at me, because I was trying to stream. 

So what I did, as an excuse to stream, was I joined an all-girls League of Legends team. We would scrim and I would stream the scrims, so that was kind of like my excuse for streaming. I’d be like, ‘Oh guys, I’m not streaming because I want to be a streamer, I’m just streaming our games, streaming my practice,’ so they wouldn’t laugh at me as much.

But eventually, my coach kept telling me off, because I was reading the chat! And I was so happy that I had a couple people in my chat, and I kept reading the chat instead of looking at the game! He kept telling me to stop, and then I eventually muted myself in the Discord call with my team, and I would just talk to my stream chat instead.

Eventually it got really bad so I just left the team, and then I carried on streaming. I would just stream, stream, stream, and it took me a really long time to build up a viewer base. I remember being stuck on a really low view count – under ten viewers – for a long time. 

And then stuff happened in my life – I moved in with a friend in Denmark, because my living situation in England wasn’t very good. It was super random, but there we go. During that time, I took a little break. I took six to eight months off, I think, because I was moving countries and, to me, I was feeling a bit demotivated from streaming because I never made it, you know. I was streaming for a long time and I never got where I wanted to be. 

Then, one day, when I was in Denmark, I said: ‘Fuck it. I’m gonna go for this again. I’m going to give it one more try. I’m going to stream everyday and just see what happens.’ 

So I started my stream again. And I think this time I was playing Overwatch for half a year, because I was kind of bored of League. Then I got bored of Overwatch and I was like, yeah, this is not my game. So I went back to League. 

I streamed and streamed and streamed, and I got a little bit more involved with Gross Gore’s community, watching his streams and stuff like that, and then eventually like some of Gross Gore’s viewers came over to my stream. And that’s actually where I met my boyfriend. He was also a Gross Gore viewer. 

So I was streaming in Denmark, and I was so excited, I was thinking to myself: ‘Okay, alright, I’m at 60 viewers now, maybe in like a year I’ll be at 70 viewers! Oh my God, I can’t believe it, imagine if I was a streamer who was at 100 viewers, that’d be crazy! Like, wow, I would have really made it.’ 

And then I was invited to a streamer show back in the day, by AustinShow, who was known as RajjPatel back then. Gross Gore and Yassuo and Sliker were on there, and all these League people. So I had a fun time on there and that helped a little bit.

Then everything just kind of snowballed. And then I kind of accidentally became one of the biggest UK female League streamers (laughs)! I didn’t mean for that to happen, but yeah. 

That’s an interesting story. It’s like I’ve said to some people who have looked to enter esports and streaming, who might want to just make a Twitch channel and quickly get a decent following. I ask them: are you prepared for the effort you need to put into this? Because you can’t just make a Twitch channel and get 200 viewers in a week. That’s not how it works (unless you’re already known). And your story shows you really stuck it out. You’re the same streamer from before, it’s just a case of people being more aware of you and that takes time. And now you’re close to 100,000 followers on Twitch. 

Yeah, it’s just a snowball effect. Exactly. Let me link you something. When I said I had that break near the start and decided to give it one more shot, this is a conversation I had with my mum.

It’s a message that I sent to her and what she said in response:

I was really fucking poor, as was my family, so £500 to me was A LOT, and was a big accomplishment.

I can genuinely now say I’m living my dream, and if there’s ever a goal you want in life, you may as well try reach it if you’ve got nothing to lose

Thanks for everything

— Baffy (@baffyLol) February 1, 2021

When you were in Denmark, did you have a job on the side? 

Yeah. When I went to Denmark, I was with my friend’s parents, it was just such a weird situation. I basically did not have anywhere to live anymore in England. So yeah, my friend really helped me out and I was trying so hard to find a job because I thought that I had tried to stream and that I failed. 

I was looking for jobs as a cleaner, just like cleaning toilets and stuff like that. And I was actually rejected by everyone, I think mainly because I was not speaking any Danish. I was a completely different person back then. I thought nothing of myself, like I seriously thought I was a piece of shit. I just had nothing, I had nothing to my name. And I was just very sad. And I thought, well, I can’t even get a job as a cleaner. So what I’m going to do is I’m just going to try the streaming thing, one more time. I’m going to do it every day and, you know, surely something has to come off it, right?

So that’s what I did. And if I had been accepted for one of those jobs, I might not have been where I am now. So I’m really glad that they declined me, because yeah, it’s kind of the reason why I went for it [streaming]. 

Well I’m sorry to hear what you went through. That must have been difficult.

Oh it’s alright.

“Joining an esports org was never really in my plan, but a few orgs reached out to me and I saw the benefits in them. I like LDN UTD’s message and I am excited to grow with them.”

I think your story will be uplifting to some people who may be in a similar boat or situation to what you were in. So thanks for opening up about this. I have to ask, you mentioned Gross Gore before. I’ve seen some of your interactions with him on Twitter, and you seem to have good rapport with him, you’ve taken the mick out of him in a lighthearted way etc, but it seems he’s someone you looked up to in the past as a streamer, as one of the first streamers you watched.

He wasn’t the first streamer [I watched], but his community was the first community I ever joined. The first streamers I watched were RF Legendary and BoxBox. I’d never type in chat, but in Gross Gore’s chat I would type.

So he really helped me boost my confidence for sure – he spoke to me as if I was a person. And I’d never had that from anyone big before, so it really did boost my confidence.

I completely get that. Gross Gore is someone I’ve written articles about in the past, the guy just seems to generate headlines. I don’t take sides, I just report on the news, and I think he respects that. Do you have any funny memories with him? 

Oh, yeah, for sure. Well, the first time I ever met him, we actually shared an Airbnb with him. So me and my boyfriend – he wasn’t my boyfriend at the time – and my friend, and Gross Gore and a few of his friends, we all shared an Airbnb together. And I just remember when I met him, he is the exact same in person [as he is on stream]. He’s what you’d expect, you know, like [does Gross Gore impression]: ‘Awight, yo Baffy come give me a hug!’ 

I think he’s a good guy deep down, you know, he just makes some bad decisions. I remember just hanging out with him and he would always include everyone, he’d always include everybody in the conversation. He won’t make you feel like you’re left out, and so it was really fun. We had such a good night. 

He has definitely made some mistakes in the past and I’m not defending him. But in terms of how Gross Gore got indefinitely banned on Twitch, it did seem to be partly because of some kind of cancel campaign. This ‘cancel culture’ so to speak, has that made things more difficult for you as a streamer? Do you feel like you have to be more careful of what you say? 

I am definitely more careful with what I say. Luckily, I’m not as controversial as Gross Gore so I don’t really get cancelled, or people don’t try and cancel me as I don’t do as many controversial things as him. I definitely try not to upset anyone. Obviously, I’m not as big as him either, but yeah, I am scared of that. 

I am as well if I’m being honest. Some journalists get attacked for writing articles or get their careers wrecked by people that have a lot more followers than them. So it’s certainly something in my mind as well. On that note, there was recently this ‘ADayOffTwitch’ movement aiming to end hate raids. Do you experience hate raids? 

Oh, yeah, I get them all the time. I used to get them a few times a week, but now it’s like maybe one or two times a week. The thing with hate raids is you have to try your best to just ignore it, and not give any reaction, because the moment you react, they’re all laughing amongst themselves. If you just ignore it, they get bored and they move on. 

I had some people follow bot me with a few thousand followers so that I reached the 100,000 follower milestone, but it was obviously not real and the bots fell off a few days later. 

They put racial slurs in chat over and over again on bots. They do it a couple times a week, but you just ignore it and then they go away. 

“I once joined an all-girls League of Legends team. I would stream our scrims, so that was kind of like my excuse for streaming. But eventually, my coach kept telling me off, because I was reading the chat!”

What would you like to see Twitch do to end hate raids or toxicity on the platform?

I mean, they could implement something where, if the same message is spammed many times in a row, it just automatically gets shut down and you can’t send that message. Yeah, something like that, some sort of bot detection would be good. 

I’m with you on that. On League of Legends, how did your low elo adventure go? 

Yeah. I got out of there, I’m finally winning games as of recently! So that’s good. 

What happened? You used to be a Pyke main and dropped him, right? Then your rank lowered?

Yeah. He’s not as good now, he got a lot of nerfs and he’s really hard to play late game now, because they gave ADCs a dash if they built a specific item. Like everybody in the game has a dash, a flash, a fucking revive now!

It’s really hard to play Pyke, especially late. Early is very easy because he has a lot of pick potential early and not everybody has their items and stuff. But late game, it’s kind of impossible to play him, and it was really frustrating me. So I just swapped it up a bit. 

My [recent] goal in League was to reach Diamond 4 on my off-stream account with absolutely zero duo queue games played, because I kind of wanted to prove to myself that I could do it without playing with anybody else.

https://twitter.com/MissBaffy/status/1436143850972667914

Congrats! This is a random thing to note: Do you know there’s also a Miss Daffy?

No, I have never heard of her! That is funny, it’s like the exact same name, pretty much (laughs). 

Another random thing: Do you remember a UK esports team called Barrage Esports (acquired by Resolve earlier this year) whose past roster announcement video featured streamers such as yourself, receiving donations announcing parts of the roster? That was entertaining.

I think I remember that! Yes, I do (laughs). I was so confused! I was like, what is going on?! 

Lastly, the LDN UTD announcement mentioned that you will create educational content and conversation around how to be a marginalised gender in esports, and how to deal with day-to-day toxicity. What kind of toxicity do you have to deal with and is it based on your gender? 

Sometimes. For example, the other day I had five guys [joining the stream chat], they were obviously in a Discord call together with nothing fucking better to do, and they came in being all like, ‘oh you’re boosted, you’re boosted, blah blah blah’, even though I’m clearly not. 

I don’t think a guy would ever get that, you know, it’s kind of like a stereotype that girls are boosted in games, which is frustrating sometimes. But that’s another one of the reasons why I wanted to get Diamond by myself, with zero duo queue games played, so I could say: ‘Hey, fuck you, girls aren’t boosted. Look, I did it with nobody but myself – what are you going to say now?’

So it felt good when that happened (laughs)!

Absolutely! I’ve tried to improve what I do when I hear of things like this, I try to call it out more than I used to, instead of opting for the ‘just mute or block’ route. I get the impression things may be improving slightly compared to how things were a few years ago.

Yeah, I mean if anybody joins my stream and they’re sexist, I literally just tell them how much of a fucking idiot they are! I will never just randomly come out and say, ‘hey, fuck you, you’re an idiot,’ but if somebody comes in to my stream and starts spreading hate for no reason, I will call them out, like 100%. And I will make them feel like the biggest idiot that exists. 

Good on you. And thanks for your time.

You can follow Miss Daffy, sorry, Miss Baffy, on Twitch, and follow Miss Baffy on Twitter, here.