part of the most popular esports organization in the
world: FaZe Clan. His continual hard work has paid
off and he now commands nearly four million Twitch
followers, alongside his 3 million subscribers on
YouTube.COMMUNITY IMPACT
Another crucial key to NICKMERCS’ success in
streaming stems from his community engagement.
His Fortnite adventures garnered considerable at-
tention considering his exclusive use of a gamepad
during tournaments. Even while everyone else was
playing with a keyboard and mouse —a standard for
competitive play— Nick stuck to his controller setup.
This endeared him to many gamers and essentially
made him the ‘face’ of the controller-based com-
munity. Nick has used this distinction to build more
content for his channels; from snagging partnerships
with ScuffGaming, gamepad reviews and even videos
based around the settings he prefers. Nick has been
able to expand the types of content offered while still
sticking to a brand the community knows and loves.
Beyond that, Nick maintains an active presence
within his own community, the “MFAM.” He has an
active social media presence, often interacting direct-GAMING
NICKMERCS and his path to streaming successChampionship in 2009. His time
with TH3 NSAN3Z was fruitful,
and they went on to win three
more major tournaments—MLG
Anaheim, MLG Dr Pepper, and the
National Championship at MLG
Orlando. All together Nick earned
over $100,000, an almost unheard-
of sum during those early days of
esports.
THE FOREFRONT OF
STREAMING
Early on in his career, Nick lev-
eraged his esports success into
live-streaming on top of tourna-
ment participation. In 2010, before
Twitch was even known as Twitch,
Nick was streaming. Though he
hooked a loyal following with his
Gears of War videos, his transition
to Call of Duty is what took his
channel to the next level.
By 2015, Nick was regarded as
one of the biggest names in the
COD community. Known for his
aggressive playstyle and humorous
demeanor, his star continued to
rise as Justin.tv made the conver-
sion to Twitch.
His subscriber base had been
steady for a number of years, but
jumping onto Fortnite early in
the title’s launch, Nick saw expo-
nential growth over the course of
just a few months. Once his squad
broke a pair of world records, Nick
cemented his role as one of the
preeminent game streamers.
Despite some hiccups, including
a public falling out with Nade-
shot and 100 Thieves, Nick is now
By 2015, Nick was regarded as one of the biggest names in the COD
community.