Join Team Static, a open team community on twitch.tv!

Looking to join a team page on twitch.tv?

Join team static, this is a open team available for all streamers who broadcast on twitch.tv.  How to join is very simple, just send a message to twitch user "DaOpa" with the subject invite to team.  After I review the message I will check out your channel page and most likely send a invitation afterwords.

Please make sure to have a profile image and a info section filled out about your stream.  Also will help to have past broadcasts and highlights for reviewing.

Also note you are not limited to joining just one team on twitch, you can join many as long as they invite you into the group.

Resolutions, Bitrate and settings for twitch.tv

Choosing the right resolution and bit-rate settings for twitch.tv broadcasting!

Going to keep this as short as possible and leave out alot of the technical related info since it will not really matter due to all the non standard streaming setups currently used for broadcasting.

I have created a chart with recommended resolutions and bitrate (kbps requirement) settings with color codes.  The color codes legend are listed here:

High motion / FPS / First person games

Medium motion / RTS Games, usually has scrolling

Low motion / static action, turn based games

How to create a team on twitch.tv!

Creating a team page on twitch.tv is very easy and here is how to get it started!

Step 1.  Email twitch partner support with the following information:

• Team Name:
• Team Abbreviation:
• Twitch account to edit the team page:
• Page URL* (i.e., www.twitch.tv/team/<teamname>):
• *This cannot be changed once set

Note: Team page creation is only currently available for partner accounts.

Blocking domain & urls for spam prevention

How to block urls, domains and other words on your channel at twitch.tv!

Step 1.  Login to your twitch account and head to settings, then tab listed "Channel & Videos" - direct url would be http://www.twitch.tv/settings/channel

Step 2.  Scroll down to the section heading "Chat Options".  Several different options to check out in order to prevent words, urls from showing in your twitch.tv channel's chat-room.

• Block all urls except for the ones posted by you, moderators and admins.
• Ban Words, you can block URLs and Domains here by using wildcards ( DaOpa's Ban Words / Domain list)
• Opt out of globally banned words filter, good for keeping the usual bad words from showing up in your chatroom.
• Require a verified email to speak, a extra verification step to prevent some automated bots from showing up in your chat. 

Twitchcon video must see

Legal viewpoints from multiple lawyers in regards to live streaming video game content on Twitch.tv!

If there is one video clip from Twitchcon that all broadcasters on twitch.tv should take the time and watch, it would be the segment on the legality of streams. This covers copyright laws, dmca, copyright myths and other suggestions on how to create trans-formative content for fair use purposes.

Full video clip which is around one hour length can be viewed here:


The video towards the end has question and answer segment from various attendees.

VOD Playlist with 24/7 channels coming to Twitch.tv

Replay VOD Playlist and 24/7 Channels in beta.

Twitch.tv has announced on there blog a new feature coming soon that will enable broadcasters the option of setting up playlists of videos which will be running during the casters offline time.
Sounds like a great idea but there is a very big exploit which I will be betting on that many broadcasters will be engaged in which revolves around loyalty systems.

The luck factor, right game, right time

How the luck factor builds a viewerbase for broadcasters on twitch.tv!

Factors / Situations revolving getting lucky on twitch.tv.

• Game Launch Days - whenever a new AAA game title launches, usually the stream in the top spot gets big viewership boosts from curious gamers who haven't purchased the game.  This use to be a great method for building a viewerbase, but unfortunate this is extremely hard for a new streamer to break into due to all the variety streamers who jump from game to game.
• Friends with Benefits - having a established streamer friend who can give you a shoutout or host your stream constantly is a great way to noticed and build a viewer base.
• Exploiting / Rule Breaking -  sadly this is something I will include in the luck factor, being able to exploit and break twitch rules with no consequence can build a viewer base depending on how viral it reaches out.
• Exploiting a multiplayer game - this is against Twitch's TOS / Rules but is very rarely acted on. 
• Viewbotting - alot of the top streamers have used this to there advantage due to Twitch's stance in not knowing if its a broadcaster doing it or if its a viewer attempting to get broadcaster TOS'ed.  Never the less thru out the many years you hear alot of storys of people abusing this and building a viewerbase then being able to discontinue the fake boosting.
• Giveaways / Loyalty systems - hardly any broadcaster on Twitch.tv is running legal giveaways.  You need to have certain information and disclaimers for every giveaway you do yet hardly anyone does it.  Same with loyalty systems tied in with giveaways, this is one of the biggest unethical business practice exploit on twitch.
• Copyright Music - many broadcasters use music which is not suppose to be rebroadcasted with out a license or with out written permission to use. This is exploited daily on many channels thru out twitch with no signs of any DMCA takedowns.
• Fake PR Stunts - being able to successfuly create a fake pr stunt and getting lucky it goes viral can build a crazy amount of traffic to your channel. If it's too good to be true it probably is applies to twitch.tv.
• Fake Donations - you know how someone received a 50g donation from someone random, then there friend got 20k, and another friend 15k and another friend 10k all from the same guy.  Well guess what this is probably one of the biggest fake pr stunts that worked wonders for these broadcasters.
• Fake Swatting - sadly this has happened.
• Fake Crying - there is a growing amount of fake criers on twitch as of late.  
• SEO / Google - One of the biggest broadcasters on twitch had huge traffic boosts from google due to savvy seo and links pointing to their .tv website.  As more people heard about twitch.tv they went to google and search for "twitch.tv" (keywords), and this casters website was on the first page results / second page results for a very long time.  The keyword twitch.tv is searched for over 700k times a month if not more by now. If you see the growth of twitch and compare it to the growth of this casters channel its has a very similar trajectory. 
• Not sure how to explain it but there is some sort of loyalty usually happens during first discovery of a channel & twitch.tv.  If the caster is remotely interesting, and it is the first time a viewer has gone to twitch, this viewer will most likely keep returning to this caster then others.

This is all that I was able to think of off the bat, I will add more down the line.


*Update on 10/6/2015 - Just saw something that appears to have happen for the Star Wars: Battlefront Beta.  Battlefront is posted to be in open beta on Oct 8, yet alot of established streamers on twitch all seem to have received code invites to start streaming earlier on 10/6.  As noted above being first or part of the group that gets to stream new AAA titles on twitch is a big viewership boost during the entry periods.  This is not new for game companies to hand pick youtubers & media early entry, what seems new is game companies are now providing a batch of codes directly to Twitch and Twitch staff hands them off to selected casters. This is good for the established channels and bad for any new commoner or others who get left out.