What is your name?
Mike Montaperto aka “Maldiva”
What do you play?
World of Warcraft PvP as a Warlock
How do you make money playing video games?
Twitch Streaming, WoW Tournaments and for a short time even video guides
How many followers/subscribers do you have on Twitch and YouTube?
I have over 25,000 followers on Twitch and a little over 1700 subscribers on YouTube.
How long have you been playing World of Warcraft?
I’ve played WoW for almost 9 years now, and I’ve been a main Warlock for 5 of those years.
How did you get so good?
I literally played arena non-stop. Everyday after school I would come home and just play. Eventually I got Glad and entered some tournaments when I realized how good I was.
What was the first time you ever made money from gaming?
First time would be from creating 1-2 instructional videos for a website, and then after that from a couple low prize pool tournaments, but now it’s mainly off Twitch ad revenue.
Do you have a stream schedule?
No. Strictly because I don’t want to go casual. I want to keep it constantly at a high level of gameplay, so I only stream when I am doing arena.
What different things do you do for your stream?
I’ve actually road my bike to McDonalds on stream before and people always ask me to do it again.
Have you always used a webcam and strobe lights?
No, actually the strobe lights is completely random. I haven’t even always used a webcam though. I try to keep it to just being about the game-play and have as little as possible distract from that.
Do you play other classes?
No. I have them but I have been known for my lock game-play so that’s what I want people to see when they come to the stream.
When did you start streaming?
2011. I’ve been streaming for a long time!
How did you get people into your stream at first?
I was kind of lucky because Arena Junkies always had me on the top of the stream list being that I was top rated.
Have you ever streaming anything other then WoW?
Yes. I really love Dota 2, and I’ve even tried streaming a bit of Hearthstone as well.
Did you lose viewership at the times you streamed something else?
Yes because my followers definitely wanted to see WoW, so people end up leaving and sometimes even un-following.
Could you finish by just a broad overview of how much you’re making from Twitch alone?
Sure. Ad revenue generally brings in 1000 a month now, and subscribers I’m making around 200-300. I’ll continue to grow the sub list though, I won’t stop doing what I love.