Cowsep discusses move to Facebook Gaming, mental health struggle

League of Legends streamer Joseph “Cowsep” Hursey is joining DisguisedToast and Smash Bros legend ZeRo at Facebook Gaming. 

After streaming full-time on Twitch for five years, Cowsep discussed his move to Facebook Gaming with Inven Global. Unlike Gonzalo “ZeRo” Barrios’ YouTube video on the matter, Cowsep claimed the response to his YouTube announcement was mostly positive, although it didn’t get as much attention as he initially thought it would. 

The majority of the streaming community seems wary of Facebook Gaming thanks to the platform’s smaller audience and their disdain for the social media platform as a whole. But for Cowsep, the move to Facebook Gaming revolved around wanting to grow his audience in Southeast Asia. 

“I think the move to Facebook can be really beneficial to me. I just mentioned how I have a large Southeast Asian audience who all use Facebook, and over the years, a lot of them are unable to watch on Twitch,” he told Inven Global, noting that Vietnam’s ISP blocks Twitch. 

Hearthstone pro Jeremy “DisguisedToast” Wang revealed that Facebook Gaming improved his interactions with fans, especially when it came to calling out trolls. It appears that Cowsep is having a similar experience, explaining that Facebook viewers are more “interactive, humble, and respectful.” 

While Twitch can often seem like “memes and pastas,” Facebook has been “more social” for Cowsep. A lot of fans simply want Cowsep to notice them or interact with them. 

Cowsep also opened up about the mental strain that comes with streaming in his Inven Global interview. A few weeks ago, Cowsep tweeted that he needed to “take a break and get outside more,” which the publication brought up with the popular streamer. 

“The problem is when you play the game day in and day out, it becomes more of a job than a game. And when you play with people who also treat the game so seriously – like especially in Korean solo-queue with how seriously they treat it – it just becomes very frustrating. And when you balance the game around pro-play, everyone has to play meta all the time,” Cowsep said. The games are really short because they have to keep the pro games at a certain length, and it’s just really frustrating in general.”

While he was able to stream about eight hours a day before, now Cowsep notices he can’t stream much longer than five hours if he wants to avoid “negativity” bubbling inside of him. He found that, for him, it helps to leave the house completely and forget about League of Legends for a little bit.