[2022] Community Focus - LockandLoadLiv

Howdy howdy! I don’t know why I started with that. That was weird, but welcome back to an all-new Community Focus where we feature different Guardians from the Destiny 2 community and chat game-age whilst learning more about their own journeys out in the real world. This week, we’re featuring an incredible streamer that offers her community chill vibes, a safe place to hang, and a genuinely good time hanging out there in the great unknown (or, you know, just the game itself) with space magic.  
Meet Liv, but you may know her as LockandLoadLiv. 
Thanks so much for hanging out with us today, Liv! Let's just dive right in and introduce you to the rest of the Destiny 2 community. So, who the heck are ya, and how did you get your start becoming a Guardian?  

Hiya! I’m Liv, but for my content creation, I go by LockandLoadLiv. You might also know me as the girl who has an unhealthy obsession with the Crow or the girl who posts daily pictures of her best friend and dog, Bella. No shame, no shame.  
As far as gaming goes for me and Destiny, I have been playing Destiny 2 for about four to five years. It’s kind of funny because a lot of people I talk to mention that they’ve been playing since Destiny 1’s beta, but I got my start in this universe a little later than that. My oldest brother would always ask me to play Destiny since Destiny 1, but I would always decline because I was just never really a fan of FPS games. I typically cozied up with solo RPGs like The Legend of Zelda, Kingdom Hearts, and Final Fantasy.  

Oh wow, that’s a pretty big jump from no FPS to nearly full-time Guardian. I can’t just not ask: how the heck did that happen?  

One day when I was visiting him around when Destiny 2’s Curse of Osiris expansion dropped, he turned on his PlayStation 4, gave me a controller, and told me to try a mission on his account. Didn’t ask. He just kind of went for it with one final effort to get me into the game. As I was playing through the mission he handed me with no warning, I realized that this was not an ordinary shooting game, but a game filled with space magic and aliens. I was instantly hooked. I put down Rifts to stay safe and threw giant purple bombs. I zapped enemies with electricity like I was Emperor Palpatine, and I just kicked a lot of butt. After it hit me how much fun I was having, it finally clicked: my brother finally managed to get me into Destiny 2.  
I recall coming home after college classes and spending all night playing through the Red War campaign. That, and hopping into Quickplay with my brother. During one of our gaming sessions, I was doing my usual commentary on whatever was going on in-game. I was doing my thing when my brother interrupted me and said, “Hey, you're kinda funny. I bet you’d be great at streaming!” To be completely honest, I didn’t even really know what Twitch was at the time, but I decided to go ahead and try it out and immediately made an account. I started off by just streaming things like public events (I especially went hard on Escalation Protocols for that Shotgun) using a PlayStation webcam as both my cam and mic. Super simple, nothing extravagant. That first stream went well, and the rest was history!  

Hiya, I’m live! Got a cool new shirt in the mail from the Bungie Foundation. :)

I am doing KF sherpas for the first half of stream so if you have yet to complete Kings Fall get in here! https://t.co/l7uZln5Nu3 pic.twitter.com/XBtrBjNyoA

— Liv (@LockandloadLiv) September 24, 2022

I mean, to be fair, how could anyone resist the call of aliens and space magic? I’m just saying that would be a little bit suspicious to me. That’s so interesting how you got your start in streaming, especially with it being just an off-the-cuff remark. It was meant to be!  What has that journey been like for you from casually starting out to now being a Twitch Partner?  

Honestly, when I started streaming, I was immediately taken aback by the amount of people that would stop in to just laugh and hang out with me. Nothing major, just chilling and playing games. They were all a part of my journey experiencing many “firsts” as a streamer, especially in Destiny.  
This always-evolving community helped me fundraise for a streaming PC after a few months of me yelling across the room at my webcam mic and reading chat on my phone finally got to them [laughs]. As soon as I built my first gaming PC, I was committed to properly learning how to use a mouse and keyboard. I remember putting key binds on post-it notes and taping them all to my monitor, anything that would help me keep track of them.  
A few months after that, some of the Twitch staff raided my stream to take my journey to the next step. As I was being raided, I started to see just a ton of spam from the staff. It was an awesome moment when it clicked what they were spamming. It was the news that I had made Partner. The transition and growth of my channel over the years has been so surreal, and I never thought I’d be where I am right now: Partnered and with such an amazing and supportive community that I met because of this game. 

It’s great to see you have such a positive experience and a natural transition into this space. Content creation can be super fun, but it’s not always sunshine and ramen noodles. Are there any moments where you almost quit but pushed through? Any triumphant moments that reminded you why you started?  

Streaming can definitely have its downsides. Being a woman on Twitch is hard at times, not going to hide that. With growth comes the haters, and it was hard on me when I had to deal with internet trolls for the first time. It sometimes felt like it was every stream that I’d see mean comments. I didn’t understand how people could be so cruel. I just wanted to game and laugh with my new friends, and it bummed me out to see so many sexist and degrading comments about my gameplay. I recognized that I felt a little alone and targeted at times, so I built an all-girls community in my Discord and started doing girls’ nights once a week so other women could feel more comfortable and safer. And so we could have an excuse to get together to drink wine and laugh at the trolls together. Memories.  
If there are any women out there feeling this way now, I hope you know that you are welcome to join my Discord and link up with other fantastic women. I think surrounding myself with other amazing ladies in the community did wonders for my confidence and helped me grow “immune” to the trolls that would come by.  
As far as triumphant moments go, one of my first and favorite streaming triumphs was when I soloed the Eater of Worlds raid lair boss, Argos. I remember dealing with so many trolls wipe after wipe. One of them even said, “Quit trying. You’re not going to solo a raid lair boss.” Sure, that was tough to read, but I did it after a few more attempts trolls be damned. That was a very satisfying moment for me, not going to lie, and my love for low-manning raids was born from that stream. 

Knowing how you have pushed through that and focused on the positive forces in your community, any advice for other Guardians looking to make their streaming mark in the D2 community?  

The most important piece of advice I can give to Guardians wishing to pursue content creation is to have fun and be consistent. A lot of people come into streams after long grueling days at work and want to be able to laugh with you and borrow some of those good vibes. Find your niche, be unique with your content, and spread joy. A lot of people watch streams so they can escape. Give them a good place to escape to. Give them the place that you wished you had in the past. 

You love to see it! Switching gears a bit, we’ve got a lot in common regarding how we view some of the more vulnerable parts of the Destiny story (looking at you, sweet Crow, you sweet cinnamon bun). What is it about the world of Destiny that has kept you locked in with this universe and all its different evolutions?   

I love Destiny, but I think I would love it even more if we got a shirtless cabana boy Crow in some swimming trunks for the next Solstice event, I’m just saying. And yes, I know that I’ve asked for this before. And that dmg was not impressed, OK, moving on.  
Okay, in all seriousness, I think helping others is what has driven me to play for hours and hours on end nearly every single day. I’ve completed King’s Fall over 100 times, but there are Guardians out there that have not done it even once. Grandmaster Nightfalls (GMs) are intense, and many people have struggled to complete their first—or may feel too intimidated to try. I thoroughly enjoy being able to provide that help to those in the community that maybe don’t have a lot of friends to play with or haven’t succeeded with difficult endgame PvE content, like Master raids or GMs.  
I love setting up “anything goes” raffles and having the winner choose what they want, whether it be getting Divinity for the first time or getting that finicky Lightblade GM boss Alak-Hul down. I still enjoy the more forgiving content and doing stuff for myself, but there is no better feeling than helping a Guardian that spent hours on something get it done. That, and I just really love the challenge of it all. I look forward to each new raid, each new dungeon. It’s fun to challenge yourself.  
Now that we’ve had an excuse to bring up Crow again, I do want to add that I adore Crow’s entire story so far: his vulnerability and his growth. I just want to give him a big hug and tell him everything is going to be okay. I get into so many arguments with people who still hold a grudge over what Uldren did to Cayde-6 in Forsaken and blame Crow, but nope—not in this house. In this house, we give hugs to our former murderous babies.  
He is just such a lovable guy now, and he is finally free to be who he should have been all along. All it took was a little compassion from the Traveler to elevate him into a new and better person, a heated version of himself. I think it’s important to extend our love to those that are struggling with their own demons. All it takes is a little kindness, and it goes a long way.  
I’m also just super excited for the upcoming Dawning event just so I can bake another 1,000 cookies for him. Just to be extra sure that he knows that he’s loved. Time to farm some Scorn Lost Sectors, I guess.  

Did we just become best friends? Now the real test: what’s your go-to class, and if it’s not Titan, how can I convince you to join us “Beefy Bois”?  

Well, lucky for you, I am actually already a Titan main in PvP, so no convincing there. There’s nothing more fun than putting on a Shotgun and some Dunemarchers and just brute forcing your way to a win with your fists. For PvE, though, that’s where you might want to sit down. For me, PvE is for Hunters all the way. I can use a nice Omni build to keep my teammates safe during GMs or melt bosses with Blade Barrage in my fancy-shmancy Star-Eaters. I just love throwing down healing grenades and going to town with my incandescent CALUS Mini-Tool. It makes me feel virtually indestructible, and the strategy at play with that combat style is S-tier. 

Oh, weird. For some reason, I didn’t hear anything after “brute forcing your way to a win with your fists.” Anyhoo...   Now for my favorite question: If you could craft your dream subclass—it can look, play, interact however you want, no restrictions—what would that subclass look like?  

Oh, man. I’d love to have a “wind” subclass that does some sort of crowd control that draws enemies from a greater radius in, blinds them, and then yeets them away. And I’m talking a real yeet™, OK? Like full-body-OG-boop-cannon yeetage. Can you imagine a room full of enemies that gets sucked into a black hole, and then thrown against a wall? Has there been a time where you’ve been one shot, and you wanted to get a pesky Swordbearer Knight, or a group of Thrall off your tail? Imagine power melee’ing them (or a Guardian in PvP) and sending them across the map and on their way to oblivion? It’d be perfect!  

[Crosses off “yeeting into the void” off of the ‘ol bingo card for today]. OK, so we’ve got murder-y winds of death and a ton of mayhem, roger that. What about what’s ahead? After the Lightfall Showcase, is there anything you’re stoked to explore? Any wild conspiracy theories you want to share on where you think the story is going next?  

I am so excited to Spider-Man swing with my Strand subclass through the Neptunian Cyberpunk city of Neomuna. I’m really hoping that’ll be put to good use to help me with some jumping puzzles because your girl struggles. Using the multiverse as a weapon is exciting and very intriguing. The idea of manipulating space and time like Doctor Strange as a subclass to fight the Darkness is just so b-a-d-a-s-s. Can I say badass? I hope so because it’s badass.  
The Tormentors are legitimately terrifying looking, perfect for an enemy from the Darkness. I’m also very excited about the new commendation feature. It will be awesome to show that I do a lot of PvE guided runs for folks and see that in-game recognition for it. I am unsure of how the story will pan out, but I have a feeling that we Guardians might struggle with the Darkness in Lightfall, and we may need to eventually resurrect Savathûn to band together with all the other races to defeat the real threat. Picture this, OK? Ready? Avengers: Endgame final boss phase-style: I’d love to see all of the enemies of our past come together to defeat the ultimate enemy, The Witness. And then do a celebratory emote dance, just because.  

This has been a legitimate blast. Thank you so much for hanging out with us today! Before we let you go, do you have any last-minute shoutouts you’d like to shout out into the ether? Also, where can folks find you to support you on your continued journey as a content creator?  

It was my pleasure. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. I just want to give a huge shoutout to my moderators, especially for all that they do to keep my stream as safe and welcoming as it is. Also, thank you to my community for supporting me in my streaming endeavors. They have been such a blessing in my life, and their compassion has no end. They raised 30k for the Bungie Foundation in one stream this past July, and I’m constantly in awe of how kind and generous they are. It’s such an honor to be a part of such a warm and inclusive community, and I cannot thank them enough for their support and love. 
As for where you can find me, you can mosey on over to find me as LockandLoadLiv on Twitter, Twitch, and Discord.  

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And that's a wrap on another dope chance to meet a fellow Guardian, this time with way more (but still rookie numbers, in my humble opinion) Crow talk. That's a solid way to head into the weekend if you ask me.  
Every week, we feature Guardians that set the standard for what it means to be a Light against Darkness. These Guardians are kind. They are unafraid. They are creative. They are breathtaking. They are chasing their dreams. If you are still reading this at this point, dear reader, then I hope you do the same because you absolutely deserve it.  
Want even more Community Focus goodness? We’ve got you. You can learn about German content creator xT1duskx here with our most recent spotlight, and then when you’re ready for some more, you can mosey on over to Spain with this deep dive featuring Daykyri.  
As we careen faster than the speed of light towards the end of 2022, we just want to remind you to drink your water, prioritize that self-care, and always put your kindest foot forward. Until next time, friends.   
“I should go,”   <3 Hippy