BEHIND THE TAG - VALTER SKARSGÅRD

Have you ever been so enraged that you broke a lamp while gaming? Did you ever try to play as something other than a stealthy archer in Skyrim and failed? You are not alone, and might have more things in common with actor and twitch streamer Valter Skarsgård. Valters career in gaming started when he realised that he was racking up nukes in Modern Warfare like nobody's business and with the help of Tejbz, fellow gamer and role model turned BFF, the streaming era of The Wolf would begin.

DRKN sat down with Valter to get the origin story and find out what is ahead!

Can you tell us a bit about yourself good sir?
My name is Valter Skarsgård, I have been streaming on twitch for 4-5 years now.
Mainly I work as an actor but more and more I have been streaming. The last three years have been more frequent and focused on streaming.

Right, so tell us about your favorite games and what makes them special?
It’s funny, I just got asked that question on my stream. My two favorite games are Skyrim and The last of us. Right now, I play a lot of League of legends, and a fair bit of Modern Warfare, but those two games are my favorites!

The last of us really is the perfect game I think, it’s like film. You are basically watching this interactive movie for 20 hours and I like everything about it, even the acting is fantastic. When it came out the graphics were insane, but it’s the overall quality and feel of the game that is just so good! And Skyrim... well that’s just my favorite RPG ever, it’s just so big and you can really do whatever you want, there are so many choices and you can change the story however you would like. If you kill a character all of a sudden that storyline is gone, and you changed the whole game. For me it’s a perfect RPG because it’s so free but at the same time it has a great story. I love all of the games in the Elder Scrolls saga.

So, in Skyrim, do you always play as a stealth archer?
Yeah... literally. I have probably made about 20 characters in the game and finished it about ten times and every single time I think “all right, I am not going to be a wood elf, I am not going to do the archer thing, no thieves guild and dark brotherhood...” And then... well in the beginning of the game you find that bow there, and I always pick up that damn bow and never put it down. I have probably never played the game in different way.

How did you get into gaming in the first place?
Well we had a Nintendo 64 when I was young, and I am probably a bit too young for N64 I think. Most people of my generation were moving on to PlayStation at that time, but I grew up with goldeneye on Nintendo 64 and I remember playing a Star Wars racing game also. So, I went from N64 to PS1, to PS2 and it went on and on, I just kept playing video games and never stopped. It’s just so much fun!! Oh, and don’t forget Super Smash Bros for N64. You know what, I want to go back and change my answer from before, THAT is my favorite game!

Classic, so who was your go to character in Smash Bros?
I often went for Falcon; he had this great Falcon Punch move! Actually, I used to change character a lot, but Falcon was definitely one of my go-tos. Falcon and Samus Aran, she had a bit of a Master Chief vibe.

When did you realize gaming was your thing, something to be good at for real?
I am still shit… Nah just kidding. I guess it was around the time of PlayStation 3. I was about 13 years old and me and my friends started playing more and more. When Modern Warfare came out back then, we started to take things seriously. We used to go to Inferno Online (an internet café in Stockholm, Sweden) to play video games all night and I remember this one time when we got 8 nukes in 9 games or something like that. Me and my friend got nukes almost every single game that night it felt like, it was ridiculous. So, I guess it was at the time of Modern Warfare, when we started to rack up the nukes, that I knew this was my thing. From then on I started to take things more seriously and I also started watching videos of Tejbz to get better.

Thats right, you and Tejbz are good friends now, how did that happen?
So I starred In this movie called IRL when I was 16, it was my first major part in a film here in Sweden and by that time I had watched Tejbz a lot. One day I got a call from the PR people who were marketing the film and they asked me if I knew who Tejbz is? I was like “pff. YEAH?! spent hours watching that guy you know…” and they said “Great! we want you to play a few games with him to promote the movie.” The story is centered around video games, it’s a big part of the film. I got a bit starstruck but very excited to meet Tejbz! I went to an office in Stockholm and played 1v1 against him. It was Modern Warfare 3 and I think the video from the event is still up on YouTube if you want to check it out. That was 7 years ago but we started hanging out and are actually meeting up later today. We are good friends now, he really is a great guy! He even came to the premier of the movie.

We can confirm, Tejbz is pretty awesome! Moving on, what is your gaming tag and the story behind it?
Well I have changed it up over the years, but I mainly go by “The Wolf”. That’s what I nicked when I was competing in rainbow six. I have had so many different nicknames but never one that really stuck, like Tejbz. I came up with new things all the time and never had anything that I locked on to. When I started playing Black Ops 2 I tried to figure it out and thought that someone HAD to nick “The Wolf”, I mean it’s just too awesome right? Wolves are my favorite animal and so I decided on that name and that finally stuck. There are a lot of wolf items in Elder Scrolls Online and I have every single one - Stealth arching and wolves, that’s my thing!
I use that gamingtag today when I play and it has become part of my online persona. I have the wolf logo, we have a wolfpack, it’s a whole thing now so it feels like I’ve struck home!

What other nicknames have you had over the years?
Well, at one point me and my friends were really into Sons of Anarchy. I had the same haircut as the main character by accident, that’s just how I looked back then, and I bought similar clothes to match. So, for a while we had nicknames based on that tv-show.

I have also had some Naruto names over the years, back when I was about 13 I was obsessed with the show.

What is your best gaming memory?
That story from earlier, when we were at the internet café gaming modern warfare all night with my friends and got a bunch of nukes all the time, that is definitely one of the best memories. Also, anything that has to do with Black Ops 2, I have a lot of great Call of Duty related memories.

Do you have a worst memory in gaming?
In my old bedroom I had this lamp, and it was placed in an annoying way coming out of the wall sort of, with a glass encasing. And this one time I was playing FIFA, which by the way is the most infuriating game in the world, no other game makes me as pissed off as FIFA does. So, in a fit of rage, I punched that lamp and the thing explodes all over the bedroom with glass everywhere. Not one of my best moments…

But the thing about it is that you have to clean it up after, that sudden shock of regret will often make the anger go away. Tekken is the same by the way, that game is a total friendship murderer. Tekken 4, that was my jam! And never pick Eddie, that’s cheating! 

What motivates you to keep gaming and streaming?
It’s just so much fun! As I said, I mainly work as an actor, but I have always been interested in streaming and YouTube, ever since watching Tejbz. All the kids were talking about starting their own channels but few actually did it. Eventually I bought a computer from Tejbz at a very friendly price and he helped me setting it up to get started with streaming.

I mean, I was playing video games anyway so I might as well do it publicly and interact with the people watching, and it has been great! I believe that I am a creative person, entertaining people is what I do for a living as an actor and streaming is a cool way to interact with people. I keep a lot of my private life out of social media, so streaming gives me a way to get personal with other people in an interesting way.

If you could be the Tejbz to someone else, what advice would you give to young creators starting out?
I would say, call Tejbz! He knows what to do! Alright, to be serious - I would say just keep going. It doesent matter if its streaming or acting, just do what you think is fun. And for streaming specifically, try to figure out how to make it look professional! And it doesent have to cost much, a lot of overlays are free online, so take the time to try and make it look professional with whatever tools you have. That will give your stream a good feel to it and that will attract viewers. And the most important thing is to create what you want, and not what you think the audience what to see. Build a brand you are comfortable with, if you adapt only to what you think will get viewers you eventually get stuck playing an act that is not you.

What are you up to right now and how can people follow you?
I am in Stockholm, I am around. Tonight I will be joining Tejbz for some activities and also I have this film coming out on April 17 on theatres everywhere. The trailer is up on Youtube here and we had a great screening the other day. I play the lead that is a good guy really. It’s a horror movie that takes place in this Big Brother-like setting with 8 people but what they don’t know is that getting voted out is a little bit more complicated and sinister than usual. It’s a terrifying take on Celebrity Big Brother.

All of my social media can be found below and don't forget to subscribe to my twitch channel so you never miss a stream!

Twitch: twitch.tv/valterskarsgard
Twitter: twitter.com/ValterSkarsgar
Instagram: instagram.com/valterskarsgard

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