Max 'Aplatypuss' Gamble is a Twitch-partnered streamer on TEAM2G known for playing Diamond-level and commentating League of Legends games. He's done many streaming events to give back to the community or raise money for various causes that he believes needs some loving. Max won't limit any action to his dignity - he's shaved his head twice and done other requests (you'll have to check his VODs and highlights to see for yourself) in order to raise money for these causes.

A majority of the time is spent on League of Legends but if there is a game that the viewers want him to play, he'll play it (to include Five Nights at Freddy's, Outlast, and the like). He is joined every day by his long time stream cuddle buddy, Boner, a magenta platypus that sits on his microphone throughout the stream. All in all, he goes above and beyond to show you that he is a streamer worthy of your time and laughter.

Here's a little bit more about Aplatypuss, who he is and how he got started:

Aplatypuss: My name's Max Gamble. My online persona is Aplatypuss, that name goes all the way back to my Halo 2 days. I’ve been playing video games my whole life - my Dad is the one to blame (I will never forgive him for getting me addicted to WoW when that first came out.) But regardless, if it wasn’t for him I don’t think I would be this passionate about video games.

Now that we know your dad is to blame for the gaming bit, what motivated you to turn yourself into a streamer as well?

Aplatypuss: Well there’s another man to blame for that one. James, otherwise known as PhantomL0rd, was the main catalyst. I was a huge fan of his stream, and watched on a daily basis. He held a LAN party for his birthday in 2013 and I ended up going. Got talking with him, and long story short, he allowed me to stream on his stream for 3 hours while he went drinking with Choax and HotshotGG. I never thought of myself as a streamer, but his audience was sending me so many messages about starting my own stream that I felt invigorated and thus the seed was planted and here I am today! I’m still great friends with James, and he’s still a streaming idol to me.

I’d say Phantoml0rd is definitely a streamer who’s inspired many with his work. I’m not surprised that a strong stream face has bred another strong stream face! How hard or how easy was it to get your stream going enough to get at least 100 viewers constantly and then be able to start your partnership with Twitch? At any point did you just want to give up?

Aplatypuss: O ya the light at the end of the tunnel just seemed non-existent some days. That feeling of building something, working on something for a year and not knowing exactly how it’s going to turn out is a crippling feeling. But you have to shoulder it off and hope for the best, and the support of my viewers helped every day. That day I got partnership, it’s a hard feeling to throw an analogy with. If you really want to know how I felt, look up SK gaming Kil’jaeden world first and skip to 10:20 on YouTube.

Link to the video referenced above. (WARNING: It gets loud!)

That video pretty much does sum up the feeling I’d imagine someone to have after receiving a partnership. Once that day comes, it was all worth it. High risk, high reward if you want to stream with the right foundation. Now, a lot of viewers have noticed two key things about your stream: your voice and entertaining personality. Most of us know and love the casters for Riot, any plans to sweep North America off its feet and become a caster as the next stepping stone?

Aplatypuss: Ha! This idea has definitely been talked about a lot between me and my Riot buddies, and I live 7 minutes away from Riot HQ so driving to work would be a breeze. (Even in low traffic LA is the worst) If I were to land the job in some sort of cosmic luck, my stream would lose its partnership with Twitch and my brand would fall, giving rise to my new brand "Riot." This idea eats me every day - did I work up to this point so I could apply to a dream job and be set or have a dream job with no boss and have infinite possibilities with my stream but have nothing else to fall back on? Never grow up boys and girls! Life has too many decisions to make! However, at the moment I'm happy with where I am and, who knows, my path might cross with Riot one of these days.

Sounds like an amazing opportunity. The community wishes you the best in whichever path you choose and the viewers will be with you! The question people want to know the answer to...why a platypus? What is so special about this species-confused animal?

Aplatypuss: Hahaha, species-confused or EVOLVED BEYOND BELIEF? Nah, they are a mess. That’s why I chose them when I picked my Xbox Live gamertag. I thought I could give people a quick giggle whenever I killed them (or be killed) in Halo in which the sentence "A platypuss has killed you" would pop up on their screen. I would always be a cheeky idiot and talk afterwards saying, "Wow a wild platypuss killed you? That’s insane." Ya I was young, can't you tell? But after that the name just kinda stuck, no shows or movies really claimed the platypus as their own so I felt like an animal loving hipster. Until the wretched show Phineas and Ferb took the animal from me.

They made him cute and cool, DAMN THEM AND THEIR SINGING! Now Disney markets the crap out of Perry the Platypus and he’s a selling machine. This is the power of the platypus.

Hopefully the platypus works in your favor. There’s one League-related special event that your viewers particularly enjoy and that’s something called Bronzodia. What is it and how did your version of Bronzodia originate?

Aplatypuss: Bronzodia is, indeed, a gem on the stream. Two streams I watched constantly before streaming myself were PhantomL0rd and Salty Bets. For those of you who are unfamiliar with salty bets, it’s a stream that’s run by a bot and fighting characters from every fighting game possible randomly spar with each other and people bet salt on who they believe will be the winner of the outcome. Very simple idea, but something about it was incredibly fun when the possibilities were sometimes random and chaotic.

Then another stream popped up called Salty Teemo. A bot would randomly spectate incredibly low MMR Bronze V ranked games and the idea hit me like a sack of potatoes. Spectate low bronze games, and bet on them. Like first blood, first one to 100 cs, etc. and so forth. For those of you worried about the players’ feelings, the people we spectate actually do not know they are being watched; nor do I ever contact them or harass them. One time I felt so bad for a player I wanted to help him out. After watching numerous games of this specific player I noticed he would always play the same champs and build the same exact items. He would only play Heimerdinger and Vel’koz. That’s it. And he would only build static shiv and a lich bane.

After a while I added him to my friends list and said, "Hey bud! Just watched your last game and wanted to know if I could help you with your builds. I apologize if this is random." He swiftly replied, "There's a reason I do this build" and removed me from his friends list. This was a lesson for me, do not mess with the Bronze Gods for I had upset them that day.

Your Bronzodia gets pretty hilarious, not only that but because you commentate them, the viewers get the best reactions from you and it’s great. That’s what makes it better than just watching a bot. Plus, your stream points bets are a little more detailed rather than just the outcome of the game. A twist question: what is the story of drinking a different beer every day? Are you the "Vanna White" of Twitch?

Aplatypuss: Ha! (For you youngins Vanna White and Pat Sajak would often drink before hosting Wheel of Fortune). Alcohol is a touchy subject especially when your audience is heavily dominated by younger people. But when things are sentenced to be taboo, the youth generally don't learn about responsibilities of those taboo things! I would say 95% of the time I drink one beer on the stream and never do so to get buzzed or drunk. I'm a Cicerone (Licensed Beer Expert) like a Sommelier is to wine.

I brought my hobby to the stream because I think a lot of people don’t know that there are good beer! Not the crap that the media stuffs down your throat. So when my viewers turn 21 or for those who can drink, they now can appreciate alcohol not as something that simply has the sole purpose to get you white girl wasted. Slow down and just enjoy the craftsmanship. And if drinking isn’t your thing, more power to you. Again, touchy subject, so those who are reading this and don’t know my personality take this with a grain of salt.

What is your philosophy as a streamer? What are you trying to achieve with your viewers and your stream? And how important is keeping a schedule and chat interaction?

Aplatypuss: Well my philosophy isn't very original, respect your viewers and interact with them. Even though this is super simple, it’s really not done by a lot of top streamers. It’s understandable with a large amount of viewers and playing in diamond/challenger level games require all your attention, but even during the down times or whenever just interact some.

Even if you only read one to two sentences out of the sea of spam, it makes all the difference with the viewers. My goal is to create a community of people something similar to a guild. I may be the guild leader, but you need everyone to help with the raid boss. It brings me a lot of joy when people say they come to my stream after a long day to just chill and hang out. Also a schedule is important, this past month has been insane because I recently moved and Christmas events a-plenty so my schedule has tanked. You can tell when people fall off because you’re not as consistent.

There are plenty of fish in the sea, make sure school is always in session (fish joke). ><> <><

You mentioned streamers concentrating on their game more than their chat and I know your stream well to see that, for the most part, you never really play unless you’re showing off the PBE. Does that frustrate you or is it something you prefer?

Aplatypuss: Its a double-edged sword. I love being able to interact with my viewers as much as possible by smurfing and spectating inhouse games/bronzodia. But most streamers are playing the game every stream for hours and are getting better and better. I'm only Diamond 4 and have a great amount of knowledge about the game and its revolving meta's but my mechanics are what fall off when going against other Diamond players. Gotta find a balance.

What are a couple of the most memorable moments you’ve had on stream?

Aplatypuss: The two memories that will always stick with me wherever I go will be the two 24 hour charity events I did on my stream. The first one was for a little boy named Jace. The goal was to raise 5,000 dollars to help Jace with his medical problems and fly him to LA so he could watch a League of Legends LCS game. Not only did we hit that goal but we crushed it, with streamers like Trick2g donating $2,000 on the stream and Dinglederper donating $400. But the part that sticks out the most is the end.

After the whole crazy 24 hours, shaving my hair, dressing up like Kaceytron, I got to talk to Jace with his parents. I can’t watch the video without crying, as sappy as that sounds but the feeling crushes me every time. If you want to cry I highly recommend checking out this video if you haven’t. Link to video referenced above.

The other 24 hour stream was for a awesome streamer named Randy or N0M4DTV; titled the first true disabled pro gamer. He wasn’t able to make a Street Fighter tournament at Pax Prime because of his stacking hospital bills. When we raised the money for him, meeting him was an honor. I commend the man for doing what he loves even when life gave him a shit load of lemons.

(Side note: He's shaved his head twice to raise money.)

Sounds like it’s going well so far. To wind down I had a couple of viewers come up with some questions for you:

From Anonymous – Hello Mr. Platypuss, big fan, love your work. So if you lived in the Avatar: The Last Airbender show, what element would you bend (includes special bending). Tyloveyou, - Hammie

Aplatypuss: Hey hammie! Ever since playing Golden Sun on the GBA I've always wanted to bend earth out of all the elements. To me it’s a mixture of grace and strength. I feel like Earth doesn't get the spotlight as much as all the other elements so it’s kinda like the underdog. If we're including special bending, I've always loved the idea of bending with someone else’s element and creating a mixed element (something like lava bending but someone on the most recebt show already does that by themselves, bummer).

The viewers are asking where the aplatypuss t-shirts are!

Aplatypuss: T shirts are coming! I'm in touch with someone right now about the right design for the mascot.

Thank you for your time! Any closing thoughts or comments?

Aplatypuss: Thanks for the interview! Probably the best interview ever! (Well it was the first one I've ever been in but doesn't mean it wasn't good!) To all my viewers and subs, I love you all and may the hurricane gods bless you. Cheers!

That’s Aplatypuss in a nutshell for you. You can check him out on Twitch and he streams in the night slot for North America and be sure to follow him on Twitter @MaxthePlaypus to see when he goes live!