Gaming, Streaming and Other Joys of Winter Holidays

Text by Dainora Jociute

Chances are, in the past few weeks you witnessed a build-up of information about the 101-hours Stream all around Business College social media. Though that information was in Finnish language, which might have got you curious, but left you confused. Don’t worry, I got your back.  

You most likely know that a week ago we all enjoyed a little Winter holiday break, or as Finns call it – the Skiing Holiday. Usually, it is a week when everyone escapes big cities and moves towards the real Winter up to the North and enjoys the wonders that it brings – skiing, snowboarding, Northern Lights and so on. However, it is also the week when a handful of people in Business College holds onto their sanity and does something better instead – they game. That’s right, what can be better than sitting in your comfy clothes, in the warmth of indoors and just enjoying a little healthy session of gaming. And by “little session” I mean whole whopping 101 hour!  

What in tarnation is this 101h-striimihaaste? 

Okay, so what is the deal behind this? Long streams are nothing new or unusual for Business College. And why would it be? The college is equipped with hot, cool tech, has its own Gaming Room with full gaming and streaming setup and it has all the space to unleash the students’ creativity and ideas. Last February 2020 was the first time when the 101-hour stream challenge took place, then there was 24 hours Christmas stream. Finally last week – the second 101-hour Stream challenge came to pass. Let us hope for a beautiful, yearly tradition. The idea of the Stream is simple – to play and stream games from the College’s Game Room, have a chat with the audience watching, to have fun and achieve the goal as a team.  

All about the students. 

You know what is the coolest part about this? It is all about the students. 5 students from the Vocational Qualification in Information and Communications Technology group took the wheel of the stream. Mariel, Juuso, Casper, Katariina and Jesse threw on their matching hoodies, created just for that occasion (and designed by yet another student – Mariel) and set to work. Stream schedule set, games planned – this business is no joke. Five of them were hosting the streams, chatting with and delivering entertainment for dozens of viewers who logged in to watch CS: GO, League of Legends action, Valorant, Trials Rising and many more. 

And all about the guests. 

And of course, there were guests! Students were joined for streaming by Ville Merinen aka Willfeel who is known in the Finnish gaming world as Performance Coach of a CS: GO team ENCE. And who is a psychotherapist with YouTube and Twitch channels, delivering not only entertainment, but a bit of solace for the young viewers. There were also Eetu Pesonen aka Eddspeaks, another well-known Finnish YouTuber and streamer, Senior Content Specialist Eero Harju from Ubisoft Redlynx, game development studio. Perhaps for some these names means little, but for those who live in the Finnish streaming world and who take part to enjoy such content, it just might have felt like meeting your idols, which is something truly spectacular. 

Chance to unleash one’s creativity. 

I know that this all might seem difficult to imagine or to understand, especially if you are not someone who enjoys gaming or streaming. Maybe it is tricky to fully understand it for someone who belongs to the international community of Business College and who, perhaps does not have a full command of Finnish language. But think about it this way: you have a passion, a vision yet you lack tools to put them into reality, to put your plan into motion. Be it, as it is in this instance, starting your own streaming journey, meeting your idols from the field of your interests or perhaps something completely different. Anything. Isn’t it encouraging to know that your college is willing and even eager to share their resources and knowledge to boost you up and to help you with reaching your dreams? Isn’t it comforting to know that the tools you lack might exist in your college and they might just lay within the hands reach?  

So, you might ask what you can learn from this? Why it matters for you to know about this Game Room and the 101-hours Stream? Well, take it as a reminder: there’s plenty of opportunities around. Some are obvious, some you need to look for, but they are there. Who knows, perhaps next thing we will see is an English language stream? And maybe it is going to be you who streams? 

Let us know what you think or what you would like to learn more about in the comments below!