Words by Bailey Alexander
We spoke to Elz the Witch about her favourite games, presenting on stage at the O2, and how she found a home with Manchester City.
Bailey Alexander: So, first thing’s first, what inspired your name?
Elz the Witch: I used to be quite grumpy and I still am sometimes but only about the small things in life. So at school, instead of calling me the ‘b’ word, my friends would sometimes call me ‘witch’. So it kind of went from there, and they still do call me witch instead of my actual name. When I was thinking of a brand I didn’t want to use my government name, I just combined Elz with ‘witch’, so it basically just came from me being grumpy.
B: And does anyone outside of your friends know your government name?
E: No, no, I try to keep it private.
B: Who can blame you? So I was wondering if there was a specific game that really launched your passion?
E: There’s a few that I talk about all the time. My favourite game ever is Final Fantasy XII, which came out on the first PlayStation but I was quite young then. My auntie had a PlayStation with all the games and when she went travelling me and my older sister found the PlayStation. I used to watch my sister play and she’d read out the dialogue to me so I think I fell in love with it that way. There’s a few other games that I loved as well like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and of course The Sims which I still love to this day.
B: Wow, those answers are so real. In my mainstream mind I half expected you to say something like Assassin’s Creed but no you instead opted for fun
E: Oh no like with Final Fantasy XII I’ve seen the orchestral rendition twice live at the Royal Albert Hall. I went by myself and I don’t really cry that often but for some reason that made me cry. Plus I played the demo for the remake at E3 four years ago which was something. I’m literally obsessed with Final Fantasy.
B: I know that you’ve recently been announced as a PlayStation Playmaker ambassador, have you always been a certified PlayStation gamer.
E: If I had to pick any console I’m always going to pick PlayStation. The PS5 is my everyday console and the PlayStation 2 was actually the first one I ever owned.
B: With how big you’ve become, do you feel obliged to make content even at the times you just want to play a game for the sake of playing?
E: I struggled with that when I first started doing YouTube. With The Sims, I struggled with still being able to enjoy it once I knew that my audience weren’t crazy for it, but I didn’t want to fall out of love with it because it’s one of my favourite games of all time. I don’t know if other content creators might relate to this but sometimes when you’re doing what you love as work, you kind of run the risk of falling out of love with it. Normally you’d turn on your PlayStation, Xbox, or whatever to just zone out, but if it’s for work it feels like you have to make a piece of content and that can take the fun out of it. So it’s about finding ways to just keep it fun.
B: When you’re streaming a game and die, is there any kind of embarrassment?
E: I think part of my content’s charm is that I’m not actually great at the games, especially when I have a camera in my face and lights on me. I don’t mind if I die because people actually find that funny.
B: Do you feel as though there’s something of a resurgence happening at the moment, with a rise in good gaming experiences?
E: I struggle with the volume of games available at the moment. I have too many games to play and not enough time to play them all, but when I was at home during lockdown the releases weren’t gripping me all that much. I do feel like for a few years, those major gaming experiences were lost, and I think the moment there’s massive games coming out like GTA VI or Final Fantasy, which are big games sure but it’s always nice to wait for these kinds of games. With Cyberpunk 2077, I was so excited for it but they rushed putting it out – I would rather wait longer to get these really good quality games. But yes, I think the new releases at the moment are exciting.
B: I don’t know how into film you are…
E: When it’s a franchise like Marvel, for example, I love it.
B: Well, what about video game movies? A very taboo subject.
E: I know it’s not a movie but I think The Last of Us TV series has to be the best adaptation of a video game I’ve ever seen, and I tell everyone to watch it even if they’ve not played the game. I think the struggle with a lot of the movies lies with converting the gameplay into a plot. I haven’t seen the Sonic the Hedgehog one yet, but everyone does say it’s pretty good.
B: I’ve only seen the second Sonic movie, and I have to say I walked away feeling it was insanely good.
E: Do you remember when they first brought out that draft of the Sonic and he looked awful and they had to go and redesign him from scratch?.
B: How could I forget? So, on another note, with the football stuff you do alongside the Premier League and Match of the Day, I was wondering if playing FIFA had informed any of the work you do?
E: Oh yeah, I used to play FIFA on my channel and I was terrible. but I used to get my friends to come on my channel. So, for example, AJ Tracy came on and so did Harry Pinero and I asked them what they wanted to play and they of course said FIFA.
B: Was there any video with a friend that took on a life of its own?
E: I did one with Headie One actually that led to Mixtape Madness getting in contact with me because they had been commissioned to do a one minute segment during the 2019 FIFA E World Cup live on Sky Sports and held at the O2. They had four competition winners who needed to do a 30 second freestyle on stage and then the winner won funding for a music video and a song for them. They asked me to cover it because at that point I had a radio show on Rinse FM, so was in the music world and also playing games, so the partnering made sense.
B: Had you presented on stage before?
E: No I was terrified and obviously doing it at the O2 and live on Sky Sports is quite a big step up from never doing it at all. It actually went really well in the end, and two or three days later we got an email from a company who had just been commissioned by the Premier League to make a new show called Uncut which I’m still part of to this day. I’ve always been interested in sport, brought up around football ‘cause my dad loves it, but I was never knowledgeable in the game itself. I went into it knowing I work hard and I’m determined, and from there they gave me the job that kickstarted my career in football.
B: You’ve got so much going on, but I want to rewind to the part where you casually name dropped AJ Tracey as a friend?
E: Oh yeah, I’ve been friends with him for about eight years now, ever since I first moved to London when I was still working a 9 to 5. Some of my friends worked in the music industry, and that’s how I ended up becoming friends with him and Big Zuu as well. It’s fun to see when your friends are doing sort of similar stuff to you and doing really well
B: It’s fun to hear about as well. I gathered from your Instagram that you’re a Man City fan. As a Man U fan I feel obliged to ‘confront’ you on what brought you to City?
E: I’m from Norwich originally and my parents were season ticket holders at Norwich but I just never connected with them at all. Then I moved to Manchester when I was 18 and lived there for four years and the area that I lived in so I lived in South East Manchester around Withington, East Didsbury, Burnage – which are all heavily Man City. The pubs would have signs saying, “If you’re United don’t come in”, “We’re a City pub”, and all that. From there I saw the community around the football team and really loved it. When I started working in football, I was like, “Okay, right – I need to properly focus on a team”, so naturally Man City was the one for me.
B: In their defence, I do think they have a great kit colour.
E: The sky blue colour? It’s a great colour.I sometimes wear red because I obviously have red hair. So I like wearing bright colours. And whenever I do my DMs are just full of people saying, “You can’t wear red – It’s United”, and sure it is, but it’s Liverpool and Arsenal as well.
B: I think your passion for football is pretty clear.
E: I’m now completely in love with it. I now get why people love this sport so much and are so passionate about it.