Twitch: Nerds VS Nature review
Hey everyone! Been a while since I did a blog. I wont go into it here, but I'll share it on my Patreon for you to read (free). Now, onto the topic at hand!
I've been a long time viewer of CobaltStreak and Richard_Hammer on Twitch. I began watching them in the earlier days of Binding of Isaac. They each have very unique personalities, so I enjoyed them for separate reasons and have continued to follow them over the years. Recently, they took on a challenge they called 'Nerds VS Nature'. As of writing this today, they completed their 6 day challenge... but not without some hiccups along the way. Their experience doing this inspired me to write again after such a long lull of writers block... so my personal thanks to them, for that inspiration.
Their challenge began with a Kickstarter to raise funds for the experience, and was sponsored by Madrinas Coffee (use codes 'cobalt' or 'hammer' for a 40% discount). I've had Madrinas before by the way... very good coffee.
Their goal was $5000, but they had stretch goal incentives up to $10,000. Their final payout reached $9,265 which stripped them of all their luxury items and forced them to wear silly onsies through the experience. This was just shy of the 10k goal to expand the trip another two days, but after personally watching it myself... I think that ended up being a blessing. People who helped fund the experience, whether on Kickstarter or subscribers to their channel, will get access to special extra footage from their Go-Pros as well; an extra 'thank you' for supporting them. Other prizes included stickers, T-shirts (that you can also buy), wood whittles by Dick, and clay pots by Cobalt.
They had a cameraman friend (Bran) with them who stayed the duration of the trip as well, but was allowed to have a more comfortable camping experience compared to the other two. Afterall, camera equipment is expensive and hard to maintain properly in nature so it was important Bran kept things dry and safe and his wits about him. Bran also kept an 'emergency chest' nearby incase anything went wrong during the experience, packed with what I heard had food and water and probably some medical supplies.
In the first couple days, Cobalt and Dick (Richard) had no food, little water, and heavy down pouring thunderstorms to contend with. Safe to say, that would be hard on anyone. At one point, they had to 'tap out' for a break, just because it was getting dangerous... but that didn't mean they quit. It was more like a little 'take a break, so we can push through the rest of this' deal. So around a day later, they were back at it again with a few more supplies to make things less dangerous, such as a tarp for their shelter to fight off those brutal rains. The shelter itself though, they built by hand with wood they chopped up... and I was quite impressed. It was sturdy, practical, and pleasing to the eye. They weaved the roof with leaves and branches as well, prior to getting the tarp. It would have worked too, if it wasn't for that pesky storm.
They built their fire with flint, also impressive. They maintained the fire -most- of the time to keep it from going out, even through that storm. At a couple points they foraged for food, and built a 'stew' of things like wild onions and mushrooms. Later in the week, Dick also caught a fish for them to eat. It probably tasted better than the worms he swallowed whole during a visit by his family (who were bringing the camera man some supplies.) They also got some dry rations to eat, when hunger just became too much for them. Trust me, no one wants to eat those things... its like eating flavorless powder.
For the naysayers (and sadly there were a lot of them in Twitch chat... the trolls should be ashamed of yourselves for how mean you were getting) you sadly get to be disappointed, because their adventure was a successful one. I'm personally extremely proud and impressed with these two men, and with all the time I was watching and reading Twitch chat, its safe to say I'm not alone in that proudness. Cobalt, Richard, if you two happen to read this blog just know that you had so many people rooting for you and cheering you on, and happy to see your successes and worried during your hardships. You did your viewers and fans proud. Very well done.
Its my hope that we see more unique things like this on Twitch in the future. Nothing dangerous of course... just something outside the box, to make your fans laugh or cry along with you as you try something new. Would I want to see Richard and Cobalt do this again? Yes and no. I think next time they'd be better prepared, mentally and physically. I didn't like to see them suffer, but I liked to see them challenging themselves and at some points genuinely having fun. I have a feeling neither of them are going to take things in modern life for granted again for a long time... like soap. :)
Please enjoy a couple of clips I made while watching that gave me a good chuckle, and thank you for checking out my blog! Be sure to go watch the VODs of this experience on their Twitch channels, or at least the clips people took. You likely wont be disappointed.
Richard VS Stick
Richard Eats Cobalt's Worm
Also, if you search through the top clips on these guys' channels for this adventure, you'll get to see the elusive 'wolfdeer'.
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