Lost Ark's release in the west has created a home for many gamers. Former players of WoW, New World, and Final Fantasy XIV have been flocking to the new MMORPG — streamers of those games the same. Former LEC referee and G2 Esports content creator Yulia “Yuli” Morozova is not one of them. However, her enthusiasm remains sky-high.
A fan of Lost Ark since its original release in Korea, Yuli has been streaming the game incessantly since the western release. As a primarily League of Legends focused streamer, Inven Global spoke with Yuli to discuss her thoughts on the game, its sustainability as a streaming title, and the parallels with League of Legends.
You’ve expressed incredible enthusiasm for Lost Ark. What makes it special game for you?
I had been playing League for a very long time, but before I got into League, I always loved MMORPGs. MMOs are my favorite kind of gaming genre, alongside indie games and RPGs. And Lost Ark is a mash-up of those things — at least at first glance. You get the MMO, you get the really cool combat, and you also get the isometric view that I'm used to from League. I remember seeing the trailer long ago and wanting to play it. I think initially, I was just a fan of the visuals. I'm a big fan of Korean games in general. This one felt special in a way, just like by looking at it.
The game has seen incredible popularity from streamers — though mostly big WoW personalities. You’re one of the only big streamers that isn’t cut from that cloth? What’s the reception been like? Is it a new crowd, or do you think there’s a lot of interest from your regular audience?
As I mentioned, I got interested in Lost Ark very early on. And ever since then, I was very up to date with everything Lost Ark — I always read fan-made forums, Reddit, and Discord server. I played it on the Korean servers, and I streamed it because I was so obsessed with it. So while I was a League of Legends streamer and content creator, I still forced Lost Ark onto my viewers [laughs]. And my regular viewers knew that I was really, really interested in Lost Ark. I was also streaming Lost Ark regularly on the Russian servers, and was playing a lot of PvP on there.
And I think my regular viewers definitely knew. But I felt like having a big League audience mainly — I didn't quite feel the enthusiasm that I feel now. Now people are actually really, really excited for the game and they can play it themselves. Rather than just watching something that they might not fully understand. So it has definitely been a different atmosphere.
Lost Ark is currently your main game. Some of the other Lost Ark streamers I’ve talked to aren’t sure how long the game will last for streaming. You’re someone that’s played the game since the Korean days. Do you think this could be a game people can successfully stream for years and years?
Honestly, I do think so — it's very, very watchable. The isometric view itself makes it easy to watch. As somebody who hasn't played WoW before, I don't understand a WoW raid at all. And I don't really have fun watching it. It's too messy, I just don't understand it. Lost Ark makes it a little bit easier. Also, there's an abundance of content inside the game, and there's content for kind of everybody. If you're a PvE player, you have so much to do. If you like collectibles and stuff, it's so, so, so much.
From a streamer's point of view, when I was streaming League, it was just spamming ranked over and over. There was not too much flexibility that I had when it comes to what I can do inside the game, since I didn't enjoy some of the other modes. But then in Lost Ark, I can do a raid. When I'm sick of raiding, I can start playing PvP. But then I can just take a break and go fish while talking to chat. So that's the appeal that I find in the game as a streamer. And then as a viewer, you can just go towards what you were looking for. If you like to watch a PvP streamer, there are plenty of those. If you prefer watching raids that. There's so much to choose from.
So I think in that regard, I see potential in the game for sure. Obviously, there's always this pay-to-win debate and people being a bit sensitive when it comes to that stuff. And at the end of the day, what will decide the game's success are the people that play it right. They will be the ones deciding the streamers' and content creators' success.
You're not worried at some point there won't be anything left to do?
The thing is, the game has been out for over three years in Korea. There's a lot of content that is still coming to the Western servers. Before we run out of that, it's gonna be a while. And then in the meantime, while we're receiving the missing content, there will be new content added.
Also, the fact that the game is designed around playing multiple characters, rather than just one, gives it a little bit more longevity. I've been feeling so busy playing this game. I play it all day, every day, and I still don't have enough time to do everything I want to do. And I'm a very hardcore player at the moment — since the game's release, I have about 450 hours. So I think for the regular player, the casual player, they take it a lot slower. I think the game will at least have a very healthy audience.
Currently, we have like 800,000 concurrent players [the interview was conducted mid-March — Ed.], and since release, it hasn't really dropped for an entire month, which is unheard of for MMOs. If you compare it to New World, for example, it's unheard of. And naturally, that's gonna dribble down slowly. It's gonna drop down a little bit until a new content patch comes or a new class comes. Games such as Final Fantasy that currently have a much smaller but still very healthy player base — they're doing great. Before Lost Ark was released, Final Fantasy XIV was considered to be popping off.
How has the reception been compared to other streaming categories you've done?
The first month of Lost Ark was for sure pretty crazy. But you have to keep in mind that for the release of Lost Ark, I was partnered with Amazon. Through that partnership, I got access to the drops, which a lot of people obviously got too. And that really reflected in the viewership. And I think also a lot in the chat interaction. But even since the drops stopped, I do feel like the chat is very active and very engaged. And everybody's very passionate about the game. They want to learn or share something.
Overall, it's been a very nice experience. And I've met a lot of new people. And also, I get a bunch of Korean people in my chat, which is really, really fun. Especially since I have lived in Korea and I speak Korean quite a bit. So it's just really nice for me to see the Koreans come in, and also be so excited for the Western audience receive the game that they love so much.
There was a discussion a while back by xQc that all Lost Ark streamers would lose their viewership once the drops went away. What has it been like since they went away? Did viewer numbers lower?
Oh, no, I have for sure. During the drops, I was having some pretty absurd numbers that are quite high. And I think it's just logical. A lot of people just want the drops, and they click on the next best stream and leave it on in the background. It's only natural for it to drop down. And I think he was right, to some extent, for sure. But I think the good thing is though, the drops did enable the streamers that had them (sadly, not everyone). Some people just found new streamers that they enjoy. I know that I got some regular viewers now through that event. And I'm really thankful for that.
This game has had a very dedicated player base for years on foreign servers. There were decently sized Discords before the game was even announced for the West. And people were waiting and playing through VPNs. That really shows you that there's a very solid base of people. And that base isn't gonna be so fickle. And sure, there's a lot of release hype with people that are checking it out, but that's what any MMO is. The playing time as we're talking is 620,000, when the director said he would be happy with 200,000.
What’s one improvement you think the game could have?
I would love to see the missing classes. And I think that's a very common sentiment amongst players at the moment. Not knowing which classes exist would not make this a problem. But knowing there's a Reaper, Arcana, Summoner, Destroyer — knowing these classes exist, and maybe even having played them on a foreign server before — people are very impatient to get these classes. And maybe less willing to invest time into classes that they don't really want to main.
So I think a lot of people are concerned that the class releases are gonna be too slow. Because the director was saying, "Oh, like every two to three months, we get one new class." We still have seven missing classes with currently existing classes. So that will take quite a long time if they do it this way. I'm curious if it's really gonna take this long, or if they're gonna up the speed. I would personally really like it if they did up the speed, especially because in Lost Ark, playing alternate characters is very beneficial.
For example, my main character's a Deathblade, and I really want to play an Arcana and a Reaper. Those are two classes I played on foreign servers. I'm really deadset on playing them. And I don't really want to create more of the existing characters, because I am waiting for the Arcana and Reaper — it feels like a little bit out like I'm losing out on progression if I don't just make a random character and start farming with them. And I think the class is also where the game really shines.
But I do understand the business decision to slowly release the classes, because that's what usually brings people back. But then maybe at the same time, there are some reworks coming up in South Korea, where they said that certain classes are getting adjusted. So that could be also possibly a reason for delay at the moment in time.
That, and making upgrade materials tradable to your characters. That's something that really annoyed me when I was upgrading. In honing, you have Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. And as you progress through the tiers, you use different upgrading materials. You have some materials that are tradable, and some that are untradable of the same kind. So you will get sometimes get a chest that you can unpack, and then you will have upgrading materials in there. And those are usually bound to your character.
And then if you jump from Tier 2 to Tier 3, and you have a bunch of leftover bound materials, you can't do anything with them. You can't use them on your alternate character, for example. Which would be something that I think would be a huge quality of life improvement. Because right now, I talked to some of my friends that are also playing the game and streaming the game and asked them what I'm supposed to do with these items. They are worth a lot, I can't trade them, I can't give them to another character. And they just straight up told me to sell it to a vendor for silver, which is like one silver each or something. [laughs] I refuse to do that. I'm just hoarding the stuff, which I can't use or do anything with, in the hopes that one day there's gonna be some sort of conversion.
The LEC is returning more and more to the studio. Would you ever consider returning to refereeing, or the esports side in any capacity?
I'm doing content with G2 at the moment. And being contracted with G2, I'm still sort of involved with the esports side of things just because G2 is so focused on esports, and so present in League of Legends, of course. However, while I'm contracted with them, I can't actually work as a referee, because that's a conflict of interest. So it would actually not be possible, even if I wanted to. But I'm actually planning to possibly move to Korea for next year.
What would you say you miss most about it?
I loved working at the studio. One of the main reasons I stopped being a referee and signed with a team is because it switched to online. And it kind of lost the part that I enjoyed the most — interacting with everybody, seeing the audience, seeing the excitement. And also, watching the games from so close. I could walk between the players, watch over their shoulders, see how differently every pro player is sitting. It's just really interesting just to observe. And all and all, the people were just really sweet to work with.
