Student Spotlight: Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller, the Stream Director for OU Esports and a senior meteorology major, has developed his love for streaming through his time at OU Esports. 

Miller grew up in Linton, Indiana wanting to be a meteorologist and loving video games.

Miller has been into video games since he was little, starting when he got his Gameboy Advanced, then later moved to Xbox and then PC in high school.

Miller got started at OU Esports in 2018 in the summer before his freshman year. After seeing an email from OU Esports (at the time still a club), he quickly joined and met many students through the Discord server. During his first semester, he applied and joined the stream team.

“My first semester here, I was really big on the stream team,” Miller said. “It helped me come out of my shell.”

Miller has been involved in many things beyond OU Esports during his time here at OU including tabletop club and the Oklahoma Weather Lab. On top of that, he is also the Collegiate Ambassador of Monster Energy, a research assistant and of course is the OU Esports Stream Director.

“One of the biggest things about me is I like to do a lot of things,” Miller said, “College really is what you make of it… it is an investment That’s why I do so much because I am trying to make the most of that investment and make it worthwhile for both myself and everyone else who has invested in me.”

During his second semester, OU Esports was rearranging leadership roles. The stream director at the time, Jasmine Graves, moved to OU Esports Vice President.

At the time, the stream team was very new and basic compared to what is now. Matthew forged the OU Esports Stream Team into what it is today.

This past year was the first year there were more streamer applicants than there were stream spots. This was a new and hard challenge for Miller.

“I had over 50 applicants,” Miller said, “This semester there were some tough choices that had to be made, but I think the stream team we ended up getting this school year is really strong and I am really happy with how it turned out.”

As Stream Director, Miller likes to give his stream team the freedom they need to put on a great show.

“A lot of (the streaming) is self-governed,” Miller said. “I like to give them free reign to just stream and be whatever kind of contributor they want to be.”

Through OU Esports, Miller has not only been able to grow the stream team, but also find a welcoming community.

“I think (my favorite thing about OU Esports) is just the community because there are so many different people here and yet we all have a common ground of playing video games,” Miller said.

Miller will be studying lightning dynamics and the implications of weather on social science at Texas Tech University for his graduate. For his undergraduate, he was very glad he chose OU.

“If I had to make the choice (of what college to attend) again, I would still choose OU because there’s so many things here you won’t get anywhere else, whether it be Esports or the National Weather Center,” Miller said.

As Miller moves on to his graduate, he hopes new undergraduate students will know there is more to college than just a degree.

“If you only want to come to college and get your degree, that’s fine but I don’t think you’re going to enjoy it as much as someone who gets their degree and is involved in something they enjoy doing,” Miller said, “You can’t just do school all day, you got to take a break.”

Miller is thankful to everyone who has invested in him and for the friends he has made through OU Esports.

Editor’s Note: The article was edited to change Oklahoma Weather Alliance to the Oklahoma Weather Lab.