Unhappy with his performance against a video game boss, Twitch streamer and YouTuber Kai Senat made headlines on Tuesday night when he called in a therapist on a livestream to help him sort out his emotions.
Around the time that 22-year-old Senat had been battling the final boss of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Eld Tree for 60 hours, Aubri Williams showed up in his streaming room.
Williams, who is a full-time model and also provides counselling services, told Senat that someone had booked a meeting with her, but did not reveal who it was.
The result was a strange fusion of the two worlds: For 30 minutes, Senat talked haphazardly about the mechanics of “Elden Ring,” while Williams taught him breathing techniques, positive thinking and visualizing the outcome of completing the game’s goals.
Senat streamed video game play for a total of 92 hours, with six to seven hours of sleep between gaming sessions.
With 11.7 million followers on Twitch, Senat is one of the biggest creators on the streaming platform, behind only Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, who holds the top spot with 19.1 million followers.
The Amazon-owned platform has struggled to stay afloat and has been forced to rely heavily on big streamers, laying off about 500 employees, or more than 30%, in January. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said at the time that the company was no longer profitable.
Bandai Namco’s “Elden Ring,” which frustrated Senat, is notorious among avid gamers for its torturous difficulty. Since its release in February 2022, it has sold over 25 million copies.
For comparison, another AAA game, Hogwarts Legacy, sold 15 million copies and generated more than $1 billion in revenue, according to a report from gaming news company IGN.
“60 hours of your life you can’t get back”
“I can’t get back the 60 hours I spent fighting that final boss,” Senat lamented. “I tried everything. I got new weapons, I upgraded new things like dexterity and arcane arts, I abandoned my faith, I got stronger. I did so much.”
“Let’s close our eyes for a second,” Williams said.
“Oh, now I’m scared. I see Ladahn again,” Senat said, referring to the final boss that prevented him from winning.
Feeling calmer and stronger under Williams’ tutelage, Senat replayed the boss fight for her to observe.
“When you win, you win,” Senat said, and Williams praised his newfound positive attitude.
His character spun and slashed for several minutes, but eventually fell to Radahn’s two giant swords. The death counter on Cenat’s stream updated to 992.
He slapped his knee in anger. “I got greedy,” he said, lifting his head and yelling the same words.
“Maybe you just need to step away and just reset for five minutes and focus and put your energy into just running well and continuing to run well,” Williams told him afterwards.
After some breathing exercises and a brief moment in which Senat wondered if his therapist was laughing at his gameplay, Williams ended the stream by wishing Senat luck.
Ms Williams, who has 72,500 followers on Instagram, said on social media that she opted not to do a full clinical session as Senat was “trying to achieve his goal” during the live stream.
“Did this young man need mental health support during a difficult time while livestreaming authentically? Yes, he did,” wrote Williams, who said she earned her master’s degree in marriage, couples, and family counseling from Stetson University.
Senat defeated Ladahn about six hours and 40 deaths later – 67 hours after his first encounter with the video game boss.
It was the end of an ordeal for the streamer, who had broken down in tears in front of his fans just a few days earlier after continuing to lose.
Representatives for Williams and Senat did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment sent outside of regular business hours.
