In 2019, Soleil “Ewok” Wheeler (17) gained considerable popularity on Twitch with the colorful Battle Royale Fortnite. For a long time, there was silence around the streamer, but now he’s back. We at MeinMMO will bring you up to date.
Who is Ewok? Behind the name is 17-year-old streamer Soleil Wheeler. At just 13 years old, Ewok made headlines in March 2019 as a Fortnite prodigy and quickly played with the big names.
Under the name “Paradise,” Fortnite launched on September 18th into Chapter 3 of its 4th Season. You can see more in our video.
This is how Ewok’s career began: Ewok began streaming in October 2018, showcasing Epic’s colorful shooter Fortnite. Despite low viewer counts in the single digits, Ewok remained undeterred and streamed between 40 and 90 hours monthly.
This paid off in spring 2019: well-known streamer Timothy “TimTheTatman” Betar noticed Ewok and hosted him. Thousands of viewers flooded Ewok’s channel, many of whom stayed. In March 2019, Ewok already had over 300 average viewers and was discovered by several major streamers.
Ewok even got to play with the then number one on Twitch, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins – and did really well.
What made Ewok so popular? The viewers likely fell in love with Ewok mainly due to his likable personality, his engaging smile, and of course, his Fortnite skills. Additionally, Ewok has a dry sense of humor that resonated with many.
What’s special about Ewok’s streams? Ewok is deaf and uses a sound visualizer in games to orient himself. This made Ewok a true role model for many. At the same time, this fact made his achievements in Fortnite even more impressive.
Even this handicap Ewok takes with humor and is never short of a joke.
What happened next: With his charming personality and Fortnite skills, he was able to retain viewers over the long term and by November 2019 had over 200,000 followers on Twitch, achieving partner status. Then he switched to the Microsoft platform Mixer.
E-sports expert Rod Breslau advised professional teams back then to sign Ewok quickly. That’s exactly what happened: in July 2020, Ewok joined the e-sports organization FaZe Clan, then as its first female member.
Shortly after, in August 2020, Ewok returned to Twitch and reached peaks of up to 30,000 simultaneous viewers – more than ever before.
There were also major changes in his personal life: On October 11, 2020, Ewok came out as transgender and bisexual on the occasion of “National Coming Out Day.” In a TwitLonger post, Ewok announced that he wanted to be addressed with male pronouns and spoke about how much he had struggled with his identity in the past.
What happened next? From November 2020 onward, Ewok’s viewer numbers steadily declined, and Ewok began to stream less. While he was on-air for over 100 hours in December 2020, it was only 46 hours in February 2021.
What was going on? Ewok apparently struggled with mental health issues and wrote several Twitter posts about anxiety and depression. On March 29, he ultimately announced that he wanted to take a break.
After that, Ewok streamed only very occasionally. But then Ewok discovered the hero shooter Apex Legends for himself. Ewok seemed to regain enjoyment in streaming. Unfortunately, viewers were still absent, and Ewok even lost followers.
In November 2021, Ewok left the FaZe Clan, but streamed for over 70 hours. He managed to maintain this in the following month, but soon began streaming less again. From May to July 2022, he was not active on Twitch at all.
On Twitter, Ewok continued to update his fans and shared on September 15, 2022, that there would be a major announcement in the following week. The announcement was reportedly to be related to a contract.
What was this announcement? On September 22, it was revealed that Ewok would be part of the e-sports organization XSet going forward. In the announcement video, Ewok explains that he likes who he is now and has realized whom he represents: Ewok stands for courage and for the future.
What is the current situation? In August, Ewok streamed for 27 hours and reached a peak of over 14,000 simultaneous viewers. However, in September, both the number of hours streamed and the number of viewers decreased again.
It should be noted, however, that Ewok is still in school, so there isn’t always time for streaming (via Twitter).
It remains to be seen how things will continue for the former Fortnite prodigy. His skills, in any case, have not diminished:
In Ewok’s career, there have already been many ups and downs. And even Fortnite, the game that made him famous, seems to have left its big hype behind. Time and again, people in the comments refer to the game as dead. Now Epic has reacted to these comments and resorted to unusual methods.
Players say Fortnite is a dead game – trolled by Epic with a new skin
