The American Zepla is one of the biggest streamers on Twitch for the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV. Since 2014, she has been living in Ukraine. Now she plans to leave the country, fearing an invasion by Russia. On her flight, she wants to continue streaming and stay in touch with her fans.
This is Zepla:
- Zepla is one of the biggest streamers for Final Fantasy XIV: She has 220,000 followers. When she streams, about 2,000 people watch her. Last year, she was on air for 820 hours. She tends to have shorter streams, but they are regular.
- Zepla is a friendly, nice streamer who loves to wear bunny ears and gives viewers tips on Final Fantasy XIV. She raves about the Viera, one of the playable races in the MMORPG, known for their rabbit-like floppy ears.
- However, she has now turned surprisingly serious towards her fans. The streamer lives in Ukraine and does not feel safe there anymore.
The mood in Ukraine is like before a hurricane
How does an American land in Ukraine? Zepla originally comes from Louisiana in the USA. Eight years ago, she lived an unburdened lifestyle and taught English in Taiwan, where she met and befriended some Ukrainians, as she recounts in an interview with VICE .
Ukraine sounded like a great place to live for her, and she wanted to teach there. The streamer says it was 2014 that brought her to Ukraine – after the Maidan Revolution, the country was in turmoil and on the move:
“When I arrived in Kiev, there were still barricades and some charred cars on the street. But people were really happy that Yanukovych was gone – for good reason. It was a frightening situation, but I wasn’t scared. My family, on the other hand, was really not that thrilled about my decision to go to Kiev.”
This is how it is today: The streamer says that in Kiev today, there is a very strange feeling of life, similar to the moments before a hurricane strikes:
“Everyone is preparing for it; you decide whether you go through with it or not, whether you flee. But it’s stranger and worse than that. With a hurricane, you see the dark clouds; you know something is coming. It’s obvious. You can feel the wind; you can taste it in the air and see the rain coming. You can see lightning on the horizon.
But here, there are still wonderful sunny days. And everyone goes about their usual daily routines. While you sit in a restaurant, you hear people talking about their plans to stay and fight. There’s still some normality to it. That’s the most depressing part of it all.”
Why doesn’t she just leave? As an American, Zepla could leave the country at any time, but she has built a life in Kiev, with a dog, house, and cat.
She is especially attached to her pets, as she says. Getting them out of the country proves to be challenging. She does not want to leave them in a potential war zone, and simply leaving with them does not work either – in the USA, dogs from Ukraine are considered “high-risk carriers for rabies.”
Zepla wants to get passports for her animals and then leave the country.
How does she view the conflict? The streamer says she loves the people in Russia; there are many connections from Ukraine to the neighboring country, the problem for her is Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who sees Ukraine as a “blooming democracy” which could set an example for Russians, but she adds:
“So look, I don’t want to pretend that I’m a geopolitical analyst. I try to keep myself informed, but I make no illusions about my credibility. I’m a Final Fantasy XIV Twitch streamer who wears bunny ears every day on stream.”
Streaming as a “welcome distraction” from her situation
Why is she still streaming? Zepla explains that she tries to continue streaming 3 to 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. She chats with her community on Discord, edits YouTube videos, and learns Japanese. All the things the Twitch streamer usually does:
“These are welcome distractions. When I do this, I don’t think about my situation. But as soon as the stream is over, I think about my situation again.”
Zepla is determined to stay in touch with her fans while fleeing and to stream as much as possible. She says she will stay at every hotel and AirBnB and spend whole days on Twitch.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is always a topic that touches the world of video games:
Player accuses Battlefield 2042 of showing “Russian terrorists” – EA responds
