Karma

Streamers > Karma

Name Damon Barlow

Age 31

Birthday 17th July

Nationality Canadian

Hometown Deseronto, ON

Aliases OpTic Karma; Karma Envy

Streams Apex Legends, Variety

Team OpTic Gaming

Former Teams Young Guns, Fariko Impact; Team EnVyUs; complexity Gaming; Evil Geniuses; FaZe Clan and Optic Nation

Family

He and his brother were raised by his mother. He has a wife and a daughter.

Gaming Origins

Karma started playing games from a young age. He also played baseball until he was 14, and then moved on to football as a fullback for another 6 or 7 years. He would play video games in his spare time, but football was his main focus during that time. His career ended when he tore a ligament in his right knee. He also participated in long-jump and track-an-field in high school and participated in wrestling for a while. The last sport that he played was rugby.
When he was a bit older, he used to play public matches and would usually beat everyone that he played against. Eventually, someone recognized his abilities and invited him to compete with them on a site called ‘GameBattles’. He initially competed for BG rankings. After a while, his uncle took him to an MLG Columbus BlackOps 1 event.

He found it to be a really enjoyable experience, with friendly people. However, what did bother him, was how stuck-up and unappreciative the pro-gamers behaved towards their fans. This is what motivated him to develop a camaraderie and engagement with his fans when he started becoming famous.

Karma opened his YouTube account in 2010, where he uploaded streams of Battlefield Bad Company 2 before moving onto to other gaming and IRL content.

Professional Gaming

Karma started competing in professional CoD competitions in his final year of high school. He was initially shy about letting people know, in case they made fun of him. However, once it spread throughout the school, he discovered that all of his friends, schoolmates and teachers were supportive of him. He began streaming Black Ops II sessions on Twitch in May 2013.

Income

Since 2013, Karma has earned over $673,000 USD in CoD t.ournaments. Additionally, he is estimated to have around 500 subscribers. This would net him between $1,250 - $1,750 USD per month. This excludes his other earnings from Twitch and YouTube.

Streaming Hours

Karma is known to stream at all hours. But, he usually streams daily, starting at ~21:00 UTC for 6-8 hours.

Accomplishments

Three time Call of Duty Championship Winner (2013, 2014 and 2017).
#1 in MLG World Finals 2015 (CoD:AW)
#1 in CWL 2017 Dallas Open
#1 in NA CWL 2016 Stage 1 Playoffs

Quotes

Being a professional is a challenge. Sometimes it can take years, whereas at other times, someone could just be fortunate enough to end up on the right team. In gaming, timing is everything.