B.C. Before Content
Anthony Mercaldi was born May 1st 2001 in New Jersey. I was always into video games and being on the computer since I was 3. My first console was a PS2 and I’ve spent a crazy amount of time behind a screen. I was always a good student and school has almost always been easy for me, but I definitely wasn’t popular and most kids thought I was weird. I was never interested in sports or a lot of things when I was younger. I loved video games as an escape to a reality where I could be anything and do anything. Soon I would learn that’s all possible in real life too.
A.C. After Content (Not to be confused with Air Conditioner)
When I turned 10 years old I got an iPod Touch. The device that allowed me to take pictures and videos of anything and everything. I don’t know I picked it up from my grandfather who always filmed every holiday with his VHS camera. Having our memories documented in a way that we can almost put ourselves right back to that day or that house or with those people is simply priceless. Regardless, I have always had an inherent urge to document and share my life with others. I took my iPod everywhere and enjoyed a bunch of the apps like Cut the Rope, Tom the Cat, and Ben the Dog. Whenever there was something I found interesting or there was a moment I wanted to save to be able to show my friends and family later I would pull out the iPod and record. While using the Robby the Robot app, I created a sequence of events that I liked the robot to do in a particular order. The app let you record your screen so I did, but it didn’t have the option to “Save to Gallery.” I could only upload the video to YouTube or some other site I hadn’t heard of. At this point as a 10 year old in 2011, YouTube was just a site I went to for funny cat and dog videos. (I still absolutely love those videos)
Vaderboy09
May 18th 2011, I created a YouTube channel named Vaderboy09 to save this clip. I kept on filming random stuff in real life until my storage of 8 GB was full so I figured I might as well use YouTube as an unlimited storage device. In one year I ended up making 248 videos. (login to account and check total number) My first in real life video was documenting my hamster Rocko’s first time in a bathtub. Funny how I was commentating back then and I even asked Rocko if he wanted to say anything to the camera just like my grandfather would.
I recorded playing with toys, hanging out with friends, family stuff, and literally anything. Eventually I started posting some content on an IBM laptop playing my favorite game since the first day of kindergarten, Roblox! Eventually I fell in love with Minecraft and made a few videos. Eventually I started to find YouTubers that I enjoyed watching like PewDiePie, Tobuscus, Markiplier, and Smosh. Never did I think this would ever be a job or something that would make any money. I just simply thought it would be really fun to make videos documenting what I loved to do, which was playing games. I decided it was time to make up a cool name to go by for my new channel. 11 year old me decided that name was TheEvilTrollMaster since I loved watching Minecraft Trolling videos and originally wanted to do some videos like that.
TheEvilTrollMaster
I started with good old Happy Wheels and eventually I hit my first milestone: 20 SUBSCRIBERS
“I know it’s not a big number, but it’s pretty big to me. Most subscribers I’ve ever had on a channel… EVER!” I was truly so excited to hit this number because I beat my previous channel Vaderboy09 that ended up having 18 subscribers when I posted my last video. (after ___ videos) In this video I also announced that my father got me my first desktop PC (HP Pavillion) which would allow me to play more games and be able to do more videos. I did Minecraft mod showcases, modded survival series, Saints Row 4, Garry’s Mod, parodys, speedarts, random games, and of course got some MC Trolling in there. I even streamed on JustinTV which was what Twitch was called back then.
After 157 videos I felt like I wanted to do so many different things on my channel and TheEvilTrollMaster just wasn’t a good fit for me long term. I was in 7th grade at the time and after brainstorming with my friend in a skype call, the name “Mercanthony” would come to fruition. Taking the first four letters of my last name and putting it in front of my first name. Simple and could work for the rest of my life. It also had a double meaning as Merc can be like Mercenary which makes sense for a gaming channel. Get Merc’d!
Mercanthony
EST Feb 15th, 2014
My father did the voiceover for the montage lol. I began with a Call of Duty Ghost Let’s Play and continued to make videos on whatever peaked my interest at the time.
GFuel Energy
Eventually I started watching FaZe Clan in the original NY house. I was BEYOND inspired in so many ways. They lived in a house with their friends and got to make content together for a living. I started focusing a lot on Call of Duty and the sniping community. I joined teams like L7, Dare, and Elevate hoping to eventually make it to FaZe. I ended up trying FaZeberry GFuel for the first time at New York ComicCon 2015 and absolutely loved how it tasted and made me feel so working with them became a huge goal of mine. I absolutely LOVED going to big events like ComicCon, Pax East, TwitchCon, Call of Duty events, etc. It gave me the opportunity to be surrounded by people with the same interest and I got to meet tons of youtubers and streamers that I watched. Connecting with a bunch of my internet friends was also an incredible experience. At events I always made an effort to talk to brands in person to secure partnerships. My father still tells people stories of watching me negotiating with CEOs at 14. After making tons of GFuel videos, doing photoshoots, constantly talking about it on my stream, and having spent a bunch of time building my relationships with the staff through events, I finally got a GFuel partnership manager to come to my stream and offer to work with me. I started out just getting product before it came out and got some social media support.
Eventually they decided to do a trial run giving me my own discount code “MERC”. In my first month I absolutely crushed it in sales and then one of my dreams came true because GFuel decided to sign me for a year as a full partner. Through GFuel I was able to attend so many events and meet so many people!
The Elite
There was a consistent group of friends that I went to events with and made content/streamed together regularly. I thought it would be a good idea to brand the friend group so we can all grow together and work with companies as a package without making a full esports/gaming team. That way the members of the friend group could be in any team/organization while also working to build up what we called The Elite.
We had a period of time where we did 48 hour streams every weekend for a month. We did one of them at Casey Neistat’s studio 368 NYC
Another stream we did at the GFuel stream house raised over $6000 for charity.
We were doing so well as a group that I was getting contacted with offers from many companies and gaming organizations. In total we actually got 8 house offers, but obviously the one we chose was the offer from GFuel. The dream that I had for so many years was about to be reality, but while applying for houses the group ended up separating to pursue other things. Cliff Morgan, while he was CEO of GFuel told me after the group fell apart that “everything happens for a reason.” At the time I couldn’t understand it, but time showed me that life will not always give you what you want exactly the way you picture it. Often times doors close so a better door can open. I wouldn’t change anything in my life as it has all turned me into who I am today and I could not be more happy about the way things turned out. I truly now live each day knowing it all happens for a reason and to enjoy whatever experiences life offers.
Memories
Most people have trouble remembering every detail from memories years ago, but I have nearly my whole life documented. There is an indescribable feeling that comes with knowing I can look back on all of my memories from childhood on and share them with others. I have so many special moments captured like my highschool prom and graduation. When telling stories I can really bring people to that moment through the videos.
Autism
My whole life I always just thought I was “weird” or just different from most other people. In 2016 after having seen a PHD Therapist for about a year, I was diagnosed with Aspergers which is a part of the autism spectrum. While I would assume some people would react negatively when finding out something like that, but I was so happy and relieved. Finally I knew some answers as to why I have had a lot of difficulties socially. I had trouble identifying / understanding peoples emotions, social cues, overstimulation, among many other symptoms. From that point on I knew that there were millions of other people around the world who also had similar experiences and there have been studies for years on what can help us to better adapt to the world around us. I decided to devote my life to embracing all that life has to offer by constantly putting myself out of my comfort zone trying new things. Even little things like ordering something new nearly every time I order food lol. I saw that therapist for over 4 years and in that time she was able to help me evolve into almost a whole new person. I truly enjoy expanding my horizons, learning new things, going to new places, trying crazy activities. Thankfully I have built my content career since I was 10 and now am able to spend my days trying new things and taking my audience along with me on the journey. I hope that my content inspires people on or off the spectrum to break out of their shell because there is only so much time we get to play this game.
The Orange-ing
My favorite color as a kid was actually lime green and for a lot of my life I wanted blue hair. Since Ninja was the biggest creator at the time I didn’t want to look like a wannabe. I did tons of research on every color and what they mean to different cultures. I studied how colors affect people psychologically and why brands decide the colors they do. Ultimately I wanted the color to resonate with who I am and how I act. I came to the conclusion that Orange was perfect. It is the middle ground between the happiness of yellow and the energy of red. As a person, I’ve nearly always been a positive beacon of energy. Orange is playful, creative, unique, plus the color stands out and gets your attention! (like a traffic cone)
Burnout
During lockdown I got super hyper productive attempting to pass the time which lead to a big burnout. I was spending every day doing a unique youtube video, tiktok video, instagram picture, and 3 hour stream for a long time. My manager at the time told me that in order to break my burnout I needed to connect with 10 year old me that just made videos randomly with no effort just for fun. So he told me to upload a video every single day and I thought he was crazy. I decided to try out Tiktok since I figured it’d be easier to do a short than a long video each day. I started making the stupidest low effort videos like “Words of Wisdom with Mercanthony” or the POV series. Very soon after I started to love creating again just like childhood me. I went back to my manager and asked if I could do 3 videos a day and he asked if I’d burnout doing that too fast, but I knew I was ready because it became fun again not pressuring myself that everything needs to be “perfect.’
Drinking GFuel Everyday til I get my own Flavor
While making 3 videos a day, it made sense to start a daily series that I could rely on each day for one of the ideas. Something that could grow nd develop over time and hopefully accomplish a life dream. I needed something that I already did every day that I could turn into content to get something that I’ve always wanted. So I started the series “Drinking GFuel Everyday till I get my own flavor” because GFuel has been in my daily routine since 2015 and it has always been a dream to get my own flavor named after me from my favorite company/product. It was an incredible journey unlike anything I’d ever done before. Waking up every day and creatively brainstorming a new concept for a video around the same concept of drinking this one drink and then actually making and uploading each video before that clock strikes 12 AM. In the beginning the videos were simple and low effort, but over time it developed into what I felt were mini-movies in episodes that at some points went from day to day bringing you along the story.
Near the 365 mark the CEO of GFuel at the time, Cliff Morgan asked if I wanted to fly out to NYC for an interview on day 365. I went to times Square and as I was getting mic’d up, Nick Merola asked me “So your manager didn’t tell you anything right?” and he really didn’t. For over 7 months GFuel was developing my flavor getting ready for me to hit the 1 year mark and if I had stopped a day earlier, they would have cancelled the flavor, but the entire time I had no idea they had even considered it. In the middle of the interview (video below) the wall falls down behind me revealing my flavor and shaker on a pedestal. When I was leaving the studio having achieved one of my biggest dreams, my GFuel partner manager at the time told me “once you leave this studio, your life will never be the same” and HE WAS RIGHT. While I’m always striving to improve and achieve more things, ever since that moment childhood me jumps up and down for joy because we REALLY DID IT and now we get to do everything we envisioned and more.
New Jersey -> Las Vegas
One day while I was still doing the drinking GFuel series I woke up to a call from my friend Mizzly asking if I wanted to help him drive all the way to Vegas since he was moving there. While barely awake I checked my schedule and said “well I guess I don’t have anything scheduled and it sounds like a crazy experience plus CONTENT. There was a blizzard sweeping the country and we had a broken window. We began our journey and within 4 hours we got a flat tire and later got another flat. We even almost got hit by an avalanche that forced us to go through 3 extra states. We finally parked for the first time in Vegas and the car broke down and never drove again, but at least it got us all the way there. I originally planned on staying for like a month to explore the city. I ended up tweeting out “Who’s in Vegas?” and met up with two people who commented that I had met briefly one other time at PAX East years prior. We hung out and I ended up staying with them for 2 months until their apartment flooded and they asked if I wanted to get an apt with them. We applied, got approved, and signed my first lease across the country from all my family and friends. Then I actually had to tell my family that we needed to ship my car, setup, clothes, etc here because I was officially moving out to pursue my dreams. I spent my whole childhood saying I would eventually move to LA, but I’m so glad I chose Vegas because it has been the best place for me to live at this point in my life.
Content House
One other dream that childhood me desired was living in a content house with my friends and I’m so glad I was able to get that experience. It was awesome waking up every day making videos together and going on crazy adventures.
Drinking my Flavor Everyday til I get a Can
About 3 weeks after getting my flavor, it felt weird not doing a drinking GFuel video. After doing something for 365 days it definitely becomes a habit and the days that pasted didn’t feel complete. I also had thought the original series would take me 3 years so we were technically early. I then decided to start a series where I could only drink my flavor for the entire series in hopes of getting my own can with my face on it. There were tons of awesome moments and challenges I faced throughout the series. (I literally totalled my car on Day 2 lol) This series ended up lasting 580 days until I was flown out to Long Island to go to the GFuel office for one more surprise!
Life Now & What's Next
Now I make videos and stream continuing to push myself past my comfort zone to experience all that life has to offer. I feel so blessed to be able to do what I love each and everyday and inspire others to make that a reality for themselves. Anything is truly possible and any dream might just be a few “days” less than you expected. Just get up everyday and work towards your dreams no matter what anyone has to say about it.
Thank you for being a part of my journey! While I’ve been doing this 13 years I still feel like I’m just getting started. I’m excited for whatever is to come as I continue documenting and sharing my life to hopefully brighten up the world in whatever amount I can. There’s so much more to the story that I didn’t have the time to write here, but thankfully I’ve made thousands of videos that can tell it for me.
