VanossGaming

Early life

Evan Fong claims that he was not introduced to video games at a young age, but that he played games "here and there" which included children's adventure and puzzle titles such as Freddi Fish and Pajama Sam.

After attending Richmond Hill High School, Fong pursued an athletic scholarship for his chosen sport of ice hockey, Fong studied economics at the University of Pennsylvania, but later dropped out in his second year to focus on his YouTube channel as a full-time commitment. Fong claims that his parents were initially concerned that he was neglecting his studies in favor of producing content for his YouTube channel, admitting that "Even though there's a lot of potential for somebody starting a YouTube channel it's obviously not a guaranteed path".

Format

The majority of VanossGaming videos take the format of a "funny moments" montage or compilation, featuring various clips from a particular game session, usually featuring other video game commentators. The Canadian Press described "a typical Vanoss video" by claiming that it features "Vanoss and a group of friends chatting, laughing and making jokes over gameplay from popular titles such as Grand Theft Auto V or Call of Duty: World at War".

History

Fong created the VanossGaming channel on YouTube on September 15, 2011. The name "Vanoss" comes from VANOS, a variable valve timing system produced by German automobile company BMW; Fong's father used the alias "vanoss62" on the PlayStation 3, which his son later adopted for his own.

Fong has been known to do work with other popular YouTubers such as H2O Delirious, Adam "SeaNanners" Montoya and Tom "Syndicate" Cassell. Fong first appeared on camera in July 2013, in a video celebrating one million subscribers.

In January 2015, Fong began to receive mainstream media attention as he approached 11 million subscribers and a ranking within the top 25 most subscribed channels on YouTube, with commentators identifying him as a central figure in the growing video game commentary subculture. Speaking at the time, he suggested that his success could be credited to the fact that "Viewers really like the authentic type of content from regular people just playing games because they can relate to that". In March 2015 he appeared on his first gaming convention panel, the "YouTube Gaming Evolution" panel at PAX East in Boston, Massachusetts, alongside collaborators I Am Wildcat, Lui Calibre and Mini Ladd.

On April 30, 2015, Fong announced on Twitter that he had signed with Jetpak, a multi-channel network founded by Adam "SeaNanners" Montoya and Tom "Syndicate" Cassell.

On November 26, 2015, Fong announced that he was releasing a new logo for the VanossGaming brand. He released the logo later that day along with limited edition merchandise released the day after. The logo was a white minimalistic design of an owl on a black background. There is also a diagonal cut through the design, creating a black letter "V". The owl design represented the owl mask on Fong's character model in Grand Theft Auto Online.

Other projects

On July 25, 2015, Fong announced that he had been working on a game called Dead Realm for "the last six or seven months" as a creative director, alongside other YouTube collaborators such as Daithi De Nogla, Terroriser, MiniLadd and TheSyndicateProject. It was released via Steam as an early release on July 30, 2015.

On November 2, 2016, Fong, Adam Montoya and Scott Robinson, announced that a computer-animated series of videos entitled Paranormal Action Squad starring the three and written by Michael Rowe will be aired on YouTube Red, beginning on November 16.

Personal life

Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Fong is of Asian descent, his mother being Korean, and father Chinese. Outside of his YouTube career, Fong continues to play ice hockey recreationally, and also plays the guitar as another hobby.