On The Hunt with Ki11erSix, Speakinglion, and Hawkinaround

Hi, I’m Killer Six and I make content around Looter Shooters with a heavy focus on the Borderlands franchise

I’m Lion! Borderlands streamer, cosplayer, actor, writer. I really, really love lore. I talk about Handsome Jack too much. One time I got a 94 Sham first try, and my RNG has been cursed ever since.

My name is Hawkinaround, I’m a genderfluid person, my pronouns are he/they/she, and I am a giant nerd. I’ve been playing video games ever since I could hold a controller and it’s my goal to experience and enjoy as many games as I can. I’m also a huge fan of DnD with several years of DMing experience, I enjoy watching anime when I can, and I do my best to be a positive influence to the people around me.

Killer Six: I first heard about Borderlands 2 while sitting on the couch with my wife, watching tv. A commercial comes on that we now know at the bajillion guns commercial. It showed this over the top game with tons of gear to hunt for and it was a first person shooter, so I was immediatly interested. I was in the top 500 in the world rankings on Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 for Kill Confirmed, but that game was taking a toll on my health mentally with all the negative players on mic, so I needed something new to jump to. Borderlands 2 was the perfect game at the perfect time for me.

SpeakingLion: Honestly, I really fell head over heels in love with Borderlands about eight years ago. I dabbled with it a few years after release, but when we got my best friends into the franchise via Tales from the Borderlands, I revisited Borderlands 2 and never left. It’s home.

Hawkinaround: My initial experience with Borderlands came from my brother. One of his friends came over with Borderlands 2 on the xbox 360 to play with us and I really wanted to try it, but I hate jumping into a series in the middle. So I got my parents to buy us the first one and started the tradition of playing it in co-op with my brother. We played each of the games in split screen co-op for our first playthrough and subsequently when we wanted to just hang out, we would listen to youtube or music and talk while I played through BL2. Just playthrough after playthrough of relaxing gaming. It very quickly became my favorite game series, sinking hundreds of hours into it. Over time I ended up buying 7 copies of BL2 across different platforms, one of which being bought to play with my best friend Ryan. That in turn got him into the series as well. This then culminated in me getting a BL2 tattoo on my left calf as my first gaming tattoo.

Killer Six: The Hunt for me was originally about the competition of finding all the drops super fast. Back when it first started it was just a friendly competition. Over the years it shifted and became something bigger with a better purpose. A way for the community to get together and raise money for the kids of St. Jude. My wife and I have been very fortunate that we never needed to call on the awesome doctors of St. Jude for help, but we knew what a good cause it was, so it’s an absolute honor to be able to help raise money for them all while playing the games we love and doing my favorite thing in those games: Chasing Loot!

SpeakingLion: My entire life I’ve battled autoimmune diseases; I can’t imagine what life would have looked like without access to healthcare as a child. St. Jude gives kids and families who are going through unimaginable illnesses a chance at a future. What they do is honestly incredible, and they are able to do it because of donors and fundraisers like the Hunt. I’m honored our community gets to be a part of it.

I adore the Hunt for a lot of reasons, but how it brings the Borderlands community together is like nothing else.

Hawkinaround: The Hunt is everything to me. It was the catalyst of getting me to where I currently am in life. I wanted to stream video games for a very long time, but the anxiety of starting was insurmountable. I had my entire setup ready to go for a good six months, just sitting there. I would go to start and panic, unable to bring myself to do it. But I was finally able to go live for the first time for The Hunt goes Brr back in December of 2021. The want to participate and raise money for St Jude was what overcame that anxiety. Being able to help and raise money for those kids pushed through it. That push then allowed me to integrate into the Borderlands community, meet some of the best friends I’ve ever had, and continue on to where I am now.

Killer Six: My expectations for the Hunt are always the same: try to show the Borderlands community that they can help others, but also have a fun time. To work together for a cause and watch some amazing players quickly rise up the leaderboards while they collect loot in the game.

SpeakingLion: Not really, other than lots of FFYL! If we beat last year’s fundraising goal and I place higher on the leaderboard, I’ll be thrilled.

Hawkinaround: The only expectation I have is to raise as much money as I can for St Jude. It is the whole point of this entire event and I am going to do my best to raise as much as I can. As long as money is being raised for St Jude, the rng gods are more than welcome to strike down my luck and destroy my drops. May it be a worthy sacrifice! I’m just excited to see that total number raised across the community and know that we did that together. To know that we helped those kids together.

Killer Six: I’m a very competitive person, but not with the Hunt. Early on maybe, but even then I knew I wasn’t fast enough to compete with the best of the best, but for me it’s about trying to COMPLETE the Hunt Checklist. Something I’ve never done on Borderlands 2.

SpeakingLion: I am extremely competitive, but mostly I’m just stubborn. I’m not remotely the most efficient, but the moment I see us climbing on a leaderboard, I’m gonna decide WE CAN WIN IT ALL and go ham. Will we? No. But we’re gonna have a blast and raise a lot of money for the kids.

Hawkinaround: While I can be a very competitive person, I can’t compete in BL2. I didn’t get into endgame, farming, or builds until BL3. All of my hours in BL2 have been spent casually, just enjoying the game as I go. So this Hunt is purely for raising money and having fun doing it.

Killer Six: I’m not competing. As one of the organizers I’m just playing along to help raise money and raid out to other streamers to share my audience with them so they can learn some of the other awesome people that make up this community. Even if I somehow miraculously finished first I’m not eligible to win.

SpeakingLion: This is going to be my third Hunt! Been a regular since I became a Borderlands streamer, and it’s my favorite time of year.

Hawkinaround: In terms of actively hunting, this will be my third Hunt overall and my first BL2 Hunt. However, this will be my fourth Hunt that I spend raising money.

Killer Six: The last Hunt was on Borderlands 3 and it was my first time ever finishing a Hunt!! I was so pumped to actually get the whole list done. But even happier that the community crushed a bunch of goals that we set. Including raising so much money on my steam that their reward was making me delete ALL of my Borderlands 1, 2, Pre-Sequel, 3 and Wonderlands save files. Worth it.

SpeakingLion: I learned I say Reese’s Pieces incorrectly. My famously bad RNG gave even Borderlands 3 drop rates a run for its money. After years of being an Amara main, I tried Moze for the first time for last Hunt, and I think I may actually be convered.

Hawkinaround: During the last Hunt, I had one of the funniest moments I’ve ever had on stream. I was playing Arms Race with MystiqueSiren and Paskaroni in order to get some of the last items that I needed to complete the Hunt. We were working on getting the Cmdl3t from the dedicated chest when K6 raided in. We cleared the last enemies around, welcomed in raiders, and then opened the chest. Sitting inside was a nice, shiny linoge. It was just perfect timing and I laughed so hard.

Killer Six: My most feared item is probably The Cobra. I’ve seen people lose HUGE leads in the Hunt while farming it. It’s a Blue Unique Sniper rifle that drops from the Burner Enemies in the Beatdown, but the drop rate is astronomically low. You need some serious luck on your side for that one.

SpeakingLion: The Twister. Though the Norfleet and I have some serious drop-beef. Honestly a toss up which is gonna make me drink first.

Hawkinaround: I’m going to try and farm as much as I can, but with having to work during this Hunt I highly doubt I’ll get close enough to finishing to fear any particular drops. But that being said, if I do get to that point, it has to be the cobra. I have a terrible habit of overlooking drops that aren’t distinct and shiny, so blue and purple uniques always trip me up. There’s a chance that I just don’t see it even if I do somehow get it to drop (which I never have).

Killer Six: Definitely adding some twists of fate to my Hunt. Not going to do the delete all characters, but you can count on a lose your whole inventory, sing with a chipmunk voice mod, throw your next legendary off of a cliff and a bunch more. All for fun and to raise money for the kids.

SpeakingLion: We are! Biggest one for if we beat last year’s total. I’m also getting a Borderlands tattoo during the Hunt this year. Stay tuned!

Hawkinaround: I will absolutely be doing some dono incentives and chaos, but as of writing this I am still preparing the specifics. I’ve got some ideas, but I need to make sure they are ready and able to be done before announcing them.

Killer Six: A quick tip for new players in the Hunt… Do NOT get bogged down with farming for items in normal mode. Realistically you wanna rush through Normal mode AND True Vault Hunter Mode as quickly as possible. Once you beat Ultimate mode you can actually go back down to TVHM to do a LOT of your farming for items.

SpeakingLion: If you are a planner: don’t be afraid to practice your routes before hand. Insanely helpful for optimizing efficiency.

If you’re (like me), and a bit more spontaneous: don’t overthink it. Follow where your gut wants to go, and don’t sweat it when you inevitable veer of course. You’ll find your rhythm and have a blast.

Oh, and Cloud Kill is your friend.

Hawkinaround: If you’re new to the Hunt, new to Borderlands, new to Twitch, or even new to playing video games at all, this event is worth doing. While it can be a very intense competition and take a lot of time, energy, and prep, it can also be as relaxed as you want it to be. You can put in as much or as little competitive effort as you’d like. This is an event for all to participate in under the common goal of raising money for St Jude and that’s what matters.