The Untold Truth Of OTK

The "One True King" network, or OTK, was launched by a group of friends who wanted to create a new space for streamers to make their mark in the world. OTK is a collective in which members can focus on friendship, community, and creating entertaining content.

OTK launched in October 2020 as a collaboration between five friends who met via streaming and playing "World of Warcraft." From the very beginning, the organization aimed to be a true entertainment powerhouse and focused on creating a huge variety of content with a number of different partners. Two years later, OTK was named the Best Content Organization at the first Streamer Awards.

OTK's successes include partnering with game developers to host tournaments and develop new RPG experiences, as well as launching a custom PC company to give its fans the gaming experience they deserve. However, the organization has also been shown to have a dark side, and it has found itself wrapped up in controversy on more than one occasion. Through the highs and lows, this is the untold truth of OTK.

OTK has managed to make a big impact in the streaming scene in a relatively short period of time. The founding members – Asmongold, Mizkif, Esfand, Tips Out, and Rich Campbell – released an announcement video on October 11, 2020. The clip showed off many of the traits that would come to define OTK's content: slick editing, offbeat humor, and friendly collaboration. What it didn't do was explain what OTK actually planned to do.

The group released a follow-up video almost immediately to answer the questions they knew fans would have about OTK. In the video, Asmongold explained that the OTK members met through "World of Warcraft" and said, "We came up with this idea of making an org and building the org around our friends, and building the org around friendship in general." Because of that ethos, OTK wouldn't be limited to any one game or form of content. Instead, the organization was designed to encourage streamers to support each other and collaborate to create new projects that could capture and entertain their varied audiences. So far, that strategy has worked out pretty well for them.

Not long after OTK formed, it became apparent that the organization wouldn't just be another gaming content company. All of OTK's members are streamers, so there's certainly plenty of gaming content to be found amidst the organization's programming, but what has really helped skyrocket OTK's popularity has been its push for more varied types of content.

The group's open-ended structure has allowed all of its members to show off their creativity in different ways, leading to the creation of shows like "King's Island," in which OTK gathers a group of streamers and puts them into a head-to-head trivia competition. It's also allowed for some OTK members to put together a livestream ghost hunting project, while others have platformed their own personal interests by creating an anime podcast called "The Noodle Shop."

Sometimes OTK's best ideas don't even involve putting streamers in front of cameras. In August 2022, OTK's main Twitch channel started streaming 24/7, but when no one is available for a livestream, the channel just broadcasts lo-fi music with a cartoon version of OTK streamer Emiru on the screen (via Dexerto). Fans loved the idea, and it's another example of how OTK's loose structure allows it to thrive.

Considering the original OTK members were all big "World of Warcraft" fans, it was only a matter of time before OTK dipped into the "WoW" competitive scene. The organization wasted no time in putting together a team of four that included their friend Cdew, and in a December 2020 interview, Tips Out said, "They are a part of OTK, they are our 'World of Warcraft' competitive esports PVP team, and they will likely be our only esports team for quite some time. We love those guys."

The team went on to compete in the North American Arena World Championships in January 2021, but unfortunately its time with OTK wasn't as long-lived as Tips Out had planned. Just four months later, Cdew announced on Twitter that the team had learned OTK wouldn't be renewing their contracts past their first year. 

If fans were taken off guard by the news, they weren't the only ones. On Twitch, Cdew said that Rich Campbell had promised the team that they'd be part of OTK until they were ready to give up playing "WoW." Cdew remarked, "We got brought in using the friend card, and we got kicked out using the business card." Cdew didn't leave on good terms with OTK, but the org has since more-or-less left their "WoW" roots behind.

With five founding members, OTK started out with a stacked roster, but the organization quickly began adopting new members. The group made its first expansion just a few weeks after it formed by bringing Nmplol into the fold as a co-owner of the organization. Jschlatt also joined those ranks in 2021, and in 2022 a new deal between OTK and Sodapoppin saw him become a co-owner as well.

While all those new members became co-owners of OTK, the organization has also built up a small team of people, including streamers like Cyr and Tectone, who purely work as content creators without the responsibility of putting together the org's larger strategies. Emiru's fans were over the moon when she decided to join OTK in January 2022, and the group's latest addition, BruceDropEmOff, joined in March 2022. 

Now OTK has a large team of creators who are able to pursue their own streaming and gaming interests while also contributing to the larger projects that OTK has in the works. Every member brings their own perspective and set of ideas to the organization, and by making regular new additions, OTK is able to keep engaging new audiences as they continue to grow.

One of the best things about OTK is that in addition to being a high-quality content house, the organization is also committed to helping out in the world where it can. The first major event that OTK hosted was a "Pokémon" card unboxing for the charity Games for Love (via The Loadout). While the team opened a booster box worth $20,000 live on stream, their viewers bid on the cards that were pulled. Thanks to some incredibly lucky draws, OTK ended up raising over $250,000 in its first go.

Since the first trading card draw was so successful, OTK decided to host another event in March 2021. This time the group raised $600,000 for Games for Love. Now clearly on a roll, OTK decided to repeat the process for a third time in June 2021 as a two-day charity campaign with some added incentives. These bonus tiers were pretty entertaining for longtime fans of the group, like Asmongold agreeing to delete one of his "World of Warcraft" characters if he raised $250,000. In the end, OTK's fans contributed upwards of $590,000, all of which went to Games for Love.

Every organization needs a base of operations, and OTK made Mizkif's house one of its central locations in its early days. Mizkif showed fans the house he was building in a September 2020 video, during which he jokingly said, "So, I built this house for them, not for me, for them," while pointing to some of his streamer friends. The OTK announcement was still a few weeks away, but at that point Mizkif definitely knew that his new home would be a place where the organization's members could gather. A year later, it became a place where OTK members like Emiru could call home.

Not to be outdone, Esfand decided to build a content house of his very own just months after Mizkif posted his house walkthrough. Esfand dropped his own walkthrough video in April 2021. At the beginning of the video, he explained that he and Mizkif had decided to build houses next door to each other, but his build had gotten delayed into the spring. Between the two homes, OTK got a decent start on a streamer-exclusive neighborhood.

OTK always aimed to be more than a gaming content organization, and in 2022 it announced some exciting partnerships that began to take it in new directions. The first major announcement was that OTK would begin working with the production company WePlay Esports. Among other things, the deal gave OTK access to an amazing new set where they could host events like The OTK Games Expo. This move gave them a new focus in front of the camera, but the next day brought news of a partnership that would take OTK behind the scenes of a game that excited all the "World of Warcraft" fans who'd been with the organization from the very beginning.

The organization announced on Twitter that it would begin working with indie game developer Notorious Studios on its first online fantasy RPG, "Project Honor." In a video introducing the game to the world, OTK founder Tips Out explained that the organization had always been interested in Notorious Studios, which was made up of former developers who left companies with shady practices like Blizzard and Amazon. 

Notorious and OTK began communicating about "Project Honor" a year before they announced their partnership, and as Tips Out said, "the more and more we talked about their game, their design philosophies, their intention for their studio, the more we realized that this is something we really want to be a part of and support."

One of the hardest parts about creating any group, whether it's a band or a gaming organization, is coming up with a name. According to Rich Campbell, the original members of OTK had such a difficult time thinking up a good name that they delayed announcing their org by a whole week (per Sportskeeda). Campbell spent the intervening time playing "Magic: The Gathering," and while using his "one turn kill" dragon deck, he had the idea to use initials "OTK" as a name. He said either Tips Out or Asmongold had the idea to change the meaning of "OTK" to "One True King," and their organization was officially named.

It turns out that "One True King" and "one turn kill" aren't the only meanings behind OTK. While streaming on Twitch, Asmongold learned that some online use the abbreviation to mean "over the knee" – a euphemism for spanking that's common enough it's even been printed onto paddles that are sold through outlets like Amazon. "I ... I didn't know that," Asmongold said, before looking away, torn between laughter and embarrassment. The group decided to take this revelation in stride.

Streaming can be a fairly sedentary lifestyle, but no one says it has to be. For instance, Knut is a Norwegian IRL streamer who focuses on fitness and his own bodybuilding techniques. He caught the attention of some OTK streamers who decided that they wanted to take a month to focus on improving their physical health and to encourage their fans to do the same. And so, OTK and Knut collaborated to create Camp Knut, a 30-day fitness camp that at least half their Twitter followers thought was a joke when the organization announced it.

Despite doubts from the cynical side of the fanbase, OTK dropped the Camp Knut launch video on July 25, 2022, and started following Knut's daily training regimen. Knut came to Texas from Norway to offer hands-on advice to OTK's members and, by proxy, their fans. For the next 30 days, OTK posted regular updates showing their progress — or, on some days, lack of progress. The camp was such a success that after he returned home, Knut revealed that he's planning a "season 2" that may debut in 2023.

"SMITE" is a free-to-play arena game that's been going strong for over eight years now. Through the years, "SMITE" stayed relevant by partnering up with artists, streamers, and brands for a slew of crossovers. The game has plenty of fans amongst the OTK crew, so it made sense when Mizkif announced that he'd be working with developer Titan Forge Games to make June 2022 into "'SMITE' Month."

The collaboration saw Mizkif actually appear in-game as the god Thanatos and included a bunch of rewards for "Smite" players who wanted to get in on the action. In addition to the month-long event, OTK hosted a massive "SMITE" tournament that featured 40 different streamers – including OTK's own Emiru, Nmplol, Tectone, Esfand, and Cyr – organized into teams of five. 

With $100,000 on the line, the fierce competition got underway on June 27, and Tectone's team eventually came out on top. The collaboration worked out well for both OTK and "SMITE," and it may have laid the groundwork for future crossover events with major multiplayer titles.

After taking on streaming, hosting, and even game development, what was left for OTK to do next? Before fans even had the time to really consider the question, the group made its next major announcement. Starforge Systems unveiled itself on August 8, 2022. The company is the result of a collaboration between OTK and MoistCr1TiKal, a fellow streamer and YouTube star. The company promises to offer "the best PCs in the universe," and fans were initially excited at the thought of owning a PC that was custom-built by their favorite streamers.

Some were less than thrilled, however, when they saw the hefty price tag attached to each PC model Starforge System offered at launch. The backlash against some of the company's products was so intense that the day after it launched, Starforge System released a statement in which it promised to lower some prices and upgrade some parts for a few of its PC models. 

"We believe these changes better reflect our goal of providing competitively priced PCs while still allowing for the uncompromising quality and customer support that Starforge Systems was built for," the company wrote. In addition to those price changes going forward, Starforge System also guaranteed refunds for the price difference to anyone who'd purchased a PC on day one. The move won back some critics and strengthened Starforge Systems' position in the industry.

Following nearly two years of fairly steady success, OTK became embroiled in controversy in the later part of 2022. Twitch streamer Adrianah Lee wrote a TwitLonger post in July saying that Mizkif's roommate and fellow streamer, CrazySlick, had touched her inappropriately while she was asleep at a party. Then in September, Mizkif and streamer Trainwreck got into an argument about Twitch's new gambling policy, and Trainwreck accused Mizkif of trying to cover up what CrazySlick had done. More people jumped into the conversation, but then things took a turn when Ice_Poseidon dropped screenshots of messages from Mizkif showing the OTK founder using racist and homophobic slurs.

Hours after Ice_Poseidon's screenshots were released, OTK posted a statement of its own. "Due to the seriousness of what's been brought forward, we have begun the process of contracting a third-part legal organization to investigate the issue in detail," OTK wrote. Mizkif will be on a leave of absence until the investigation concludes and OTK decides how to move forward. The day after OTK made its statement, Mizkif broke his silence on the issue. 

Via TwitLonger, Mizkif apologize for downplaying what had happened to Adrianah and said he'd asked CrazySlick to move out of his house. In response to Ice_Poseidon's tweet, he said, "I was a dumb, edgy guy who said a lot of stupid things to my friends to try and come off as funny and cool." He ended his statement with a thank you to his supporters and promised to do better in the future.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).