Streamers Who Ruined Their Careers In Seconds
Livestreaming from Twitch has become not only massively popular, but also surprisingly lucrative. Anyone with a decent internet connection, a webcam, and a game to play can start up a stream and find themselves with hundreds of viewers. Unlike YouTube, Twitch does not require clickbait-y thumbnails to become successful. Streamers still do their best to stand out, utilizing online personalities to draw in the views, and with them, donations.
But also unlike YouTube's on-demand videos, Twitch is live. While YouTubers can edit out career-ending mistakes from their videos — or choose not to if you're Logan Paul — Twitch streamers are often caught live doing something despicable enough to turn their fans against them. The stream hears and sees all, which can backfire quickly.
Trying to stand out in an online community oversaturated with thousands of streamers vying for viewers' attention is hard. Here are some streamers who tried too hard, and instead of gaining fame, brought infamy and channel bans upon themselves for their efforts.
Joedaddy505 abuses partner on stream
Joedaddy was a popular YouTuber and Twitch streamer back before the incident that destroyed his career in 2016. He made a name for himself playing NBA 2K16. The game was quick to disassociate with him, however, after he streamed a disturbing six minutes of audio.
After being intoxicated on the stream, Joedaddy left his desk and went elsewhere in his house, where he can then be heard drunkenly berating a woman, who in turn is screaming, crying, and begging. While there was no visual of Joedaddy physically beating her, her cries of "Get off me!" and "I'm calling the cops" make it clear what was happening. He didn't let up, words slurring as he insulted her, apparently oblivious to his still ongoing stream in the other room.
Again, while the audio itself doesn't make it crystal clear as to what happened, Joedaddy's later "apology" does. In an Instagram post after the incident became viral via KeemStar's posting of the audio on his channel Drama Alert, Joedaddy said, "yes, I was drunk but she hit me first and called me a b**** so I had to do what I did."
Tellingly, Twitch posted a statement on how it would reach out to law enforcement if deemed necessary. Twitch clarified that it does not comment on terms of service violations, but this seemed like a clear nod to Joedaddy, who deleted his social media accounts.
ZilianOP misleads fans
It's hard to stand out on Twitch, but the level that Angel Hamilton went to rake in donations and sympathy can be called an all new low. Known as zilianOP, Hamilton had made streaming into a full-time job, chiefly playing Diablo and World of Warcraft. He was able to make a living through gathering donations while streaming for 12-hour stints. This itself is far from unheard of, but Hamilton had a gimmick to garner more views.
ZilianOP was wheelchair-bound. He sometimes made donation requests, saying that the money would go toward expenses related to his disability. He was popular and had a following that was happy to help him out. Then in 2013, zilianOP's chat watched in disbelief as the man they believed to be paralyzed got up from his wheelchair and walked away.
Hamilton was quick to jump back on chat, having cut the video, saying that he fell out of his chair while trying to stop his dog from spilling water on wires. His girlfriend, Panthoria, was also on the same game and can be heard shouting "Oh my god," before quickly moving on to an unrelated story. Fans felt betrayed, and Twitch was quick to ban both zilianOP and Panthoria's accounts, calling the incident "a slap in the face to Twitch community members with real disabilities."
It wasn't until an interview in 2020 that zilianOP resurfaced to explain he had been in physical therapy, which allowed him to stand for brief periods of time. Still, he regretted not sharing that fact with his fans, who felt duped.
Aqualadora claimed to have murdered a dog
Most career-killing mistakes are unintentional: the bad people doing the bad things didn't think they would be caught in the act. In one instance, however, part time streamer Simone Scott aka Aqualadora willingly confessed and defended "the worst thing she had ever done." And it's pretty awful.
When posed the question in a stream hosted by RajjPatel, Scott admitted to purposefully killing an otherwise healthy dog while she was working as a vet tech. Her reasoning behind premeditated dog murder? The owner was "a really bad person."
RajjPatel tries to give her an out, attempting to move on, but Scott is unapologetic. She goes on to say that "the dog was pretty s***ty too," as if that warrants her to be judge, jury, and notably executioner. The internet — as a whole known to love dogs — quickly became enraged. Aqualadora was hardly popular before, but suddenly found herself with the worst kind of attention in hundreds of threats sent her way after her confession went viral.
She later tweeted that she was only trolling, but the damage had been done.
PhantomL0rd is suing Twitch, again
Most of these streamers disappear after becoming a pariah on the internet. James Varga, known as PhantomL0rd, just won't let go, however.
Back when people were dropping thousands of dollars gambling for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive items, PhantomL0rd was one of the most popular streamers on Twitch. He had 1.3 million followers and they watched as he made huge bets, sometimes with six digits, on the site CSGO Shuffle. And he was lucky, betting big and winning bigger. However, it quickly came out that he was a partial owner of the site and thus was promoting rigged victories and betting with "house money," promoting the site but not the reality of the game.
This scandal resulted in his suspension from the platform. He'd violated Valve's and Twitch's terms of service, but PhantomL0rd sued Twitch, saying that his suspension was without proper explanation. In the time since his ban, PhantomL0rd has continued to crop up, mostly through threatening more lawsuits against Twitch and subreddits like /r/LifestreamFail.
In 2021, Varga was awarded $20,720 from his "successful" court case. However, he has not uploaded a new video in the last five years.
Matt "Dellor" Vaughn rage quits
The newly minted Overwatch League has been rife with scandals and professional players behaving in decidedly unprofessional ways, but not all of those faux pas have been broadcast for the world to see. Matt Vaughn's own livestream fail was.
The best of us have rage quit from time to time, but as the tired saying goes, it's just a game. Right? For Dellor, this particular match got under his skin. He was getting hit by an insanely accurate Widowmaker again and again. While his teammates sounded fairly calm, Dellor took to screaming over the chat and eventually found an outlet for his rage.
He said a racial slur, loudly, for nearly thirty seconds straight.
An immature and over the top response in the first place, Dellor made things all the worse for himself by doing it live on his stream, which later went viral as a clip. It was impossible for this not to get back to and mar the image of the team to which he was signed. Toronto Esports promptly dropped Dellor, and in a single, sad tweet, he announced he was done with esports. Despite a few bans in the meantime, Dellor continues to stream to Twitch.
Legendary Lea thinks kids with cancer should die
Lea May, who made a name for herself as LegendaryLea on Twitch, is another example of a streamer going the extra distance to make themselves look bad by going on a less-than-PC tirade. At the time of the drunk stream in 2016, LegendaryLea had over half a million followers. Viewers watched her play Hearthstone and somehow the subject of kids with cancer came up, and LegendaryLea had some opinions she shared without shame.
"Children that have cancer are going to die, and they're meant to die," she said.
Citing her education in biology, she claimed it was all just biological destiny that these kids were doomed. All this allegedly in response to a request for a donation to St. Jude's Children's Hospital. This isn't the best look, but it certainly got her noticed, which is what some claim she wanted in the first place.
While saying kids with cancer deserve to die doesn't get you banned from Twitch, flashing the stream "on accident" does. That instance only resulted in a 30 day ban, and it brought her more infamy than slurring about dying children.
Roxicett went too far
As previously mentioned, Twitch is doing its best to avoid becoming a cam site where streamers show off their nature-given goods in order to get donations. However, there are still notorious times when the line between streaming a game and streaming oneself becomes blurred; oftentimes alcohol helps to make the distinction extra murky.
This is what happened to RuneScape streamer Roxicett. She earned her perma-ban by not just being absolutely hammered on stream, but by subsequently turning her stream into a Gamer Girls Gone Wild video. It's not exactly rare for streamers to have wardrobe malfunctions while streaming. These are accidents — or are at least, they are usually claimed to be. Unfortunately for Roxicett, her malfunction was seen by a number of viewers.
Her channel may have been banned, but it looks like that night she drank a little too much will forever live upon the internet via livestream fail videos and NSFW subreddits.
MissQGemini blames her imaginary friend
Haley-Isabel "MissQGemini" is one of the most infamous examples of cheating in gamer culture. After realizing a cheat was visible in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, she made up a story about instead of owning up to the mistake. Little did she know this lie would spawn one of the most infamous memes in streamer history.
On that fateful day, MissQGemini ranted about others accusing her of cheating before actually cheating on stream. She accused critics of targeting her because she was a woman, not realizing her viewers could see the red outlines of her wall hacks. When she discovered the jig was up, she told her viewers that her friend "Clara," a known cheater, had come to her house and activated the cheat on her computer. MissQGemini did her best to pin the blame on this Clara person, but by then, it was too late.
The clip of her hiccup went viral. MissQGemini created an alternate channel called TheDjinnnn to divert attention, but it didn't work in the long run. Those who know the story still call out "Clara" as new cheating scandals pop up in the streaming community.
Faken falls from grace
Kristoff "Faken" Andersson, a former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive professional player from the 1.6 era, was caught by fans apparently cheating on stream. However, he didn't carelessly leave his cheat menu open or openly broadcast the cheat on screen like other streamers who were caught in the act. Some viewers simply noticed the red outlines, indicative of common wallhacking cheats, reflected in his eyeglasses. In a video, Esports Talk's Jake Lucky points out the exact moment where a red outline crosses over Faken's lenses.
Faken tried to remove the evidence from his channel instead of denying the allegations, which only fueled suspicions even more. His Twitch channel was removed soon after, although it's not clear if this was Twitch's decision or Faken's. Faken hasn't participated in any major professional CS:GO tournaments since 1.6. Dexerto has mentioned his appearance in open qualifiers for DreamHack Tours 2016, where he fell short, as his most recent shot at competitive play.
MajesticUnicorn is arrested and accused of child abuse
MajesticUnicorn caused a commotion after allegedly abusing her two children on stream — one toddler and one infant. She reportedly planned on streaming an eight-hour Fortnite marathon at the time of the incident. A clip from YouTube appears to show MajesticUnicorn smacking her toddler away as she tries to focus on her game. As the toddler repeatedly grabs her arm, she shouts "let go," and even appears to bite them. Another portion of the video seems to show her roughly handling her infant while sitting in bed.
CTV News reported that her viewers clipped the evidence of the incident and reported her to the local police in Calgary for investigation. Not long after, Dot Esports confirmed that the police successfully identified the streamer and arrested her at her home for the alleged abuse. Twitch has since removed her channel and any related clips.
MrGolds isn't so golden after all
Maybe viewers would've been more sympathetic if MrGolds hadn't been so cocky. The Call of Duty streamer bragged about his skills during one Call of Duty: Warzone session, asking viewers at one point, "Have you ever seen anyone playing like this?" Unfortunately for MrGolds, what was showing on his screen at the time revealed the truth behind all the skill he'd been putting on display. A cheat menu called EngineOwning was open on his desktop, and while viewers couldn't see the cheats active on stream, the fact he had the menu open in the first place gave away the secret to all his crispy snipes.
Twitter user ERA7E helped spread the word about MrGolds cheating with a viral tweet, which eventually led to a temporary Twitch ban for the streamer. MrGolds reportedly uploaded an apology video in attempt to regain the trust of his viewers, but later deleted it. In a YouTube video posted after the incident, fellow content creator The Average Sniper remarked on MrGolds' apology, stating, "He's not sorry he did it. He's sorry he got made into a laughing stock." MrGolds still has a Twitch account, but it doesn't appear quite as active as it once was.
SmashGodxXx's stream sets off abuse alarms
Hitoshi "SmashGodxXx" Uechi and his girlfriend were streaming together when he asked her to leave the room so he could talk to his chat alone. When she didn't, he told her, "don't come at me like you know everything," and demanded that she bring him a beer. His girlfriend responded, "I'm not your maid," and struck his arm with a bag. After the tense exchange, Uechi tilted the camera away. What followed was a loud noise that sounded suspiciously like a slap.
Viewers clipped the incident and posted it on Reddit, where abuse allegations started to stew. According to Business Insider, Uechi returned with his girlfriend on stream after noticing the negative reception and asked his viewers to downvote the post. His girlfriend denied the abuse on stream through tears. Uechi even blamed his chat for her behavior, saying, "you guys are making her cry."
As news continued to spread in subreddits like LivestreamFail, Uechi posted a cease and desist notice on his Twitter and sent it to people reporting on the scandal. Gaming channels like PapaStanimus confirmed that he reached out with the letter and threatened to sue. Needless to say, none of that helped to reverse public opinion on the matter. As of now, Uechi no longer has a Twitch channel to stream on.
TwistedBear searches and gets destroyed
Call of Duty games like Modern Warfare and Warzone have an infamous cheating problem, but at least most streamers try not to make it so obvious. TwistedBear, who reportedly claimed to be a great Modern Warfare player, accidentally revealed his wallhacks while playing a couple rounds of Search and Destroy. The hack highlighted enemies in yellow so that he could see them through walls, supposedly as far as the enemy spawn point. He didn't seem to notice that viewers could see the his cheats as he targeted opponent outlines.
Someone watching TwistedBear's stream clipped the evidence and posted it on Reddit. A couple hours later, TwistedBear's channel was down. Unlike other cheaters who have been caught in similar acts, his followers didn't get to see his response to the realization that he'd been caught. However, as cheaters never prosper, it's hard to imagine he'll be able to return to streaming without backlash from those who remember his dirty deeds.
IcyVixen and BeardedBanger get outed by a Call of Duty character
It's one thing to get called out for cheating in Call of Duty. It's another to get called out by someone who plays a character in a Call of Duty game. Alex Zedra, the model who inspired the design for CoD operator Mara, ran into some cheaters during a Warzone competition and instantly knew they were up to no good. By posting clips and addressing Twitch directly on Twitter, she ensured these tricksters wouldn't get off scot-free.
According to Dexerto, the incident started after Zedra decided to host another woman participating in the Warzone tournament after finishing up her own stream. However, she soon realized something wasn't quite right. Sarah "IcyVixen" Belles seemed to unnaturally lock onto heads and looked for opponents who she otherwise shouldn't have known were there. Her channel was banned shortly after Zedra's intervention.
BeardedBanger, IcyVixen's partner, originally denied the accusations and called them "comical." However, he too received a Twitch ban. He reportedly had over 40,000 followers before the tournament, but hasn't returned to streaming since.
BadBoy Beaman, a self-proclaimed hacker hunter, later explained IcyVixen and BeardedBanger's hacks on YouTube so casual audiences could understand them. His video showcased the headshot lock-on feature that gave the two cheaters away in the tournament and ultimately got their Twitch accounts terminated.
MrDeadMoth hits his pregnant wife
A seemingly innocent call for dinner escalated into an assault. Luke "MrDeadMoth" Munday, an Australian Fortnite streamer, allegedly abused his wife offscreen where his viewers could hear her wailing for help. According to CBS News, she interrupted the stream to ask him to join her and their two kids for dinner. At the time, she was also pregnant with their third child.
The father of two said he'd be out in a minute. His wife threw items, including cardboard boxes, at him when he refused to immediately come to the table. He rose from his seat to confront her, followed by a crisp smack in the audio. "You hear that, all you people there? He just hit me in the face!" his wife cried out.
Viewers reported the incident to the police, who didn't take long to show up at the house. ABC News confirmed that Munday later pleaded guilty to the assault charges. According to the Sunday Morning Herald, his now-former wife was also charged for reportedly assaulting him with thrown items that caused minor injuries.