Streamers Who Lost It Mid Stream
When you get right down to it, streamers have a pretty fantastic gig, and so do their viewers. Both streamers and fans have an opportunity to share their passion for games and other activities on a grand scale. It's a great way for people to come together and have some laughs, even learning a bit about each other and their favorite titles in the process.
Unfortunately, there are points when these streams turn sour. Sometimes these online personalities lose their cool either with each other or their fans and the results are almost always messy. Certain incidents have resulted in major consequences for the streamers involved. More than a few streamers have been banned over the years for very different reasons, some of which remain controversial to this day.
Whatever their reasoning, here are some moments when streamers couldn't keep it together on camera.
Dafran turned on his teammates
Anyone who has ever played a multiplayer or squad-based game of any kind has experienced the frustration of being on the losing side. And yes, occasionally the problem comes down to having teammates who are underperforming. When streaming to tons of fans, however, maybe it's best to not call you teammates out when you rage quit.
Unfortunately, Dafran did just that during an Overwatch game, telling his team through a stream of expletives that he was fed up with working with them. "I hate my team. I hate you all," he said, even telling one member to uninstall Overwatch and stop playing entirely.
It's probably not a huge surprise to learn Dafran retired from the Overwatch League earlier that year. If streaming matches like this was meant to be his way of relaxing, he seems to have picked the entirely wrong pastime.
Boneclinks watched his viewers vanish
During a stream, Boneclinks watched in disbelief and horror as his viewer count steadily dropped before his eyes, eventually reaching zero. As a partner with streaming giant Twitch, Boneclinks was perturbed to not receive any kind of explanation from the platform, which resulted in a explicit rant aimed directly at Twitch and their policies. He took Twitch to task on air for its lack of response and the fact that his income was being negatively affected by the lack of viewers.
The sudden shutdown occurred as the result a ban on Boneclinks' channel for using copyrighted material in a few of his videos. According to Boneclinks, he was told that the takedowns were due to the videos in question featuring the songs "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr. and "Toto" by Africa. The only problem here was that they didn't contain those songs, which meant someone reported him for something that he didn't even do.
After numerous attempts to reach out to Twitch for answers, Boneclinks concluded, "It's really disheartening to be locked into an exclusivity contract with a company that doesn't even consider you important enough to respond to."
Maybe don't check out this guy's SoundCloud
British streamer Greekgodx got himself in trouble when he went on a rant directed at SoundCloud. When creating a profile for the music sharing platform, Greekgodx noticed the gender options went beyond male and female, allowing new users to choose "prefer not to say" or "other." This apparently rubbed the streamer the wrong way, as he accused SoundCloud of catering to a crowd that he didn't want to be associated with.
In an expletive-filled diatribe, the streamer said, "If you put 'other,' they should say, 'Sorry, SoundCloud is not for you, goodbye.'"
Not long after this stream, Greekgodx told his Twitter fans that he had been banned from Twitch for an unknown amount of time. According to him, this was due to his remark regarding gender, which he claimed was simply "a silly comment" and "a joke." Regardless of the intention, his comments breached Twitch's Community Guidelines.
RAGE turns on his (un)Happy Few viewers
Though chats are often filled to the brim with folks offering their thoughts on the game at hand, there are times when people just like to watch a stream without weighing in. During one such stream of We Happy Few, the appropriately named streamer RAGE had a full-on meltdown that left his viewers stunned.
After making a few comments about the lack of engagement in the chat, RAGE became visibly agitated and tore into his audience. In between calling them several unflattering names, he complained about how often this happens. According to RAGE, "every time" he was on, people just lurked on the channel for hours at a time. It was apparently a sore spot for him, but this was the breaking point. RAGE switched off his broadcast after having this fit. Maybe he should have called himself "RAGEquit," instead?
Hi-Rez steps up after DM Brandon lashes out
Streamer DM Brandon was formerly associated with Hi-Rez Studios. The situation changed following a stream of the game Smite, during which Brandon lashed out at a donor. This viewer tipped DM Brandon and thanked him for his streams, saying that they had once attempted suicide but that Brandon's streams and Smite had given them a decent outlet for their stress and anxiety. Brandon responded by calling the viewer names and shaming others who had endured a similar experience.
Unsurprisingly, fans and colleagues alike were dismayed by DM Brandon's remarks. After viewers on Reddit demanded that Hi-Rez hold DM Brandon responsible for his comments, the streamer announced he would be leaving Hi-Rez and would no longer be streaming Smite. In a statement to fans, he apologized for his words and asked that Hi-Rez not be held responsible for his actions.
"I couldn't believe what I said," wrote Brandon. "Because I didn't mean it and I certainly did not mean for it to come out as it did."
In a nice turn of events, Hi-Rez also made a donation to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
BadBunny flips out over lack of subscribers
After multiple streams during which she felt people were just lurking and watching without making any donations, streamer BadBunny decided she'd had enough. In a rant that became infamous among her fans, she went after non-subscribers on her channel.
"There are regulars here. $5 a month!" shouted BadBunny. "What are you doing with your life where you have hours of time to watch Twitch, and not $5 to provide for the content that you're watching?"
In an interesting twist, this seems to be one case where the blow-up actually aided in the streamer's cause. After the video of the incident went viral, it was reported that not only had BadBunny's number of subscribers increased, but her overall streaming income had doubled. According to Creator Hype, BadBunny had pulled a move like this in the past, but it hadn't taken off before in quite the same way. However, as Creator Hype points out, you shouldn't expect it to work every time, as "outrage marketing offers diminishing returns – the more you do it, the more people are aware that you do it."
SavageBabyDoll doesn't want "poor" viewers
While streaming Fortnite, SavageBabyDoll took offense to a viewer asking if the current stream was open to non-subscribers. In a rather nasty response, SavageBabyDoll asked the channel's moderators to come in and take a look at the comments. She then took things a step further, asking that they ban "every little poor person" who couldn't afford to subscribe to her content from her channel. The viewer who asked the question was banned, but the drama did not end there. Several people who were viewing the stream for free were also removed and banned.
The backlash over these remarks was almost instantaneous. Viewers were none too pleased with how SavageBabyDoll handled the situation, seeing her comments as unnecessarily harsh. Many felt this way because the original viewer who asked the question that kicked this whole thing off did so in a polite manner. After thousands of complaints, eRa Eternity, the esports team of which SavageBabyDoll was a member, removed her from their roster.
In a statement from eRa Eternity, the organization said, "we are striving to always hold our team members accountible [sic] for their actions."
ExoticChaotic gets a mind-blowing donation
How about a wholesome freakout to balance the scales? Believe it or not, such a thing does occasionally occur. During a Fortnite stream, ExoticChaotic was shocked to see that someone had donated $75,000 to him. ExoticChaotic was so shocked that he initially did not believe that the donation was legit.
"Wait a minute, that can't be real!" exclaimed ExoticChaotic. At this, he immediately logged into his PayPal account to make sure that he wasn't imagining things.
It turns out a friend of his — fellow streamer KingMascot — had sent the donation. As ExoticChaotic explained, he was in a tight financial situation and was having difficulty supporting himself and his family with his streaming earnings. This donation was not only incredibly generous, but much-needed. This is one case where the freakout was not only deserved, but wonderful to watch. The mixture of shock and joy in ExoticChaotic's reaction is infectious.
BlondeWondie's not in it for the money
After around two hours of streaming one night, BlondeWondie remarked to her viewers that it was "kind of annoying" that there were no subscribers. This prompted one viewer to ask if she was only streaming for the money. She responded that the question was "stupid," but further negative reactions in the chat set BlondeWondie off in a big way.
She told her viewers off, explaining that everything she made from streaming went back into her business due to several different equipment expenses. She also told her viewers a few other things that won't be repeated here. Needless to say, it wasn't a very nice response.
Honestly, it's hard to blame BlondieWondie for being frustrated by the implication. Streamers who take their business seriously put a lot of time and money into their work and to have it questioned in such a way must feel insulting. However, the expletive-filled rant that sprang from this incident was still one for the books.
This rant actually felt like a train wreck
The streamer known as Trainwrecks has been a controversial figure in the gaming scene, particularly due to comments he made about female gamers and streamers. In the past, he has railed against so-called "bikini streamers" who he feels trade more in sex appeal than actual gaming.
A few years ago, true to his name, Trainwrecks went into one of the ugliest rants in the history of Twitch. Making broad statements against female streamers and the people in charge of Twitch, the streamer used a ton of foul language when referring to the female anatomy, all of which led to him being suspended from Twitch for "hate speech."
He issued an apology shortly afterwards, saying, "There are amazing female streamers that provide great content, it was not my intention to discredit them all in any way."
Unfortunately, this wasn't quite the learning experience that some hoped for. Trainwrecks was banned again from Twitch less than a year later for similar comments.
A mouse crashes a League of Legends stream
Sometimes it's the streamers themselves who end up on the receiving end of a good fright. Unlike some of the more intense and unpleasant moments on this list, occasionally the scares lead to genuine hilarity. That was the case with Twitch streamer lolpawl, who was waiting to join a League of Legends game when his roommate came in screaming about a mouse running loose in the house.
What followed were several tense but hysterical minutes of the pair attempting to corral the furry fella. They considered locking the mouse in the closet and disposing of it later, but another roommate came in with a plan to catch the little guy in a box. Unfortunately, the mouse escaped again, leading to yet another screaming fit. The audio of the ensuing chaos was all captured, much to the delight of lolpawls audience.
Legend has it the mouse lurks there to this day.