Streamers That Took Months To Admit Their Guilt
Streamers are modern day celebrities, especially for people who love games. And, just like every other celebrity, streamers have seen their fair share of scandals, accusations, and lies in the community that have made for some juicy drama. What makes a different for the viewers is how each streamer deals with whatever story is unfolding.
Some streamers have had issues with coming forward or copping to when they've done something wrong, while others have been more than willing to admit that they made a mistake. It's not always easy to set aside pride and admit to messing up, whether it was intentional or not. Add in the fact that thousands of people are watching, and things get even harder. Streamers know this better than most other people.
These streamers took months to own up for what they did wrong, and it cost some of them. The moral of the story? You may want to address your problems as they come, and be honest, especially with the people tuning in to watch you.
Dream and the infamous Minecraft speedrun
In 2020, streamer Dream took his speedrunning skills to "Minecraft," a popular Twitch game at the time. The speedrun clocked in at 19 minutes and 24 seconds, which would have earned him fifth place for the specific speedrun he did, according to Polygon.
However, the officials at speedrun.com denied the speedrun and said that it would be a one in 177 billion chance that it was even possible to work the way it did without any cheats. This sparked a lot of drama, and Dream vehemently refused all cheating accusations.
In May 2021, Dream finally admitted that he did use cheats during the infamous "Minecraft" speedrun. However, he said that he did so without realizing as he had been working with a developer to create mods for streaming. When version 1.16 of the game was released, one of those mods remained, resulting in increased item drop rates through parts of the game. In a lengthy text document shared on Pastebin (later archived by fans on Reddit), Dream explained what was going on in his head throughout the entire situation. He admitted to feeling scared, angry, and stressed about the entire debacle, which led to some regretful words and actions on his part.
Ultimately, Dream apologized and owned up for what he said and did in reaction to the situation.
ZilianOP and the wheelchair fiasco
ZilianOP is one of the most recognizable names on the internet when it comes to streamers getting caught lying. If you don't recognize his name, you might remember the story. ZilianOP was mainly a "World of Warcraft" streamer who had a health problem that required him to use a wheelchair. However, in 2013, he stood up from his wheelchair after thinking that he turned his camera off.
Viewers were immediately outraged, and ZilianOP said nothing about the situation. He seemed to drop off the internet.However, it wasn't all a lie; ZilianOP finally told more of his story and apologized — seven years after everything unfolded.
Fast forward to 2020. After trying to stream again, ZilianOP gave his side of the story in an interview with wavywebsurf. He explained that he was in a wheelchair for years, and provided pretty clear evidence of this. However, he spent years in physical therapy and was capable of standing at the time of the incident.
In a chat that was shared during the interview, ZilianOP wrote that he "apologized for not giving clarity [regarding] getting better and being in physical therapy." While he wasn't faking his struggles, he also didn't take the time to clear the air or explain his situation, either before people donated out of sympathy or before his infamous final stream. Either way, he apologized for the misunderstandings.
Forsaken cheated (a lot) at CS: GO
Getting caught cheating on stream is a disaster, but what happens when you get caught streaming in a professional esports tournament? "Counter Strike: Global Offensive" player Forsaken can answer that question.
In October 2018, Forsaken was caught using an aimbot hack during a tournament, and even tried to delete it once he was caught. According to a statement from the Esports Integrity Coalition to Polygon, Forsaken kept these cheats on an SSD card, which was apparently used in previous tournaments that same year. The senseless cheating led to him receiving a five year ban.
Shortly after the incident, Forsaken admitted to what he had done and apologized in an interview with AFK Gaming. He said he felt guilty for stealing away the opportunity of a $100,000 tournament win from his teammates, and apologized for the work they wasted in getting there. He also mentioned that he regrets ever playing "CS: GO," stating, "nothing good has happened to [him] since the day [he] started playing."
In the same interview, he also admitted to using the cheat in earlier events that year, specifically the OpTic India bootcamp. While it took several months for him to get caught, he apologized quickly and did not attempt to deny prior exploits.
Pokimane explains copyright woes
Pokimane has been a victim of toxic Twitch messages in the past, but she's also perpetrated a few misdeeds herself. After taking a short break from streaming in 2020, Pokimane reappeared in an unexpected way. She claimed she needed to apologize for her past misdeeds — all of them.
Throughout the apology video, Pokimane detailed several transgressions, including some of her many feuds. She discussed a 2018 controversy involving Keemstar, which ended up with videos belong to other creators being taken down. In her "long overdue" apology video in 2020, Pokimane provided more context for the situation, noting that she was a young streamer at the time and didn't understand how the internet would perceive her requests for videos to be taken down.
Similarly, Pokimane pursued reuploaded videos of herself from other creators that had inappropriate or oversexualized titles. At the time, Pokimane saw these videos as misleading, but she believed that she wouldn't go after small creators now. Pokimane said that her copyright claims led people online to believe that she wants to censor anyone that doesn't agree with her, or that she goes after trolls by erasing their content from the internet. Poki made it clear that this was not her intention, and that she wants to support small creators who create "transformative content," not silence them.
Karl Jacobs apologizes for being guilty by association
Karl Jacobs has introduced Corpse Husband to Dream's "Minecraft" world and streamed with Lil Nas X, but that doesn't mean he's free of all drama. In early 2021, Jacobs released an apology video addressing his past association with Ice Poseidon, who (as pointed out by Sportskeeda) frequently used racial slurs in his Twitch streams.
Jacobs explained that he'd seen threads going around stating that he'd "supported bad people" and he wanted to clear the air with an apology. Jacobs admitted that although he was "never a massive fan" of them, he did support "bad content creators" in the past. Jacobs also said that in the past, when he used the "Trihard" emote (which, as reported by Kotaku, is sometimes associated with racist and toxic chat behavior), he did not intend to use it in an offensive way.
For his part, Ice Poseidon rejected Jacobs' apology, saying that Jacobs was sending out a "witch hunt" after him for things he did years ago. Of course, fans have also asked Ice Poseidon to issue an apology for his hurtful words.
Ice Poseidon regrets his chaotic IRL streams
Ice Poseidon has been the victim before. As reported by Kotaku, was once the target of a traumatic swatting incident from one of the darkest corners of Twitch. Unfortunately, Ice Poseidon's response to the swatting may have resulted in his permanent ban from Twitch.
As Kotaku explained, the true reason for Ice Poseidon's ban is a little murky. He'd previously gotten in trouble for using a text-to-speech program on his stream, which viewers tricked into saying racial slurs. He exploded on air, yelling at viewers that they were going to get him banned. Later, after telling viewers his location, Ice Poseidon was swatted while trying to board a plane. Someone watching his stream actually called in a bomb threat to the airline and framed Ice Poseidon as the perpetrator. Again, he yelled at fans for ruining his plans. It seemed that Twitch banned Ice Poseidon for the real life chaos that was caused in connection with its platform.
Three years later, Ice Poseidon issued a statement on his Twitter account explaining why he thinks the permanent Twitch ban was unjust. In his open letter to Twitch, Ice Poseidon explained that he was afraid of losing his viewership, so he kept upping the ante and creating more dangerous situations for himself and others in order to attract fans. Ice Poseidon also explained that his actions had damaged his real-life relationships, and that he now sees these decisions as mistakes that he has served time for.
Ayrun doesn't have any sort of pass in Dead by Daylight
UK "Dead by Daylight" streamer Ayrun had to say he was sorry for an embarrassing video that began circulating in 2019. In the clip, Ayrun used a racial slur while playing "Dead by Daylight," then clarified that he has "the n-word pass" and can say the slur freely.
Ayrun issued an apology on Twitter much later, posting a written message in the Notes app to convey his feelings beyond Twitter's character limit. In the apology, Ayrun said he was "profoundly ashamed" of his behavior in the video and that he's "done a lot of growing up" since then.
However, Ayrun also took the time to explain that he doesn't believe that his slur hurt anyone directly, as it wasn't said in malice towards another person. Followers on Twitter mostly disagreed with this caveat, though a number of fans thanked the streamer for his apology.
Corpse Husband says he's sorry
Corpse Husband launched his career by reading scary stories on YouTube. In 2021, fans began urging Corpse Husband to make a statement regarding his use of the r-slur in a four year old video. While fans didn't think Corpse would approve of the word in the present, they still wanted to hear it from him, in order to absolve their favorite streamer of any controversy.
Corpse responded soon after fans brought the issue to his attention, saying, "A little over 4 years ago when I was 19 I said the R word in a video I was featured in. I was reading off of a script that I did not write, however I will take full accountability and say that I CHOSE to read it."
Corpse took responsibility for his actions and explained that he didn't understand the "severity" of the word at the time and promised to get the video taken down. For once, an internet darling remained somewhat unproblematic — and Corpse Husband proved that he's not too famous to say he's sorry.