The Shady Side Of Twitch Rivals
Twitch Rivals brings the biggest streamers from across the platform together to compete in various games and events in order to win prizes and bragging rights. Twitch holds competitions big and small, flying in competitors from all over in order to face off in a series of challenges. The events typically spotlight dozens of games in virtually every genre, from "Minecraft" and "Hearthstone" to "Call of Duty" and "Among Us."
One of the things that makes Twitch Rivals so unique is that each individual contestant is streaming their own viewpoint on their channel. This gives viewers the opportunity to either watch the main Twitch Rivals channel or watch the event from their favorite streamer's point of view. It's also an opportunity for streamers to showcase their skills and remind viewers why they're the best of the best.
It isn't all fun and games, however. Twitch has a shady side that seems to extend to Twitch Rivals. Here are some of the less-savory things that have been linked to Twitch Rivals.
Small streamers need not apply
One of the major complaints that small streamers have about Twitch is that there isn't any support for them on the platform. Anyone who's ever tried to start streaming on the platform is familiar with that disheartening feeling of performing for hours to an audience of zero. Still more people spend years on the platform and never seem to grow past 10 viewers at a time. There are several threads, (like this one on Quora,) of people questioning why the platform offers so much assistance to the streamers who have already made it big and so little to those who are still struggling to grow.
Unfortunately, Twitch Rivals helps feed into the cycle of keeping the top streamers on top, shouldering out smaller streamers by design. Sure, its FAQ section states that "Twitch Rivals is open to Twitch Affiliates and Partners in good standing," but it later clarifies that getting involved is by invitation only. That's why every event is ultimately stacked with partnered streamers and those who have already managed to garner a large following on the platform. Many viewers feel that's a shame since inviting smaller streamers to something like Twitch Rivals could be a great method for putting eyes on new streamers who could really use the extra attention, not to mention some of those monetary prizes.
Tyler1 claimed other streamers were rude to the staff
Mistreating service workers is an easy way for a person to garner public criticism. That's why every rom-com in the world shows the boyfriend you know the protagonist shouldn't be with being rude to a waiter. So fans were understandably upset when Tyler1 told the people viewing his stream that other streamers were being disrespectful toward the Twitch Rivals staff during the competition. A clip from the stream shows Tyler1 telling his fans, "these other streamers, they're like children ... The main guys were explaining the rules ... and randomly, people would ask a question. Can we put it in our mouth? ... everyone would laugh and I'd be like, what? How socially incompetent are streamers bro?"
Tyler1 didn't call out any streamers by name, but WillNeff and Sodapoppin felt the need to come forward anyway. "We were asking if you could bite the corner of it, so you wouldn't drop it," said WillNeff on stream during the event. "Because if you dropped the dice, you got a 10 second time penalty. So I was literally just asking if I could bite the dice. I wasn't trying to be disrespectful." Sodapoppin then added that "Tyler just wanted to call streamers stupid, because everyone loves that."
There's no way to verify either version of these events. Thus far, the Twitch Rivals staff have not commented.
Several contestants engaged in stream sniping during the competition
A lot of big streamers were at GlitchCon last year, but not all of them were playing fair. xQc was banned from Twitch due to "stream sniping" in order to hinder his competitors in a Twitch Rivals "Fall Guys" tournament during the event. He was also banned from Twitch Rivals competitions for 6 months and forced to forfeit any prizes he won during the competition. It was certainly one of xQc's shadiest moments, but he didn't do it alone. Twitch Rivals later announced that players Nightblue3, Mendo, GrandPooBear, & Tfue also were all found guilty of violating Twitch's rules during the GlitchCon tournament, (although it's worth noting that Tfue did not stream snipe, but merely neglected to mention to the Twitch Rivals staff that his teammates were doing it.)
Shroud, who competed with xQc during the event, was understandably upset. He stated in a now-deleted Twitch clip (via SVG) "I'm in disbelief. He literally just made Twitch history. That has never happened before. No big partner has ever done that." Later, Tyler1 called xQc a "sore loser" during an argument between several streamers about the event.
No bathroom breaks
When nature calls, it isn't generally wise not to answer. After taking a brief break from streaming, Maya Higa also took part in a recent Twitch Rivals competition and was put in a somewhat awkward situation when she couldn't figure out whether or not she was allowed to go to the bathroom. She was sitting beside fellow streamer QTCinderellella at the time and a video clip from the stream records them talking about it. Maya asked "do I raise my hand to ask if I can go to the bathroom? Is that cringy?" QTCinderellella replied, "yeah, you're going to get in trouble." Maya then flagged down a Twitch Rivals employee and asked, "Can I pee?" At this point, the employee turned to another employee carrying a clipboard and wearing a headset who could visibly be seen shaking his head in the background. The first employee then turned to Maya and said no. Maya replied, "No? Oh, f***. Okay," before laughing as she turned back to QTCinderellella and saying "I'm not allowed to pee," in a tone that sounded noticeably shocked.
This sparked backlash in the comments from people watching. Several viewers were quick to point out the irony since Twitch is owned by Amazon which has had a lot of bad press surrounding the availability of bathrooms for their employees. The clip itself was titled, "Amazon Denies Another Employee a Bathroom Break" and it was featured in a thread on Reddit's LivestreamFail.
Maya may have been drugged
Some of the things mentioned here might not seem like that big a deal, but this one is deadly serious. After the 2021 Twitch Rivals competition, Maya Higa got on stream to talk about a terrifying experience she had during the event. She said, "When I was in the bathroom — and I was trying to focus on the lock on the door and it kept hitting the ceiling — and then time was skipping a lot — and that's what it felt like when I was roofied in college, so I dumped the rest of my beer in the toilet, and I was like, yeah, this is not right ... It's almost like you're awake the whole time, but then you wake up somewhere else, and there's like a fast-forward in between that you don't remember."
She later clarified that "nothing bad happened" because she was with her friends QTCinderalla and Myth the entire night, but according to the account of a Reddit user who watched the entire stream, "what isn't in this clip is that some guy [asked] her if she needed a ride and he was making Maya uncomfortable so Myth got him away from her. Then later when Maya was gone he was asking where she was." It's unknown whether steps are being taken to investigate the event at this time.