Let’s talk about Twitch

Photo courtesy of Twitch

Photo courtesy of Twitch

Josh Haynes, Volunteer Writer

Ah, Twitch, the wonderfully horrible cesspool of gamers and nerds. A place where there is always something for just about anyone. This week, we are going to talk about the biggest names, controversies and problems with the platform. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I love Twitch. It’s a great platform that provides a fantastic way to support creators and their content. I use Twitch almost daily, and I have no problems with the platform’s website or app. I have even streamed as a content creator, and the site was incredibly user friendly. However, there are some issues from creators, which in turn create issues within the company. 

There are three main creators that I want to highlight, each differing wildly in their content and styles. First off, we have arguably the biggest streamer on the platform, xQcOW. xQc (real name Félix Lengyel) got his start in the professional Overwatch scene. He is not the best at games sometimes, but his vocal stutter, quick speaking and charisma make him one of the most consistently watched streamers, easily averaging over 60k views on a moderate day. He is definitely #1 in most people’s hearts. 

The next streamer that I want to highlight is a rapidly growing streamer by the name Ludwig Ahgren. Ludwig got his start in college as a stand up comedian, leading to local fame with his improvised troupe. At the same time, he started in the Super Smash Melee scene, quickly gaining notoriety as not only a player, but also as a commentator. After school he started streaming on Twitch and eventually went full time. His content mainly relies on his viewers making fun of him for various things, such as his height or acne. Watching him stream is like being in a live studio audience. He puts the highlights of the stream on YouTube, acting like a gameshow host, then goes back into casual streamer mode. He is my personal favorite, and I would highly recommend his streams to anyone interested in games.

Lastly, I would like to highlight the streamer Pokimane. Here is where the controversy comes in. Pokimane (real name Imane Anys) is a Morrocan-Canadian streamer who got her start in college playing League of Legends. Since, she has branched out to various other games, always coming back to League. Pokimane is the most controversial figure on this list today for a couple different reasons. She is the top female streamer on twitch. She also recently signed a likely seven figure deal with Twitch to stream exclusively on their platform. Here’s the tea:  A few people made various sexist and demeaning compilations of her,and eventually, it came to a head when she got the creator of the compilations in a call and told him that she would be taking down his videos. Normally it would have ended with people making reddit posts about it, however, Keemstar (if you don’t know who he is, look up “scumbag” and “incel” in the dictionary) decided that he needed to get involved, which of course, spreads to YouTube, which escalates into more drama. The now entirely deplatformed LeafyisHere leaked that she supposedly had a secret boyfriend. Unfortunately, this has never been resolved and the parties are now in a stalemate until things cool down, which will undoubtedly heat back up again when some simp (refer to Phineas and Ferb) gets triggered on Twitter. 

In conclusion, Twitch is sometimes good, sometimes bad. There is a lot of good, free content on the platform. However, with great free content, comes great controversy. Enjoy my friends, and have a PogChamp day.