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2022 was one of the most dramatic years for the livestreaming industry, with many high-profile streamers jumping ship from Twitch to YouTube owing to the former's massive data breach and the infamous "hot-tub meta."
From ItsSliker's scam allegations to Ninja almost threatening a lawsuit against Pokimane, no one expected the year to be littered with such contentious events. A month into 2023, there's no better time to recap the five biggest controversies involving streamers in 2022, in no particular order.
Trigger warning: Mentions of s*xual assault, sexism, gambling, and bullying
Top 5 streamer controversies of 2022
1) IShowSpeed gets banned on Valorant
American YouTuber and livestreamer Darren 'IShowSpeed' is the poster boy for controversies in the world of livestreaming and content creation. In April 2022, the young internet sensation went viral for all the wrong reasons as a clip from one of his Valorant streams was released. It featured the 17-year-old making controversial remarks towards a female teammate while playing Valorant.
In the now-deleted viral clip, the American turns a corner and misses every one of his shots before the opponent kills him. Following this, one of his teammates mocked him, to which he responded by aggressively labeling them a noob. A female teammate then spoke out against Speed's conduct, to which he responded:
“Is a b***h talking to me? Is a female talking to me? Am I tripping? Am I tripping or is a female talking to me? Is a f**king female talking to me? Get off the f**king game and do your husband's dishes, b***h! Shut up! F**k you!”
Shortly after the clip going viral, a Riot developer, @npcSara, publicly stated on Twitter that Darren needs to be banned to ensure a safe space within the community.
The incident would come back to haunt Speed when the British sports broadcasting network, Sky Sports, decided to remove all the videos that featured him on their social media handles in November 2022 upon learning of the YouTuber's past controversy.
2) Ninja threatens to sue Pokimane
The start of 2022 saw a public spat between livestreaming superstars Tyler "Ninja" and Imane "Pokimane." On January 11, the latter was forced to end her stream early after enduring a "hate raid" organized by American YouTuber Jidon "JiDion."
Shortly after earning a verified streamer badge on Twitch, JiDion urged his fans to go and troll Pokimane by typing L+Ratio in her chat. After taking to Twitter to voice her concerns, the former was handed a lifelong ban on Twitch.
Shortly thereafter, JiDion's fans took to Ninja's stream to beg for his return. Noticeably upset with Tyler for supporting JiDion, Imane tweeted about the overt sexism she had to suffer. She further accused Ninja of abetting it.
Following this, Pokimane exposed DMs she received from Ninja and his wife, Jessica, during a livestream. The messages conveyed that the two were unhappy with Pokimane's accusations and threatened legal action against the OTV member for defamation.
Despite having the whole world on hold, nothing came of this threat as the beef was effectively squashed after JiDion publicly apologized and took full responsibility for his actions via a YouTube video. This later resulted in his reconciliation with Pokimane.
3) ItsSliker's domino effect
Thanks to sponsored gambling streams and the lack of a proper system for monitoring age and popularized by the likes of Trainwreckstv, xQc, and Adin Ross, gambling has become one of the most polarizing topics on Twitch. People have been actively calling for the genre to be permanently banned.
Despite being a prominent topic of discussion, Twitch finally decided to take action against gambling streams after many popular content creators like Mizkif, Pokimane, and HasanAbi endorsed its overall ban. This notion was further amplified following the disclosure of Abraham 'ItsSliker's' gambling addiction.
In September 2022, several YouTubers and Twitch streamers took to Twitter to explain how the English YouTuber had scammed them by begging for funds to pay off existing gambling debts. He did so under the pretext of requiring help with some personal issues.
On 17 September, Abraham revealed his gambling addiction and accepted how he had been scamming streamers for money. He confessed:
“I lied to many people.”
Shortly thereafter, fellow streamer HasanAbi tried to seek restitution for the scammed streamers by organizing a group call with ItsSliker and Mizkif.
Twitch subsequently announced the ban on multiple unlicensed gambling companies starting October 18, 2022. The official Twitch handle tweeted:
The decision was celebrated by streamers, including Pokimane, Mizkif, and HasanAbi. However, many took umbrage at this, namely Trainwreckstv. The streamer was especially enraged by OTK founders Mizkif and Asmongold.
He accused the duo of covering up s*xual assault allegations, which quickly escalated into the biggest streamer controversy of 2022.
4) Mizkif accused of s*xual assault
Matthew 'Mizkif' found himself in a quagmire after popular YouTuber Tyler 'Trainwreckstv' accused him of covering up s*xual assault allegations against a fellow streamer. The latter went on a tirade following the concerted efforts of Mizkif and others to ban gambling streams on Twitch.
In a back-and-forth on Twitter between the two, Tyler responded in a now-deleted tweet:
"@REALMizkif @Asmongold @Twitch are you going to send maya and mitch to railroad and blackmail me like you did those girls to cover up all those s*xual assaults you f*****g scum bag piece of s**t, you want to come at me and make shit up, then you better be sure you don't live in a glass house you insecure pu**y"
Following this, fellow streamer Adrianah Lee shared her story on a livestream and accused streamer CrazySlick of s*xually assaulting her at a party in 2020. It was alleged that Mizkif had tasked his then-girlfriend Maya to downplay the situation and prevent Adrianah from publicizing the matter.
After the news broke, Asmongold addressed the situation on stream and hoped Matthew would distance himself from CrazySlick. This was soon followed up with Mizkif taking a leave of absence from OTK.
5) Dream's face reveal does not go as planned
On September 23, 2022, American Minecraft YouTuber Clay 'Dream' dropped his highly anticipated face reveal video. However, the period of joy didn't last for long.
In a controversy that shook the YouTubing and Minecraft world, a burner account on Twitter accused the popular streamer of grooming. The post shared details about a fellow Twitter user, Anastasia (@oxeclean), who tweeted that Clay had tried to establish contact with her when she was 17 years of age. Anastasia stated:
"I'm not here to fully prove my experience that I know happened. I don't care about showing every receipt. Here's me telling him I'm 18 SOON (not yet). I also believe I clearly had '17' in my bio the same time I have 20 now. I have him asking for my snap and we talked about school."
Dream responded to these allegations on October 16, 2022, via a TwitLonger and effectively stated that Anastasia was not lying while maintaining that he met her when she was 18. Following the allegations, the Florida native hinted at taking legal action against these accusations.
Dream's YouTube channel has remained active for the past three months, with the controversy yet to be concluded or addressed.
