'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
xQc has been topping the Twitch charts for a few months now. Based on the latest stats, his channel is the second most watched on the platform, with an average viewership of 64K. But where did the Canadian get his unique name, which has become widely known across the streaming community?
Felix Lengyel first started streaming back when he was 19 years old, and used to play Riot's MOBA League of Legends. Back then, his alias used to be xQcLoL. Felix has since changed his gamer tag multiple times before settling on the current name.
xQc's name, its origin and evolution through the years
Felix was born on November 12, 1995, in Quebec, Canada. Although he moved to Los Angeles for his streaming career, the Canadian has recently returned to his home country. Many have speculated that the move was motivated by the country's gambling laws.
Coming up with the name
Felix's online alias gets its first letter 'x' from the last letter of his first name. He grew up in Quebec, which means the streamer is fluent in French and has occasionally spoken it on stream. His apparent fondness for his home province led him to come up with subsequent letters of the name. The 'Qc' in xQc stands for the province code of Quebec.
The variations
Until recently, the Canadian streamer's Twitch account was called xQcOW. During his League of Legends days, the 'OW' part of the name was 'LOL,' an abbreviation for the game he played. The streamer apparently has seven banned accounts in the game and has received permanent bans for using inflammatory language in the past.
He also made a name for himself playing Blizzard's competitive game Overwatch when it came out, hence the OW in his old name. His esports career started with local league teams such as Q? and Denial eSports. With the announcement of the Overwatch League, his chances of making it as a pro were looking up. Especially when he was picked up by the Dallas Fuel on October 28, 2017.
His time with the Dallas team, however, did nothing of the sort. After the team's defeat during the early stages of the tournament, xQc allegedly made offensive comments about opposing players and was subsequently suspended for a couple of matches.
He was again in hot waters in March 2018, and this time was let go by the team, allowing him to concentrate on streaming. The Juicer, as his community likes to call him, has claimed that his Overwatch days were some of his best, and that is probably why he kept the good old 'xQcOW' brand name for so long.
Ibai, Twitch's current most-watched/followed streamer, had this to say about his name in a clip from earlier this year:
"I don't know why you have OW in your name because... is this a reference to Overwatch? You don't play Overwatch. I think, you in the past you were a professional player in Overwatch. But today? No."
The former Overwatch pro has made a massive name for himself in the streaming world, but it did come with inevitable bumps along the way. To date, the streamer has been banned from Twitch five times due to a few but mostly minor violations. Back in 2020, he was accused of stream sniping at the Twitch Rivals event and was banned for a full week.
With his Overwatch days behind him, in May, the streamer formally started the process of changing his name and removing the 'OW,' making it just xQc. The variety streamer currently plays a lot of different games on his long streams, including Slots.
