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Highly controversial YouTuber and Twitch streamer LeafyIsHere, whose real name is Calvin Lee Vail, is perhaps one of the most contentious people to grace the content creation community, having been banned from almost all websites, including Twitter.
Long-term YouTube users will remember the numerous dramas and scandals associated with LeafyIsHere, which gave him a meteoric boost in popularity in 2016 as allegations of cyberbullying and online harassment charges started gaining ground.
His content mostly featured voice-over commentary over his gameplay of certain games, such as CounterStrike Global Offensive. The videos initially involved rants and drama concerning smaller content creators before evolving into intense feuds with others such as iDubbbz, Keemstar, and Twitch star Pokimane. He was then indefinitely banned in 2020.
His ban was the subject of numerous discussions by content creators and streamers. Here is a brief overview of the rise and fall of LeafyIsHere.
Tracing career of controversial YouTuber LeafyIsHere
Controversial rise
Although Vail started his YouTube channel in 2013, he only gained popularity three years later after videos of him criticizing smaller creators for their appearance and content went viral. One of the major reasons why fans flocked to him was his nonchalant no-holds-bar criticism of a goth YouTuber named MrBlackDarkness666.
While videos of the incident have been deleted because of his channel wipe, here is another creator talking about the roast, which led to MrBlackDarkness666's breakup.
Distraught, there were many back-and-forth videos between the creators which ultimately gave them prominence, especially LeafyIsHere, as he began attracting more fans. He continued to ridicule more creators, reaching a million subscribers by February 2016. The beef was quashed after Keemstar's intervention.
Another incident occurred the next month when he ridiculed TommyNC2010 for his physical appearance and the hat he was wearing in one of his videos where he helps a lady with eggs in a supermarket. Things got serious after Tommy started getting death threats. Here is the video he uploaded of the issue.
Note: Mention of physical and mental abuse and suicide.
By mid-2016, the creator finally faced his first major backlash after H3H3Productions ranted about his "toxic" content and showed how all his videos were similar. He also went through LeafyIsHere's channel, pointing out how he only picked on smaller content creators or made fun of kids with clickbaity titles and thumbnails:
"He uses clickbait titles, and clickbait thumbnails. I don't understand how you even differentiate between one video and another."
Timestamp 2:34
After the rant, to the relief of many, LeafyIsHere released a proper apology video and started to mellow down his content, adding disclaimers asking fans not to harass persons of interest in his videos. He, however, hit back at H3H3Productions, claiming he got the latter sponsorship deals.
His next target was Keemstar, who was in the crosshairs of many people after iDubbbz released a video that did not seem to favor the Drama Alert creator. By August 2016, he had reached his peak with 4.9 million subscribers on YouTube.
Contentious fall
However, LeafyIsHere started losing followers the following month when iDubbbz made a video on him. It was taken down by YouTube for being inflammatory after iDubbbz trolled him for his appearance. With his videos getting many dislikes, he eventually took a hiatus from content creation in late 2017.
What he did next, in mid-2020, is what most people attribute to his downfall: an online feud with Pokimane. The two videos he uploaded went viral after he ridiculed her appearance, gaming skills, and sense of humor. He also claimed that she had a secret boyfriend and, in a subsequent tweet, revealed that he was dating Pokimane.
YouTube finally banned his account indefinitely in August 2020, and by the next month, Twitch followed suit, stopping his ambitions of being a content creator. The reasons given by both companies were simple: violation of bullying and harassment policies.
A year later, he tried to make a comeback, but that did not go anywhere, making it the end of LeafyIsHere's YouTube and Twitch careers.
