On January 2nd, some German Twitch streamers, including ones associated with League of Legends, started a project: they wanted to help fellow streamers and take over streams to prevent burnout. People quipped and joked on Twitter. Casino streamer Kevin “Orangemorange” Bongers didn’t want to be missing, but no one found that really funny anymore.
What was that action? Twitch streamer Freiraumreh proposed on January 2 to introduce a “stream representation.” In 2022, many German Twitch streamers would have spoken publicly about burnout and depression.
She and LoL streamer JustJohnny offered to stand in for streamers they’re mutually friends with on Twitter.
You would then play on streamers’ channel so they can rest but still keep their paying subscribers, the subs.
Because that’s the dilemma on Twitch: There’s a fear that as soon as you treat yourself to a holiday, the subs will disappear and your livelihood will collapse with it. As a result, streamers don’t take vacations, they stream themselves when they’re sick. Also stream on weekends and public holidays and tear off an extremely large number of hours.
This “self-exploitation” by Twitch streamers to the point of burnout has been a problem on Twitch for many years. Large US streamers are therefore happy to accept it when YouTube lures them away from Twitch with a lot of money, because there is no rush for subscriptions there.
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How did that go then? One jokes: LoL streamer and e-sportsman Daniel “Broeki” Broekmann submitted the idea: That would be great. Because if he takes a week off, the others could easily stream for a week and organize a subathon. 10,000 more subs (about €25,000) would definitely be in there for him. As a thank you, he would also invite you to dinner.
Strategy nerd Maurice Weber suggested JustJohnny could play Total War and he would torture the LoL community by showing LoL and Teamfight Tactics at the lowest level.
So who got kicked out? Casino streamer Orangemorange, famous for his gamescom cup toss, wanted to join the discussion and throw in a cool quip too.
He asked the streamers if they would like to gamble for 2 to 3 hours on the slot machines for him.
There was an immediate rebuff from the streamer Freiraumreh. “The day we become mutuals is the day Greta buys a private jet,” she told him kindly. She makes it clear that the offer to take over Twitch streams does not apply to everyone, but only to selected streamers who belong to their own bubble.
The LoL streamer JustJohnny made at least one counter-suggestion to Orangemorange: “I like to take two hours to explain about gambling addiction, role model function and greed. There is probably still time for a digression on the State Treaty on Gambling and the loss of existence through gambling debts. Send Steamkey?“
Then orange-orange was out again.
That’s behind it: This now shows a very serious topic in an amusing way: Gambling streamers are not only viewed critically by the industry and are considered “not brand-safe”, other Twitch streamers are also critical of them.
This is exactly what led to the gamescom brawl in Germany and the ban of online casino Stake on Twitch in the US: Stake was only banned from Twitch after some of the biggest streamers on Twitch like Mizkif and Pokimane threatened to to go on strike.
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JustJohnny’s reference to the state treaty also makes it clear that gambling is legally taking place in a difficult zone.
The casino streamers state “Malta” as their place of residence, although they stream for a German audience.
There have already been conflicts that they do not live in Malta at all, but have set out for the tax haven of Madeira. But the discussion was shut down by one of the casino streamers with the threat of a lawsuit:
Twitch streamer has German colleagues banned, threatens to sue: “You can’t get me on the ground”