Streamer Félix “xQc” Lengyel used to be a professional in Blizzard’s Overwatch and dedicated his life to streaming in 2018. When Ninja and shroud left Twitch, the now 28-year-old rose to become the new icon on Twitch. But even then, he was plagued by the fact that he was so susceptible to gambling. He struggled with his addiction. He now indulges in the gambling madness on the Kick platform and has gambled away an incredible amount.
This was the early phase of xQc: French-Canadian xQc began his career as a professional Overwatch player, playing mostly off-tanks.
Although xQc was a good player, his temper and uncontrolled nature were his downfall. He was often noticed for throwing tantrums and insulting opponents or teammates. He received several bans and was considered the scandal noodle of Overwatch.
His Overwatch career was finally over when his team kicked him out. He explained his failures by saying that that was just how he was – “Twitch chat raised him.” So xQc devoted himself to streaming.
From Overwatch pro to number 1 on Twitch to $100 million – Who is xQc?
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The rise of xQc to the face of Twitch
This was the rise of xQc: Within a year, xQc went from 2018 to 2019 as the “new hot shit” on Twitch. He was helped by the fact that previous stars like Shroud and Ninja had left the platform and he offered much faster entertainment compared to streamers like DrDisrespect, whom he derided as a “boomer.”
xQc’s formula for success is that he is constantly interacting with his chat and constantly jumping from game to game, drama to drama, topic to topic. He coined the “reaction meta” in which he looks at other people’s content. xQc explained his secret to success by saying that he makes content that people watch on a second screen while they are playing something on the main screen.
He speaks in a strange, sing-song gibberish that only those in the know can understand.
Within a short period of time, xQc became the “new face of Twitch” because he understood his viewers and streaming better than anyone else.
xQc has always had a tendency to gamble, even in games like Rust. Here he sneaks away after a loss and encounters strangers in a car who emphasize how excited they are to hit the casino:
These were his problems: xQc had three problems during his streaming career:
That was in July 2022, xQc lost $170,000 in 140 seconds
xQc falls into gambling, which he initially resists
That was the descent: There have long been rumors that xQc’s gambling addiction was getting worse behind the scenes. While Twitch has largely banned gambling.
The whole thing became “official” in June 2023, when xQc signed a contract with Kick, a Twitch competitor funded by the online casino Stake. The deal is expected to guarantee him around $70 million over 2 years, with the option to earn another $30 million.
xQc has wagered $511 million in 20 days
This is the size it is now taking on: In a recent stream, xQc has now shown his statistics.
He has placed $2.65 billion worth of bets on Stake. In the last 20 days alone, he has gambled $511 million.
He placed 887,870 bets and won less than 10% of them.
How is this discussed? It is assumed that the large sums involved are not really his money, but are financed via the dubious Stake platform. That is why people talk about “fake money” that he is gambling away and view the whole thing with skepticism.
Nevertheless, viewers are not betting with “fake money”, but with real money. There are reports of players who have gambled themselves into bankruptcy in the attempt to emulate their idol. xQc really seems to have switched from the face of Twitch and gaming to the dark side: Twitch streamers earn millions of euros with gambling deals – their viewers go bankrupt