In June, Twitch permanently banned one of its biggest stars, Guy “Dr. Disrespect” Beahm, with no public indication as to why. Today, Beahm streamed for the first time since getting the big, purple boot from Twitch – now on YouTube. He was met by hundreds of thousands of viewers at once. A question.
Beahm announced his return yesterday, away his YouTube channel on a “live” splash screen for almost 24 hours and fans can spend money to join his ‘Champion’s Club’, which is what he called his Twitch subscribers. Many die. As Beahm began streaming for real this afternoon, more than 400,000 viewers showed up to gawk at his much-hyped return. Less than half an hour later, that number had just passed 500,000 before sinking into a slow decline. Numerous viewers gave Beahm money. About 30 minutes into the stream, he said, the Champion’s Club already had “more than 15 million” members. If he’s in character, Beahm has a habit of replacing “thousands” with “millions,” so it’s likely that more than 15,000 people have already signed up for a $ 5-a-month subscription. Unsurprisingly, large stream revenues remain a lucrative business.
Beahm started the stream by saying he had no big plans and took an unwritten approach. However, he approached the elephant that will follow him into every room where he arrives in the near future. In response to questions about his Twitch ban, he reiterated what he demanded during an apparently orchestrated publicity tour through various press outlets last month.
“As far as the ban is concerned, there are a lot of people who want to know what happened,” he said during the stream. ‘Guess what: I want you to see me in my bright eyes when I say this; I really want you to look me in the eye when I say this. We have no idea yet. We have no idea. “Yes, boy, I’m not buying you.” Bunch of phonies. We have no idea. And I will tell you this right now: As far as I am concerned, we did nothing to guarantee a ban, let alone how they finally banned us. No communication for. No range. Boom. Clear. ”
He acknowledged that people were “afraid” of an answer, but also attributed that fear to a “small percentage” instead of, you know, the entire Internet. “You know what they want: something bad is going to happen,” he said. ‘Let’s not walk around the bush. ‘
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While saying this, many viewers typed in conversation messages such as “WE WANT ANSWER”, while others called them haters, said they did not care, and expected Beahm to return.
However, Beahm notes that there is still a lot going on in the background: ‘Last thing I want to say about it: And I have to be intelligent about all this, because you’re talking about a heavy contract, a lot of money, He said, referring to his previous deal with Twitch. ‘So let the legal professionals do what they have to do. That’s it. Period. “
He went on to describe the ban as “a speed bump,” but “now we are back on the road.”
Beahm’s big comeback does not mean he’s in the clear. While some have taken his Twitch ban to being part of a publicity stunt, the fact remains that an enormous streaming platform does not just increase a multi-million dollar contract with one of the biggest earners. When he was first banned, sources told Kotaku and others that Twitch abruptly ended their relationship with Beahm over something very ‘serious’. In the time since, Kotaku has spoken to numerous sources in and around Twitch and has learned that even most Twitch employees do not know why Beahm went into exile from the streaming platform owned by Amazon. Several have described the company’s approach to this information as a ‘lockdown’ limited to a handful of top people. Even Twitch’s collaboration team, which is often involved in these kinds of matters, has passed, sources said. Kotaku. Twitch clearly does not want this information to be in the hands of the public and has, so far, prevented that from happening, despite continued efforts on the part of Kotaku and other journalists, as well as a verified stampede of robbery interesting internet fellows.
In the absence of further information and thanks to Beahm’s clever manipulation of that vacuum, fans have run to his side, assuming that Twitch has acted maliciously and their favorite streamer is innocent of wrongdoing. It is an easy judgment to make; Twitch is notoriously inconsistent, envious of a lack of transparency, and poor at communication. Sponsors like Mountain Dew Game Fuel continue to work with Beahm, who further portrays Twitch as an outlier. This is an expected outcome as trade secrets clash with the modern, personality-driven internet. Even if something smells extremely fishy, fans and businesses will not drop a beloved, lucrative star until circumstances leave them absolutely no other choice.
At this point, Beahm is working independently on YouTube. He is not signed to any kind of partnership action or contract a la the one he had with Twitch. The edge since he intends to stream on Facebook and his own website as well.
At one point during the current stream, Beahm made semi-jokes about how expensive the houses and cars he owns are. “For a second there, I thought I was in trouble,” he said, referring to questions about his career following his ban on Twitch. First, however, he tries to treat this as ordinary as business. During today’s stream he became aware of recent gaming events: Rogue Company, Fall Guys, en Halo infinite, among others. Then he played Call of Duty: Warzone. He also claimed that he started a production company. He talks trash. He married and bragged. He flexed. He cried. It was standard Dr Disrespect, the kind of thing he could have easily done on Twitch if he hadn’t hit the sidewalk a few months ago.
But he was. And hardly anyone knows why. No matter how hard he tries to swing, spin and start his career again, that will continue to hang over his head – at least for now.
Correction: An earlier version of this story explained that Beahm’s stream reached just under 500,000 viewers at a time when in fact just over 500,000 succeeded.
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