Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins had the perfect answer for a CNBC guest analyst who didn’t do his due diligence and made the interesting claim that ‘no one knows’ the real name of the streaming superstar.
While Ninja may have become one of the most popular game icons with his blue hair and flashy Fortnite games, it turns out that he actually has a real identity beyond his popular game alias.
Blevins was recently a focal point during a June 25 financial segment on CNBC. Internet and media analyst Laura Martin teamed up with presenter Kelly Evans on the show, and the couple discussed the market value of Amazon’s Twitch after the shock closure Microsoft Mixer on June 22.
At the top of the segment, Martin referred to “a video player named Ninja”, but showed that he may not know everything there is to learn about the gaming world, as he suggested, apparently completely seriously, that “he has a real name, but nobody knows what he is”.
https://t.co/8FUeIi0zHw pic.twitter.com/wQhJMuXEda
– Ninja (@Ninja) June 26, 2020
This line caught fire on social media and almost instantly went viral after industry expert Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau shared it. As a result of this, the clip soon caught the attention of Ninja himself, who had a hilarious reaction to CNBC’s bizarre claim.
Choosing not to download on CNBC and the analyst responded with a simple GIF: a commonly used image of Pablo Escobar, portrayed by Wagner Moura in the hit Netflix series Narcos. This was all he needed to convey his emotions.
Reading between the lines in the GIF, the broadcast star must have been stunned by CNBC’s hilarious claim.
Ninja has spent years striving to put himself and the gaming culture in the dominant eye, so dealing with an accidental crash like this from one of America’s largest networks may have hurt a bit.
The relevant section of the CNBC segment begins at the 24-second mark.
Naturally, such a fun moment, coupled with Ninja’s reaction, prompted all kinds of Internet personalities to respond in kind. One of them was Fortnite star and YouTube personality Lannon ‘LazarBeam’ Eacott, who joked that he “had never heard of Ninja”, which meant “he shouldn’t be that famous”.
“WHO?” Tim ‘TimTheTatman’ Betar also joked bluntly after watching the clip. The two often band together as they play games together on the stream, so once Ninja finds a new house closure after the mixer, there’s a good chance that Betar will use this hilarious moment as an ongoing rib.
OMG … it happened LOL
– Ninja (@Ninja) June 26, 2020
Given Mixer’s recent shutdown, Ninja reportedly walked away with $ 30 million for his time spent exclusively on the Microsoft-owned platform.
Only time will tell where he chooses to broadcast next, but hopefully when he announces his big news, industry analysts will be able to remember his real name.
