In the summer of 2020, Twitch permanently banned the live streamer DrDisrespect from the platform, after he had signed an exclusive multi-million dollar contract just months earlier. To this day, the ban remains the biggest mystery surrounding Twitch. A new statement from Twitch CEO Dan Clancy in October 2023 strengthens a coherent theory as to why DrDisrespect was banned.
What made the ban so unusual back then?
- The permanent ban of DrDisrespect came on June 26, 2020. Just three months earlier, Twitch had bound the streamer with an “exclusive, multi-year deal” (via espn).
- There was no obvious reason for the ban: No misconduct on camera or any other serious offense that could explain the ban. To this day, neither Twitch nor the streamer have revealed the reason for the ban. DrDisrespect suggested in October 2020 that he was banned because Twitch wanted to save “his big salary.”
- However, DrDisrespect has repeatedly stated how hard the ban hit him and how much money, industry contacts and opportunities to strengthen his brand he lost due to the ban.
CEO says: For a long time, Twitch kept up financially with offers to streamers
This is the new statement from the Twitch CEO: In an interview with Bloomberg on the sidelines of TwitchCon 2023, the new Twitch CEO Dan Clancy explained that for a long time, Twitch tried to keep up financially with offers from other platforms to streamers.
Since 2022, they have been doing less and will now significantly reduce the big deals again, as such a bidding war for top streamers may not be an economically viable model.
DrDisrespect may have negotiated more money from Twitch with an offer from Mixer
What does this have to do with DrDisrespect? A theory about the ban of DrDisrespect comes from lawyer Richard Hoeg. He proposed the following theory: the ban of DrDisrespect should be seen more as a termination of contract on Twitch’s part.
In 2021, a rumor circulated, spread by an employee at Call of Duty, that was relatively similar to Richard Hoeg’s theory. However, one detail changed:
- In 2019, the platform Microsoft poached the two star streamers shroud and Ninja from Twitch
- DrDisrespect might have used this circumstance to explain to Twitch that he also had a high offer from Mixer. According to the 2021 rumor, however, this offer was false.
- If Twitch, as Clancy says, is “keeping up with offers from other platforms,” it explains why DrDisrespect received such a lucrative exclusive contract in March 2020. His market value had significantly increased due to the sudden competition from Mixer.
- But when Mixer shut down in June 2020, DrDisrespect’s market value plummeted again. As a kind of “contract termination,” Twitch permanently banned the streamer just a few days after Microsoft announced the end of Mixer, thus terminating the contract.
It was said that Twitch was disappointed that DrDisrespect had been dishonest with them, as they had built him up to be a star on the platform.
This question remains open: The question is whether DrDisrespect really had a high offer from Mixer in March 2020 that Twitch wanted to match – or whether DrDisrespect was bluffing.
It seems unlikely that Microsoft would acquire another expensive star in March if they were already closing the Mixer service just a few months later.
If DrDisrespect “bluffed” here and deceived Twitch with a competing offer that did not exist, his ban might be more “understandable” in some form. It also explains why DrDisrespect has no interest in detailing what happened back then.
Clancy’s statement that they were still trying to keep up with offers from rival platforms until 2022 is, in any case, an indication that the ban of DrDisrespect could indeed have something to do with his contract and financial aspects.
We elaborate on the theory of the “false offer to Mixer” here:
Hot new rumor about the permanent Twitch ban of Dr Disrespect
