The former streamer James “PhantomL0rd” Varga (League of Legends) has sued Twitch after the streaming platform banned him. He recently stated on Twitter that he has won the lawsuit on all counts. Instead of the $35 million in damages he demanded, he was awarded just over $20,000.
This was the initial situation: James “PhantomL0rd” Varga was one of the first Twitch stars, with thousands of viewers on his channel. He played League of Legends professionally starting in 2011 but had previously made a name for himself in competitive games like Quake 3 Arena or Counter Strike.
Varga’s career on Twitch ended in 2016 when he was permanently banned. Here is a summary of the events:
- The streamer was involved in a scandal regarding gambling with weapon skins in CS:GO on a website. The accusation was that he had used and promoted this site in his Twitch streams without disclosing his connections to it.
- Twitch permanently banned Varga for this, even though, in his view, they could not present any evidence of his involvement. He filed a lawsuit in February 2018 in San Francisco.
- According to a clause in the Twitch contract that Varga had signed, he could sue Twitch for no more than $50,000. A judge nullified this clause in 2019 and declared it “ridiculous.”
This is how the court trial ended: The streamer announced a breakthrough on his Twitter channel. He claims to have “won on all counts” in the case against Twitch.
Phantoml0rd wins, but only receives $20,000, not $35 million
The charges against Varga accused Twitch of breach of contract, as he was not given 30 days to correct his behavior. The accusations also pointed out that Twitch never communicated a specific reason for his ban, making vague allegations that Varga had violated Twitch’s rules without providing concrete evidence.
The jury ruled in favor of the streamer.
For the lawsuit, Varga received compensation from Twitch amounting to $20,702.34. However, this sum is far from the $35 million the streamer initially wanted.
His ban will likely remain in place, and he will not be able to continue streaming on Twitch.
“Twitch can no longer bully, lie, and treat streamers unfairly”
This is behind it: Varga’s lawsuit is a precedent case. Observers of the trial have mixed opinions regarding the outcome of the case; although Vargas won, the low amount of the damages awarded was still a partial victory for Twitch.
The policy regarding bans and suspensions from Twitch has been criticized for a long time. The streaming platform does not communicate the exact reasons for the bans to the streamers, and many of them often do not know why they received a penalty like streamer GeorgeNotFound.
Streamers could file an appeal, but the chances of success seem to depend on how big the streamer is and how vocally their community protests. Twitch has often been criticized in the past for this lack of transparency and apparent arbitrariness regarding its banning policy.
With Varga’s success in court, other streamers and viewers hope that changes will follow. Either Twitch will become more transparent and communicate the specific reasons for the ban, or more streamers will dare to take legal action against their bans.
If this [the court ruling] has any consequences, I hope it will lead to greater clarity around Twitch bans in the future when they decide to ban streamers.
reddit user DingleberryBeard (2,703 Upvotes)
This led to numerous comments in the subreddit r/LifestreamFail (via reddit) about the possibility that Dr. Disrespect’s ban could also go to court. The popular streamer lost his contract with Twitch in 2020 very suddenly and without public explanation and was permanently banned.
