At Christmas, there’s no peace among the big Fortnite streamers. Tyler “Ninja” Blevins wanted to be the voice of reason, but the big Twitch streamers are getting fed up. Just in time for Christmas, he was presented with the quitting of Twitch streamer Dakotaz. Tfue and others also took the chance to give Ninja a hard time.
Who is involved in the dispute?
- Tyler “Ninja” Blevins (28), is the original star streamer of Fortnite, but now streams on Mixer
- Brett “Dakotaz” Hoffmann (33) is the fourth largest streamer on Twitch and has also made a name for himself with Fortnite – he has over 4 million followers
- Turner “Tfue” Tenney (21) is currently the number 1 on Twitch in terms of followers. He is also a Fortnite streamer
So these are among the biggest streamers in the world. They clashed pretty heavily on December 24th. However, the conflict began several days earlier and has been brewing for months.
Ninja wants streamers to stop finding Fortnite so stupid
How did the dispute start? Ninja has long been addressing the issue “Stop complaining about the games you stream.” He criticized Tfue for playing Fortnite so much, then complaining about the game in front of thousands of viewers and saying it was stupid.
The Twitch streamer Dakotaz had tweeted, “Fortnite is just garbage. Change my mind.”
Ninja then advised him: “Then play another game.”
This went back and forth a bit until Dakotaz said in his stream: “Stay in your lane, Ninja – don’t get involved when I have an opinion. Shut up.”
This is how it went on: On December 21, just before Christmas, Ninja released a 2-minute video reiterating why people should stop being so “negative”. Even if a streamer dislikes something about “their game”, they should make the effort to express it positively:
“If you take the time to post on social media and write, ‘OMG, the game sucks,’ you’re only hurting yourselves and the game. It won’t give you more viewers and it won’t bring more players to the game.”
Ninja on Twitter
The video has been viewed by over 1.2 million people. Given the lead-up, it was clear: This was directed at Twitch streamer Dakotaz. Because Ninja had criticized him shortly before.
Ninja and his army of 12-year-olds
How did this escalate? The dispute gradually heated up before Christmas.
Just in time for Christmas, Dakotaz finally snapped. He blocked Ninja on Twitter and said: He was tired of a “snowflake” sending him his army of 12-year-olds every time he didn’t like something.
In his stream, Dakotaz then gave Ninja another hard time:
“It must feel like shit to be blocked when you’re Ninja. I wonder what that feels like. Not everyone is going to kiss your ass.”
Dakotaz
Other streamers, like the number one on Twitch, Tfue, also got involved. Tfue posted a manipulated image of Ninja holding kid’s shoes, apparently as a jab at the “army of 12-year-olds” that Ninja supposedly commands, and his many sponsorship deals, like with adidas.
Ninja reacted pretty deflated to Dakotaz’s action. He said he meant well with the “positive attitude”. Ninja thought he and Dakotaz were friends, now he felt a bit hurt.
His wife and manager, Jessica Blevins, reacted from a business perspective. She said about Tfue’s photo: that can’t be taken seriously. Tfue doesn’t have a shoe contract.
Later, Jessica Blevins apologized for being so “immature”. She said it’s hard to see the person you love receive so much hate. The last two years have been so blessed, but so much negativity is said about her husband every day.
She wishes everyone a Merry Christmas.
Christmas among ambitious multi-millionaires on Twitch
What’s behind this: Ninja and the Twitch streamers attacking him are ambitious multi-millionaires, all competing with each other.
Ninja has recently been trying to take a “leadership role” as a streamer, setting a certain tone and criticizing his colleagues.
This doesn’t sit well with other top streamers. This conflict has been brewing for some time. Old issues are being resurrected, such as that Ninja has such a young audience.
As Dakotaz states: Ninja has done a lot for people. Especially for streamers, through the power move with Mixer. He is a great player and a great streamer. But he is finished with him now.
