The former Twitch streamer Ninja explained the moment in his career when he was most embarrassed. It is related to Fortnite , but did not take place in the game itself.
What was Ninja’s most embarrassing moment? On New Year’s Eve 2018, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins was in New York at Time Square. There, New York traditionally celebrates the New Year.
About a million people are expected there every year.
At that time, Fortnite and Ninja were so big that Blevins held a marathon stream of Fortnite from a room above Time Square. He was supposed to throw a huge New Year’s Eve party that was then broadcast live on Twitch.
On 31.12.2018 it rained heavily and a bizarre situation occurred: Ninja stepped onto a stage and performed the “Floss Dance”, the most famous dance from Fortnite. The camera caught two people in the audience who were also dancing. Everything still looked good then.
But when Ninja turned to the New Yorkers, drenched, and yelled “Come On”, it was clear they were standing motionless and ignoring him. It didn’t get any better when Ninja shouted “I don’t see enough movement”.
Clips of this incident went viral at the time. They showed the image of a Twitch star who overestimated himself and who does not have the influence “in the real world” as in his Fortnite bubble.
How does Ninja explain this? The moment is so legendary that Ninja is regularly teased about it by his friends. It is enough when someone says “Ninja, New York” while he is dancing, and everyone knows what is meant.
In a stream on Mixer, Ninja now explains this moment. First, he jokes: “Millions of people were dancing along. They were in the background, you just couldn’t see them.”
Then he says he will now reveal the “inside info” about what happened and what got into him.
His team talked him into it
This is how Ninja explains the moment:
- Ninja said to his team from Red Bull and other sponsors: “I’m damn not going to do this – unless you can guarantee me that everyone will dance along.”
- The team told him: “Oh my God, don’t worry. Everyone will dance! People are coming just to celebrate. They are crazy, they wear diapers, and they will dance.”
- So Ninja made a fool of himself and then shouted, “I don’t see enough movement,” which he probably finds embarrassing in retrospect.
- He immediately began to sweat profusely at the moment of embarrassment: that was one of the most embarrassing moments of his life.
Recipe: Make fun of yourself
In the end, Ninja is grateful for how he handled the situation. He immediately began to make fun of himself over the action.
The moment in New York probably left no lasting damage, but was the conclusion of an extremely successful year 2018 for the streamer. He rode the Fortnite wave like no one else in 2018.
