The career of Twitch streamer Theo “Scurrows” Bottländer was actually in free fall since Twitch banned the streams of the crypto casino “Stake”. By May 2023, his average viewer count had fallen to 1,500. However, the streamer has found a way to remain relevant: with an aggressive demeanor and a clear enemy image, the streamer is rising.
How did the career of Scurrows go on Twitch?
- Scurrows was a moderately successful Twitch streamer in 2018, at that time averaging about 2,300 viewers with role-playing in GTA 5. But there was a long ban from Twitch for “hate-filled behavior”.
- In 2021, Scurrows successfully managed to return to Twitch. He primarily turned to gambling and was able to triple his viewer numbers: they rose to 6,041 when he showed casino games. This led to a physical altercation at gamescom.
- In 2022, he was able to sustain this success, but in 2023 viewer numbers declined: after Twitch banned the casino streams of Stake, Scurrows’ channel shrank month by month. Without gambling, Scurrows had only about 1,500 viewers in May 2023 when he was live.
What do the numbers look like now? Scurrows is experiencing an enormous upturn on Twitch:
- In the past 30 days, he was able to reach an average of 6,027 viewers – that’s 307% more than in the previous period.
- A stream on July 11 was particularly successful: he reached an average of 11,854 viewers, peaking at 14,974. Never before had the streamer had so many simultaneous viewers.
How did he achieve this? Scurrows intensified writing tweets after the gambling ban, addressing topics such as LGBTQ+, the roles of men and women, and transgender issues. He repeatedly took a provocative stance and played with the cultural tensions that linger in the air.
In February, for example, he positioned himself offensively “pro Hogwarts Legacy” – the role-playing game was at that time a red rag for a part of the LGBTQ+ community on Twitter and Twitch. Streamer Shurjoka even called for a boycott.
Streamer accuses Scurrows of misogynistic and queerphobic behavior
Ultimately, streamer Shurjoka attacked him after he was heard in a political talk. However, she did not criticize him for his behavior in that talk but for his prior demeanor:
It was about the behavior before, including Scurrows’ entire Twitter history, and it is not difficult to look it up, in which he openly says transphobic, queerphobic, and misogynistic things, including various allegations against him concerning harassment of various influencers, including me.
Shurjoka via YouTube
Scurrows reacted indignantly to this video. He ignored the accusation of transphobic, queerphobic, and misogynistic comments.
He only addressed the accusation of “harassment,” saying that “sexual harassment” is such a serious allegation that it could destroy his career.
He triumphantly showed a video from gamescom 2017, in which he had a supposedly normal conversation with Shurjoka and claimed that it was completely harmless, thus destroying all credibility of Shurjoka and exposing her as a liar.
Shurjoka responded: There had been a second meeting where Scurrows behaved quite differently. But Scurrows denied that.
Now he presented himself as a clever mastermind that no one can touch, because he is so intelligent and can prove everything. People should rather not attack him, he has “fat, fat folders” on everyone.
In doing so, Scurrows apparently orients himself to the US streamer Trainwreck, who responded to accusations against him by launching a counterattack against the streamer Mizkif in September 2022 and thus distracted from all criticism directed at him, leading the streamer into a serious crisis.
The polarization drives up viewing numbers
Why has this helped him so much? The topic “Scurrows vs. Shurjoka” has developed into a wildfire on Twitch and Twitter, where various streamers take a stand, react to each other, and comment on the situation.
Scurrows is mainly supported by the two larger content creators KuchenTV and MontanaBlack, who have been at odds with Shurjoka for a long time and financially profit from ranting against the streamer.
Since the beginning of the dispute, Scurrows has been increasingly active on Twitch, especially ranting about politically left-leaning streamers and accusing them of retreating into a victim role, emphasizing how difficult it is “as a man”:
- He emphasizes that he has proven his own innocence beyond a doubt and that anyone who still rants against him is actually making a fool of themselves.
- In doing so, he falls into rough language and immerses himself in the topics as if the counterarguments are so crazy that they drive him mad.
Since the conflict escalated, Shurjoka has withdrawn from social media.
Apparently, he hits a nerve of the times with his behavior and the image of a tormented man, “who is no longer allowed to say anything,” and can primarily grow through the ongoing discussion and outrage over his theses on Twitter.
He complements his success with a multitude of short videos on YouTube and TikTok, which US creators have also discovered as a new method to fuel their classic channels on YouTube and Twitch.
For many on Twitch, this seems to be even better entertainment than watching Scurrows play GTA 5 or gambling.
Scurrows against Shurjoka: What is behind the conflict that is currently occupying German Twitch?
