The German ohnePixel is one of the largest Twitch streamers of Valve’s shooter CS:GO worldwide. His content mainly revolves around opening cases and trading skins. He could make a lot of money with it, but the streamer wanted nothing to do with that.
What is this deal about? It is said to be an offer from a website that offers gambling with CS:GO skins. ohnePixel says about it: “I would make 1 million a month if I accepted a gambling sponsor, let’s just say that. And I’m not making a million a month right now.”
While skins have been traded for high sums on the Steam marketplace for some time, these gambling sites have a rather bad reputation. Valve is already cracking down on such traders and banning valuable accounts.
Twitch also implemented a ban, stating that streamers are not allowed to promote or be sponsored by these gambling sites (via Kotaku). However, it is unclear how this regulation will be enforced. For the streamer, though, this was reportedly not the reason for rejecting such an offer.
The announcement of Counter-Strike 2 has caused a renewed hype around CS:GO.
Sponsoring could cost streamers their sleep
What reasons does ohnePixel give? The streamer explains that it is not only about money for him and that he could not accept such a sponsor in good conscience. He does this for himself as well, so that he can sleep well at night, says ohnePixel. He prefers to pursue a long-term plan:
I don’t just want to stream, cash in, and then what? Have it made for the rest of my life? I think I can do this for a longer time and still have a great life.
For ohnePixel, it is also about the influence that such sponsorship could have on his content and thus on his viewers. He does not want anyone to become dependent because of him, as he knows how badly that can end:
You pay your bills with the money of other people who have fallen into addiction. Some cases could end even worse, as there are always gambling addicts who end up in a really bad situation, right?
Although opening cases in CS:GO – like loot boxes in general – is already considered a form of gambling by critics, it seems important for the streamer to draw a line. He opens expensive cases with the risk of not receiving valuable skins but always warns his viewers not to do this at home.
It should also be noted that ohnePixel is not always burning his own money. Some fans give streamers cases so that they can open them live on stream. Recently, the Twitch streamer received cases worth a whopping 120,000 €, which he opened in a mega stream in front of half a million people.
Even though ohnePixel is currently not earning quite a million euros or dollars per month, he seems to be doing well at the moment without having to compromise his conscience.
Twitch streamers who show gambling on their channels and also accept sponsorship deals have been criticized for a long time. While they are well protected, their viewers lose real money. A young man reported how he himself fell into addiction through such content:
