In August 2023, Felix “Filow” Nier was at the peak of his career on Twitch. In a podcast, he boasted about having influenced the guest list of the Red Bull Lounge at gamescom 2023, triggering a shitstorm. Now he talks about how he experienced the situation.
What was the situation? At the end of August 2023, after gamescom, YouTuber Cisko G complained that he was denied access to the exclusive influencer lounge of Red Bull, despite having previously received approval.
Twitch streamer Felix “Filow” Nier shortly thereafter bragged in a podcast about the exclusion: “He was initially accepted. Then I read the name. Then he was rejected.” Later he said he wanted to make himself a little important; he was not in a position to invite or uninvite people.
The damage was already done: Other influencers spoke of a major scandal at gamescom and did not want to accept Filow’s explanation. To this day, the Twitch streamer receives online hate for a joke he made a year ago.
Under countless videos on TikTok, the derogatory comment “FilowL” could be found for months. If it appeared in the stream of a friend content creator, comments would quickly follow: Why do something with him; the content is great – apart from Filow’s presence.
Even though the intensity has decreased, the hate still partly persists. In the podcast Henke’s Corner, he talks about how he deals with his “shitstorm” (via YouTube).
Clips are short excerpts from streams or videos. They are often taken out of context and can develop a life of their own online:
Criticism from all sides
How did Filow experience the “scandal”? He says in the podcast that his statement back then was rightly condemned. However, the reaction to it was disproportionate, the streamer believes. He explains that he had experienced an absolute high at that time: for the first time his numbers were really high, everything he did worked.
He acted recklessly and wronged Cisko G, says Filow. In retrospect, he would have done everything quite differently. The Twitch streamer suspects that the reaction was so intense because he is closely associated with Red Bull and was the official host of the brand’s Twitch channel. That could have changed the perception of the otherwise perhaps harmless joke.
Filow’s image also took another hit with the release of a video by YouTuber sophodoph, in which he has a blind date with 7 women at the same time. The Twitch streamer plays a role in it, which is clearly stated at the beginning of the video. This was his “asshole role” back then, which was well received by his fans.
However, this disclaimer is missing in the TikTok clips that emerged from the video, explains Filow. Without this important context, the streamer probably just seemed unsympathetic to many. This fit into the image they had from him due to the turmoil around gamescom.
He was in the “hate wave”, says Filow. It was hard to get out. The streamer says that at first, the criticism did not bother him much. At some point, however, there was no longer any reason, and he was simply attacked from all sides: he was once too “left”, too “woke”; others suddenly depicted him as a racist.
He particularly dislikes that he now has the feeling that some creator colleagues hate him – while he appreciates them and enjoys their content. In particular, he is concerned about the GTA clique, which also includes Cisko G.
Filow also emphasizes that many streamers are not thick-headed and understand the connections. Thus, he was not excluded by other influencers in his environment.
How has it been for Filow since then? The high that Filow reported was over for the time being. Looking at his numbers, he had been growing steadily in 2023. In August, he then reached an average of 1,148 viewers – in the following months, only about half remained, in November only about a third.
In the last few months, however, it has slowly started to pick up again for the streamer: he recorded even 1,493 viewers on average in the past 7 days. It seems, therefore, that the “scandal” has not harmed him sustainably.
Whether he can ever completely put the topic behind him is uncertain: he is simply “burned” for many people. But that is normal when one appears foolish on the Internet, says Filow. That the internet does not forget was also noted by another streamer recently:
Twitch streamer deceived his friends and fans out of 300,000 euros – What is he doing today?
