Marcel “MontanaBlack” Eris (36) is one of the most famous streamers on German Twitch. Recently, however, the 36-year-old has been less active on air and hardly appears in his home setup. There is an unpleasant reason for this, as he now reveals.
What is the deal with streaming outside? We are talking about so-called IRL streams, where streamers move in the “real world.” For a long time, MontanaBlack was mainly seen in his “headquarters,” his streaming room bathed in neon light.
However, after his unfortunate appearance at gamescom 2022, he increasingly enjoyed IRL streams. He thrilled 60,000 viewers with a visit to a zoo or overcame his fear of heights while riding a roller coaster.
In 2024, the trend continues: MontanaBlack streams significantly less, but more IRL. Last year, the streamer was on air an average of 4 times a week for 5 hours each time. In the current year, MontanaBlack has shown up only about 3 times a week on average, and the trend is declining. During this time, IRL made up more than a third of his content, almost 38% (via TwitchTracker).
In the stream from April 28, 2024, MontanaBlack admitted that not only the fun of outdoor activities is behind this change. The entire stream is available on his Twitch channel.
No more streams from headquarters for now
Why does he hardly stream from home anymore? MontanaBlack explains that he wants to feel comfortable at home. However, due to “certain circumstances,” he can no longer do so at the moment. The reason is viewers who terrorize him with wrong food orders and emergency calls. We are talking about so-called food raids and swatting.
This is what it’s all about: These supposed pranks are increasingly becoming a problem on Twitch. Streamers often don’t talk about it because they don’t want to give the perpetrators any attention and therefore encourage them further. According to reports from SPIEGEL and the ARD magazine Kontraste, there is a group that is supposedly behind swatting incidents involving 132 Twitch streamers.
The perpetrators often aim to watch the streamers’ reactions live. For the victims, swatting often represents an enormous psychological burden. Therefore, it is by no means a harmless joke. In the USA, a swatting incident has even led to the death of an innocent person.
In Germany, swatting is punishable by law and can be punished with a monetary fine or imprisonment for up to one year (via Anwalt.org). However, that is not enough for MontanaBlack. He says he feels abandoned and must now face the consequences.
A clip from the corresponding stream can be seen here:
According to the 36-year-old, these incidents are also responsible for the fact that he streams less overall and has only gone live from home when a friend was present. Thus, he didn’t have to get up himself when there was “action at his doorstep” again.
The situation is said to have also affected his streams. MontanaBlack says he has been more tense than joyful when going live and has constantly kept an eye on his surveillance system. Viewers may have noticed that he was easier to provoke. However, he no longer wants to continue like this. He wants to preserve his home, his “feel-good oasis”.
MontanaBlack assures that he indeed has a desire to stream and has some cool projects planned. Fans also do not have to completely forgo the home setup: He wants to continue hosting his off-stream recordings there.
Unfortunately, IRL streams are also not safe from swatting. On the contrary, this type of content was long regarded as particularly dangerous, as it is relatively easy for viewers to find out the current whereabouts of the streamers. This was exemplified by the case of the notorious IcePoseidon, who was terrorized daily with police deployments.
