The German streamer Marcel “MontanaBlack” Eris says: He received a final warning from Twitch in November 2020. If he gets flagged again for sex talk, he will receive a permanent ban. But that’s not the only reason why he is currently considering a switch: The revenue opportunities on Twitch are getting worse. Just the new change would cost him several hundred thousand US dollars a year.
What trouble does MontanaBlack have with Twitch? As the streamer revealed in a talk with YouTuber Staiy, he has known since 2020 that he wants to leave Twitch as soon as there is a strong alternative platform or a lucrative offer from a competitor. His love for Twitch seems to have faded.
He has repeatedly had trouble with the platform’s rules regarding sexual innuendos.
He acknowledges that he got in trouble for “his Malta trip” . In September 2020, MontanaBlack was banned from Twitch for 33 days after he wandered the streets of Malta during a livestream on Twitch, shouting strange noises at women.
This refers to the “Malta trip”:
The video of my retweet was deleted: pic.twitter.com/XnoZ9A2kDh
— Hänno 🏳️🌈 #EINS (@HandOfBlood) September 24, 2020
Additionally, he yelled obscenities at a woman across the courtyard. MontanaBlack found this 33-day ban from Twitch acceptable:
The point where I would have already left Twitch was actually a year and a half ago. But the competition was not there, or the competition had no interest in the German market. Back then – and that was also my fault – I made mistakes, for example with the topic “Malta.” That was simply something I still regret today.
MontanaBlack
MontanaBlack wanted to give valuable tips to young men in sex talk
What annoys him, however, is a ban from November 2020: At that time, he was banned for 3 days:
After that, I still – and I still don’t feel this – made a hand gesture with a penis in a sex talk and got a 3-day ban for it. Others f* in the livestream and get 7 days for it […]
For the fact that I did a cool sex talk at midnight and […] I really had a good talk where I emphasized to the young people that it is important to think of the woman first and then of oneself. Then I made the comparison of women – oh no, that was before.
With the comparison, MontanaBlack refers to an explanation from December 2019, that women are “like dogs”, which he did not mean to be derogatory.
Twitch told him: One more incident like this and it’s a permanent ban
What happened next? MontanaBlack says that after this talk and the 3-day ban, he received a call from Twitch: He received the 3-day ban, and because he had received similar bans several times in recent years, this was now his last temporary ban – the next ban would be a permanent exclusion from the platform:
With this statement, Twitch left me sitting here, and I didn’t know how to stream on the platform anymore. Every misstep would lead to my permanent ban.
He then sought contact with his Twitch representative and said that the risk was too high for him, and that he would stream on YouTube. It would be enough if he saw breasts in any YouTube video he watched, and then he would be gone. He wants to take this risk.
Subsequently, Twitch worked with him on a solution to work on reducing the penalties. That was also okay. Apparently, this is the same “streamer therapy” that xQc had to go through.
How much MontanaBlack fears a permanent ban from Twitch can be seen here:
Twitch talked for 6 months with him about an exclusivity contract but then offered none
MontanaBlack reveals: Twitch intended to work out an exclusivity contract with him, but nothing came of it. After half a year, Twitch decided not to offer him an exclusivity contract after all.
Since then, MontanaBlack has been considering switching platforms if an attractive competitor offer comes.
The segment starts around 20:50 minutes:
Twitch is becoming stingier for streamers due to 2 changes
Why is the discussion so heated again? Twitch announced that it will no longer offer the largest streamers a 70/30 split of the revenues, but only 50% if they exceed the $100,000 mark. In addition, Twitch had recently lowered the costs for subscriptions, thereby reducing the revenue that streamers receive per subscriber.
According to MontanaBlack, he would earn about $400,000 to $700,000 less per year due to the new split alone. The reduction in subscription prices in August 2021 had already led to reduced earnings, even though Twitch had assured that in the end, more people would subscribe and streamers would not lose money.
MontanaBlack does not want to accept this treatment: He foresees a grim end for Twitch if they continue to treat streamers this way.
What’s behind this: What comes across clearly is that Twitch has lost a lot of sympathy with MontanaBlack over the past two years:
- on the one hand with the threat of a permanent ban, which he considers unjust
- on the other, and even worse, by giving out less money than before
Therefore, MontanaBlack sees no long-term future on Twitch. Just because of cool emotes he will not stay,
An interesting piece of information is that “the competition had no interest in the German market.” By that, he apparently means that YouTube does not offer exclusivity contracts to German gaming streamers, while they throw money around like confetti in the USA, buying “nice streamers” from Twitch, but not exactly MontanaBlack.
A switch to Facebook, which apparently wants to poach German streamers, is not an option for MontanaBlack. He considers the platform unsuitable due to the real name requirement:
MontanaBlack announces Twitch contract – wants to know who “loves him the most”
