The streamer Timothy “TimTheTatman” Betar is one of the most successful and largest performers on the platform Twitch in recent years. The gaming streamer is now fed up with the fuss over copyright music, copyright strikes, and Twitch bans. He is not afraid of a Twitch ban. After all, he is already set for life.
This is streamer TimTheTatman: The 30-year-old American Timothy Betar has been on Twitch for 8 years. He made a name for himself as a shooter player, and was crazy about Overwatch. However, TimTheTatman only had his breakthrough in 2018: He was part of the clique around Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. Ninja was so successful with Fortnite that some of his regular gaming partners also became top streamers on Twitch.
Betar played the role of “the chill, scatterbrained, older player” in the group, who seemed a bit clumsy and was often the target of criticism from the overly ambitious and hyper Ninja.
TimTheTatman cultivated the role of “the bear-like, down-to-earth streamer” and has seen enormous growth on Twitch in recent years. He is a personality streamer: the kind of streamer you would like to have as a friend to grab a drink with in the evening and talk about everyday problems.
Unlike many of his colleagues, Betar often appears self-ironic. When he gets taken out by a young CoD pro, he curses: He’s a 30-year-old dad who is slowly going bald – the boys should take it a bit easier.
With his style of streaming, Betar has long found his core audience: TimTheTatman has 5.84 million followers, making it the eighth largest channel on Twitch, and he is one of the most popular streamers on the platform. Somehow everyone likes him, he doesn’t hurt anyone.
I listen to music – that’s just how I am
This is what TimTheTatman is upset about: In a stream from December 4th, TimTheTatman is warned by a fan: Better not listen to music. Because that could lead to a Twitch ban.
Indeed, the music industry has targeted Twitch since May 2020 and bombards the platform with thousands of copyright complaints every month. With repeated violations of copyright rules, streamers are banned from Twitch: The streaming platform must investigate reported violations and penalize them.
Twitch recommends streamers not to play music. They should also better turn off the music in games.
The streamer visibly gets more and more passionate after the fan’s warning.
If I get a stupid ban, I’m going to the beach! I’ve been on Twitch for 8 years, I’ve been listening to music normally for 7 years, and now suddenly it’s like: “HEY! Stop it!” People, it’s totally normal to [listen to music]. That’s just what I do.
If I get a stupid ban, then I’m just banned. Whatever. I’m going to invest my money and go to the damn beach.
TimTheTatman
TimTheTatman then explains that he doesn’t mind not streaming on Twitch anymore, but lying on the beach. He will drink beer there, wear a straw hat, and get fat.
And if someone asks 5 or 10 years later: “What happened to TimTheTatman?”, then they will see a thicker version of him running on the beach wearing a straw hat.
Streamers and their Twitch bans
This is what it’s all about: Various personalities stream on Twitch, playing different roles and embodying them. Much of it is certainly acted, but some is authentic.
For the ambitious businessman Dr Disrespect, the Twitch ban was apparently a disaster that weighed heavily on him. Months later, Dr Disrespect said he has suffered from panic attacks since the ban. He struggled with the fact that Twitch could take everything away from him that he had built up over the years.
Streamers like xQc or summit1g are constantly streaming. They have built their entire lives around Twitch. A permanent ban would probably throw them completely off course.
Even a temporary ban sent xQc down a path of regret and reflection.
Also MontanaBlack made it clear how difficult a 33-day ban hit him, because he was no longer allowed to do what he enjoys so much.
For many others, a Twitch ban would be an economic disaster: It would instantly destroy their livelihood.
TimTheTatman, however, seems to be a type of person who can imagine a life without Twitch. The idea of enjoying life and just hanging out on the beach seems to have no fear for him.
However, it seems hard to imagine that Betar will be banned from Twitch: Streamers like TimTheTatman are economically enormously valuable for Twitch as advertising figures and lighthouse streamers. Especially the feel-good streamer “TimTheTatman” is brand-friendly for the platform.
Banning a “Top 10” streamer would be something different than losing someone like the controversial Top-100 streamer Forsen.
Permanently banning on Twitch is no joke. Streamer Sebastian “Forsen” Fors had to experience this firsthand. A troll from his community slipped him a picture that briefly showed Forsen during the stream. But that was too much:
Twitch bans one of its biggest streamers forever – Because of a picture
