A controversy over “stream sniping” has erupted in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. The implied accusation: The game favors its Twitch stars too heavily.
Stream sniping is a reason for a ban in PUBG. But what does that even mean?
Stream sniping – Hunting the Twitch Stars
In “stream sniping”, you watch the stream of a player you are targeting to gain an advantage. You check when they log in and log into the same lobby at the same time to land in a match with them. Once you’re in the match with them, you know where they are, can ambush them, and kill them.
Streamers like to say when they get killed: “They are stream sniping us!” The current hit shooter PUBG pays particular attention to its streamers. There, “stream sniping” is a reason for a ban.
In PUBG, player Lethoe was recently accused of spying on the popular streamer “Shroud” and then killing him. As punishment, he received a one-week ban.
This happened during a special event: The popular streamers Summit1G and Shroud were playing together and were killed multiple times – including by “Lethoe”, who shortly thereafter received the message “You are banned“.
Warning – those who speak English should brace themselves for some profanity; here is the kill on Shroud and the immediate accusation “They are sniping our stream!”
Banned player says: I don’t even watch Twitch
Ironically: The player says, “I don’t even watch Twitch.” His kill on Shroud was purely coincidental during a gunfight.
The ban came so quickly after the kill, says Lethoe, that it cannot possibly be legitimate. The team would not have had time to verify if the ban was legitimate. They must have acted on impulse.
Pampered Stars?
This incident seems to be dividing the PUBG community. While one half says: Streamers must be protected – anyone who “stream snipes” deserves to be banned, the other half is on the side of the banned player and says: “Normal players must be protected just like Twitch streamers.” The ban is arbitrary.
They see this as pampering the star streamers, to whom PUBG owes a large part of its success. It’s like saying, “They think they play so well that they can only die by unfair means.”
While community managers are still trying to create balance, the head of the game, PlayerUnknown, sees it differently. In his opinion, the banned player was rightly banned. While it cannot be proven that he actually watched the stream, he constantly tried to join the same lobby as a player who is streaming. There is no other reason for this than to gain an advantage.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has had some trouble with streamers lately. The last incident was about a self-proclaimed performance artist whose performance was being a particularly nasty guy:
PUBG: Boss bans one of the biggest streamers – who threatens him with a beating
