The streamer Félix “xQc” Lengyel sees himself as “the face of Twitch” in a tier list of the best streamers. However, he comes up empty in the “Streamer of the Year” nominations for 2022.
What’s this about being “the face of Twitch?”
- The term “the face of Twitch” is an unofficial title for the current most successful, trending, and relevant streamer. It means something like: This is Twitch’s figurehead. This is the person you think of first when talking about Twitch streamers.
- The title was first claimed by DrDisrespect: He revolutionized Twitch with his persona as a mustachioed character. But in 2018, he was overtaken by Ninja, who greatly benefited from Fortnite and brought Twitch into the mainstream. Already in 2019, however, shroud took over, a veteran of the platform. He was again a “classic streamer.”
- Then shroud and Ninja moved away from Twitch, and a new generation took the reins in December 2019: In recent years, xQc has been the most successful and largest streamer on Twitch and thus “somehow” the face of the streaming service. xQc primarily attracted a young audience and took Twitch quite a bit away from gaming towards an entertainment niche with his reaction streams.
These were the former “faces of Twitch” before the term existed.
xQc says: These 4 people are “the face of Twitch”
This was the tier list: The streamer xQc created a tier list about 3 weeks ago of who he thinks belongs at the top of Twitch.
Among those at the highest level, the “face of Twitch,” the streamer counted:
- Himself, xQc,
- Summit1g, a shooter player and veteran on Twitch who puts in an immense number of hours
- Asmongold, an MMORPG expert with expressive cheekbones
- Tyler1 – a fanatic LoL streamer
In further spots, in the A-Tier, well-known names like Ludwig, Sodapoppin, DrDisrespect, or shroud came.
The master proudly surveys his work:
How was the list received? The list was intensely discussed in the English-speaking Twitch community:
- Pokimane is somewhat annoyed that she only appeared in the “B-Tier” as the first woman – and she has always been nice to xQc, even inviting him over and letting him use her bathroom.
- The political streamer Hasan saw it as a personal attack that he only made it to the B-Tier and created his own “I could punch him” tier list, clearly placing xQc as a victim.
- Strangely enough, DrDisrespect is also on the list, who is no longer even found on Twitch.
Nominations for “Streamer of the Year 2022” are more diverse
What is xQc surprised about now? The problem with the list is that it focuses purely on the English-speaking area and does not take any non-English-speaking streams into account. As a result, xQc has now confronted a reality check.
At the “Esports Awards,” the “Streamer of the Year” is honored. This is a relatively coveted award, which the Spaniard Ibai won in the last two years. Previously, streamers like DrDisrespect or Tyler “Ninja” Blevins received it.
However, this list of nominees for the award is significantly more diverse than xQc’s:
- With QTCinderella and Valkyrae, there are two women on the list
- With Ibai, TheGrefg (both Spanish), Gaules (Portuguese) and Kameto (French), there are 4 people on the list who do not stream in English
- With shooter specialist Tarik, there is also a player on the list who plays no role in xQc’s world
How does xQc react to these nominations? He is quite astonished when he sees the names of the nominees and searches in vain for his own.
He is particularly annoyed that “Tyler1” is found on the list.
xQc solemnly states that he doesn’t care about not being nominated for such lists but that it hurts him visibly that Tyler1 is on the list and he is not.
Spaniard Ibai is a strong favorite to be awarded Streamer of the Year again in 2022
How is this list discussed? On reddit, there is a general consensus that the Spaniard “Ibai” will surely win the election and snag the award for the third consecutive time: He simply has too many fans, as he recently proved with a big event.
That xQc is not on the list despite being so successful may be due to his tendency towards gambling streams, it is believed. This could significantly reduce his nomination chances.
What’s behind this: The development underscores that there is no longer “a single face of Twitch” as the platform has become too diverse.
The English-speaking Twitch is only part of the global Twitch – in various countries, local scenes are developing, especially the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking scene is growing enormously.
It’s a bit sad that no streamer who streams in German made it onto the list. Because the streaming landscape has also changed in Germany:
