In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the award for “Streamer of the Year 2024” was given. Once again, a person from the Spanish-speaking community won, and for the second time in a row, the Twitch streamer Samantha Rivers. However, in 2024, this caused a stir and heated discussions in the USA. The streamer Asmongold said that Rivers only won because she is a woman. This has triggered a wave of negative comments that the streamer is now suffering from.
This is the controversy:
- For the “Streamer of the Year” award in Riyadh, 10 streamers from Twitch and YouTube were nominated, including 6 who stream in English, 2 who stream in Portuguese, and 2 who stream in Spanish.
- The winner was the Mexican Rivers, the only woman in the field.
- It was purely a community vote, yet there is now trouble.
He was a favorite for many to win the award. The YouTube streamer IShowSpeed:
Asmongold complains about “Diversity” decision
What is the controversy? We reported on August 27 on meinMMO that Asmongold, who was not even nominated, criticized the decision and claimed, that Rivers only won because “she is a woman.”
It was a purely “diversity nomination” – Rivers is not even among the top female streamers.
It should have been either IShowSpeed or Kai Cenat who won.
xQc says: If it were based on numbers, he should have won 4 years in a row
US streamer xQc pointed out that he actually should have won four years in a row from 2019 to 2022 based on pure numbers. Because he was always far ahead. That’s pure mathematics.
However, such an award ceremony is not based on numbers, but is rather “biased” and therefore often misses the mark – it’s always been like this (via xQc Clips YouTube).
This is somewhat reminiscent of the reaction of MontanaBlack, who also complained about an award he did not win.
The Spanish-speaking community is puzzled
Who defends her? Rivers receives support from the Spanish-speaking community. El Rubius, so to speak the counterpart of xQc in Spain, says: If they, [the US streamers], want to win awards, they need to wake up.
He emphasizes that we cannot blame Rivers for winning an award that is awarded through a community vote.
The Spanish-speaking site 3DJuegos adds: That a streamer from the Spanish-speaking community won the award for the fifth time in a row. But in 2024, Americans were upset about it for the first time.
Who actually won the award? The list of winners looks like this (via Dot Esports):
- 2016 – Michael “Imaqtpie” Santana
- 2017 – Dr Disrespect (a.k.a Guy Beahm)
- 2018 – Tyler “Ninja” Blevins
- 2019 – Dr Disrespect
- 2020 – Ibai “Ibai” Llanos
- 2021 – Ibai
- 2022 – Ibai
- 2023 — Samy Rivers
For four years, English-speaking streamers won, but since 2020, Spanish-speaking ones have.
Rivers herself says: She didn’t even want to win the award
What does the winner herself say? For the 26-year-old, the situation is apparently extremely uncomfortable. She writes in a tweet on August 27:
The comments, messages in all my social media full of hate and harassment and even death threats that I have been receiving from other communities for days make no sense. I don’t know what the hate against me is supposed to be justified by.
I am not a controversial person; I always avoid problems. It’s an award that is given 100% by voting. For those who don’t know: My community always votes for me to support me.
I asked in a tweet that they not vote for me; it’s not my fault, and it’s not their fault that a vote decides who wins the award. This year I could neither attend the award ceremony nor did I have anything to do with it.
It’s distressing and scares me how cruel people can be to someone without thinking about how that person will feel and without even knowing them or speaking their language. People I admired are now throwing shit at me for something I didn’t ask for. I apologize to the Speed and Kai community, but it wasn’t my fault.
And for people with such a large community that they don’t mind saying bad things about someone without knowing anything about them, I hope they realize the impact they have and that they are only inciting hate against someone who has done nothing. In my 4 years on the internet, this has never happened to me, but I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
Rivers accuses US streamers of inciting hate against her without knowing her
What’s behind it: It’s a very uncomfortable situation. The “person I admire and who is now saying terrible things about me without knowing me” is apparently referring to Asmongold.
He has an enormous reach. And he is criticized precisely for inciting hate without caring at all about the consequences of his actions or being aware of his responsibility. His Twitch clip in which he complains about Rivers’ win has now garnered 187,000 views: 26-year-old beats 9 men in the vote for Streamer of the Year – Asmongold rumbles: “Only because she is a woman”
