The Twitch streamer Skumnut mastered a special challenge in God of War. However, he was banned by the streaming platform for a thoughtless remark. Now he is allowed to return because a friend advocated for him.
What was behind the ban? Skumnut is a content creator known mainly for Souls games and Soulslikes. He streamed Elden Ring for 364 hours alone (via TwitchTracker). For his first playthrough in God of War Ragnarök, the streamer wanted to challenge himself particularly in 2022:
He attempted a “Kick Only” run, defeating all enemies solely with kicks. According to his own statements, he is the first player to have successfully completed such a run. He streamed almost 10 hours daily for a week to achieve this.
He apparently wanted to share his success with the friendly streamer Mega. While Mega was on air, Skumnut wrote in his chat: “I will kick you to death.” This was probably intended as a joke, and Mega also reacted laughingly to the message, explaining to his chat that it was likely a reference to Skumnut’s “Kick Only” run.
Twitch, however, understood little humor and banned Skumnut indefinitely. Despite the streamer’s efforts to explain the situation, the ban was not lifted. It seemed that Skumnut had been permanently banned for a basically harmless joke.
“I always come back”
What is the current development? On October 24, 2023, Skumnut was surprisingly unbanned after 11 months and 6 days. This was announced via the automated account StreamerBans on X, formerly Twitter.
The streamer responded to the post by sharing a photo of himself with his middle finger raised. He wrote: “I always come back.”
Why was the ban lifted? As Skumnut writes in a comment, the streamer Matthew “MattApocalypse” traveled to TwitchCon in Las Vegas and spoke on-site with staff about the case.
Although Skumnut thanked his friend, he has not yet used his newfound freedom for a comeback stream on Twitch. Instead, he remains active on YouTube, where he has more than 230,000 subscribers.
The unbanning of Skumnut occurs just a few weeks after the alleged permanent ban of the scandal streamer IShowsSpeed was lifted. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy had already suggested in September the possibility of giving permanently banned streamers a second chance. It seems they are adhering to this.
This raises the question of whether there is still hope for DrDisrespect. The shooter streamer was permanently banned in 2020, and the reasons for it were never publicly disclosed. A sentence from the boss now provides a hint as to why he was banned from Twitch forever
