Twitch has temporarily banned former Overwatch pro and current streaming star Felix “xQc” Lengyel (24) from the streaming platform. The reason seems to be that he was too careless about what he played. He stumbled upon a game on Steam that he would have preferred not to discover.
This is the game in question: xQc played the game “Strip 4” yesterday. It is a relatively new game on Steam. Strip 4 is a variation of “Connect Four”. In this two-player strategy game, the goal is to get four of your own pieces in a row.
In Strip 4: Classmate Study, you play the strategy game against a “school friend” who strips when you win against her. So it’s very much close to real life.
Such “risque” games are popular on Steam: Recently, a Chinese studio wanted to use its Bejeweled variant to “keep Chinese people occupied during the Corona virus”.
School friend defeated, bra removed, banned by Twitch
This is why xQc was banned: When xQc defeated the virtual school friend, the game offered to remove the opponent’s bra. However, there was no “No” option, only an “Ok” option.
xQc pressed “Ok” and the character was then naked from the waist up with visible nipples. xQc quickly realized: This is against Twitch rules and will cause trouble for him. Twitch is known for quickly and generously issuing bans for nudity.
xQc then screamed and quickly hid the screen, but it was apparently too late.
His channel went offline. In his Discord, xQc then explained that his Twitch channel had been banned, as reported by Gamerant.
He believes that viewers reported the incident en masse to Twitch, resulting in the immediate ban. According to xQc, the ban was not reviewed by a Twitch employee:
Insta-bans result 100% from mass reports, they are not manual. Manual bans take about a day to take effect.
xQc explains his Twitch ban in Discord
How long does the ban last? At the moment it is not known. However, it will likely be a temporary ban lasting between 3 and 7 days. According to the Twitch CEO, bans always depend on the context.
xQc has already been banned once in July 2019. Twitch has a “Three Strikes Out” rule. A third temporary ban would automatically result in a permanent ban.
xQc the star of “young Twitch viewers”
Who is xQc? xQc is currently the third most popular streamer on Twitch in terms of hours watched. Only summit1g (Escape from Tarkov) and LoL star Tyler1 ranked ahead of him in the last 30 days.
If we look at the last 90 days on Twitch, xQc even reached second place among solo streamers.
xQc was previously an Overwatch pro, but he had serious problems there due to his impulsive nature. As a Twitch streamer, he has been immensely successful, especially in the last few months:
- xQc is a variety streamer, he plays a variety of games
- often he is in “Just Chatting” and reacting to videos on the internet or clips from others
- he particularly appeals to a young audience, being popular with the “TikTok” generation. Much to the displeasure of “Boomer” DrDisrespect
- xQc is a really good shooter player and not just an entertainer
- he has a very particular way of speaking, with a strange sentence rhythm and emphasis – the Fortnite player Myth loves to imitate xQc
xQc often seems a bit clueless or scatterbrained: He apparently learned through the press that his Overwatch team was dissolving. However, they explained that he was not actually one of their players.
It is unclear how much of this is real and how much is show. What happens when you play “Strip 4” live on Twitch, he probably could have anticipated.
- In December 2019, xQc was the biggest streamer on Twitch: At MeinMMO, we said back then Ninja and shroud have conquered the TikTok generation on Twitch and we meant his rise.
- A wonderful scene from the early days of xQc shows how his mother secretly supplied him with food during a stream.
Update 2.3. 12:19 PM: xQc has filed a complaint against the ban and Twitch has already responded.
