On January 2nd, some German Twitch streamers, including those from the League of Legends community, started a project: They wanted to help fellow streamers and take over their streams to prevent burnout. There were jokes and banter on Twitter. Casino streamer Kevin “Orangemorange” Bongers also wanted to join in, but nobody found that particularly funny anymore.
What kind of action was that? On January 2nd, Twitch streamer Freiraumreh suggested introducing a “stream representation.” In 2022, many German Twitch streamers had publicly talked about burnout and depression.
She and LoL streamer JustJohnny offered to take over when streamers they were mutually friends with on Twitter needed representation.
They would then play on the streamers’ channels so that the latter could rest while still keeping their paying subscribers, the subs.
Because that’s the catch on Twitch: There is a fear that as soon as one takes a vacation, the subs will disappear, and with that, the foundation of their existence collapses. This leads streamers not to take vacations, to stream even when they are sick, and to stream on weekends and holidays while putting in extremely many hours.
This “self-exploitation” of Twitch streamers to the point of burnout has been a problem on Twitch for many years. Many large US streamers happily accept it when YouTube lures them away from Twitch with a lot of money because there, the hunt for subs is not as aggressive.
German streamers joke with each other on Twitch
How did that go down? It’s being joked about: Der LoL streamer and e-sports athlete Daniel “Broeki” Broekmann submitted the idea: That would be great. If he took a week off, the others could easily stream through for a week and host a subathon. Around 10,000 more subs (about 25,000 €) would surely be within reach for him. As a thank you, he would invite them to dinner.
The strategy nerd Maurice Weber suggested that JustJohnny could play Total War and would thereby torture the LoL community by showing how he plays LoL and Teamfight Tactics at the lowest level.
Who got turned down? Casino streamer Orangemorange, famous for his gamescom cup toss, wanted to join in the discussion and also make a cool remark.
He asked the streamers if they would like to play at the gambling machine for him for 2 to 3 hours.
Streamer Freiraumreh immediately turned him down. “The day we become mutuals is the day Greta buys a private jet,” she kindly told him. She made it clear that the offer to take over Twitch streams does not apply to everyone, but only to selected streamers who belong to her bubble.
LoL streamer JustJohnny at least made a counterproposal to Orangemorange: “I’m happy to take two hours to raise awareness about gambling addiction, role model function, and greed. There might even be time for an excursion about the gambling state treaty and the loss of existence due to gambling debts. Can you send the stream key?”
At that point, Orangemorange was once again out.
What’s behind it: This amusingly showcases a rather serious topic: Gambling streamers are not only criticized by the industry and considered ‘not brand-safe‘, other Twitch streamers also question them critically.
This has led to the brawl at gamescom in Germany and to the ban of the online casino “Stake” on Twitch in the USA: Stake was only banned by Twitch after some of the largest streamers on Twitch such as Mizkif and Pokimane threatened to strike.
JustJohnny’s reference to the state treaty also clearly indicates that gambling is legally in a difficult zone.
The casino streamers indicate “Malta” as their residence, even though they are streaming for a German audience.
There have already been conflicts that they do not actually live in Malta, but have moved to the tax paradise of Madeira. However, one of the casino streamers curtailed the discussion with the threat of a lawsuit:
