The streaming platform Twitch has dedicated a clip to the streamer Michael “shroud” Grzesiek (25) to honor him. He is leaving the platform for Mixer. It is evident that Twitch highlights its great features: The message is that on Twitch, small streamers can become stars and benefit greatly.
Who is shroud? The 25-year-old shroud was previously a CS:GO professional and retained his shooter skills from that time. People watched him on Twitch mainly because of his exceptionally good gameplay.
Shroud once explained his career like this:
- He started as a streamer (his channel opened on November 3, 2012)
- Then he streamed, streamed, and streamed
- But then he fell in love with CS:GO, played the ladder, joined a team and went to tournaments (that was around 2014 to 2017)
- Later he became a full-time streamer and brought his fans from CS:GO with him: Thus began his career as a Twitch streamer with strong momentum
Apex Legends was a big hit for shroud
How did the career as a streamer go then? Shroud excited fans with his skills as a “human aimbot.” He was one of the big winners during the PUBG wave on Twitch, which began in 2017.
Shroud had his peak as a streamer in February 2019 – with the surprising release of Apex Legends and the success of the shooter, he reached high viewer numbers on Twitch: In that month he had 15 million viewed hours. That is an enormous amount.
In March 2019, he reached 100,000 subscribers on Twitch: These are the paid subscriptions that secure a stable income for a streamer. That was also an incredibly high number – by any standard.
Thus, shroud had actually achieved everything there is to achieve on Twitch in one month.
Later, after Ninja’s departure to Mixer, shroud was for a while the active streamer on Twitch with the most followers.
In recent months, things have been quieter around shroud. The big new shooter games were absent over the summer, shroud was struggling with an injury, in August and early September he casually devoted himself to WoW Classic.
Now, however, he has announced that he is leaving Twitch and moving exclusively to Mixer.
Good Luck, have Fun
This is how Twitch honors the streamer: Twitch has compiled a Twitter clip that shows shroud in various phases of his Twitch career.
In the clips of CS:GO, PUBG, and Apex Legends, you can admire shroud’s shooter skills and how he has changed.
You can see how the subscriber count rises: The measurable factor for financial success.
Additionally, Twitch shows how shroud helps smaller streamers by hosting their channels and encouraging the community to give them subscriptions and thus donate money.
This is what’s behind it: This is a clever way for Twitch to deal with shroud’s departure:
- It shows what a strong player shroud is
- Twitch emphasizes what a nice, kind guy he is too
However, it also tells a “different story,” a story about Twitch itself: The rise of a streamer to the top through his own extraordinary skill. And how he continuously ensures that smaller streamers benefit from his success.
This way, Twitch presents a scene where Shroud donates 100 subscriptions (which earns the recipient about €250) and says: “This can happen to anyone here on the platform at any second.”
Twitch highlights its own advantages in the clip, showcasing the best moments and highlights. This underscores that it can be worthwhile for small streamers to stay on the platform where there is so much going on.
These are the reactions: The clip receives mainly two types of reactions on Twitter:
- Some people are moved and touched by the video, as they associate many wonderful memories with shroud
- On the other hand, Twitch is praised for having “learned from past mistakes.” Because their handling of Ninja’s transition was very different. People apparently still resent Twitch for that.
After Ninja’s departure to Mixer, Twitch used his channel to promote other Twitch streamers. That did not go well at all:
