16-year-old Cody “Clix” Conrod is one of the best players in Fortnite. He streamed on Twitch in front of over 100,000 viewers and just won a tournament. But now he has been permanently banned from the streaming platform. He is inconsolable. #FreeClix is trending on Twitter. We take a look at the case at MeinMMO.
Update February 17, 9:15 AM: Twitch has lifted Clix’s permanent ban after just one day and 15 hours. No further explanation was given, but the public pressure on Twitter was high.
Original report:
This is what Clix said: On February 15, Clix tweeted: “Bro, what the fuck, I’m banned on Twitch.”
It means something like: “Goodness, I’m banned on Twitch, what’s going on, bro?”
Clix is familiar with being banned. In 2019, the then 14-year-old was already banned because he was hanging out with player Zayne in Fortnite, who was permanently banned from Twitch. Being on Twitch with someone like that is against the platform’s rules: Clix was excluded from Twitch for a week back then.
But this time, the ban is permanent. The suspension remains in place unless Clix can successfully appeal against it.
The 16-year-old Fortnite prodigy is inconsolable. He writes: He has now been banned from everything he loves.
This was the situation when the ban came: Clix was caught off guard by the ban. He was actually in his prime and just enjoying himself:
- Clix had won a tournament together with world champion Bugha and top player Bizzle: The 1st week of the FNCS Finals in Fortnite
- he had just reached 108,000 simultaneous viewers on Twitch
- Clix was actually at his peak before the ban came
Clix apparently showed the wrong image during the Twitch stream
Why was Clix banned? Twitch itself does not disclose the reason for a ban. The streamer has to do that himself.
But Clix also seems to have no idea why Twitch banned him. Clix says: Even a day later, he still has not received a response from Twitch.
Officially, the parties do not comment on the reason for the ban. It looks from the outside like the Dr.Disrespect situation.
These are the speculations:
As the website Sportskeed reports, Clix accidentally showed a “sexually explicit image” live on Twitch. For that, Twitch had already banned streamer Forsen. Apparently, in Clix’s stream, an image of his Windows system was accidentally visible for a few seconds, showing a folder with a sexually suggestive thumbnail and named “Rons Ass”.
He subsequently ended the stream in shock and deleted the video recording.
Ron appears to be “NRG Ronaldo,” a team colleague of Clix.
The penalty may also be so severe because the “3 Strikes Out” rule applies here. If Twitch streamers are temporarily banned three times in a short period, the penalty becomes permanent.
The current ban is Clix’s third in a relatively short time:
- After the incident with Zayne in November 2019
- Clix was affected in November 2020 in the “DMCA ban wave”
- the Windows folder incident is now the 3rd ban in a short time
#FreeClix trending on Twitter
This is the reaction: Clix seems to be still in shock. He tweeted simply about how sad he is.
His e-sports organization NRG announced that they will file an appeal against Twitch’s ban.
Clix certainly has the fans on his side: The hashtag #FreeClix trended on Twitter on February 15, with 24,400 tweets being made under that motto.
Some Twitter users in Germany are also complaining about Clix’s ban on Twitch: Here again, the example comes up of the female streamer who performed a sex show live on Twitch, showing everything and only received a 3-day ban, while Clix is now banned permanently.
Twitch streamer performs naked sex show, is only banned for 3 days
