The 31-year-old German streamer TrilluXe served as the inspiration for the cover image of an online article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. However, the article was about “Impotence in front of the PC.” The streamer learned this in the middle of a game of Counter-Strike 2 and found it funny, but also somewhat not.
Who is TrilluXe?
- TrilluXe is a German content creator who has been streaming on Twitch for 10 years. He is primarily active in Counter-Strike 2 and Trackmania today. He reaches about 2,000 viewers on Twitch. He has 315,000 subscribers on YouTube.
- He has earned $20,000 in competitive play in Counter-Strike. His biggest success came in 2017 with H1Z1, where he won 12,000 euros at a Twitch Invitational. At the Gamescom Challenge for PUBG in 2018, he took home $8,000 (via esportearnings).
- But now it became his downfall that he was at a Gamescom in Cologne and served as a model for a photographer’s snapshot.
Süddeutsche Zeitung uses image of streamer as cover image
What was the image used for? The Süddeutsche Zeitung published a medical article on March 20, titled “Impotent in front of the PC.”
To illustrate this rather abstract article, they apparently obtained a random photo of gamers and happened to find a snapshot from Gamescom showing TrilluXe deeply focused in front of a PC.
For the streamer, the combination of the title “Impotent in front of the PC” and his image was something he couldn’t just let stand.
Especially not when his streamer friends immediately commented with GIFs of floppy sausages.
How did he react? In a YouTube video of TrilluXe, you can see how the 31-year-old is made aware of the article by the Twitch chat during a game of Counter-Strike 2; he can hardly believe it at first and had to smile.
His first reaction, “My little man stands strong, what am I doing on the cover?” he then shared with the world in a tweet.
In the video, you can then follow how he repeatedly engages with the article, asserts his masculine performance, and suspects that he will have to hear about it for the next few years.
He considers immediately bringing in lawyer Christian Solmecke, because every German Twitch streamer knows: “Better Call Sol.”
What was the article about? The article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung discusses a study that states that sitting in front of the PC increases the risk of erectile dysfunction: every 1.2 hours that men spend in front of the PC increases the risk of erectile dysfunction by a factor of 3.57, the study is quoted.
However, the author of the Süddeutsche views this study critically. The study from Shanghai offers a “confusing graphic” and ends with “The topic needs further research.” For the author, the study merely shows the impotence of the research itself.
He believes that researchers stared at the data for so long until they found something they could write about.
Who is the author of the article? Werner Bartens is a doctor, non-fiction author, and science journalist who has won numerous awards for his work as a medical journalist. He was frequently seen as an expert in talk shows during the Corona epidemic.
How did it end? Below the tweet from the Süddeutsche on the topic, TrilluXe responded and offered the author to “convince him otherwise in a private meeting.”
However, the newspaper apparently withdrew from this conflict by silently changing the cover image.
In any case, TrilluXe now has the image from the original article as the cover image of his Twitter account. The Süddeutsche Zeitung will probably pay better attention next time to whom they use for the topic “Impotent in front of the PC” for their cover image.
Some media outlets still struggle with the topic of gaming:
ZDF reports on CS:GO tournament in Cologne, annoys gamers: “Ridiculous reporting”
