A larger operator organized a tournament in Sea of Thieves. The prize pool: $35,000, or over €32,000. One of the participants was the well-known Twitch streamer summit1g, who was not satisfied with the “allowed” means.
Who is this about?
- Jaryd “summit1g” Lazar is one of the biggest streamers on Twitch. As a variety streamer, he showcases all kinds of games, even returning to PUBG at the beginning of 2022.
- Recently, he has been playing more Sea of Thieves again. With the pirate game, he was even able to gather more subscriptions than competitor Ninja at peak times.
- On April 1st, a tournament took place in Sea of Thieves, in which summit1g participated alongside other well-known figures. The goal was to complete tasks for a sort of bingo. However, the streamer was extremely upset about the course of the event.
This is why summit1g is angry: According to the streamer and some other participants he spoke with, some of their competitors cheated when they won. However, they only found out later.
As summit1g explains in the video, there were apparently some participants who incited their viewers to hunt the other streams to gather as much information as possible. This method is called stream sniping.
What is stream sniping? In stream sniping, one watches a streamer live while they play and utilizes the information. This creates an advantage, as one knows where the opponent is or what they are doing.
Stream sniping has repeatedly ruined events and tournaments, which is why streamers often only broadcast with a delay. This way the sniper’s information is outdated and only partially useful.
One of the rules of the tournament, however, was that everyone had to broadcast live and without delay. This meant that some participants knew where their opponents were and what they were doing at any given moment. According to comments on YouTube, some of the competitors had essentially used their chats as a live ticker to sabotage.
Most participants, including summit1g, believed that this was actually prohibited – or that there was a “gentleman’s agreement” under which an accidental glance at the chat would not be immediately punished. After all, it is a form of cheating, as he puts it. However, the organizers allowed the sniping, as the streamer learned from a message from another participant:
“Hey dude, we wanted ghosting/stream sniping to be prohibited. After we asked the organizers, they said it was another element of the tournament. I thought all crews knew that.” However, that was not the case.
The streamer claims to have 56 screenshots that clearly show information about the positions of the participants. Summit1g placed fourth out of five in the tournament – right before DrDisrespect’s team.
“You can’t just sweep this under the rug!”
Summit1g sees a communication problem here. It was not clarified what is allowed and what is not. Especially more experienced streamers would assume that such unfair means are not permitted, so they wouldn’t even think to ask:
I have never experienced a tournament that allows simply sharing information across all streams. […] This is not something an organizer can just sweep under the rug. It is very important to address something like this. ‘Hey, stream sniping is allowed’ or ‘is it not?’. One assumes that it is prohibited – so one doesn’t even ask. That makes no sense! […]
This is a tournament! How can one not automatically assume that stream sniping is forbidden? Do you think people will remember to ask the organizers about it?
summit1g
The tournament was organized by BOOM.tv. The organizer frequently hosts tournaments and, according to their description, aims to help gaming communities grow and connect with each other.
Even though summit1g’s anger mainly concerns the participants who “cheated”, some of his fans see a larger problem. Such an incident can have a lasting impact on trust in all further tournaments.
Other users and participants defend the method – after all, they had asked for permission and received it. Nevertheless, stream sniping is seen as cheating and is often equated with cheats in the community. The topic keeps coming up on Twitch and in gaming in general:
CoD pro wants to show the world that he doesn’t cheat – while showing his cheats
