Streamer Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo was at the center of serious allegations a few weeks ago: The 27-year-old allegedly covered up an incident of sexual harassment by a friend. The public outrage was significant. Now, he is back on Twitch after a 3-week break. Not everyone is pleased.
What triggered the public outrage against Mizkif?
- Mizkif was involved in a word battle with streamer Trainwreck, concerning gambling on Twitch. Trainwreck is the most successful casino streamer on Twitch, throwing around money and apparently possessing neither filters nor a strong impulse control. So he is exactly the kind of person you definitely do not want to get into a word fight with.
- Suddenly, Trainwreck confronted him, saying Mizkif should get off his high moral horse. He had allegedly sent his then-girlfriend Maya Higa and the streamer Mitch Jones to extort girls to cover up sexual misconduct.
- The accusation hit hard and abruptly halted Mizkif’s Twitch career.
This was the immediate reaction to the allegation:
The discussion concerning this accusation quickly engulfed not only Mizkif’s community but also that of Twitch and Twitter. It worsened as details emerged, with the affected streamer Adriannah Lee herself coming forward, revealing that she was apparently sexually assaulted in her sleep by a friend of Mizkif.
Clips surfaced in which Mizkif downplayed the incident.
His then-girlfriend Maya expressed her shock. She stated that she never wanted to do it that way, seeing her role very differently. The friend from whom the sexual harassment allegedly originated had to leave Mizkif’s house. Mizkif’s current acquaintance, Emiru, appeared distraught and assured that the Mizkif she knows is not as portrayed now.
Mizkif is a co-founder of a significant group of content creators, One True King: They seemed to distance themselves from him, leaving his membership on hold until the case was resolved. The streamer group is now having the case investigated by a law firm.
Almost as a matter of course, Mizkif was not on air for weeks: While there was no ban from Twitch or anything like that, he disappeared for several weeks.
The career of Mizkif, it seemed, was paused until the case was finally resolved.
The last thing we heard from Mizkif was his voice in a secret call, where he seemed almost helpless and attempted to devise a damage control strategy with the help of Asmongold.
Asmongold as the voice of reason – that’s also new.
Mizkif back on Twitch – But unable to talk about the allegations
This was now his return to streaming: After 3 weeks of hiatus, Mizkif was now back on Twitch. He said he had gone through the worst weeks of his life. Plagued by nightmares, he could barely sleep, perhaps 3 hours a night.
Regarding the incident that still remains unresolved, he would like to talk but cannot. His lawyers have strongly advised him to remain silent about the case while the investigation by the law firm is ongoing.
Critics fear that Mizkif will suffer no consequences and just continue
What are the reactions to the stream? Mizkif was online for almost 7 hours and at peak had 70,000 viewers, averaging about 46,207. This is slightly higher than his channel average in the last 90 days.
It is clear that he was watched.
However, there are some very negative reactions on Twitter, expressing outrage that Mizkif is apparently just continuing as before.
- Streamer Kaceytron writes: “Mizkif goes live and tries to laugh off the sexual harassment, that’s disgusting. This is why I want a safe space for women. Our trauma is a joke to him. This slimeball just deletes his videos and everything else as soon as he sees that a community is not laughing.”
- Another user says: “Mizkif says he’s glad his chat is not mad at him. As if the mods don’t ban everyone who’s angry or upset with him.”
- Streamer FaZe Snaily says: “Why is Mizkif crying during his stream as if he’s the victim? That’s absurd and his chat loves him.”
The stream from Mizkif, which lasted almost 7 hours, is currently no longer available as video-on-demand on Twitch. Also, all clips from the stream are no longer viewable. It’s quite possible that the stream has been deleted.
More on the topic:
Streamer Emiru criticizes the handling of sexual harassment on Twitch: “It makes me sick”
