Valorant continues to be streamed by various streamers 24/7 to attract viewers with Twitch Drops. However, since streamers are not constantly live during this time and do not disclose this, they are soon facing penalties. Twitch has declared such behavior to be fraudulent.
What is the problem with 24/7 streams? You can only play the Beta of Valorant if you receive an access key via Twitch Drops. Such drops are randomly distributed among active Valorant streamers on Twitch. So those who watch have the chance to receive a coveted drop.
Since such drop hunters and their greed for beta access represent valuable viewers for streamers, it makes sense to stream as much as possible. Therefore, hardcore streamers like Summit1g or Myth are also online for 9 to 10 hours or longer.
However, some streamers – like the Swede Ludwig “Anomaly” Lagertedt – do not bother to stay live for so long. Instead, old content is simply broadcast on the live channel when the streamer has had enough of the livestream.
This way, these streamers remain active all day and occupy the top spots in the Twitch charts. Anomaly reached a peak of 161 hours in 7 days. This annoys honest live streamers like Summit1g immensely and undermines the whole Twitch system.
On the other hand, the prospect of massive additional viewers is simply too tempting for many streamers, which is why more and more of them are also resorting to permanent streams.
Twitch calls 24/7 streamers fraudsters
These are the other contents of the patch: After this issue has persisted for a while, Twitch has finally taken action and addressed the topic via Twitter.
We have heard concerns that content creators are continuously streaming VODs [Video on Demand, recorded content] while marking the channel as “live” to farm Valorant drops. This undermines the integrity of our drop program, which is why we have updated our community guidelines to clarify that the fraudulent use of a Twitch reward system is prohibited.
What do 24/7 streamers face now? The cat is out of the bag. Twitch declares the continuous streaming of VODs as fraud, making it potentially punishable. It falls under the category of “spam, fraud, and other malicious behavior”. This carries typical bans.
Minor violations can initially result in “only” a 24-hour ban, but serious offenses can lead to longer bans. It is therefore quite possible that Twitch will soon crack down rigorously on violations and ban the most prominent 24/7 streamers if they do not comply.
Twitch’s announcement should please streamers like Summit. Riot is also pleased. Valorant head Joseph Ziegler said on Twitter that they are happy about Twitch and its approach to keeping drops fair.
If you want to know more about Twitch drops in Valorant, we have something for you here. Because we explain how the drop system works and how long you generally need to watch streams in order to get a key for Riot Games’ new tactical shooter.
