Twitch star Spreen claims he was banned over channel points rewards

Argentine Twitch star Ivan ‘Spreen’ Buhajeruk has claimed that he was banned from the streaming platform after offering up VIP and subs to his channel via Twitch’s channel points system.

Whenever a streamer is hit with a suspension from Twitch, fans quickly scramble to try and find out just exactly why they’ve been suspended as well as the length of the suspension.

As standard, Twitch doesn’t comment publicly on ban reasons, but typically informs the streamer of what guideline they’ve broken to end up with a punishment.

In the case of Spreen, a Spanish-speaking streamer that has been on a rapid ascension up the Twitch popularity charts, he was struck down with his first-ever ban on October 19. At the time, the Argentine labeled it as “bulls**t” and confirmed that he was working to get it addressed.

Spreen finally explains Twitch ban is over channel points

Now, the Minecraft star, who has close to 6 million followers on the Amazon-owned platform, has claimed that his ban came as a result of offering up VIP status as well as a subscription to his channel via the channel points system.

The streamer made the claim in his October 22 video, titled Me banearon, suggesting that the popular practice had landed him in hot water with the streaming platform.

“They gave me a warning that I had to remove that but it was not exactly explained that I had to remove the VIPs and subscriptions specifically,” he said, noting that they made it “very clear” that streamers aren’t allowed to do that, when they finally sent him a reason for his ban.

Timestamp of 2:47

It is interesting to note that, Twitch’s own guidelines do not mention anything about streamers being unable to offer those specific rewards in exchange for channel points. In fact, plenty of streamers offer up VIP status in exchange for points as a kind of loyalty system.

Twitch streamers are not allowed to “create Points redemption opportunities that constitute gambling” which some viewers have suggested Spreen could have fallen foul of by offering the chance to win places on his Minecraft server, PS5s, as well as other high-value items.

As of writing, Spreen’s channel is still suspended and he’s still got some time to go having negotiated it down from 30 days to just 14 days.