xQc and LIRIK risk Twitch bans by costreaming Nintendo E3 event

Twitch mega stars Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel and Saqib ‘LIRIK’ Zahid defied orders against co-streaming Nintendo’s E3 Direct presentation, despite acknowledging the risks of a potential ban.

On June 15, Nintendo’s main Japanese account posted a bizarre message instructing content creators to “refrain from mirror distribution of Nintendo Direct video and audio during live distribution of Nintendo Direct.”

While it was unclear if this only applied to Japanese streamers and content creators, Twitch themselves canceled the airing of the Nintendo Direct on their official channel, despite having permission to broadcast it.

This seemed to have been done in an act of solidarity with streamers who weren’t allowed to co-stream. However, this didn’t stop xQc and LIRIK from still co-streaming the event themselves to their viewers.

“Are we doing this? Listen xQc, if we get banned because of Pokemon GO DLC, you know, that is one way to go down,” Zahid laughed while pulling up the direct on his stream.

Of course, Pokemon was nowhere to be found during the presentation, but the point remained the same: being banned for co-streaming a major gaming event would be a wild way to have your account suspended.

“I am fine sinking on that ship!” LIRIK added. “Okay? I am okay with that.”

After seeing how LIRIK was willing to take the leap of faith, Lengyel joined in. “F**k it then! That’s f**king sick then. Okay, let’s sink!”

Despite willing to go down with the ship, neither LIRIK or xQc’s Twitch accounts have been banned, suggesting that Nintendo’s request only applied to Japanese users.

That said, the fact that Twitch complied with an order only directed to Japanese creators seems to show a massive lack of communication between the Amazon-owned platform and Nintendo themselves.

Nonetheless, the fact that both streamers were willing to put their accounts on the line by co-steaming Nintendo’s E3 event shows their commitment to content and entertaining their viewers.