MLG Twitch channels banned after hack
Popular tournament organizer and esports broadcaster Major League Gaming has had its Twitch channels suspended after their accounts appeared to be hacked on February 22.
Commonly known as MLG, the tournament organizer has held multiple esports events in many of the top titles such as Call of Duty, CS:GO, Halo and more since it was founded in 2002.
On February 22, their Twitch channels, including their main account which had amassed almost 800,000 followers on Amazon’s broadcasting platform, were unexpectedly suspended.
Both of the tournament organizer’s partnered channels, ‘MLG‘ and ‘MLGBravo’, were suspended from the platform after they an apparent hacked.
MLG has used these channels to stream many major events, such as the Call of Duty World League in past seasons and the CS:GO Columbus major in 2016.
The two channels were taken down shortly after fans noticed that content, which broke the community guidelines, was being broadcasted to MLG’s followers.
❌ Twitch Partner "MLG" (@MLG) has been banned! ❌https://t.co/JltvIbzY8Z#twitch #ban #firstban #partner #twitchpartner 👨🏼🏭
— StreamerBans (@StreamerBans) February 22, 2020
The suspension was initially met with surprise, as coverage of the latest Call of Duty League event in Atlanta had also just kicked off. The CDL is now exclusively streamed on YouTube, thanks to Activision’s deal with Google.
However, it did not take long for them to assume, along with Twitch’s moderation team who quickly shut down the channel, that MLG’s channels had probably been the victims of a hack.
The length of the ban is unknown. Although the infringing content shown would typically result in an indefinite ban, it is possible for Twitch to lift the suspension after further review.