Asmongold slams Valorant streamers for misleading Twitch viewers
Asmongold / Riot GamesPopular World of Warcraft content creator Zack ‘Asmongold’ has criticized popular streamers for misleading Valorant viewers on Twitch.
Since Valorant’s closed beta launched on April 7, many fans have been hoping to gain access through random drops which can only be earned by watching the game on Twitch, inflating viewership for many of the top streamers.
It was revealed that instead of ending their streams, some of those at the top of Valorant’s page on Twitch would simply playback their VoD’s to maintain viewers while they slept, sparking a debate over whether it should be allowed.
Riot GamesAsmongold spoke out on April 17, claiming Valorant viewers on Twitch were being misled by some of the game’s top streamers.
Asmongold posted a video to Twitter, explaining why he was addressing the issue and particularly highlighted its impact on smaller streamers and the viewers.
“I went on the Valorant section, looked at the top streams and three of the top four were f**king VoDs,” he revealed, claiming that a lot of smaller streamers “were afraid” to speak up.
Some thoughts on Valorant "Streams" AKA Reruns @Twitch pic.twitter.com/MD0tFq0wsx
— Zack (@Asmongold) April 17, 2020
He also claimed that the tactic was likely against the platform’s Terms of Service but Twitch had not taken any action against those who were “burying” the smaller streamers and causing them to miss out on a lot of potential viewers.
After pointing out the lack of interactivity, Asmongold focused on streamers who were misleading their viewers with titles that made it unclear that they were watching a rerun.“It’s intentionally written that way in order to deceive people into thinking it’s live and get them to go into that stream.”
TSM streamer Ali ‘Myth’ Kabbani also asked Twitch to take action. He deleted the tweet, but followed up by saying it’s a “slippery slope.”
Because if we run with this logic whats the point of having streamers that are actually live at all? Shouldn't we all just have 24/7 streams with VOD footage up during down time? Its a slippery slope.
— Myth (@Myth_) April 18, 2020
Asmongold added that the tactic was also hurting Twitch’s chance at converting a lot of casual viewers to watch streams more often, “What kind of impression does it give a new viewer to be immediately deceived by a streamer that’s just doing this to get more money.”
Asmongold later explained that although he does not agree with it, he does not blame any of the top streamers that are taking advantage of the opportunity, instead, calling for Twitch to make changes to allow others broadcasting on the platform to shine.