Riot criticized for picking Ninja & Myth as “exclusive” Valorant co-streamers

Valorant First Strike NA has become one of the fiercest competitions that we’ve seen in Future Earth’s short history. Valorant fans, however, aren’t pleased that Ninja and TSM Myth will be the only two streamers allowed to stream the tournament.

Update on 2 December at 12:26 (GMT)

Riot Games have confirmed to Dexerto that Ninja and Myth are the only creators allowed to stream First Strike NA.

Original story follows below.

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Valorant’s First Strike NA tournament has been one of the most hotly contested of the game’s global tournaments. There’s been upsets, crazy plays and a whole host of amazing competitive Valorant play for fans to sink their teeth into.

With the final leg of the NA tournament on the horizon, Riot Games have decided to grant exclusive co-streamer status to only two lucky personalities: Tyler ‘Ninja’ Bevins and Ali ‘Myth’ Kabbani of TSM.

The announcement has fallen slightly flat, however, and fans aren’t particularly thrilled over Riot’s choice of streamers.

Ninja & Myth are First Strike co-streamers

Riot Games announced on November 30 that Twitch goliaths Ninja and TSM Myth would be “exclusive co-streamers” of the First Strike: NA main event.

The news of an ‘exclusive’ co-streaming deal with the two content creators left a lot of fans and fellow streamers somewhat unpleased. It led to a plethora of Tweets and Reddit threads dedicated to discussion around whether or not it’s fair to grant exclusivity to these two personalities.

Fans hit back

The main element of this situation that has left fans disgruntled is the idea of Ninja and Myth being granted exclusivity to the First Strike stream. This means that any other streamers who planned on streaming the event won’t be able to.

• Read More: 10 players to watch during Valorant’s First Strike Global Finals

Twitch streamer mOE responded with surprise that other streamers wouldn’t be able to stream the event:

A Tweet from another fan called for the inclusion of the Overwatch League’s Josh ‘Sideshow’ Wilkinson to the lineup. The caster hosts a weekly podcast called Plat Chat on YouTube, which is largely dedicated to Valorant. He also streams frequently, so it would make a lot of sense to include him in the exclusive co-streamer list:

Some fans were so unimpressed that they took their concerns to Reddit, where a lengthy post on the ValorantCompetitive subreddit sees fans express their disappointment.

• Read More: Riot announce Valorant Champions Tour circuit for 2021

The thread, started by u/AnOldMonkOnDMT, notes that Ninja’s ‘polarizing personality’ coupled with TSM Myth’s ‘preference for TSM’ makes the idea of watching their co-streams unappealing.

The comments echo this:
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Dexerto has reached out to Riot Games for comment.

Typically, esports tournaments will prevent streamers from ‘co-streaming’ to avoid diverting viewership from the official broadcast.