xQc accuses TSM of viewbotting on Twitch
xQc / TwitchTSM members took part in a promotion for the new battle royale game ‘Ring of Elysium’ on Sunday, but Félix ‘xQc’ Lengyel was quick to question the legitimacy of their viewership figures.
The controversial streamer and Overwatch star is never one to shy away from speaking his mind, and he did just that when he saw how many viewers the TSM stars had compared to other streamers playing the game.
The TSM streamers were taking part in the ‘Wintergether’ promotion event for Ring of Elysium, which took place on September 30, but xQc was seemingly stunned by how many people were tuning in to watch them.
“I think TSM is viewbotting! Are you serious? TSM Daequan, TSM Viss, TSM Hamlinz, TSM Calvin, TSM HighDistortion, TSM Gale, TSM Kraftyy all have above 2,000 viewers when Gale doesn’t even get that on Overwatch,” the Canadian exclaimed.
He then continued to say: “The next guy under them has 122 viewers… What?! Are they… actually [view]botting?”
Viewbotting basically gives streamers the chance to buy or rent dozens, hundreds or even thousands of viewers for their stream, catapulting them to the top of their respective Twitch page and eventually earning them real followers as a result.
The practice is heavily frowned upon, and can result in your account being banned if Twitch catches you, which is why xQc’s comments immediately started to make the rounds online. Some Reddit users were quick to point out that TSM streamers tend to host each other when they are not online, which can result in significant viewership spikes.
Despite saying “I think TSM is viewbotting,” It is not entirely certain whether xQc was suggesting that the streamers, the organization were the ones responsible (or whether his statements were made in jest). Some Redditors even suggested that the developers of the game would be more likely to use viewbots than TSM.
Most of the streamers in question regularly pull 2,000 or more viewers no matter what game they happen to be playing, so xQc’s suspicions are likely to come as a surprise to them.
Ring of Elysium (ROE) is a free-to-play battle royale game developed by Tencent Games that is currently available in North America and parts of Asia in early access form.