Asmongold's 5 biggest controversies of 2023

Zack "Asmongold," also known as ZackRawrr, is a Twitch streamer whose content is primarily focused on the MMORPG title, World of Warcraft. His content, however, is not limited to WoW, as he also focuses on Just Chatting streams, where he provides commentary on various topics. Apart from this, his content comprises playthroughs of various games, such as Lost Ark and Elden Ring.

Over the years, Asmongold's opinionated commentary has often landed him in hot water. This article lists five instances in which Asmongold's hot takes involved him in controversies.

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Asmongold's top five controversial moments of 2023

1) Spider-Man 2: Gender neutral Spanish

While incorporating non-gendered pronouns in English is relatively straightforward, the task becomes more complex in gendered languages such as Spanish.

This is exactly what happened in Spider-Man 2 when one segment of the story talked about a non-binary scientist. Spanish streamer Rubén "Rubius" ended up muting the podcast when he heard the gender-neutralized version of Spanish being spoken in it.

Asmongold took Rubius' side on the matter, stating:

"Is this like a continuation of Western cultures appropriating the Spanish language and the Spanish culture to incorporate non-gender conforming language?"

Further, he stated that he wanted to apologize on behalf of all Americans "that are not mentally ill":

"on behalf of all Americans that are not mentally ill, I would like to apologize to the Spanish community. We don't want this either. We think it's just as ridiculous as you do and in fact we're even more embarrassed because it's our people doing it. Having that your language changed by a developer that is not even from your f**king country to change it in order to make it inclusive to Western values, it's unironically cultural appropriation. It's insane."

This caused a reaction from netizens, who were quick to question who was being referred to as "mentally ill", with some suspecting it to be a homophobic remark intended towards the LGBTQ+ community.

However, this was later quashed by Asmongold, with him stating that he doesn't think that LGBTQ+ individuals are mentally ill, but rather that the person causing outrage over his previous statements is.

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2) Starforge Systems

Starforge was launched in 2022. (Image via Starforge Systems)

In 2022, Starforge Systems, a PC-building company, came into being as the result of a collaboration between esports organization One True King, which Asmongold is a part of, and Charlie "MoistCr1TiKaL".

Fans were positive and excited about the endeavor, with many looking forward to the different specifications their PCs would have to offer. However, this soon turned into controversy as the price tags of the PCs were revealed.

The company offered four pre-built laptops beginning at $999.99 at launch, and the most expensive pre-built PC cost $3,499.99. Fans criticized the creators for offering low-end hardware for a high price, calling it "paying for the brand".

Further, in October 2023, Linus Tech Tips and Starforge Systems seemed to get into a heated back and forth. Linus stated that while anonymously ordering a PC, Starforge charged $300 to ship the PC from Texas to Canada.

Starforge then hit back with a series of tweets, calling it "incorrect" information and leveling certain claims made by LTT.

LTT then deleted the video they had posted and made a statement announcing that they would reshoot a portion of the video. Further, they stated that they hoped it was "an outlier like Starforge claims".

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3) Calling a viewer a "nobody"

In a stream, Zack talked about the stressful scenario that big YouTube stars find themselves in as a result of the constant pressure to push out content, so much so that quality can often become compromised.

"It's like with a lot of these like big YouTube channels and stuff. Like, there's such a pressure to like pump out videos very quickly, that a lot of times quality is sacrificed and people are like put- there's a lot of pressure put on the people and its really hard to meet those standards."

When Zack, known for his reaction content and commentary, was told by his chat that it was "not that hard", he reacted by stating that they did not understand since they're "nobody" and do not have any experience. On the other hand, he stated that he himself was someone who understood how difficult it was:

"'Not that hard'? Well, I mean how do you know, right? I mean, you're a nobody, so how would you have any experience? As someone who understands it, it is hard."

Fans react to Zack, stating he understands the pressure of making quality content. (Image via LivestreamFail/Reddit)

Many fans did not like the fact that Zack stated himself as someone who understood the pressure of making quality content, calling him out for producing "clickbait videos".

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4) Slamming people who dislike the $70 price tag for games

When a user in chat called Zack a millionaire after seeing Asmongold's Steam game list, he went on a long-winded rant. He stated that one does not need to be a millionaire to purchase a game worth $70.

According to him, if someone is living in the United States or any other first-world country, they should not express discontent when purchasing a $70 game, and they need to "get their life together" if they cannot afford it.

"You think you need to be a millionaire to afford a $70 game?... If you can't afford a $70 game and you live in the US or another Western, like, first-world developed country, the last of your problems is the pricing of video games. You need to stop thinking about video games, you need to stop watching streams at 3 in the f**king morning about video games and you need to get your f**king life together."

Fans break down the true cost of video games. (Image via LivestreamFail/Reddit)

Fans called his take obnoxious and called him a hypocrite. One user even broke down the financial calculations for the cost of games for an average American.

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5) Repetitive reaction content

Absolute state of streamers/youtube byu/humsipums inAsmongold

Asmongold's fanbase does not hold back when they notice the streamer making repetitive content, specifically reaction videos. In one instance, Zack made a reaction video to a reaction video uploaded by DarthMicrotransaction TV that featured him explaining the reason he quit playing Diablo 4.

His subreddit's reaction to his videos was not so kind, with users pointing out his tendency to repeat certain criticisms or to put out similar content on his channel:

Fans criticise Zack's content. (Image via Asmongold/Reddit)

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Asmongold recently commented about the new character design and story themes introduced in World of Warcraft's latest expansion. He stated that he wanted "hot characters" in the game and called one of the new characters a "b**ch".