"I don't think that anybody should get banned": Asmongold gives his opinion on Twitch banning streamers for griefing in games

Zack "Asmongold" recently gave his two cents about Twitch banning a fellow World of Warcraft streamer for griefing while streaming, and he criticized the Amazon-owned platform for taking serious action against content creators for events that have taken place inside a video game. He did acknowledge that griefing while streaming on the platform does technically break the website's terms of service about online harassment. Nonetheless, he did not think a suspension from the platform was justified.

In a recent stream, viewers drew Asmongold's attention to the fact that a recent scandal in Hardcore World of Warcraft resulted in a griefer by the name of TinyViolin69 on Twitch getting banned after he sabotaged his fellow guild members during a raid.

The OTK co-founder said:

"Did you see TinyViolin got banned on Twitch? Ah, yeah I did see that. Um, why did he get banned? Did he break TOS? Oh! Griefing in video games, I mean breaking TOS while playing video games on stream is technically against the rules."

Upon reading a comment which criticized Twitch's decision, Zack added that he believed only illegal actions should be penalized by the platform:

"'Imagine getting banned for griefing in a game. Clown world.' I don't think that anybody should get banned for anything... unless things that are against the law."

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Advocating against Twitch bans for griefing in-game, Asmongold says only actions that are illegal in the real world should result in suspensions

Asmongold is known for not holding back while speaking his mind, and considering his popularity, many of his followers eagerly await his takes on things in gaming circles. As a veteran MMO streamer, he had talked about the TinyViolin69 griefing scandal a few weeks ago when the drama unfolded.

For context, TinyViolin69 had intentionally sabotaged his own guild while they were doing a raid in-game. His actions got most of his fellow guild members killed, and considering that a death in Hardcore World of Warcraft is permanent, the event caused quite a stir in the MMO community.

While Asmongold had talked against the griefer in his original video, he did not share the same enthusiasm about Twitch banning the streamer from the platform. Telling his viewers that he thought only criminal action should be penalized with a ban, he stated that Twitch bore no "responsibility" in the situation because the game's developers had not banned him, unlike Tyler1's permanent ban from League of Legends:

"Like, if Blizzard has a problem with him doing that, they can give him the Tyler1 treatment. Ban any account he is on and do that, but they don't. So it's like how is it Twitch's responsibility to make this decision?"

Timestamp 4:11:07

When one of the viewers attempted to justify the ban, Asmongold said:

"'You realize the number of issues that he had, narcissism was a big one.' Wait, so you think you should get banned for being a narcissist? Like, what the f*ck are you talking about. Are you delusional? What are you talking about? 'He's an asshole, he should be banned'! Get the f*ck out of here."

The streamer also added that griefing in a game was not exactly a serious issue and that it did not merit a ban from Twitch:

"Because it's really not a big deal either way, right? I mean what, he trolled people in a video game. Who cares?"

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Fan reactions

Viewers tended to agree with the streamer's opinion about banning and griefing. Here are some of the general reactions to the clip that has gained significant traction on YouTube:

YouTube comments talking about Twitch banning in-game griefers (Image via Asmongold Clips/YouTube)

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Asmongold has been quite critical about Blizzard and Diablo 4's recent 1.1 patch. However, the streamer was very irritated with the player base after they started review-bombing the game.