Why is Sykkuno getting backlash from the League of Legends community for streaming Worlds? Riot's controversial decision explained

With the Grand Finals of League of Legends Worlds 2022 fast approaching, Riot Games has been getting some backlash for choosing Sykkuno as the sole English-speaking streamer to get co-streaming rights.

As the premier event of the year for Riot's popular MOBA, the Worlds final match between T1 and DRX on November 5 is probably one of the most anticipated esports moments of the year. This is why giving the popular variety streamer the co-streaming opportunity has raised quite a few eyebrows from the community, who would rather have dedicated League players be given the chance.

As the backlash reached both the streamer and Riot, Sykkuno responded quite sarcastically by explaining that he is, and has been, a great fan of League of Legends, having streamed it for many hours. What seems to have tickled the fancy most, however, is that during his response, the YouTuber revealed that he is not getting paid to do it.

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Sykkuno responds to criticism for getting the opportunity to stream League of Legends Worlds 2022

Thomas "Sykkuno" is a highly popular Twitch-turned-YouTube-streamer, known for his legendary Among Us collaborations with fellow creators such as Disguised Toast, Pokimane, and Valkyrae. What many people don’t seem to know, however, is that the streamer started his career with League of Legends content.

The backlash and rude comments clearly found their way back to Thomas for getting the English-speaking spot on Riot's streamer list. The YouTuber's response was quite a good and plausible explanation of how things have gone down since Riot's announcement:

"Basically what happened was, um, Riot messages me, right? And they're like, 'Hey do you want to watch Worlds and stream it?' And I was like, 'Yeah sure that sounds fun. I like League of Legends.' Um, and that was it."

According to him, he had no idea that accepting the position was going to make so many people angry:

"I didn't know it was some kind of big deal. I guess for a lot of other people it's a much bigger deal."

The streamer was quite aware of why so many people were criticizing the decision, and gave his opinion on the same:

"I do think that a lot of people are upset and I do kind of get it. Here's what I do think though. I think there's basically three types of people in this situation. One is obviously the people who are just between them and Riot right? They're like, 'Why doesn't my streamer get to do it?,' or 'Why don't I get to do it?' That's pretty fair, everyone wants to watch it. I did too, that's why I agreed to it."

While acknowledging that him getting the only English-speaking streamer to get the co-streaming rights may seem unfair, Sykkuno made it clear that he was not in the wrong here considering it was Riot Games who is not opening up more slots. He pushed back against the rude comments and described it as misplaced anger:

"And then there's another group of people who are just really mean. Well, you can't really do much about that... And then I think the third group of people is what I would say is the most confusing. Is the people trying to say, 'I wanna stream it too.' And they are really bad at explaining that and they write it in a way that they are attacking me and I don't think they mean it that way."

After explaining the chain of events again, Sykkuno took on a sarcastic tone and revealed that he was, in fact, not getting paid for the stream either:

"I had to do it after they messaged me. You guys know how many zeros were in the offer? How many zeros they offered me guys? They offered me one zero okay? Because I am doing it for free. They said, 'Hey you wanna watch League of Legends?' and I said, 'Yeah, I'm a fan."

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Social media reactions to Sykkuno's response

Here are some of the negative reactions to Riot's announcement that Sykkuno will be one of the co-streamers, with Macaiyla being a prominent gaming personality to give points against the decision.

That said, there are plenty of positive reactions too. Some acknowledged that he has been a part of the League of Legends community since way back in the past, despite shifting his content in recent years.

Here's how Redditors in the r/LivestreamFail subreddit reacted when a clip of Sykkuno revealing how much he was getting paid gained traction there:

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TwitchTracker has noted that League of Legends is Sykkuno's second most played game on the platform with 857 hours given to the title. While that is no mean feat, it is also clear that Sykkuno has diversified a lot from his League of Legends days, making much of the criticism aimed at Riot quite plausible.