Streamers Who Apologized For Cheating

Over the last decade, streamers have quickly risen to the forefront of gaming culture. Now more than ever, livestreams of new games have become the go-to form of entertainment for many gamers. The rise of multiple streaming platforms has also brought about a new level of stardom for the streamers and content creators behind them. Nowadays, streamers often are put on a pedestal, reaching celebrity status beyond their niche communities. However, with this fame comes a heightened level of scrutiny that many of these streamers might never have expected. People are paying close attention to their every move — especially if they're caught cheating.

Whether they're trying to increase their viewership or attempting to win a large cash prize from a gaming event, there are plenty of reasons why respectable content creators have stooped to gaming the system. No matter the severity or reason, after a popular creator is caught cheating, an apology is sure to follow. Here are some of the most notable examples, from the heartfelt to the laughably bad.

When a player is caught cheating, it tends to receive a lot of attention in the gaming community. However, since it's such a taboo topic (and because more people cheat than we'd like to admit), many players find themselves curious to learn more about how cheats are made and what they can do. This is exactly the demographic that FaZe Jarvis wanted to capitalize on when he released a video showing off various cheating methods in "Fortnite." In this video, Jarvis intentionally used aimbot software to zero in on enemies. Naturally, this infringed upon the game's rules, resulting to a lifetime ban. 

That wasn't the end, though. Shortly after the ban, FaZe Jarvis posted an infamous apology video, appropriately titled "I've been Banned from Fortnite (I'm Sorry)." In this video, Jarvis explained that he purely meant for the videos to be seen as entertainment, and didn't mean any harm by them. However, many viewers in the comments were quick to point out that no matter the intention, cheating still ruins the game for any other players unfortunate enough to cross his path. Jarvis burst into tears and lamented the foolishness of his past mistakes, begging for a second chance at "Fortnite." Though some commenters supported the apology, most of the replies to this day are on the side of ridiculing Jarvis for his emotional apology. Jarvis would later capitalize on this notorious incident by releasing a diss track aimed at "Fortnite."

In one of the most well-known cheating scandals, Dream was exposed for using cheats during his record-breaking "Minecraft" speedruns. After analyzing his world record speedrun, mods of the "Minecraft" leaderboard on Speedrun.com discovered that the probability of some rare item drops during the speedrun was statistically impossible. However, Dream claimed that he was just lucky and argued that the mods were just denying his run to raise their own profile. However, Dream later came forward and revealed that his run was indeed altered to boost the drop rates of rare items. The streamer claimed that he'd accidentally left some mods active during the speedrun.

This realization led to a lengthy apology, during which Dream explained that the mods he'd installed were meant to be for his other videos, with the goal of making farming more convenient and less boring. Additionally, he apologized for lashing out at the player community and mods of speedrun.com, explaining that he felt scared and sad when the scandal broke out. In the end, even diehard fans were shocked to see this apology from Dream, particularly after he had vehemently denied all accusations for so long. 

One of the most embarrassing ways a streamer can get caught cheating is by accidentally showing off their cheats during a broadcast. Take, for example, what happened when "Call of Duty: Warzone" player MrGolds was caught during a livestream in 2020. MrGolds frequently boasted about his skills on his channel, but was briefly at a loss for words when a viewer noticed that he had an EngineOwning cheat menu running in the background of his game.

MrGolds was quick to release an apology, but many commenters considered it to be subpar, particularly after MrGolds had built much of his reputation around being one the best "Warzone" players out there. MrGolds maintained that he made a mistake and was not looking for forgiveness. However, much to the annoyance of his detractors, he stated that he would continue playing the game after his ban was lifted. In the end, this "Warzone" drama left many fans with a sour taste in their mouths, with most believing that he was more sorry for getting caught than for disappointing his viewers.

It wasn't too long ago that Schmooey was seen as one of the best "Guitar Hero" players in the world, if not the best. Schmooey would blast through songs in "Guitar Hero" and "Clone Hero" that many believed to be impossible, collecting thousands of dollars in rewards for clearing community bounties and quickly becoming an extremely well-respected player. However, this all changed when Schmooey challenged a nearly impossible song: "9 Patterns of Eternal Pain." During his livestream of the song, many players noticed that his finger movements didn't seem to totally match the notes displayed on the screen. After some more scrutiny, it was revealed that Schmooey was faking his challenges by recording songs at a slower speed, then playing them back at a normal rate while miming the movements.

After the whole scam came to an end, Schmooey quickly deleted his previous videos and switched all of his accounts to private. He also returned the prize money he earned from allegedly beating songs before posting an apology video to explain his actions. While many were rightfully upset and didn't fully accept the apology, some believed that paying back prizes was a step in the right direction. One of the bounty posters who paid Schmooey one of these prizes commented, "DM'ing me about paying back the money I gave you was a shock of its own. I honestly did not expect that. So that brought up a little of my respects to you."

One form of cheating that has become extremely prevalent in the age of streaming is called stream sniping, which is when a player intentionally enters a streamer's lobby and use information from their channel to gain an advantage in a live setting. This tactic has led to some streamers preferring to avoid public lobbies, though some games have added protections to help prevent stream sniping. While stream sniping is usually perpetrated by a regular viewer, some streamers have used it to troll their fellow content creators. Sometimes it's just done in good fun, but it becomes significantly less amusing when money is on the line. This is exactly what xQc did during a 2020 Twitch Rivals "Fall Guys" tournament, when he stream sniped both DrLupo's and Shroud's teams using their live broadcasts. 

For openly infringing upon the rules of the tournament, xQc quickly found himself banned from GlitchCon and suspended from Twitch for the fourth time. xQc quickly responded by releasing a short and simple apology on X (formerly Twitter), in which he noted that his cheating didn't even result in a win. "I'm sorry for my actions," the streamer wrote. "I thought it would be funny. It did not change the outcome but it was still malicious. Sorry." He also called for his fans to stop defending his actions, claiming full responsibility for the ban.

Stop defending my everywhere for no reason. We got into the final game with @DrLupo and @shroud 's team. We shouldn't of done it and it was wrong. I'm sorry for my actions. I thought it would be funny. It did not change the outcome but it was still malicious. Sorry.

— xQc (@xQc) November 15, 2020

When caught cheating, most players tend to come clean and apologize to help mitigate the damage to their image. However, some streamers continuously refuse to take responsibility for their actions until it's too late to even apologize. Similar to MrGolds, a high-ranking "Call of Duty: Vanguard" player called Phlexify was also exposed when he accidentally disclosed his cheats live on stream. While streaming, an apparent glitch allowed players to see that Phlexify was using wall hacks, which enabled him to view every player's location through walls.

The player apologized to the community for his actions, claiming that he cheated by accident. Phlexify claimed that he accidentally left the cheats on after using them to grind for rewards, but had no intention of using them on stream. This excuse led a number of commenters to completely disregard the apology. Some argued that it didn't quite add up, since the opponent silhouettes seen in the cheating video were pretty obvious to every viewer. After this embarrassing incident, Phlexify was banned from "Call of Duty" and hasn't made an appearance on the leaderboards since.

Not all instances of cheating are purely malicious. Some genuinely spring from an honest mistake. In this case, an "H1Z1" developer, Autenil, once was caught using dev tools to make his character invisible to other players while in a match. However, he quickly realized his mistake, apologized to the other players, and let them finish him off without fighting back. Unfortunately, he'd already managed to open fire on his opponents while he was still cloaked, which wasn't a great look at first.

This instance is still a unique case ,since it's rare for a dev to openly cheat at their own game while streaming, regardless of the reasons behind it. Most people believe that this was an honest mistake, but some are still convinced it was blatant cheating. One commenter on Reddit writes, "i actually feel for the dev, you can tell he felt really bad. poor guy lol." In the end, the majority of the "H1Z1" playerbase agreed to chalk this one up to an unfortunate accident and moved on. 

Although many cases of cheating come in the form of using cheat engines and mods to give players an advantage. Sometimes even a few glances at a nearby screen can count as cheating. This is exactly what happened to the "League of Legends" team Azubu Frost. During the 2012 "League of Legends" World Championship semi-finals, the esports team noticed that the spectators' display of the match was visible to both teams in the venue. This display revealed much more information than what would normally be available for a single player, revealing enemy locations and cooldown progress. Throughout the game, players from Azubu Frost were caught glancing at the board, with team member Woong being specifically called out for obtaining strategic information from the screen behind him. 

The team was fined $30,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct. Shortly after the event, Azubu Frost came forward to express their regret during a press conference. The team members stated that they all wanted to keep moving forward and put the incident behind them. However, some fans weren't happy with this response, especially Woong's part in it. Some commenters pointed out that Woong seemed uncharacteristically quiet during the press conference, despite arguably being the main offender in the incident.

Not every cheating scandal occurs because a streamer has been caught in the act of cheating. In some cases, streamers have come under fire for accusing others of cheating, only to be proven wrong. In 2020, "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" streamer Gaules accused a fellow streamer, Leaf, of cheating during a "Counter-Strike" Summit event. After reviewing some of Leaf's gameplay clips, Gaules argued that some of his victories were impossible to pull off without the assistance from cheat software. Although it is sometimes possible to determine that cheating is taking place simply by looking at footage of the offending player, in this specific instance, many argued that Gaules didn't have enough evidence to back up his accusations. This didn't stop a large number of Gaules' fans from sending aggressive messages to Leaf, however.

This unexpected backlash prompted Gaules to post an apology letter. The streamer expressed his distaste for the extreme hate that came out of this controversy and condemned his followers who thought it necessary to harass any content creator. However, Gaules notably did not apologize for the initial accusations that kicked off the controversy, instead focusing on chastising those who participated in the harassment. While Gaules' apology wasn't the worst ever posted, some onlookers felt that it left something to be desired at the time.

Minhas sinceras desculpas. Espero que possamos melhorar juntos nossa comunidade.

My sincere apologies. I hope we can improve our community together. pic.twitter.com/ixZblpdagQ

— Gaules (@Gaules) July 13, 2020