Twitch Suspends Fortnite Pro For Playing With Banned Streamer
Twitch has issued a seven-day suspension to teenage Fortnite pro Cody 'Clix" Conrod of Misfits Gaming for playing with banned streamer Zayn.
Only 14-years-old, Clix has already carved out a name for himself in the professional Fortnite community, winning hundreds of thousands of dollars in offline and LAN events. He even placed 18th in the Fortnite World Cup Finals.
Clix is the second person this month to receive a Twitch suspension for associating with Zayn. Twitch hit Khanada, another Fortnite pro, with a 3-day ban last week for playing with Zayn on the platform. Both streamers muted Zayn and changed his nickname, however, Twitch still called foul play. It's unclear why Twitch gave Khanada a 3-day ban and Clix a 7-day ban for committing what appears to be the same offense, especially when this is Clix's first infraction.
Zayn received an indefinite Twitch ban for using a second account to continue streaming after Twitch suspended his main account. This "suspension evasion" violated the Community Guidelines. It looks like Clix and Khanada also violated the suspension evasion rules, though the wording Twitch uses is very muddy.
Twitch's enforcement of their rather vague Community Guidelines continues to elicit criticism from the gaming community. Clix and Khanada are just another example of the platform's habit of handing out inconsistent punishments, often for arbitrary infringements. As demonstrated by Viperous' recent suspension, sometimes they even punish streamers who haven't actually done anything wrong, instead relying on assumptions and hearsay.
Faced with the favoritism and general disregard for their users, it's no surprise that many streamers, even big names like Ninja and Shroud, have left Twitch in favor of other platforms. You have to wonder who is making the rulings on many of these cases and whether they communicate with one another once a decision is reached. Twitch may want to get their act together before they lose more streamers and their robust fan bases.