Twitter Reacts To Ninja's 'Weak Mindset' Dig

Superstar streamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins is known for his extremely competitive nature. However, a recent tweet from Ninja has raised the ire of some of his followers, as he seems to be suggesting that any gamers who don't react with anger towards a loss are simply playing incorrectly.

"The phrase 'it's just a game' is such a weak mindset. You are ok with what happened, losing, imperfection of a craft," read Blevins' tweet. "When you stop getting angry after losing, you've lost twice. There's always something to learn, and always room for improvement, never settle."

It could be argued that Ninja's comments were intended to be more inspirational than they came off to followers. Whatever his intentions, however, the tweet has garnered a considerable response from the gaming community. From those who seem to totally get what he's saying to the people who feel like he's encouraging immature behavior or speaking against casual gamers, the responses have been quite varied.

In a series of responses from Ohmwrecker, the streamer explained his stance and why he felt that Ninja had it completely wrong. "I disagree completely, you don't have to be a sore/salty loser and get all toxic to learn from a loss," said Ohmwrecker. "I feel strongly losing helps you get better, especially in competitive games."

Ohmwrecker quickly followed that with, "Suggesting that anyone that actually manages their emotions after facing a loss as 'losing twice' is really weak."

Others responded to Ninja with the usual jokes one finds on Twitter, including one user who reworded parts of Ninja's original tweet to make fun of the very concept of tweets (very meta). Another quipped that they once burned their house down after losing a game, so they now felt justified by Ninja's tweet. 

There were also users who concurred with the general idea of the tweet, but felt that it lacked finesse. As streamer SayNoToRage put it, "Anger after losing is natural, expressing it in a healthy way is the key."

Ninja's comments may not come as a surprise to anyone who has followed his career and seen how he approaches each game. This competitive streak and sense of drive can be seen in Blevins' personal life as well. In an interview with CNBC from 2019, he recalled the early days of his streaming career and noted that he still pushed himself in every regard. When he was in college and just getting into competitive gaming, Blevins was also holding down a job, excelling in his classes, and playing on his school's soccer team. In other words, these comments seem to be quite reflective of his personality. Tyler Blevins clearly doesn't consider himself to be a person who does anything in half measures. This is reflected in his business decisions today, such as when Ninja left Twitch entirely in favor of Mixer.

It's also easy to see, however, why these comments could run people the wrong way. Toxic gaming culture has been a major problem for years, even outside the competitive and streaming scene. There have been numerous studies conducted on the subject of "post-game aggression." In most cases, it was determined that the root cause of anger after playing a video game was a sense that the player wasn't good enough at the game yet. In other words, though some people are better at managing these reactions than others, it's a rather natural response. 

To bring it back to Ohmbreaker's response, it seems that learning to manage those feelings of frustration is part of the process of getting better at a game. But it's hard to expect each and every person to have the same process or feel the same way. As Ohmbreaker said, "Everyone reacts differently."

This isn't the first time Ninja's comments have raised the ire of the gaming community. In the past, he received flak for his refusal to stream with women on his channel, a decision he said was made to protect his relationship with his wife from "the rumor mill." He has also been roundly mocked in the past for suggesting that participating in esports is tougher than playing professional football.

In other words, Ninja is no stranger to kicking up dust with his words. However, this particular case has really rubbed some folks the wrong way, as seen in the comments on his original tweet. Again, Ninja may not have intended these comments to be a controversial as they were, but it's clear that this is a subject that many people are quite passionate about.