Streamers Who Absolutely Failed At Everyday Life

It is not hard to see why streaming and YouTubing have become such aspirational professions. Streamers and other gaming influencers are living the dream, playing popular titles professionally, chatting with fans about their interests, and collaborating with other high level players. Even with the occasional drama that flares up on Twitter and Twitch, it seems like a life that is just too good to be true.

While it is easy to idolize these modern online icons, it is important to remember they are just like the rest of us. Some streamers still have to work their way through school, pay bills, and face unique challenges like maintaining their private data while inviting viewers into their lives. 

Streamers also need to address the same daily routines as many other people. Even hugely successful streamers like Pokimane will occasionally trip over basic stumbling blocks, reminding us that they're still human. Just because somebody can no-scope an enemy across the map in Apex Legends or build a shantytown while blasting the competition in Fortnite does not necessarily mean they are as adept at adulting. 

Here are some streamers who failed at everyday tasks.

In the world of streaming, and competitive Fortnite in particular, few names command as much fame and success as Tyler "Ninja" Blevins. His incredible successes in Epic's popular battle royale shooter have earned him wealth and fame, establishing his presence in modern popular culture. Ninja has even started to branch out into a Hollywood career. But how well does the Fortnite champ fair in the kitchen? Based on a video in Bon Appetit's "Back to Back" series, it seems like even basic cuisine proves to be a daunting challenge for Ninja.

In "Back to Back," a seasoned chef tries to guide a guest through a dish with nothing more than verbal instructions. The dish in question? A sandwich. To be fair, it was a gourmet sandwich, but Ninja ran into a couple embarrassing sticking points — like slicing a loaf of bread and pitting an avocado.

Cooking is a pretty crucial part of daily life, and sandwiches are fairly close to the culinary starting line. But to be fair, most of us would come up short when being compared to a professional chef, and it is entirely possible that Ninja simply cracked under the pressure.

In March 2021, Ludwig Ahgren, or simply Ludwig, became Twitch's most subbed streamer. Ludwig is known for streaming a variety of titles, with his interests ranging from Super Smash Bros. Melee and Pokemon to chess. Given his ability to grasp titles that are easy-to-learn but difficult-to-master, one would assume that solving an issue with his refrigerator would be a simple matter. Ludwig apparently thought so too, as he streamed his attempts to tackle a technical problem with his fridge in front of an audience of 80 thousand viewers.

Admittedly, appliances have become smarter and more feature-heavy in recent years. These advancements have arrived at the expense of added complexity, and even simple tasks like changing the clocks on a device can cause headaches. However, Ludwig's problem was lower-tech: his ice machine was not ejecting ice, and despite the component being marked as removable, it would not budge.

Eventually, his fellow streamer and partner, QTCinderella, came to the rescue, suggesting he approach the ice maker from the bottom rather than the top. After dropping his phone in an attempt to find the frozen obstruction, he was able to slide a knife sharpener into the ice machine and jiggle things loose.

Electricity is an essential utility for streaming, even ahead of a stable Wi-Fi connection. Everyone has those moments when their attention wanders without returning though, and important tasks like paying the bills can slip to the wayside — especially when someone is under the impression that payments are set up to take care of themselves automatically.

That is exactly what happened to Félix "xQc" Lengyel. A former member of the Dallas Fuel Overwatch team, xQc now streams a variety of games that strike his fancy, including Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto 5, Among Us, and Fortnite. But on March 31, 2021, xQc's stream abruptly went dark. 

xQc has enjoyed tremendous success as a streamer and is a millionaire, so what happened with the electric bill? Well, xQc took to Twitter to explain the situation, with an all-capped tweet stating, "Autopay was on, but my credit card limit is the same I had when I was 12, so sometimes it's empty and payment can't go through. Just Canadian bank stuff, move along." 

Fellow streamer Adept, xQc's partner and housemate, corroborated the story, expressing regret that their streams were cut short.

While a few details are known about the streamer Corpse Husband, the Among Us streamer is mostly very secretive. But during a stream captured on YouTube, he revealed his most embarrassing story. Corpse once accidentally terrified a teller at his bank by asking an ill-advised question: "What is your greatest fear?"

Given the risk of armed robbery associated with working at a bank, it's difficult to imagine a more threatening random inquiry. Corpse admitted that it probably sounded like he was trying to frighten the teller. Corpse's distinctive deep and chilling voice probably didn't help matters. One of his primary claims to fame, apart from playing Among Us with fellow streamers, is his narration of horror short stories from Reddit forums like r/LetsNotMeet and r/NoSleep. In short, the query likely had a perfectly unsettling delivery.

Of course, people occasionally speak on autopilot, or ask something odd without thinking, and it sounds like this honest mistake came from a good place. Corpse explained that he was attempting to better himself and become more social with people, so he took to greeting strangers whenever he was out and about. But after a while, he found that standard greetings were growing stale and turned to philosophical questions to spark conversations instead.

Eighteen hour shifts are rough, regardless of what kind of work you are doing. Former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player, Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek nearly passed out on his desk at the end of an 18-hour Rust stream. A Canadian gamer, YouTuber and streamer, Shroud was once named the best shooter in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds by fellow streaming star Ninja.

Perhaps the biggest secret to Shroud's success as a streamer and competitor is the level of attention and concentration he brings to his gamplay. A deeply tactical gamer, Shroud has been known to gauge the sound of crowd reactions to discern rival's positions and detect impending firefights in CS:GO tournaments. Maintaining that level of focus for a prolonged period of time would tire anybody, and marathon streaming sessions are common on Twitch.

As Shroud laid his forehead down in front of his keyboard — a relatable pose to anyone who has ever worked a desk job — the Twitch chat filled with comments ranging from "Shroud ded" to "Shroud, go to bed."

While acrobatics may or may not be part of your normal routine, everybody has tried to look cool at some point in their lives, only to epically (and painfully) fail. So it was with the former Fortnite streamer, Turner "Tfue" Tenny. In recent years, Tfue has switched the focus of his streams away from Fortnite, primarily out of a desire to focus on games he considers more fun, even though the shift may have cost him viewers. That is not to say Tfue won't go the extra mile to entertain his viewers, though.

While trying to raise money for charity on Twitch, Tfue made an ill-fated attempt at a backflip on stream. After swinging his arms in preparation, the streamer jumped into the air, hugged his knees, started to flip... and violently succumbed to gravity with a thud. 

To Tfue's credit, the stunt drew the intended effect, and his donation counter increased while he moaned on the floor. The streaming star later redeemed himself and demonstrated his athletic prowess by successfully landing the same flip on an outdoor tumble mat.

Multitasking is a necessity for streamers. They need to play games, provide commentary, and interact with their chat all at once. But no matter how skilled they are, there are hard limits to how many things a person can juggle at once, as Rosie "Osiefish" Rogerson accidentally demonstrated during a "Darkest Dungeon" stream in March 2021.

Reaching for her lip balm, Osiefish accidentally grabbed her concealer instead and absent-mindedly started to apply it — directly on her lips. The streamer was a good sport about the makeup mishap, laughing at herself immediately and posting a link to the captured video on Twitter, along with the comment, "My mum's real proud of me."

Osiefish is known for her live chats and streaming a wide variety of titles encompassing retro games, PS4 hits, the web-based "GeoGuesser," and PC favorites like "Minecraft." She is also affiliated with "The Yogscast" on YouTube and Twitch.

Eater has noted that as Twitch content creators and audiences continue to diversify, cooking streams are growing increasingly popular. But as Ninja already demonstrated, culinary endeavors can be risky even when fire isn't involved, and baking kicks the stakes up a notch.

To celebrate her second year as a Twitch partner, Emma 'Kandyland' Carlson, decided to mix things up and bake cupcakes live, rather than partaking in her usual chill live chat. Unfortunately, Kandyland set off an earsplitting smoke alarm midstream.

It is unclear what triggered the alarm, as the cupcakes were not burning or smoking in the clip. In fact, Kandyland stated on Twitter that she had not even started baking yet before the noise began, making the whole affair even stranger. All's well that ends well, however: Kandyland eventually shut off the piercing alarm, baked her cupcakes, and finished her anniversary stream without further incident.

Nobody enjoys being called out on their blind spots, but everybody has them, and they have a habit of coming to light at the least opportune moments. Timothy "TimTheTatman" Betar, for example, seems to be a little rusty on his order of mathematical operation, which a cheeky fan demonstrated by presenting him with a third grade algebra question: what is 1+1+1+1×0? 

In Tim's defense, viewers cannot see precisely how the challenge was presented, and solving it can be a little tricky if you attempt it as a left-to-right sequence of operations rather than a complete, self-contained equation.

Tim was advised not to look at the chat until he solved the problem, but noticed everybody was spamming the word 'PEMDAS.' The acronym is a mnemonic device used to remember the correct order of mathematical operations: all operations in parentheses should be resolved first, followed by exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. 

Glancing at the clue didn't seem to help, however. Instead, Tim grew annoyed. "Why is everybody saying 'peem-dus?'" he demanded. Again, everyone has blind spots.

Essential work tools can often feel like an extension of the body, and this is especially true for wearable technology. Headsets, for example, are notoriously easy to forget about when the time comes to step away from the keyboard. This is especially true if the situation is urgent. Unfortunately for streamer Swiftyfeets, even these normal lapses in attention can have decidedly costly consequences. 

In the tragic clip, Swiftyfeets is playing "Valorant" when she remarks that she should make food, only for her eyes to bug out as she remembers she had already started cooking taquitos. Fearing the worst, she bolts from her chair without removing her headset — and then things get a bit chaotic. 

Judging by the jumbled footage and sounds of carnage, the wire from her headset likely yanked her entire rig and most everything else from her desk to the floor. The title of the clip, "$1,200 in the trash," paints a grim picture of her gear's fate.

Swiftyfeets isn't the only streamer to accidentally take out their own equipment. A similar situation befell YellowSpoonGirl, a streamer mostly known for chatting and IRL streams showcasing illustration and painting. In a clip from one of her illustration streams, YellowSpoonGirl shows off a colored pencil and speaks to the camera, seemingly oblivious to the tall glass of water sitting on the edge of her desk. Even if you don't know what's coming, the glass' positioning seems precarious, with the water rippling slightly as she moves around the glass.

YellowSpoonGirl rotates her chair to reach for something behind her, bringing the back of her chair up to the side of the glass. And for a moment, it seems like she might stop just short of causing a catastrophe. Then she turns her chair further, tipping the entire glass of water over her desk, soaking her keyboard, colored pencils, and drawing all in one splash. 

It's easy to laugh at the mishap, but hard not to feel for her. Who hasn't spilled liquid on something that shouldn't get wet?