Tragic Details About Ice Poseidon

Streamers stir up debates from time to time, but few high profile streamers have been embroiled in quite so many controversies as Paul "Ice Poseidon" Denino. His streaming career began on Twitch, but he was forced to switch to YouTube after he was banned from the platform. He then spent a year on Mixer, but ultimately found himself back on YouTube after Microsoft's streaming network went the way of the dodo. Taking his screen name from a random name generator (per The New Yorker), his content initially focused around the popular MMORPG "Runescape." He later ended up transitioning to IRL streams, primarily broadcasting himself engaging in real events and talking with fans.

To say that Denino's time in the public eye has been turbulent would be an understatement. Over the years, he has been accused of relying on shocking content to get views, conning his fans out of half a million dollars in a cryptocurrency scheme, and engaging in toxic behavior while fostering a community that does the same. None of that means that he hasn't also had his own share of hardships to contend with, though. Here are a few of the more tragic details about Ice Poseidon.

Back in May, 2021, Denino was interviewed by Dr. K on the HealthyGamerGG YouTube channel. Dr. K asked him to talk a little bit about his experience being on the autism spectrum. Denino replied that he was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome when he was younger and that his diagnosis played a major role in his development. 

"It took me a while to understand social cues," he said. "I was, like, super sheltered and always in my house. Didn't have any friends. Didn't talk to anybody." He then went on to explain that this also made it difficult for him to express himself and that although he'd been placed on various medications, none of them helped with his condition.

Dr. K then said that it seemed like Denino had to pay a price to connect with people and make them appreciate him. "Well, they still didn't really appreciate me," Denino replied. "I was probably one of the most bullied kids in school." Ice Poseidon went on to describe several graphic instances where he was targeted for his anti-social behavior and mocked by the entire class. He also explained that his school located in small town in Florida that didn't have access to the resources he needed, which strengthened his feelings of isolation.

During that same interview with Dr. K, Denino also explained that he didn't have a very solid relationship with his parents. "My parents are good people. Like, they're nice and I love them, but, you know, I just don't think they were on the same page as me ... They brought me to therapists. They put me on different medicine ... they just never really, I think, understood how to, you know, just communicate with me when I was going through a lot of my issues."

Apparently, their relationship was put through more strain by Denino's choice to pursue a career in streaming. In an interview with KnowYourMeme, Ice Poseidon elaborated on their dynamic a little bit. While his father didn't mind appearing on his streams occasionally, his mother never wanted to be on camera. Viewers of Ice Poseidon's streams have seen a few of these awkward exchanges firsthand.

In one of Ice Poseidon's older streams (clip via Gökan on YouTube), he once again described communication barriers between him and his parents. "I don't even talk to my parents," he said. "I live with my parents, but we maybe talk like ... maybe two words a day. Maybe a sentence a day. ... We argue and stuff. That's not talking though. Not the kind of talking you want to do."

For those who don't already know, "swatting" is when a person viewing a stream uncovers the streamer's current location, then calls the police and falsely reports that they are committing a crime. This can be incredibly stressful and dangerous for the person being targeted, not to mention the people around them.

Ice Poseidon has been swatted multiple times. In a Dexerto Originals documentary, he talked about how out of hand the problem became. When asked how often these incidents occurred, Denino stated, "I think I got swatted every single day for a year. Multiple times a day. One time, a SWAT team came to my house three times in like four hours." He went on to state that many of his fans believed he enjoyed being swatted since it brought more viewership to his channel. He acknowledged that it did bring viewers, but "the wrong kind of viewers." 

He claimed that he was receiving death threats and that he was genuinely concerned for his life for real. "I had real PTSD of getting f***ing shot," he said. "It took me a while to get over that. I could not keep my back to a window. I would think someone's going to f***ing shoot me through my window in my house."

One of the most notable occurrences was when Denino was swatted while boarding a plane, leading to the plane being held up by the police and Twitch indefinitely banning Denino's account. The constant platform changes that resulted from his ban ultimately lead to a massive decline in his viewer base.

The New Yorker's Adrian Chen wrote a piece on Ice Poseidon back in 2018, during which they talked about the ups and downs of Denino's chaotic career as a streamer. One detail that hadn't previously received a lot of attention was the fact that he had been kicked out of six different apartments during the year and a half that he lived in Los Angeles. According to the article, it was a running joke that many of Ice Poseidon's fans used the different apartments as timeline measurements for his channel, referring to the time period he spent in each apartment as a "season," just as one would with conventional television.

The first apartment was a house that was used by several content creators after gaining notoriety as the former home of Logan Paul. Apparently, viewers would mass-call the building management offices, claiming that he was destroying the apartment. This was clearly enough to cause the landlords to become frustrated, but Chen claims that the constant swattings were the bigger problem. This makes sense, as it's unlikely that there are many landlords who would feel comfortable with the police kicking down their tenant's doors on a daily basis.