Popular Argentinian streamer Iván “Spreen” Buhajeruk made headlines last week after Twitch banned him, nipping his momentum as one of the fastest-growing streamers in the bud.
Nobody knew why, and it seemed like he didn’t know either—at least, that’s what he wanted his fans to think. It turns out, he knew what the ban was for all along, but wanted to keep it under wraps until he appealed.
“Twitch banned me for 30 days. I didn’t reveal the reason on social media because I wanted to keep it a secret until I appealed the ban,” he confessed in a YouTube video on Oct. 25.
It paid off. The ban has been reduced to 14 days.
As for the reason, Twitch issued him a statement via email, saying: “Via panels, this user has set up a scheme where they offer various items of monetary value and/or Twitch features (e.g. channel subscriptions, VIP status) in exchange for channel points which are accumulated through watching the broadcaster’s content, as such artificially increasing their Twitch statistics.”
They also listed seven examples ranging between 200,000 points and 2.3 million points as evidence.
ElSpreen said it’s something Twitch has warned him about before, but the instructions weren’t clear-cut. For that reason, he’s not thrilled about it, but he’s willing to take it on the chin.
“It’s a pretty screwed up thing to get banned for, but Twitch takes it very seriously, so even though it seems like bullshit, it is what it is. I work under Twitch’s rules, so I have to respect them. I can’t complain. I have to accept it.”
Spreen’s Twitch streaming ban will end on Nov. 3.
In the meantime, he begged fans to not bombard Twitch with hateful comments, claiming it would only make the situation worse.
“The only thing to do right now is accept that I was wrong,” he said.
