10 YouTube Gamers Whose Careers Imploded
agramuglia
Published
06/21/2021
in
wtf
YouTube has become a haven for gamers looking to share their experiences. However, while many gamers have become icons in the culture, others...have fallen off the radar.
Often, following explosive controversy. For the following list, we will look at controversies that helped gamers' careers explode on YouTube. We are not passing judgment.
Often, following explosive controversy. For the following list, we will look at controversies that helped gamers' careers explode on YouTube. We are not passing judgment.
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1.
LionMaker was a Minecraft player who turned out to be a complete predator. At one point, this guy was a big deal among Minecraft fans – most of whom veered young. He tended to message his fans, asking for lewd photographs, knowing they were kids.
He manipulated a young, underaged girl named Page the Panda into being his girlfriend. He continued to emotionally abuse her. When the full extent of LionMaker’s predatory behavior came to light, fans immediately jumped ship.
This sparked a full breakdown for LionMaker, who, it turned out, ended up going to jail for some time. -
2.
LionMaker was a Minecraft Let’s Player who turned out to be a complete predator. At one point, this guy was a big deal among Minecraft fans – most of whom veered young. He tended to message his fans, asking for lewd photographs, knowing they were kids. He manipulated a young, underraged girl named Page the Panda into being his girlfriend. He continued to emotionally abuse her. When the full extent of LionMaker’s predatory behavior came to light, fans immediately jumped ship. This sparked a full breakdown for LionMaker, who, it turned out, ended up going to jail for some time. -
3.
An early figure in the YouTube gaming sphere, GameLife was a crudely filmed series centered on three young teens that skyrocketed in popularity during the early days of YouTube. We’re talking MTV contracts and everything.
However, infighting among the members of the show over the series’s direction led to the whole thing collapsing upon itself. Making matters worse, its main host was arrested over threats against a girl’s life.
This, coupled with the changing landscape of YouTube, killed GameLife. -
4.
An early figure in the YouTube gaming sphere, GameLife was a crudely filmed series centered on three young teens that skyrocketed in popularity during the early days of YouTube. We’re talking MTV contracts and everything. However, infighting among the members of the show over the series’s direction led to the whole thing collapsing upon itself. Making matters worse, its main host was arrested over threats against a girl’s life. This, coupled with the changing landscape of YouTube, killed GameLife. -
5.
L for Lee was a mainstay in the Minecraft community between 2013 and 2014. He guested on other YouTubers’ Minecraft videos, using that success to launch his own channel.
In 2015, however, it was revealed that L for Lee was using Facebook accounts to harass young girls and older women, relentlessly attacking people through multiple hidden accounts. One of these people was his surrogate aunt.
He tried for a while to power through it without acknowledging everything. His friends, however, distanced themselves from him. -
6.
Mini Ladd is a figure of extreme controversy. The man had five million subscribers who, despite several controversies with other YouTubers, remained a massive figure in the gaming scene. That is until his predatory behavior came to light.
Mini Ladd solicited young fans for sexual photos, preying and manipulating younger fans for these photos. He would also send unsolicited photos to the girls and try to encourage them to come to him in private to have sex with him.
To make matters worse, Mini Ladd would release multiple vague apologies that went over terribly with fans, most of which painted Mini Ladd as some victim in the situation. -
7.
WingsOfRedemption is an old-school Let’s Player who started in the gaming sphere as a controversial figure. He started as a major figure in the early CoD scene before a highly controversial match between him and fellow player ProSyndicate resulted in an epic defeat.
From there, Wings would alienate his friends and migrate to Twitch, where his emotional, unstable behavior turned him into an easy target for trolls.
His difficulties with his weight have also sparked some trolling, but that truly proved to be a small factor in his downfall compared to his terrible sportsmanship. Wings doesn’t even seem to enjoy playing anymore, judging by his increasing emotional instability. -
8.
ProJared was once one of the biggest names in YouTube gaming. However, he fell very abruptly from grace following a controversy which, in all fairness, fans to this day debate if it was totally fair. There were two core controversies that happened one after the next that displaced ProJared from the gaming scene.
One was his very public breakup with his wife, with whom he had been in an open relationship. The fact that ProJared would then go off to live with the ex-wife of another major gaming figure, RubberRoss, sparked even more controversy.
The second being a server where he shared sexual photos with fans, many of whom were underage. -
9.
Whatever the case, many of ProJared's former friends, after the extent of his behavior came to light, cut ties, resulting in him becoming something of a pariah among some gamers.
ProJared is an interesting case, however, in that his apology went well with many fans. However, many others are skeptical about ProJared’s level of sincerity.
This is made all the more complicated when you consider how his actions hurt other major figures in the gaming scene, resulting in a lot of animosity between fanbases. Regardless, it is undeniably that ProJared’s popularity is at an all-time low given these controversies. -
10.
DarkSydePhil is at this point almost a meme in the gaming sphere. Once a ranked EVO Street Fighter player (in a year where the big-name players didn’t show up out of protest), DSP would become a Machinima partner and major figure in the early-early Let’s Player scene.
However, he soon gained a reputation for his inept manner of video capture (he’d just film the television from a camera), inability to make good jokes, and, most famously, inept playing style.
It seemed at times he was unable to understand how to even play games, let alone be good at them. He gained a reputation for being just the worst. -
11.
Boogie2988 is one of the long-lasting figures of internet culture. Once described as the internet’s Mr. Rogers, Boogie has fallen in popularity over the years due to his perceived hypocritical behavior and political fence-sitting on just about every issue. In an industry that has grown exponentially over the years, the moral authority figure that Boogie once personified has faded away. It has become clear that his “nice guy” persona is just that – a persona.
His personality on YouTube vs his Twitch streams has showcased an incredible divergence in gaming style and personality. This wouldn’t be a terrible thing, but due to his long-standing status in the gaming scene, he’s has failed to grow upon his long-standing audience. -
12.
In addition, there’s the matter of Boogie’s weight, or rather how he used his weight to create content, which many people found inherently offensive. Boogie's content about his body and struggles with size, rubbed many people the wrong way. While Boogie is in no obligation to lose weight, he did receive criticism for "milking his weight loss struggles" for sympathy and attention.
Though most recently Boogie's struggles have been more so IRL than online. There was that whole incident with Frank Hassle, where Boogie pulled a gun on the YouTube prankster after he showed up to his house uninvited. Boogie fired a "warning shot" in Hassl'es direction and was later booked in the Washington County jail, but released on a $5,000.
All things considered, Boogie, we hope your doing well, keep your head up and try and be better today than you were yesterday. -
13.
TheSpoonyOne might be one of the most disheartening entries in this entire list. For many older gaming fans, TheSpoonyOne is one of the most well-known gaming critics of the early days of the platform, being a major figure among the Channel Awesome crowd before being very publicly ousted from the group, following a fairly intense internet rant.
Following this, Spoony struggled with profound depression, struggling to maintain an upload schedule, slowly fizzling out of the public spotlight. -
14.
Ryan Haywood...of all the gaming figures on this, Achievement Hunter’s pariah might be the absolute worst in terms of his crimes. We’ve had many perverts on this list, but most never actually used their position of power to have sex with dozens of emotionally vulnerable fans, adding a degree of non-consensual contact into the mix – you know, actual sexual assault.
But that’s what Haywood did. In what turned out to be an avalanche of accusations, Haywood had apparently been cheating on his wife by seducing multiple young girls, selecting, like a predator, the most vulnerable among them. -
15.
The accusations proved so believable that Achievement Hunter and Rooster Teeth fired him, with many outright being so disturbed by what Ryan did that they stated outright they never even wanted to say his name again.
It must be said that accusations are just that: accusations. Some are fake, some leave out key details, and sometimes they’re part of a back and forth of accusations.
However, the accusations against Haywood were so total and so all-encompassing, with material evidence substantiating many of the claims, that it’s very hard to justify Haywood’s actions on a moral level, especially considering Haywood really never responded to the accusations in a way that convinced anyone he was a victim of a smear campaign or that the accusations were even fake.
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