The ban of a major Twitch streamer never fails to make a lot of news. Bans like these are often shocking and surprising, upheaving communities and making the futures of famous entertainers uncertain. The biggest way to make a Twitch ban more mysterious is probably to keep viewers from finding out why a streamer was banned. Twitch's reasons for banning are sometimes considered draconian, but it's hard to criticize a ban when fans aren't sure why a person was banned. Dr. Disrespect's sudden disappearance from Twitch is easily one of the biggest bans of the kind, coming completely unprompted and so far going unexplained.
Fans expected to know something more concrete about the Twitch ban by now. Unfortunately, that couldn't be farther from the truth. Fans are still in the dark about what exactly happened between Dr. Disrespect and his former streaming platform. Ironically, though, the mystery isn't keeping Dr. Disrespect down. He's been streaming on YouTube for many years now, so it seems his career hasn't been thrown off track whatsoever. If everything is apparently getting back to normal, what could have happened? What happened behind closed doors that seems to have simultaneously had huge consequences and no consequences at all for Dr. Disrespect?
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As is often the case with unsolved mysteries like these, Dr. Disrespect's community has spent months wondering why their favorite streamer was struck off by Twitch. A few ongoing theories spent some time drifting around the Internet when the news first broke. Some fans believed Twitch and Dr. Disrespect might have had an argument because of a speculated connection between Doc and a new streaming platform called Brime. However, this theory has largely been discredited. Other fans worried that Dr. Disrespect might be in legal trouble because of wider responses to the ban and cryptic, ominous dialogue about it. This seems increasingly unlikely, seeing as Dr. Disrespect hasn't gone anywhere.
A recent theory from a Call of Duty voice actor proves that speculation is still abound and nothing is certain about the ban. Actor Jeff Leach presented a rumor that Dr. Disrespect was actually in talks to leave Twitch just before his ban, with the intention of joining Facebook's Mixer. Unfortunately, Mixer closed its doors many months ago, even after getting exclusivity deals with some major streamers. Leach posits that Mixer's collapse caused Dr. Disrespect's relationship with Twitch to deteriorate, leading to his ban. While it's a somewhat feasible theory, it has yet to be confirmed in any credible way.
Persistent uncertainty was to be expected of the first few weeks after Dr. Disrespect's ban. Fans expected all involved to need some time for the dust to settle before the truth could come out. Instead, while the dust seems to be settling, Dr. Disrespect and Twitch haven't set anything in stone. If Dr. Disrespect still doesn't know why he was banned, then the question becomes why Twitch won't talk about the issue. On the other hand, if Dr. Disrespect does know, he's made it clear by now that he doesn't really want to talk about what happened, and might keep the ban private permanently.
Everyone expected Dr. Disrespect to have a hard time getting back on his feet after the Twitch ban. On the contrary, he seems to have been impeded only temporarily. What Doc lost on Twitch, he seems to have gained on YouTube, where he streams throughout the week and continues to upload additional videos.
He and his community seem to be back to having a good time as usual, too; Doc recently got a bit of attention for switching out his black mullet for a bald cap while playing some Hitman. He also continues to be a highly respected voice when delivering praise and criticism on FPS games like Call of Duty: Warzone.
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That's not to say the ban hasn't had any lingering effect on Dr. Disrespect's career. Call of Duty: Warzone may be a game he's known for, but he recently ran into trouble related to it. Fans recently learned that Dr. Disrespect was banned from entering the Toronto Ultra Call of Duty Tournament, a two-day event with a major cash prize. Doc's fans and friends expressed their dismay at this development, which may have come about because the tournament was being streamed on Twitch. It'd be logical that Dr. Disrespect's ban is what got in his way. Although this particular ban was unfortunate, Doc has since assured fans that he'll be able to participate in other tournaments in the future.
In spite of this Warzone trouble, Doc's tone has been pretty positive. At the start of 2021, Dr. Disrespect promised his fans that he had big plans for the year, and that they could look forward to all kinds of surprises. He has plenty of reason to stay positive, too. He continues to draw hundreds of thousands of views on each video and stream VOD on his YouTube channel, proving that his career hasn't been waylaid permanently by Twitch's mysterious decision.
Even if everything seems to be under control on Doc's end, fans continue to wonder what could have happened between him and Twitch. People will continue to speculate about what happened, and any development related to banning or unbanning Twitch streamers will have some implications for Dr. Disrespect. For instance, a recent leak about Twitch's monetization policies revealed how much information about content creators the streaming platform shares with sponsors and advertisers. Fans speculate that the cause for his ban might be more public than anticipated, but that doesn't mean the cause itself has become public yet, or that it will.
The closest Dr. Disrespect has come to explaining the ban was a cryptic metaphor that he delivered to fans that seemed to suggest the ban might have something with revenue. He seemed to imply that he might have been pushed out of Twitch in favor of less controversial but equally profitable streamers (plural). Still, it could easily be a red herring. Nobody has come forward to explain in clear-cut, credible terms exactly what happened to Dr. Disrespect's account, even though many people have claimed to know what's going on.
It's very confusing that Dr. Disrespect's career is going strong in spite of a permanent ban from the previous source of his livelihood. Odds of the Twitch ban's cause coming to light seem to be getting slimmer by the month, but as long as the explanation is out there, there's a chance that it'll come forth someday.