Grandmaster Chess Streamer Banned From Twitch For Dr Disrespect Footage
Popular chess streamer Hikaru "GMHikaru" Nakamura has been temporarily banned from Twitch after including some footage of Herschel "Guy" Beahm IV (aka Dr Disrespect) playing the game.
Anyone who has been keeping up to speed with the streaming community will know of the dramatic beef between Dr Disrespect and Twitch after the Two-Time was suddenly banned from the platform. What followed was nearly two years of legal tussles, as the Doc set up shop on Twitch's biggest rival streaming platform, YouTube Gaming.
The drama seemed to be finally over when Dr Disrespect and Twitch eventually settled their dispute early this month. However, it appears that there may still be some bad blood in the air as unlucky chess streamer GMHikaru found out.
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When Was GMHikaru Banned From Twitch?
On March 22, it was announced that GMHikaru, the five-time United States Chess Champion and streamer had been banned from Twitch. With no explanation as to why from Twitch itself, GMHikaru took to Twitter to share his theory that the suspension was due to him streaming Dr Disrespect playing chess with Benjamin "DrLupo" Lupo. In the tweet, GMHikaru stated: "The Doc tweeted that things are settled with Twitch... guess he was wrong. See everyone in 3 days."
It took a few days for the ban to come into effect, however. According to Dexerto, GMHikaru was streaming Dr Disrespect's chess playthrough during his broadcast on March 16. Fans quickly warned the chess champ that he could risk being banned as Twitch's community guidelines state: "It is prohibited to use your channel to knowingly feature or advertise a suspended user." Yet, he didn't heed their warnings and simply said: "Chill out, you guys. Do you think I care? This is chess."
A number of other streamers have also bitten the bullet and risked getting a ban for including the Doc in their content. For example, Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag found himself in potentially in firing line after he called Dr Disrespect while streaming a Warzone Showdown tournament.
How Did Dr Disrespect Respond To The News?
As the news of GMHikaru's Twitch ban circulated, it wasn't long before it reached Dr Disrespect who tweeted his response to the news. After one Twitter user called on the Doc to get his fellow YouTuber a drink, Dr Disrespect responded: "Don't worry, @SteelBourbon is coming…"
As of writing, GMHikaru's Twitch channel still reads "this channel is temporarily unavailable due to a violation of Twitch's Community Guidelines or Terms of Service." However, it isn't checkmate for GMHikaru just yet, as the Grandmaster confirmed in a YouTube video that he should be back up streaming on Twitch again by March 26.
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