Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins’ recent inspirational gaming tweet has caught a great deal of backlash, and even led to other marquee internet celebrities clowning the controversial post.
Sharing his thoughts on losses in gaming, Ninja argued players should always maintain a sense of frustration and anger or else they’ll never improve.
Regardless of where you stand on the topic, it’s clear Ninja struck a nerve within the community and his controversial post has made him the target of countless jokes since.
The phrase “it’s just a game” is such a weak mindset. You are ok with what happened, losing, imperfection of a craft. When you stop getting angry after losing, you’ve lost twice.
There’s always something to learn, and always room for improvement, never settle.
— Ninja (@Ninja) February 18, 2020
The Mixer streamer’s February 18 post outlines his position on losses while gaming. Rather than simply accepting defeat, he argues gamers should always maintain a sense of anger in order to strive for improvement, and learn from losses.
“The phrase ‘it’s just a game’ is such a weak mindset,” he stated. “You are ok with what happened, losing, imperfection of a craft. When you stop getting angry after losing, you’ve lost twice. There’s always something to learn, and always room for improvement, never settle.”
Shortly after, the comment caught the eye of gaming and internet celebrities around the world, and Ninja’s post became the brunt of countless jokes.
Fellow content creation celebrity KSI snuck in a cheeky comment, joking that Ninja will “be a scary dad” due to his steadfast opinion on gaming losses.
You’re gonna be a scary dad fam https://t.co/TQ6lJgF4wQ
— ksi (@KSI) February 18, 2020
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Attracting the attention of even the most accomplished stars of the esports industry, Team Liquid’s Yiliang ‘Doublelift’ Peng chimed in with a League of Legends joke of his own.
“When your friends drag you into a quick ARAM,” he responded, joking that even League’s completely randomized mode is more than just a mere game to him and that he will never settle for a loss, even in the least meaningful playlist.
Not just copping flak from prominent gaming personalities alone, however, Ninja’s tweet also set him in the sights of 2019 Grammy winner Montero Lamar ‘Lil Nas X’ Hill, who joked about the level of games people would be getting angry at.
“Me playing papas pizzeria on coolmath,” the rapper joked, sarcastically implying that he holds the same angry mentality when playing flash games on his PC.
when your friends drag you into a quick ARAM https://t.co/aahMKm0qtn
— Yiliang Peng (@Doublelift1) February 18, 2020
me playing papas pizzeria on coolmath https://t.co/EE34ttjJ9D
— ☆ (@LilNasX) February 18, 2020
Expanding on his thoughts after facing ample criticism for his opinion, he emphasized that the backlash is due to “the way [others] perceived the message.”
Perhaps the streaming star could have worded the sentiment a little better to avoid the hostility and criticism online. Ultimately there’s no doubt he’ll learn from the situation however, as he said it best, “there’s always something to learn.”