Veteran Twitch streamer Saqib ‘LIRIK’ Zahid was prompted by his viewers to discuss the similarities between his and El Rubius’s logos, as some fans suggested one of them had copied the other.
LIRIK has been streaming on Twitch since the very early days, and despite almost never showing his face on stream, remains one of the most popular ‘variety’ streamers on the Amazon-owned platform.
He will very consistently pull in tens of thousands of viewers, regardless of the game he is playing, and even without a facecam. Meanwhile, Rubén ‘Rubius’ Gundersen, a Spanish-Norwegian creator, first gained fame on YouTube a decade ago, but also regularly streams on Twitch.
Rubius is actually the 4th-most followed streamer on the platform, with over 8 million fans, while LIRIK boasts 2.7 million. The two serve different audiences, most obviously because one speaks English and the other Spanish.
But, there is one key similarity between them, and it’s something some of LIRIK’s fans pointed out – their logos.
LIRIK has used a Scottish Fold cat as the theme for his many channel emotes and logo for years, and his main logo features a cat grimacing with sharp teeth.
- Read More: Twitch emotes explained
In January 2019, Rubius unveiled his new logo – which bore a striking similarity to the cat with sharp teeth used by LIRIK.
LIRIK responds to Rubius logo comparison
Speaking on his stream, LIRIK said “There’s a streamer out there, Rubius, dude, his community is huge, I’m not even gonna- that’s like poking a f**king bee hive. So I’m not even going to say anything.”
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“This is his logo, but, like, I don’t know if I had my logo before. The thing is, my logo’s kinda like, it’s a f**cking smile, there’s so many ways of looking at it. So it’s kind of like, whatever. I don’t really care. He’s probably a nice guy.”
However, LIRIK’s viewers were less sympathetic, spamming the chat with “stolen” and “DMCA” – joking about LIRIK making a copyright claim.
In fact, El Rubius’s logo strikes an even stronger resemblance to a design done for LIRIK’s merch by Rocket_Lion way back in 2017. It’s safe to say that this particular ‘cat grimace’ logo belonged to LIRIK before Rubius, who unveiled his in 2019.
My contribution to the @Lirik store. 2 things I respect about Lirik, prompt communication + makes an effort to improve his brand each year! pic.twitter.com/GUeUPaN72K
— Rocket Lion (@Rocket_Lion) September 24, 2017
There are noticeable differences too of course – Rubius’s cat is sporting a hood, and has very different eyes.
This isn’t actually the first time that LIRIK’s logo has possibly been a strong source of inspiration. In April 2020, an esports team, NOFEAR5, was accused of copying the logo too.