NICKMERCS praises Ninja for “opening up the gates” for streamers

Nick ‘NICKMERCS’ Kolcheff took a moment while streaming to give a shoutout to Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins for paving the way for streamers to be successful and turn it into full-time careers.

When it comes to Twitch streamers becoming household names, Ninja is considered the first to ever do it. His rise to fame during the beginning days of Fortnite provided a blueprint for all the streamers that came after him. Ninja grinded countless hours of streaming Fortnite to become the most followed account on Twitch, and even though he doesn’t have the same viewership he once had, there’s no doubt about his legacy as a streamer.

Ninja also happens to be the first big Twitch streamer to be signed over to a different platform when he went to Mixer, the now-defunct Microsoft-owned streaming platform.

A number of Twitch streamers have now left the platform for big paydays at YouTube, such as TimTheTatman. Nick himself has teased a potential shift to streaming exclusively for YouTube as well. NICKMERCS took some time out of his stream to give a big kudos to Ninja, singing his praises and explaining exactly why all streamers owe him a ton.

Activision/Nickmercs

NICKMERCS recently announced he’s quit streaming Warzone, citing burnout and a dislike of the current state of the game.

“I’d also like to give a big shoutout to that boy TBlev man. Tyler Blevins. Ninja! Ninja!” Nick said. “Me and Ninja are two very different individuals, but we got a couple things in common. We both love to game. We both love to play competitively. We’re both poppin’ in Halo and stuff. I remember back when all this stuff started popping off for streamers man, he really did lead it, you know. The moves he made and the way he did his thing.

“There’s no denying the amount of hours he put in early Fortnite, there’s no denying that. And I’ll never forget it. He really did open up the gates for a lot of this stuff. Big shoutout to him, we all love the kid. We all appreciate him.”

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While we wait for confirmation if NICKMERCS really is leaving Twitch, his praising of Ninja is a subtle hint that he could be joining Tim and Dr. Lupo for YouTube Gaming’s greener pastures.