Twitch loses lawsuit to banned streamer PhantomL0rd

Former Twitch streamer James ‘PhantomL0rd’ Vargas has won his lawsuit against the site for banning him back in 2016, but he’s received much less than the $35 million settlement he was originally seeking.

Vargas was banned by Twitch all the way back in 2016 during the site’s crackdown on CSGO gambling streams. Twitch said at the time of the ban that he was misleading viewers in regards to skin gambling in CSGO.

The streamer wholeheartedly denied all of it and sued Twitch, seeking $35 million in damages for removing him from the platform for “unsubstantiated, false accusations,” with the court battle beginning in 2019.

PhantomL0rd once held the record for unique concurrent viewers on a personal Twitch stream at 143,000.

During the lengthy proceedings, lawyers for Twitch tried to cap the amount of money Vargas could receive at $50,000 from the outcome of the lawsuit, but the court decided not to put a limit on the amount he would get if he won – which he officially did on April 23.

In the end, PhantomL0rd won his lawsuit on all counts, receiving $20,720.34 in total damages from Twitch according to court documents — a win for sure, though not exactly the $35 million he was originally going for.

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However, based on his reaction to the verdict on Twitter, monetary gains don’t seem to have been his main reason for the lawsuit: Sending a message was.

“I WON! Twitch LOST EVERYTHING, including the fraud claim against me for the CSGOShuffle allegations!” PhantomL0rd posted on Twitter. “This is a win for ALL streamers! Twitch can’t bully, lie & treat streamers unfairly the way they have for years!”

Twitch has yet to put out a statement on the outcome of the lawsuit, and it’s unknown if they will considering things didn’t turn out in their favor, but we’ll update this story if and when they do.

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PhantomL0rd, and any other streamer that feels they’ve been unjustly punished by the site, definitely celebrated the results, since it’s not often a streamer takes on Twitch over a ban and actually wins.