Popular streamer Félix ‘xQc’ Lengyel did battle with a notorious “stream sniper” in a game of ranked Overwatch.
Upon loading into a new Overwatch game on Nepal, xQc immediately noticed that the other team featured a player who he’s had previous run-ins with for stream sniping.
xQc quickly launched into a rant about the player, announcing that he’d go to the lengths of pursuing a job at Blizzard just to ensure the player got banned.
Unfortunately for xQc, the alleged stream sniper proved a nuisance in the game, playing Roadhog and managing to catch xQc with his hook several times.
“This guy would never play Overwatch if it wasn’t for me,” xQc said, “I’m telling you, he just crawls on me dude.”
In the end, however, xQc was able to get his revenge. After landing an Earthshatter on the enemy Zenyatta, rather than immediately go for the elimination he briefly threw his shield back up, blocking an incoming hook before cleaning up the kill and gloating in classic xQc fashion.
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“I see you dude, I knew you would do it and I blocked it, bitch!” xQc yelled, moving his camera to stare directly into it up close.
Unfortunately, xQc’s team wasn’t able to finish out the map with a victory, ultimately losing the next two points for a 1-2 defeat.
What is Stream Sniping?
“Stream sniping” is the term for when other players watch a streamer’s broadcast in order to influence a game with information they wouldn’t otherwise have. Sometimes that can mean gaining an unfair advantage in a competitive match, other times it’s used to single out a particular streamer and disrupt their play.
In Overwatch, it can also be used as a means of getting into the same game as a particular streamer by joining the queue at the exact same time. Particularly at the higher end of the ranked ladder, where there are fewer players already, it’s very possible to “chase” streamers like xQc in this way.
While stream sniping might be punished by Twitch if it’s being done by another streamer, unfortunately it’s usually difficult to prove or take action against in the game itself.