Twitch streamer Asmongold was completely baffled by the winner of Streamer of the Year and didn’t hold back with his true thoughts on the award results.
To the surprise of the streaming community, Samantha ‘Rivers’ Rivera Trevino emerged with the Esports Awards’ top honor on August 24 when she won Streamer of the Year.
The controversial decision rubbed many viewers the wrong way, with plenty believing that Kai Cenat or IShowSpeed were more deserving of the award after the phenomenal year they’ve had.
During a live broadcast, Asmongold weighed in on the drama and claimed Rivers only won the Esports Award because “she’s a woman.”
“I’m salty that it was obviously a diversity pick because she’s a woman. And everybody knows it. It should have been Speed or Kai or like three other people,” he said. “It’s f**king obnoxious.”
Rivers, a Mexican streamer, averages 15,000 concurrent viewers on any given Twitch stream and focuses on gaming and IRL content. She was able to beat out the likes of Speed, Kai, xQc, Ibai, Jynxzi, and more for the crown in the shocking upset.
Rivers boasts an impressive 5.5M followers on X and another 6.3M on Twitch. Given the fact her community is active and The Esports Awards use a fan voting system, it’s clear that her viewers came out in force to support their favorite creator.
“They put her up there, because she’s a female. It’s embarrassing,” Asmongold continued. “It’s patronizing. It’s not even the top female streamer, either. It’s bullsh*t. It’s not even close.”
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In Q2 2024, Rivers became the 10th ranked most-watched female streamer with 2.65M hours, quite a bit behind YouTube star Valkyrae, IRL streamer Jinny, Amouranth, and Mira.
According to Asmongold, the award only makes sense “if you realize it has nothing to do with people’s popularity or their content” and “it’s all about giving awards to people who they think deserve them.”
His comments spread to social media where many viewers shared a similar sentiment.
“Streamer of the year 100% was rigged,” one said.
“Bro is absolutely right. Kai or Speed were deserving of the award,” remarked another.
Not everyone agreed though with some taking offense to Asmongold’s argument. “That’s an incredibly sexist comment, could also be something else man,” another person chimed in.
este premio es de mi comunidad, que siempre estan activos y al pendiente de todos los proyectos apoyando incondicionalmente. espero algun dia ser tan buena creadora como los demás nominados, a los cuales admiro mucho. gracias a mi gente por siempre apoyarme, por ustedes sigo aqui… https://t.co/UjFAw2rJ7i
— rivers (@samyriveratv) August 24, 2024
Despite the backlash from Asmongold and others in the streaming space, Rivers accepted the award saying it was “for her community” and added that she “hopes to one day be as good a creator as the other nominees.”