DrDisrespect is one of the most polarizing figures on Twitch and the streaming superstar is back in the community’s crosshairs. As Riot Games’ newest title Valorant has entered its much-anticipated closed beta launch, players are rushing to the streaming platform in droves in search of beta keys. The only way to gain access is to watch streams and plenty of notable streamers are working with Riot Games on the release. But there are many more who didn’t get the call from Riot. Unfortunately, several of these streamers have taken to lying about “Drops Enabled” to trick viewers into tuning in. The most notable among them is DrDisrespect.
Valorant Drops Not Enabled
Beginning on April 7, Twitch saw a massive rush of viewers as Valorant finally entered its much-anticipated closed beta. Many of these users were only tuning in for one reason: It was the only way to get beta access. This resulted in a massive influx of viewers on many of the platform’s most popular streams. But this also opened the door for unaffiliated streamers, like DrDisrespect, to exploit the mob of new Twitch users.
Those that are new or unfamiliar to the drops system (or to Twitch in general) might simply browse to a stream that mentions drops in the title, turn it on, and think nothing else of it as they go about their daily activities. What many don’t know is that a stream must have the “Drops Enabled” tag to qualify.
For example, check out this stream description from popular Twitch streamer AnneMunition:
As you can see, not only does she mention drops in the title of her stream, it’s accompanied by a “Drops Enabled” tag, as well as a caption that lets you know you can watch for a chance to earn loot. The problem comes when streamers falsely claim to have drops in stream titles when the feature is not actually on. The most high-profile streamer to do this so far is DrDisrespect. And people are rightfully furious.
The Doctor of Disrespect
DrDisrespect is one of the most prominent streamers on the Twitch platform. It seems reasonable, then, to assume that Riot Games could work with someone like that to push a new game. When Doc went live with “Drops Maximized” in his stream title, most people didn’t have reason to doubt its authenticity. But DrDisrespect is not one of the many streamers in the Valorant closed beta drops program. The Doc, as it turned out, lied.
The arena is wide open!
Valorant w/ Drops Maximized. yayayahttps://t.co/bHsMu8hnlN
— Dr Disrespect (@drdisrespect) April 7, 2020
The motive is an easy one to decipher. Anyone streaming on the platform knows that there are hundreds of thousands of users on the site looking for a stream to sit on. Throwing a mention of drops in your stream title will undoubtedly draw a host of them, even if you don’t have the feature enabled. Pulling this shady tactic resulted in DrDisrespect racking up one of the highest viewer counts on the platform.
People also picked up on it pretty quickly.
“Back to Back Liar”
Doc has put up misleading stream titles on both days of the closed beta so far. Both times, it’s promptly lead to huge complaint threads reaching the front page of the Valorant subreddit. One of the forum’s top threads from Day 1 was titled “PSA: Don’t watch DrDisrespect for drops.” On Day 2, the top spot went to a thread with the title “DrDisrespect back at it again. Title of stream: Drops All Day. No drops enabled. Don’t waste your time on his stream.” Many other such complaint threads were posted and gained plenty of traction before community moderators removed them as duplicates.
Frustrated players flooded the comment sections with their own takes. One user said, “This should be a reportable thing. He is [falsely] advertising something on his stream that makes him gain a lot more viewers than he would probably get otherwise.” Another added, “That’s actually a pretty scummy thing to do.”
One of the better comments on the Day 2 thread called the streamer a “back to back liar” after his second consecutive day with a misleading stream. The comment cleverly alludes to one of DrDisrespect’s popular gimmicks, where he satirically promotes himself as the “two-time back-to-back Blockbuster Video Game Champion.”
One response came from one of the more unfortunate viewers who fell prey to the tactic. “Well f***ing great, I’ve literally had him on all day,” the user complained.
To ensure that you aren’t bamboozled like the above user, please refer to this link, where the Valorant feed is curated with only streams that legitimately have drops enabled.
Travis calls out the Doc
Reddit wasn’t the only place where disgruntled viewers gathered to voice their frustrations with DrDisrespect. Plenty of such responses also came in on Twitter. Chief among these was notable League of Legends media personality, Travis Gafford.
Travis used his platform to warn users:
“Heads up. Dr. Disrespect has, for the past two days, had “drops” in his title, but his stream actually isn’t flagged to drop keys. Pretty fraudulent. People in my Twitch chat are saying he’s banning people telling him to stop in his chat and using sub mode.”
Shortly after Travis’ tweet, DrDisrespect did change the title of his Twitch broadcast. After featuring streams with headings like “Drops Maximized” and “Drops All Day” he shifted to one simply titled “Precision.” But he also had some words in response to Travis. In typical Doc fashion, he was straight and to the point:
“Fragile, concerned little tattle teller.”
Fragile, concerned little tattle teller. https://t.co/I5FFO7TPdy
— Dr Disrespect (@drdisrespect) April 9, 2020
Myth catches some heat
TSM’s Myth was another major streamer who came under scrutiny for misleading viewers. But when Myth incorrectly had “drops” in his stream title, the entire Twitch platform had drops disabled. Nobody really lost anything by watching him instead of someone else. When the platform did send drops live at 8:00 AM PDT, Myth’s stream was one that immediately qualified. While not entirely clean, this wasn’t nearly as misleading as the Doc’s streams. We give Myth a pass on this one.
At the end of the day, we can appreciate that DrDisrespect is a character, and it’s one that Herschel “Guy” Beahm IV plays very well. The scene benefits from having personalities like him. But we also believe that baiting viewers into wasting precious hours when they’re trying desperately to get into a beta for a game they want to play is maybe a hair too far. Have fun, but not at the expense of innocent bystanders.
For all current and upcoming Valorant coverage, check out the Daily Esports Valorant portal.
Published: Apr 9, 2020 08:00 am