The ‘face of Twitch’ is back
Dr. DisRespect returned to Twitch today after nearly two months away, ushering in a new era for his “Champions Club.”
The popular streamer kicked off his show at 2:15 p.m. ET, after apparently breaking Twitch for 10 minutes. Walking out to a synth-infused little ditty and onto a neon-tinted stage with “millions” of adoring fans, Dr. DisRespect performed a little dance before welcoming his most loyal supporters to the Champions Club.
The Champions Club was formerly known as the Slick Daddy Club, but following Dr. DisRespect’s leave of absence in December and January — a decision he made after confessing to cheating on his wife and taking time to focus on his family — the Twitch caster decided to change it.
Though Dr. DisRespect didn’t explicitly address the affair, his family or his time away from the platform, he did suggest more information will be released in the coming days.
“I felt like 2018 needed a new fresh start,” Dr. DisRespect said. “I needed to be reminded about what life is really about. Anything and whatever we do — be a champion. Know that you’re a champion. I have, like, a five-page essay that I wrote that really outlines it, but I didn’t memorize it.”
All eyes turned to the caster’s view count once Dr. DisRespect semi-acknowledged his history. Questions hovered over the Twitch Chat, asking whether Dr. DisRespect would surpass 400,000 concurrent viewers to beat League of Legends caster Tyler1’s own return to Twitch. More than 400,000 people tuned in when Tyler1 came back to the streaming platform in January, according to screenshots, breaking Twitch records in the process. There is some dispute, however, as to how many people tuned into Tyler1’s stream, with reports that Tyler1 never passed 400,000 streamers.
Dr. DisRespect didn’t break Tyler1’s record at the time of this writing if screenshots are to believed, but did manage to hit just under 390,000 concurrent views. The caster made up for any lack of eyeballs through donations, however, with some people donating more than $5,000 after the Doc won a chicken dinner in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. It’s hard to tell, however, how many of these donations are real.
Twitch has an ongoing issue with chargeback problems from viewers who donate large sums of money as a practical joke. Dr. DisRespect did announce sometime into his stream that he gained more than 12,000 subscribers during his return stream; even at Twitch’s base level of $4.99 a month, that means Dr. DisRespect pulled in more than $30,000 during a portion of the stream. Dr. DisRespect could be making even more, however, because he’s a valued partner. We’ll update the post when final numbers are in.
No matter how many viewers Dr. DisRespect ends up with or how many thousands of dollars in donations he gets, one thing is for sure: The Doc is back.
“Millions and millions in the arena, coming in fast, and wanting to watch the face of twitch,” Dr. DisRespect said at the beginning of his stream. “Bored out of their minds for the last month and a half.
“What have you guys been doing this whole time? What have you guys been doing the entire time? What have you been doing?”
