Of all the live-streamers who have risen to the forefront of popularity, none come quite as close as having as eventful a career as Dr Disrespect. The strong personality of Dr Disrespect has seen him rise to the top of multiple platforms, despite varying controversies and setbacks.
One of the most high-profile instances of drama that Dr Disrespect found himself embroiled with came in June 2020 when Twitch, the site where Dr Disrespect developed a lucrative platform, permanently banned the streamer with little-to-no warning or explanation. This led to a litany of fan-theories and rumors, with Dr Disrespect being as vocal as he legally could against the ban, which he saw as illegitimate and damaging.
Dr Disrespect and his Rise to Stardom
Dr Disrespect is the online persona of Herschel "Guy" Beahm IV, a former level designer for Sledgehammer who worked on many of the maps featured in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Beahm is a veteran of the streaming and video game space, first donning the persona of Dr Disrespect in 2010 with videos that saw his character quickly become popular on the once-popular YouTube channel Machinima.
This initial burst of internet popularity was short-lived however, with a five-year lull in producing content during the aforementioned period when he worked for Sledgehammer Games. This intimate interaction with Call of Duty may have reinvigorated Beahm's desire to bring back Dr Disrespect, a character defined by the competitive and disrespectful nature that multiplayer Call of Duty has become synonymous with.
Beahm left Sledgehammer in 2015 to pursue a full-time career on Twitch, where he gained popularity playing battle royale games such as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. People lauded Dr Disrespect for his witty personality and commendable level of production value, which made him stand out from other streamers. The rapid rise in popularity of "the Doc" is perfectly surmised in the fact that he won Streamer of the Year at the Esports Awards 2019, being one of the most popular channels on Twitch.
Dr Disrespect's Infamous Twitch Ban
Dr Disrespect would go on to sign a multi-year deal with the streaming service in March 2020. This made it all the more unbelievable for fans when it was announced in June 2020 that Dr Disrespect had been permanently banned from the website, his channel removed.
The ban was sudden and seemingly warrantless, with many being left to speculate as to the reason why such action had been taken on Twitch's behalf. Despite rumors of contract breaches with other streaming services or allegations of off-stream behavior leading to Twitch having to take action, the true reason behind the most high-profile ban in Twitch's history remains a mystery. However, the loss of income faced by Dr Disrespect was just not limited to the lack of access to his 30,000 monthly subscribers.
As the uncertainty surrounding the Twitch ban combined with wild rumors, many sponsors cut ties with the Dr Disrespect brand. The streamer lost many lucrative partnerships with high-profile companies, including Discord and LAMO. On top of this, many brands have essentially blacklisted Dr Disrespect from working with them, with EA and Activision not having done any promotional deals with Dr Disrespect since the mysterious ban.
Moving to YouTube
Not one to fade into anonymity, Dr Disrespect did the logical thing and simply moved his brand over to YouTube, where he remains to this day. With how similar the two platforms are in size and accessibility, the transition was a relatively smooth and successful one.
Dr Disrespect now sits as one of the top YouTube gaming streamers, possessing a consistently large audience and close to 4,000,000 subscribers. Despite his success on YouTube, Dr Disrespect recently tweeted that he still receives no attention from the platform whatsoever despite putting their streaming platform "on the map."
Lawsuit Against Twitch
Dr Disrespect has been very vocal about taking legal action against Twitch since the ban occurred. While what he can say about potential legal action is obviously limited, it undoubtedly would have been concerning to high figures. The knowledge that Dr Disrespect was suing Twitch gave credence to fan theories, which speculated that his ban from Twitch was illegitimate. With the high stakes of such a large-scale lawsuit, fans have been desperate to learn more regarding the legal case. However, it recently concluded in an equally confusing manner.
In early March, Dr Disrespect announced via Twitter that he was dropping the Twitch lawsuit. Within his to-the-point tweet, Dr Disrespect stated that the lawsuit had been "resolved," with neither party admitting to any wrongdoing. With the amount of money that is potentially involved with this situation, it is entirely plausible that it was settled out of court. Despite this resolution, it was revealed that Dr Disrespect would not be returning to Twitch as part of the announcement. While the mystery of the ban may remain circulating online forever, it is clear that Dr Disrespect is happy with his newfound platform on YouTube.