Guy Beahm, better known as popular livestreamer Dr Disrespect, was permanently suspended from Twitch for reasons unknown in June 2020. A year later, he launched a legal action over his ban, saying that the loss of his Twitch channel not only impacted him financially but also did serious reputational damage. That’s all water under the bridge now, though, and Dr Disrespect and Twitch are friends again.
“I have resolved my legal dispute with Twitch,” Dr Disrespect said in a message posted to Twitter. “No party admits to any wrongdoing.”
Okay, it’s not exactly a warm embrace and stirring rendition of Auld Lang Syne, but it’s probably as good as we’re going to get. It’s been almost two solid years since Dr Disrespect was banned and we still have no idea what caused it. Dr Disrespect himself claimed not to know the reason for getting the boot until several months after it happened—in fact, he implied last year that the reason for the suspension was part of why he was bringing legal action against Twitch in the first place.
Twitch confirmed the settlement in an almost identically-worded email sent to PC Gamer: “Dr Disrespect and Twitch have resolved their legal dispute. No party admits to any wrongdoing.”
And, in answer to the second-most-obvious question arising from the settlement, both Twitch and Dr Disrespect stated that he will not be returning to Twitch. The first-most-obvious question—why did he get banned from Twitch in the first place?—remains unanswered. Overall, I have to say that it’s a very anti-climactic conclusion to one of the biggest videogame dramas of 2020.
Dr Disrespect remains a major presence on YouTube, where he currently has just under 3.8 million subscribers, and he’s also getting back into game development (prior to finding fame as a streamer, Guy Beahm worked at Sledgehammer Games on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Advanced Warfare) with a new studio called Midnight Society. The studio is currently working on what it describes as “the best, most community-focused, online PVP multiplayer experience the world has ever seen.”
