Is a new streaming platform called Brime about to become Twitch’s biggest competitor? That’s what some in the internet rumor mill think after popular streamer Keemstar shared a wild theory claiming that Ninja, Shroud, and Dr DisRespect are launching a new streaming service backed by Spotify. Sounds too good to be true, right? That’s because it probably is.
In case you’ve not been keeping up with streaming news, the rumors started after Dr DisRespect was mysteriously banned from Twitch over the weekend. Twitch didn’t cite a specific reason for the ban. In fact, in a message to fans on Twitter, the Doc revealed that even he didn’t know what had brought about the suspension, which is reportedly permanent, according to Kotaku. While more “serious” reasons for the ban have been hinted at by industry insider Rod “Slasher” Breslau, the theory posted by Keemstar alleges that Dr DisRespect is joining Brime and Twitch isn’t very happy about it.
The gist of the theory is that Dr DisRespect, Ninja, and Shroud have all allegedly agreed to join Brime. Twitch apparently caught Dr DisRespect trying to recruit other Twitch streamers for the new platform and quickly shut down his channel, terminating his contract. But why wouldn’t Doc or Twitch just say as much instead of leaving the rumor mill to speculate? Non-disclosure agreements are apparently keeping anyone from saying anything while “Twitch, Doc, and Spotify are undergoing mediation.”
Adding fuel to the theory are two things: a cryptic message during one of Dr DisRespect’s streams telling players to “Prepare for the 29th,” which is this Monday, and the fact that the Brime Twitter handle, which was created just a few days ago, only follows 15 people — three of those people being Dr DisRespect, Shroud, and Ninja, who are all free agents as of last week. (Ninja and Shroud left Twitch last year after signing exclusivity deals with Microsoft’s Mixer platform, which is shutting down in July.) Some people think this means Brime, which teased that it would begin answering people’s questions on Monday (the same day Doc said people should prepare for), has signed these streamers in a mega-deal that would turn the streaming service into one of Twitch’s main competitors overnight.
Okay, take a deep breath.
Forbes has already provided a thorough breakdown of why this rumor likely has no basis in reality, so we won’t spend too much time belaboring the point. Bu if you need some quick reasons for why this rumor is most likely false, here are a few:
1) The theory comes from 4chan, which is about as unreliable a source as it gets,
2) Dr DisRespect just signed his own multi-year exclusivity deal with Twitch in March and it’s unlikely he’d break his contract to join Brime when he stood to make $10 million a year from Twitch (per Kotaku),
3) Ninja and Shroud, who haven’t announced their future plans, probably aren’t rushing to join another fledgling streaming service after what just went down with Mixer, which in 2019 already had more “clout” than Brime does at the moment,
4) The rumor claims that Spotify, which is allegedly backing Brime, is owned by Google. This is false.
No, things are not looking good for this particular theory.
Brime itself addressed the rumors on Twitter, saying, “Just because we follow someone doesn’t mean anything. Every streaming service follows people that they find interesting.”
The new streaming service also seemed to suggest that it was a much smaller operation than the rumor claims: “We wanted to start small and grow organically. This is happening very fast.” It almost sounds like Brime was as blindsided by the rumors as the rest of the internet.
Whatever the case, things clearly don’t add up. There’s also the big elephant in the room. As of this writing, Brime doesn’t even seem to have an active website. And if there is a website, it’s not mentioned in Brime’s Twitter bio, which seems pretty silly, especially if the streaming service is as big as the rumor mill says.
Forbes has provided a possible explanation for the Brime fiasco: Brime might not even be a real streaming service. The outlet suggests that the Brime Twitter account could have been created by “a 4chan troll that duped the likes of Keemstar and others.” Hopefully, Brime’s Monday Q&A will bring some answers.
The one thing we know for sure is that this has been a tumultuous week for the streaming industry. On top of Twitch banning Dr DisRespect and Mixer calling it quits, many well-known Twitch streamers also faced a wave of sexual misconduct allegations that completely rocked the platform. As of this writing, Twitch has already banned popular streamers iAmSp00n, BlessRNG, WarwitchTV, DreadedCone, and Wolv21 after people spoke out against them. Destiny 2 streamer Lono “SayNoToRage” as well as Tom “Syndicate” CassellI have also been accused. It should be noted that there’s no evidence that Dr DisRespect’s ban is related to sexual misconduct.
We’ll keep you updated as we learn more about Brime as well as Dr DisRespect’s ban.