A Twitch streamer leaving the US for Korea is being criticized after her cohort feuded over COVID-19 and quarantine
- Twitch streamer Jinnytty announced she would be heading back to Korea.
- Fellow streamer Mizkif said that she wasn't "quarantining enough" for their cohort.
- The LiveStreamFails subreddit began to spread unsubstantiated rumors that she was being forced to leave the US.
Backlash from a campaign on the LivestreamFail subreddit caused Twitch streamers Jinnytty and Mizkif, known for reacting and streaming to thousands of fans, to respond and explain why Jinnytty was leaving the US.
On Friday, Jinnytty announced on her livestream that she would be leaving the US and heading back to her home in Korea. The 28-year-old streamer with over 550,000 followers had been living with fellow streamer Esfand in Texas since March 2020 but decided that heading back to Korea would be her best course of action.
"It makes me feel sad that things weren't working out, but there's nothing I can do," the streamer said while crying. "All things considered this is the best way."
The streamer had already planned on going back to Korea in February, with the intention to "come back over the summer," but also needed a new working visa to stay in the United States. Additionally, she explained that she had several issues related to COVID-19 measures, which were later elaborated on by fellow streamers.
After the revelations, the LiveStreamFails subreddit, a place where popular clips of streamers are posted and shared, spread exaggerated rumors that Jinnytty was being forced to leave. Mizkif later went on multiple streams to deny that Junnytty left for any other reasons than her own. It's just the latest instance of the LivestreamFail stirring the pot among livestreamers.
A series of clips posted on Reddit fueled speculation
After Jinnytty's announcement, Miskif, who is a member of the Texas streaming collective One True King (OTK), known best for entertaining their fan base with streams and video games, sparked speculation that spiraled out of control after he made an offhand comment during a stream.
A clip from that stream hit the LiveStreamFails subreddit with the title "Mizkif & OTK doesn't think Jinny is quarantining enough and thinks its best for her to leave Esfand's house." It was upvoted 8,200 times and also had to be locked due to "massive amount of COVID misinformation being spread and personal attacks."
"But this is the problem, we are trying to quarantine really hard," Mizkif says in the clip. "Jinny just doesn't understand the situation very much as she should."
Guests that want to go to the OTK house need to quarantine for two weeks, get a test, then fly to Texas where they'd get another test and quarantine for a couple of days. Streamer Asmongold has an immuno-compromised mother and Tips Out just had a baby, both making them very cautious about our current pandemic.
"We are just taking precautions, we have to and it's a smart thing we are doing," Mizkif says in the extended clip from the rest of the live stream. "I like Jinny a lot and it sucks that she has to go, but it's for the best both ways."
Over 2020, Jinnytty and her brother, KrustingKevin on Twitch with 20,000 subscribers, traveled around Europe and the United States, streaming their adventures. Kevin had most recently spent some time in Plattsburgh, NY before flying to Texas to visit his sister. Inviting her brother who traveled to live with her in Texas provoked the ire of some fans, who believed that she could be endangering the health of others in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
She explained on her stream that her "brother didn't come to Texas to be quarantined, he came with the expectation of road trips."
On his own live stream, Kevin shared his thoughts on the pandemic and his future. "For me, everything revolves around me," Kevin said in a stream on Saturday. "I empathize all the time, COVID sucks but it hasn't affected me very much, I'm just chilling. Nobody around me has died or got it."
This clip of Kevin quickly got picked up on the LiveStreamFails subreddit, where it gained 4,700 upvotes and the comment section eventually needed to be locked "due to COVID misinformation and personal attacks."
After Mizkif's stream, Jinnytty attempted to clarify that there were some conflicts between her and her fellow streamers around her brother's arrival, their travel, and quarantine concerns, but was emphatic in saying that it was her own decision to leave for Korea. Specifically, she noted that she didn't want to be a burden, given that she'd already gotten her roommate Esfand in trouble with his crew.
In Korea, the transmission of the novel coronavirus is reduced, Jinnytty and her brother will be more free to travel and face fewer restrictions internally.
LiveStreamFails fueled the drama, causing it to boil over
Félix Lengyel, known as XQC on Twitch, joined the drama by going on a 20-minute rant on stream trash-talking content creators who are curently traveling.
"It's pretty irresponsible to say what some of these streamers are saying while living in Texas," Lengyel said. "The problem is when you take risks for others, that didn't actually ask for any of this s---."
A clip from the stream hit LiveStreamFails and was upvoted over 10,000 times, full of comments dunking on Jinnytty and her brother.
"Entitled streamers are entitled," wrote one commenter. " I like Jinny streams but what she and her brother are doing is extremely irresponsible," wrote another.
On Monday night, Mizkif streamed himself reading LiveStreamFails and reiterating that OTK did not "kick out" Jinnytty and that "she had left on her own." This thread received less attention, only being upvoted around 500 times.
A few hours later on Tuesday morning, both Mizkif and Jinnytty appeared together on stream to discuss the recent drama. The stream was of course clipped and posted to LiveStreamFails, getting upvoted 5,000 times in under 12 hours.
Asmongold then went to Twitter to share a Twitlonger post repeating the point that OTK did not ask Jinnytty to leave.
"There's no reason to hate anybody, it was stupid miscommunication on everybody," Mizkif said in the clip. "Jinny and I could have done better and the community itself just wanted the drama."
This side of Reddit is nothing new for Mizkif especially, whose clips appear on the subreddit fairly consistently.
"LSF is a sh-- hole," Mizkif said in a comment to Insider. "And takes everything out of context and makes streamers feel terrible constantly."
(Update: 2/10 4:00 p.m. EDT) LiveStreamFails moderators provided a statement, saying that claiming that the sub "incited the drama alone is disingenuous" and "at no point were the posts mentioned misconstruing what was said and later admitted to being communicated badly by the individuals involved."
"All moderators did their best over the span of several hours to make sure the threads followed our rules concerning harassment and malicious misinformation," the mods wrote. "Which resulted in more than 2,100 actions taken that day alone."