Ninja Reports IcyFive Stream Sniped Him, Later Apologizes After Backlash

Stream sniping has always been an issue with the growing world of Twitch rising to become one of the most popular entertainment platforms in the world. With the most popular of Twitch streamers having tens of thousands of viewers watching, stream snipers do their best to get into the same multiplayer matches as these streamers and use their streams to find their location and eliminate them.

However, one of the most publicized instances of stream sniping happened on Sunday, November 11th when popular Fortnite streamer Tyler "Ninja" Belvins believed a player named IcyFive had stream sniped him and reported them when the majority consensus by the community was that IcyFive had not stream sniped Ninja. 

While a playing a match of Fortnite, Ninja was eliminated by an enemy player that soon was revealed to be IcyFive. Fellow Twitch streamer Ben "DrLupo" Lupo then stated for his team to watch out for the player to do an emote, which the player soon performed after eliminating Ninja. The player performing the emote after DrLupo had said he was going to prompted Ninja to believe that IcyFive had sniped him and led to Ninja reporting the player for sniping.

The clip of the popular streamer reporting the player for sniping soon made its way to the Fortnite Battle Royale subreddit where the majority of reactions was that the player was innocent of having sniped the high profile Twitch personality, as the act of performing an emote after securing a kill, especially when a player has multiple spectators, is very common place in the world of Fortnite. 

Fearing that he would be banned from Fortnite due to Ninja having reported him for stream sniping, IcyFive took to Twitter and explained that he had not stream sniped Ninja and had video proof. 

@Ninja @DrLupo I will show you that I did not stream snipe. I don't wanna try and gain "clout" from this. But I will upload it if you really think I stream snipped. I emoted cause there were 6 people watching me and I lasered you. I didn't stream snipe you. pic.twitter.com/xPGDSpHpIJ

— IcyFive/51L (@51LYouTube) November 11, 2018

DrLupo took to Twitter and explained to IcyFive that he believed that he was innocent of his reported sniping infraction while also explaining why he did not address the situation when it occurred on stream.

I didn't think you did, all good on my end.

— DrLupo (@DrLupo) November 11, 2018

You ever have a friend that goes on a rant? You probably know it'll just make it worse if you try to go against it. Easiest course of action for not creating drama all over the place (worse than it is now) was to just let him blow off steam and move on.

— DrLupo (@DrLupo) November 11, 2018

I don't condone it. You just want me to do something that I have no responsibility in doing. It's not my job to police him.

— DrLupo (@DrLupo) November 11, 2018

Ninja went on to explain that he believed that IcyFive had stream sniped him because he had performed the emote after DrLupo had stated that the player would. He later stated in his post that he had been wrong. 

Talk about timing when he emot3d when Ben asked. Odds were in my favor but I guess I was wrong! Good thing epic just investigates when I question a player and not ban them immediately

— Ninja (@Ninja) November 11, 2018

When asked by IcyFive why he had stated that he was going to try and get him banned, Ninja responded that he has no such pull with Epic Games to get players banned and that he was sorry for reporting him for stream sniping. However, the Twitch streamer stated that IcyFive should cease playing the role of victim in the situation and to stop "milking it". 

Epic will never ban people for no reason even if I say anything.. you assuming they do is naive. Stop playing the victim, you aren't getting banned, I am sorry. Stop milking it.

— Ninja (@Ninja) November 11, 2018

What are your thoughts on the stream sniping controversy surrounding Ninja and IcyFive? Let us know in the comments below!

(cover photo courtesy of ESPN)