Popular League of Legends streamer LS has been banned from Twitch

Popular streamer and League of Legends personality Nick “LS” De Cesare was banned from Twitch earlier today for an undisclosed period of time.

Twitch has offered no definitive reason for the ban, but LS believes it to be caused from racist spam that originated in his chat. Others on Reddit have also speculated the ban to be due to a clip from LS’ stream two weeks ago, where he joked about the common Korean words “내가” (“naega”) and “니가” (“neega”), which sound very similar to the racist n-word.

“‘내가” and “니가”, which translate to the English words “I” and “you’re” respectively, were brought up on LS’ stream chat after viewers heard the streamer use them while he spoke in Korean. Some viewers in LS’ chat noticed the similarity in sound between those two Korean words and the racist slur, and started spamming it, causing LS to explain the meaning.

LS took to Twitter following his ban to discuss what he assumed caused Twitch to take action against his channel, explaining why the two Korean words were brought up in his chat.

LS said he was upset about the ban, but he admitted that there are times when the banning of racist and prejudice language “should/could be done faster.” LS also urged fans not to attack Twitch for the actions taken on his channel.    

Following LS’ string of tweets explaining his situation, a huge thread immediately sprung up on the League of Legends subreddit, filled with people both attacking and defending the streamer.

It’s not clear if LS’ Twitch ban is permanent, and Twitch has yet to issue a statement on the matter.