Screengrab via Trainwreck on Twitch

Trainwreck offers to ‘take care’ of any Twitch staff fired for accepting money from him

He is being accused of paying off Twitch staff.

Max Miceli

Published: Sep 21, 2022 12:12 am

Trainwreck is known for his generosity. But today, videos of his giving nature took a questionable turn.

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In a clip that went viral, Trainwreck appeared to give members of Twitch’s staff who were in his chat large sums of cryptocurrency worth $80,000, raising questions about the platform’s ethics.

This is a 2 minute clip where Train manages to pay two Twitch staff, Pepegafish and Rellim, $80,000.

It shows that he's willing to pay staff members, @Twitch staff are willing to accept those payments, and that he's confident enough to do this live on stream. #TwitchStopGambling
— ostonox (@ostonox) September 20, 2022

Saying that he does not “blame Train” for taking advantage of the “opportunity to pay off” Twitch staff, HasanAbi’s video editor Ostonox questioned the willingness of Twitch employees to accept the money openly on stream in a series of tweets.

I don't blame Train for this, I would take the opportunity to pay off @Twitch staff too if it secured my $12M/year sponsorship.

I do wonder how many more Twitch staff members consider themselves indebted to him though. #TwitchStopGambling
— ostonox (@ostonox) September 20, 2022

Seeing the posts, Trainwreck quickly expressed disdain for what he believed to be a gross misrepresentation of the situation. While he didn’t dive into what Ostonox said that was wrong, he made it clear that if any Twitch staff ended up in trouble with their employer after accepting his gifts, he would make sure they don’t go hungry.

“If anyone gets fired for that dumbass’ mischaracterization and twisting of events, no cap bro, I’m going to take care of them and give them a 401k,” Trainwreck said. “No fucking bullshit. I’m telling you right now bro … what this dude’s doing just because he sees red for me … it’s fucking wrong. If anything comes of that, believe me, I’ll reach out, and if that pisses you off, then let that piss you off.”

Former Twitch employee djWHEAT confirmed on Twitter that if what appears to happen in the video is true, it would be “100% in violation of Amazon Business Conduct & Ethics Policy.”

Though he did not condemn Train for making offers to Twitch staff, djWHEAT called the alleged acceptance of large sums of crypto “absolutely disgusting.”

Speaking as a former Twitch staff, not only is this absolutely disgusting, but it is 100% in violation of Amazon Business Conduct & Ethics Policy. Not Train's fault (it's not his job to police the ethics of Twitch), but absolutely the employee's for asking/accepting payment. https://t.co/3CaYOZEnVL
— djWHEAT (@djWHEAT) September 20, 2022

Since the video has made its rounds, Zach Bussey reported neither of the individuals involved in the video work for Twitch anymore. He added the only timeline he has for their departure is “weeks ago.” Twitch has since confirmed the report in an email to Dot Esports.

Meanwhile, further posts and replies suggest that Pepegafish, one of the people in the clip identified as Twitch staff, has passed away.

I can confirm that neither of these people work at Twitch any more.

Not sure the exact timeline of when they exited, other than 'weeks ago'. https://t.co/nwhQYoRNeZ
— Zach Bussey (@zachbussey) September 20, 2022

This ongoing story will be updated as more information becomes available.

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Author

Max Miceli

Senior Staff Writer. Max graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a journalism and political science degree in 2015. He previously worked for The Esports Observer covering the streaming industry before joining Dot where he now helps with Overwatch 2 coverage.