Dutiful son or smelly degenerate? There are a lot of reasons to love or hate popular streamer Asmongold. But even with all his success, he's experienced his fair share of heartache.
Category
🎮️
GamingTranscript
00:00Dutiful son or smelly degenerate?
00:03There are a lot of reasons to love or hate popular streamer Asmongold, but even with
00:07all his success, he's experienced his fair share of heartache.
00:11Many content creators claim they don't stream for the money.
00:14They do it because they love entertaining their fans.
00:16Asmongold, meanwhile, makes no qualms about his rationale.
00:19He started streaming for profit, but he had a very good reason to do so.
00:23According to Asmongold, he began streaming and YouTubing to take care of his mother,
00:27who suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.
00:32Asmongold tried everything he could to help her get better, including planting a garden
00:35to encourage her to go outside.
00:37Because Asmongold was too afraid to leave his mother alone while he went to college
00:41or work, and since he couldn't afford to hire a full-time nurse to look after her, he became
00:45his mother's stay-at-home caregiver.
00:47Nursing his mother wasn't easy, and even when she had to use an oxygen machine, she still
00:51smoked, which inadvertently caused a fire at one point.
00:55Asmongold's mother was burned in the incident, but he noted that she was already in critical
00:59condition before the fire.
01:00She passed away not long afterward in the fall of 2021.
01:04"...Last week my mom passed away.
01:07And I'll be honest, I still can't come to terms with it."
01:12Because Asmongold wanted to stay home to take care of his mother, he didn't have any way
01:16to earn money with a so-called normal job, and so he took to YouTube.
01:21That worked for a while, but eventually he learned he would need even more money since
01:25his mother wasn't the only one in need of costly medical treatments.
01:28During a 2021 video, Asmongold claimed he'd started streaming because he found the Warlords
01:33of Draenor expansion to be so boring that he didn't know what else to do.
01:37But that was only half of the truth.
01:39Asmongold mentioned another explanation on his alternate Twitch account, Zakra.
01:43Apparently, when he was around 25, he came home from the dentist with a gigantic bill.
01:48He needed major dental work, which would cost a small fortune.
01:51The news hit him hard, and Asmongold felt like there was no way out, and that his YouTube
01:56income could never cover the procedure.
01:58However, he soon realized that if he streamed on Twitch, he would be able to make enough
02:02money for his dental bills, along with other expenses.
02:05"...I started streaming because I knew I couldn't pay for it with just the money that I made
02:10on YouTube.
02:11And so that's why I started streaming."
02:14Even though Asmongold apparently had to stream from midnight to morning and made do with
02:18two hours of sleep every night, things worked out.
02:21Ultimately, he turned lemons into lemonade, and made a successful career out of streaming.
02:25As strange as it sounds, without that fateful dentist bill, he might not have found the
02:29impetus to start streaming and wouldn't be where he is today.
02:33Between taking care of his mother and streaming around the clock, Asmongold found he had little
02:37time to sleep.
02:38However, his lack of rest wasn't just due to a lack of time.
02:41He also had genuine trouble sleeping.
02:43When Asmongold started caring for his mother, he completed many of the chores around the
02:47house, but as time went on, he did more and more until he ended up doing everything.
02:52Whenever he woke up in the morning, he made his mother breakfast, which was technically
02:55dinner for him, went back to bed, slept for two hours at most, and checked in on his mother.
03:00But following a traumatic experience in 2013, his sleeping cycle would get even worse.
03:06At one point, Asmongold says he woke up to the sound of his mother screaming.
03:10This event left him traumatized, and for the next couple of months, Asmongold couldn't
03:14sleep for more than two hours without nightmares of that memory jolting him awake.
03:18Even though his mother was never in any danger during these episodes, Asmongold felt the
03:22urge to immediately check on her, which resulted in even less sleep.
03:26Even though Asmongold has made a career out of playing video games, he walked away from
03:30a few others beforehand.
03:31One of Asmongold's first jobs was at the IRS.
03:34He enjoyed his work there, but he wasn't big on the socialization part, especially when
03:39it came to potluck functions.
03:40Because of this, Asmongold hatched a scheme to make sure nobody wanted to eat his food,
03:45writing,
03:46"...barbecued kittens on the list of foods everyone would be bringing."
03:48To Asmongold's credit, his manager thought it was funny, and nobody asked him to participate
03:53after that.
03:54This may not be so tragic, depending on how social you are.
03:57In fact, it's sort of hilarious in a twisted way.
04:00Asmongold's next job was as a cafe associate at Sam's Club.
04:03After finishing his first day of work there, he stayed up until 3 a.m., applying for colleges
04:08and other jobs.
04:09Asmongold hated the Sam's Club gig so much that after his probationary period, he quit
04:13without telling anyone, only returning to the store again to collect his small paycheck.
04:19Asmongold could have been a lawyer.
04:20According to the streamer, he had acquired a business degree, and was preparing to transfer
04:24to a law school at one point.
04:26However, he had to abandon that plan because he felt his mother absolutely needed his assistance
04:31due to her failing health.
04:32It's no secret that Asmongold loves World of Warcraft, and even when he's criticized
04:36Blizzard, he still supported the company overall.
04:39During a stream with fellow content creator McConnell, one viewer asked if Asmongold would
04:43ever stop supporting Blizzard.
04:46Asmongold responded by saying that no matter what he thinks of their games, he would probably
04:49always support Blizzard.
04:51McConnell took that as a sign that Asmongold was addicted to World of Warcraft, and raised
04:55some valid points.
04:56At first, Asmongold argued that he wasn't addicted because he streamed Dark Souls for
05:00a month and only played WoW during his off-time, but McConnell claimed that proved his point.
05:05He was still playing WoW even though he wasn't streaming it.
05:08Then Asmongold shifted to the claim that he's only addicted to winning, but McConnell pointed
05:12out that Asmongold's definition of winning had deteriorated.
05:15It used to be, as McConnell put it, putting together the best gear, mounts, and mythic
05:19kills.
05:20What was Asmongold's metric for winning during the stream these days?
05:23Measly staff.
05:24While Asmongold refused to accept McConnell's rationale, the audience was much more open.
05:29McConnell likened Asmongold to a nicotine addict, especially since he kept saying he
05:33could quit WoW any time he wanted, but chose not to.
05:36Asmongold eventually relented and admitted he was psychologically addicted to WoW, and
05:40likes the dopamine rush.
05:42"...is every stream this much of a s---- show?"
05:46Many fans like Asmongold because he always speaks his mind.
05:49If he has an opinion, no matter how controversial, he's going to voice it.
05:53However, he doesn't typically extend the same kindness to his viewers, and for good reason.
05:57Since many of Asmongold's opinions are controversial at the best of times, he's acquired quite
06:02a few detractors.
06:03And while some stick to Reddit, others post their opinions of Asmongold's views on his
06:07videos.
06:08Recently, while streaming Diablo Immortal, he decided to ban anyone who criticized the
06:12game and his playthrough, which included his purchases of the game's many microtransactions.
06:17When content creator and flat-earther GreekGodX participated in a livestream with Asmongold
06:22and insulted him for believing the Earth was round, some audience members reached out to
06:26say they felt like Asmongold hadn't properly defended himself.
06:29This won them a swift ban for their concerns.
06:32But while Asmongold had banned plenty of people from his streams, it's easy to forget he's
06:36just as vulnerable to bans himself, although he's usually banned for situations beyond
06:40his control.
06:41During one of his Diablo Immortal streams, he was banned for showing a racial slur on
06:46stream, because a troll posted it in the in-game chat while he wasn't looking.
06:49Twitch suspended Asmongold for supposedly not, quote, adequately addressing the situation,
06:54which didn't seem fair to the streamer or his viewers.
06:57Because of this, Asmongold has argued that Twitch unintentionally rewarded bad behavior
07:01by demonstrating anyone can ban a streamer they hate by spamming offensive comments during
07:05a livestream.
07:07Asmongold has earned a ton of money thanks to his career, enough to co-launch an entertainment
07:11conglomerate, the One True King Network, or OTK for short.
07:16Asmongold is a true rags-to-riches story, but the state of his living situation didn't
07:20reflect that for a while, and it may have cost him his girlfriend.
07:23In August of 2018, content creator PinkSparklez announced she was in a relationship with Asmongold.
07:29They had initially met online after Asmongold spammed her videos until she DM'd him back.
07:33The two bonded over Fortnite, and PinkSparklez moved in with Asmongold.
07:38But they broke up two months later, a little over a year into their relationship.
07:42I thought that we would break up within a week of her living here, and it actually took
07:47a whole two months, and so I think things went pretty well."
07:51According to Asmongold, there's a chance he might have driven PinkSparklez away with his
07:54personal hygiene, but the relationship lasted longer than he expected.
07:59PinkSparklez may have backed this up when describing the breakup in a series of now-deleted
08:02tweets, according to Deserto.
08:05According to her, she became depressed while living in Austin, but she hoped she and Asmongold
08:09could continue to be good friends.
08:11Asmongold explained that for a long while, he rarely cleaned up after himself and showered
08:15sporadically.
08:16He was, in his own words, an animal, and lived like, quote, a fiend and degenerate.
08:21Since then, he has taken major steps towards cleaning up his act.
08:24Last July, he decluttered his room, posting before-and-after photos on his Twitter account,
08:28and audiences congratulated him for taking steps toward a healthier lifestyle.