CINCINNATI, OHIO: Over the past few years, Darren "IShowSpeed" or simply IShowSpeed has grown more rapidly than any other YouTuber-turned-streamer.
The current Streamer of the Year, who boasts over 20.1 million subscribers on Google's well-known video-sharing site, has gone a long way from his beginnings as a full-time streamer.
Darren's early digital adventures have been clouded by a number of contentious and divisive incidents despite all of his success at such a young age.
There is no doubt the 18-year-old has occasionally sparked controversy and pushed the boundaries of what can be deemed socially acceptable content, even though most of his "eccentricity" and "over-the-top" behaviour may be brushed off as teenage angst and immaturity. Let's have a look at three of his most controversial stunts.
1) NSFW Minecraft mod
To the uninitiated, Minecraft appears to be a simple game with kid-friendly features that encourage patience and creativity. Even this game was unsafe to stream in the hands of IShowSpeed, though.
In July 2022, Darren made the decision to test out the infamous "Jenny Mod," a particular mod that enables the player to spawn an NPC character who serves as a companion within the game.
In-game actions frequently benefit from the assistance of Jenny, but the mod's most notable feature allows users to have sex with their virtual partner.
A tiny peek of the actions managed to get a few seconds of screen time, despite IShowSpeed's best efforts to block out any actual sexually explicit content while on broadcast. As a result, the Streamer of the Year received a channel strike and a week-long YouTube suspension.
2) Threats of s****l assault
The next thing on this list goes into more detail about the incident that occurred in December 2021 while Adin Ross was hosting an online dating show. Ross' E-Date streams, where he paired popular streamers with social media influencers for virtual dating through a Discord call, frequently featured Speed because of their excellent friendship.
Speed and Ash Kash were paired up for the infamous E-Date, during which the TikToker was given a hypothetical situation by Speed..
The hypothetical question inquired whether Ash would be interested in repopulating the Earth with Speed if they were the last humans left.
Ash expressed some trepidation due to the possibility of inbreeding in the near future, and IShowSpeed responded with the horrifying phrase, "Who gon stop me?" Ross opted to end the date when he realised how bad things were getting; as a result, Twitch permanently banned IShowSpeed's account.
3. Racist World Cup stream
There is no denying that IShowSpeed has contributed significantly to the growth of football in the United States. Darren travelled to Qatar with the hopes of witnessing his favourite Cristiano Ronaldo win the World Cup.
It all began with a chance donation that resulted in the creation of the iconic "Sewey" meme. Despite the fact that CR7 was never the WC champion, one of IShowSpeed's live streams from one of the games gained notoriety for contentious reasons.
The 18-year-old was seen running into a Chinese national in the video in question, then the YouTuber attempted to strike up a conversation with the newcomer.
Even though the spectator insisted he wasn't Japanese, Speed made the choice to keep saying "Konnichiwa" to him.
The 18-year-old received a lot of attention for his absurd responses to the person, which were generally seen by online admirers as inappropriate stereotypes of Asian customs.
