While amateur stunts are nothing new to the world of Twitch and YouTube, one streamer was banned after attempting to perform a stunt with a crossbow, which ended up injuring one of the streamer’s staff. Streamers like CodeMiko and TheSushiDragon have come under fire from the platform in the past for some live-streaming stunts, including using shock collars to drive viewer engagement. The latest stunt, though, appears to have touched a nerve with some viewers online, as it put the anchor’s crew in jeopardy before the injury occurred.
The Twitch user in question is Reice Mitchell, also known as OfficialDuckStudios, a content creator who works with his two roommates to produce comedic content ranging from gaming videos to parodies of other content creators. OfficialDuckStudios (or ODS for short) started on YouTube in 2012, uploaded nearly 400 videos over the next decade and amassed more than 1.14 million subscribers on the platform. ODS would later expand to Twitch to produce more content, and the channel gained over 59,000 followers to complement its audience on YouTube.
During a recent drinking session on Twitch, Mitchell and his friends decided to “test” one of their recently purchased crossbows using a cardboard box leaned against a door. The team then decided to test whether the crossbow was powerful enough to go through the door itself, and had videographer Joey record from the other side of the door to record whether the arrow shot through the door. Not only did the arrow go through the door, it also hit Joey in the stomach, and Joey appeared to drop the camera on the floor as everyone else looked at him and laughed.
Twitch imposed a ban on ODS shortly after the incident, and clips that appeared on Reddit, Twitter, and YouTube continued to be removed due to the nature of the incident. However, clips and messages about the ban soon surfaced on the Livestream Fail subreddit, drawing widespread criticism from other users. The consensus among users was that Mitchell and everyone else in attendance was pretty reckless, and Joey was lucky to walk away with not only minor injuries, but given the strength of the crossbow, his life as well.
This isn’t the first time an incident has happened during a Twitch stream, though most incidents have been random incidents during IRL streams while the streamer was “out.” Skill Specs was one such streamer to suffer that fate, breaking their collarbone after their bike crashed in what was supposed to be one of the last live shows of 2022. Still, since it’s related to ODS, it wouldn’t be surprising if the ban lasted for some time, and given the seriousness of the incident, Twitch was trying to “send a message” to other streamers in this way.