posted on Jun, 25 2019 @ 11:20 PM
It's a very tragic case. I used to watch Etika's videos some years ago. He grew to fame for his over the top reactions to video game announcement
trailers, specifically the announcement of new characters being added to the Super Smash Bros series. He would get himself super hyped up to insane
levels of excitement when watching the character reveal trailers, screaming and cussing and jumping around and breaking things until he was out of
breath. Some accused him of faking or at least overdramatizing his reactions (one of the reasons I stopped watching him was because as time went on,
it seemed more like he was doing just that; hamming it up for the camera more and more rather than having the genuine emotional reactions that first
drew me in). Still, this built him a big following and he eventually became a streamer. He would do streams that would attract thousands of viewers.
During his streams he would play video games, surf the dark web or watch and react to videos and memes people sent him. Viewers would donate hundreds
of dollars to him during these streams and sometimes he would rake in over a thousand dollars per stream. Between that and his youtube views he became
quite wealthy. Unfortunately, the fanbase he grew had a reputation for being full of people who were very toxic and at times cruel. Even when it was
obvious he was having some kind of mental breakdown, a lot of his "fans" were encouraging him to act out, trashing talking him, and calling him names
relentlessly. He purposely got his own youtube channel (which was quickly becoming one of the largest channels and making him very wealthy) banned by
uploading porn videos to it. He started doing psychadellic drugs. He threatened suicide, started talking like he was god, got the police called to
his house and they had to take him into custody for a mental evaluation, but unfortunately they let him go like a day later. A lot of people thought
this was all an elaborate publicity stunt, that he was just "acting" crazy to get attention, but it turns out he wasn't, I guess...
I think he cracked under the pressure of his own internet celebrity. I think he had some kind of underlying mental issues and he couldn't handle the
fame, the attention, the toxic fanbase and the constant pressure to perform and be the over the top hypeman Etika character he had created. Even
though I stopped enjoying his videos some time ago and couldn't stand his fanbase and toxic chat, I still feel sad for him and his family. It seemed
like he had everything going for him. He had a huge following and e-fame, he was wealthy, he had many friends and followers who honestly cared about
him but he still couldn't find real happiness.
edit on 25-6-2019 by Charizard because: (no reason given)
edit on 25-6-2019 by
Charizard because: (no reason given)
edit on 25-6-2019 by Charizard because: (no reason given)