Photo illustration by Lauren Kelly
‘It’s cool, I’m totally not hurt by it or anything,’ says Twitch user
By Jillian McMullen, Staff Writer
Timothy Wallace, Delta resident and self-described graphic T-shirt enthusiast, is recovering in the hospital after discovering that his Twitch account had been streaming for a total of 15 hours without his knowledge. His injuries included torn ligaments in his leg from a swift laptop-slamming leap, hand lacerations from the proceeding trip over computer wires, and, most significantly, deep social contusions to his fragile, fragile ego.
The event occurred about three days ago, after Wallace livestreamed an extended Overwatch session. After six hours of gameplay, Wallace was exhausted and a little disoriented. His eyes had been severely strained after staring at a screen so many hours that he could not see that his laptop’s recording button was never turned off. Followers watched as the man went about his day, not realizing his actions were still being broadcast to the internet.
One such follower, identified online as by the username Fancy-Cat*~*~**~*, describes the stream as “surprising.”
“Wallace usually acts pretty tough in his livestreams—you know, lots of agro yelling and trash talk—so I was shocked by the dude’s stuffed animal collection,” she said. “Normally, the background is hard to see because it’s blocked, but when he walked away from the computer, you could see everything. His bedroom is covered in them. Small ones, big ones—he even had a few in display cases.”
Another user, named -Scarcasmo-, claims the highlight of the stream came when Wallace was getting ready to go out.
“He was belting to some Whitney. Like, hairbrush-microphone in hand, running around his room in his tightie-whiteys, performing to the teddy bear audience he had lined up,” he said. “He really does have a beautiful voice though. I’ve never heard a man hit high notes like that.”
It was after the last triumphant note of “I Will Always Love You” that Wallace realized what was happening. As a steady stream of comments flooded the man’s laptop, the ensuing notifications tipped him off to the audience that wasn’t lined up on the edge of his bed.
The Other Press received analytics from Twitch showing that the broadcast was Wallace’s most watched stream since joining the service. In fact, the man’s audience grew almost three-fold overnight. When presented with the data, Wallace said he was uncomfortable with the increased audience and planned to take a few weeks away from the internet.
“Things like this blow over, I think. I mean, nothing lasts forever online, right?”
