xQc
Overwatch (2016–2018)
Lengyel aka xQC joined Dallas Fuel in 2017 for the inaugural season of the Overwatch League.[1] Before the season began, he already HAD two suspensions from Blizzard on his personal account, a 72-hour penalty for misusing the game's reporting system and a seven-day penalty for throwing ranked games.[2]
Overwatch League fined Lengyel 2,000 US dollars and suspended him four matches after he made a homophobic remark toward Houston Outlaws player Austin "Muma" Wilmot; Dallas Fuel added a team suspension for the rest of the stage.[3] In 2018, the league suspended him another four matches for using the Twitch emote "TriHard 7" in what it called a racially disparaging manner on the league's stream and on social media.[4] Two days later, Dallas Fuel released him, with owner Mike Rufail saying the two sides had "mutually agreed" to part ways before his contract's expiration.[5]
Lengyel competed with Team Canada at the Overwatch World Cup in 2017, 2018 and 2019, finishing second and third respectively in 2017 and 2018.[6] After his release from Dallas Fuel he continued to compete lesser, signing with Gladiators Legion as a substitute tank under Sentinels.[7]
Twitch streaming (2018–2023)
Following his career at Dallas Fuel, xQc shifted to full-time streaming on Twitch, building an audience through content, gameplay commentary and reaction streams. By 2019 he ranked seventh among the platform's most-watched streamers; in 2020 he took first place, with his channel amassing roughly 127 million watched hours that year, passing the likes of Alexandre "Gaules" Borba and Jaryd "Summit1g" Lazar.[8] He remained the platform's most-watched streamer through 2021 and 2022, recording 274 million watched hours in 2021 and 224 million in 2022 while signed to Luminosity Gaming.[9] He won a Streamy Award for Just Chatting in 2022.[10]
Move to Kick (2023–present)
On 16 June 2023, Lengyel inked a non-exclusive streaming deal with Kick, reports suggested the deal was for roughly 70 million US dollars over two years with bonuses that could raise its value to about 100 million.[11] Reports described it as the largest streaming contract to that point.[12] The deal did not require him to stop streaming on Twitch, though Twitch's policy against simulcasting limited how much he could continue to broadcast there.[13]
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