Good morning. Over the weekend, creator group Bunch of Friends hosted a 24-person Minecraft Hunger Games tournament on YouTube, where the victor earned the right to post the channel’s next video.
We won’t spoil the winner, but we are sorry to report John Chungus did not make it.
Today’s lineup:
Inside Ludwig’s third Streamer Games
Hank Green addresses AI controversy
The Try Guys share details of their Lollapalooza set
How Streamer Games Keeps Leveling Up
Syd (right) interviews Agent00 (left) at Ludwig's 2026 Streamer Games / Photography by Conor Conaboy
Syd here. Over the weekend, I attended Ludwig’s third annual Streamer Games, where he welcomed 40 creators from nine countries to compete in an Olympics-style competition. At the end of the two days, Team Worldwide (consisting of Cellbit, RayAsianBoy, T10nat, Develique, and Rynenzo) took home the gold.
The takeaway after talking to creators, attendees, and crew? Ludwig’s push for more global streamers, more sponsors, and more premium production further solidified what we’ve been tracking with streamers like IShowSpeed and Kai Cenat: Livestreaming’s next phase will be driven by large-scale, international events.
“It’s such a one-up from last year,” Canada’s team captain Agent00 told me. Concurrent viewership on Ludwig’s channel peaked around 500K, with over 6M hours watched on his broadcast alone.
Here’s what separated this year from the last two:
The venue → Streamer Games almost doubled in capacity; upgrading from a high school track to a college track. The event sold out University of Southern California’s track and field stadium (a 2.1K capacity venue) both days.
The brands → Tech company Alienware joined the sponsor roster in addition to Red Bull and AT&T, which both sponsored last year’s event.
The broadcasts → Ludwig expanded beyond his main social channels, hosting four international streams to accommodate viewers in French, English, and Portuguese-speaking countries. The streams were run by creators from those regions.
The attendees → Among the sea of college students rooting for their favorite streamers (Martin and KatieB were the names I heard the most) were a handful of creators streaming from the stands. I chatted with Adrian Marin, who was inspired by Streamer University to attend more IRL events with his cameraman.
Why it matters: At Streamer University, Ludwig shared that he was optimistic in Streamer Games’ ability to turn a profit for the first time this year. Revenue hasn’t been released yet, but the signs point that way: more sponsors, creators from more countries, and a bigger venue that sold out twice.
The Worldwide team’s victory over the weekend was symbolic of a new chapter opening in livestreaming. As Ludwig said at Streamer U, “If something works, do it again.”
Hank Green Pauses Content Amid AI Controversy
Hank Green steps away from video uploads after viewers raise concerns over AI usage / Complexly
Last Friday, education creator Hank Green shared that he’s taking a break from making videos after addressing fan concerns about AI use in his video research process.
What happened:
During an episode of Complexly’s Ask Hank Anything series, Green used the phrase “I appreciate the pushback,” which has been associated with ChatGPT’s answering cadence. Viewers noticed, and asked Green if the video had been written by AI.
Though Green said that he wrote the script, he also admitted that he uses AI models to source research papers for his content—often “relying too much” on LLMs.
He also shared Complexly’s longstanding AI policy which states the company will never use AI for fact-checking, and all video and image generation will be pulled from models with consensual data sets (most LLMs have data sets that collect public data without permission).
“[AI] can be very useful [as a research aid], giving me access to a lot of papers I didn't know existed really fast, but I think that has been to the detriment of my work because it has not given me the freedom to find all of my own ways into and around a topic,” Green said.
What creators are saying:
“It’s possible he’s been using AI sloppily, and if that’s the case, he needs to think about striking the right balance in AI usage,” AI policy creator Nat Purser said on X. “But in my opinion, the fact that many of his fans are furious he’s using AI at all, for any task, says something interesting about the scicomm and educational YouTube audience.”
“Some creators can happily use AI and talk about AI and their fans seem totally fine with it, and other creators would be ritualistically flayed alive by their own communities if it ever came out they had once glanced at an AI output,” political creator Jeremiah Johnson said on X. “It seems really arbitrary which camp is which.”
When should creators disclose AI use in their content workflow?
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The Try Guys Draw a Crowd at Lollapalooza
Creators keep moving into territories once reserved for traditional talent—Hollywood press tours, World Cup stages, and now music festivals.
Over the weekend, the Try Guys cofounders Zach Kornfeld and Keith Habersberger performed their YouTube show Eat The Menu on Lollapalooza’s Bonus Tracks stage—a stage with programming ranging from talk shows to music acts like Jack Coyne’s Track Star and Zara Larsson.
We spoke to Kornfeld after the show to learn more about Try Guys’ Lolla debut: →
“On paper it’s insane, but then when you think about it it makes total sense—a festival is a celebration of fan culture. Music is one of your most intimate relationships, and then second most is the people you watch on a regular basis,” Kornfeld told us.
How it happened: A mutual connection linked the Try Guys to C3 Presents, the event company behind major US festivals including Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, and Austin City Limits. The Try Guys pitched C3 an abbreviated version of their Eat The Menu tour via a sizzle reel.
It was the group’s first live show in nearly two years, and Kornfeld said Chicago was one of their largest audience markets.
Fans overflowed the Bonus Tracks stage to watch the duo eat through Chicago staples, like a shot of Malört and deep dish pizza, closing with a surprise appearance from Yung Gravy.
Zoom out: The Try Guys proved to Lollapalooza that creators can take an ancillary stage at a major music festival and bring it to overflow. Will we see more of this going forward?
“Music festivals are where fan communities go to live and there’s an emphasis on performance—at the end of the day we’re all just trying to put on a good show,” Kornfeld said.
👀 Creator Jobs
Cat Labs is hiring a community manager based in LA to plan events and manage builders on-site.
Paddy Galloway is looking for a YouTube strategist with direct experience growing a channel.
Nick DiGiovanni’s Knife Drop Studios is hiring a long-form video editor with at least three years of experience.
🔥 Press Worthy
Livestreamer Extra Emily becomes the first creator to release her streaming vlogs a show with Hulu and Disney+.
Snap will stop highlighting fully AI-generated content on its recommended Spotlight feed.
Logan Paul releases a PRIME beverage in honor of Oliver Tree.
YouTube bans a handful of ASMR creators for violating content rules.
Crooked Media launches a YouTube docuseries, Long Play, following politics in the American South.
IShowSpeed surpasses 60 million YouTube subscribers and is now the most-followed streamer on the platform.
