PREHEET 🔥 · @preheetwow
23rd Oct 2020 from TwitLonger
Preheet: A Cease and Desist
(Includes links to images & videos below)
I want to preface this gigantic post by saying thank you to everyone who continues to show their love and support for not only me, but what we've built as a community together over the years. Whether I'm reading through comments on my content and seeing how many people the guides have helped, or getting messages in-game about how much they've enjoyed watching my videos, it truly means everything to me and I'm thankful I've been able to help and entertain people over the years. It's been an incredible journey so far, and I look forward to sharing what's to come in the future with all of you <3
So I never thought I would see myself airing out my own dirty laundry online, but I realize for the past little while that I haven't been myself, and it's beginning to show on my Livestreams, and through my lack of content on YouTube. I felt it was important to talk about this with all of you, since ultimately, you're all the reason we've been able to achieve what we have so far. You all deserve to know what's been happening lately, so here it is.
A little over a month ago, a long-standing seemingly harmless online feud came to a boiling point when I received, by email, a cease and desist order from Complexity Limit's Mage, Preheat. For those that don't completely understand how a cease and desist order works, he's essentially threatening to pursue legal action against me if I do not either change my name/brand, or stop creating content online with my current name.
In order for many of you to understand why it's come to this, I'll give a little back story. Somewhere around 5 years ago, it was brought to my attention, through creating YouTube content and first starting out streaming on Twitch, that there was another person who also played a Mage, named Preheat (Important to note here, that his name is spelled P-R-E-H-E-A-T, while I've chosen to use P-R-E-H-E-E-T), but that he played in guild that was higher ranked than I was.
While I initially just chalked it up to being a coincidence, I didn't put much thought into it. After all, we are playing a video game, and to this day there exists plenty of characters with the same name. This is a given in any online game that is even remotely popular, so I of course didn't think that years later, this very situation would have me sitting here reading a cease and desist, but I digress.
Around the time I started to receive some traction on my online content, primarily through YouTube which is focused on Fire Mage gameplay in World of Warcraft, people would occasionally stop by and make remarks about this situation, that being there are two Prehea/eets. As best as I could, I would of course explain that there is no affiliation and it's just happenstance, and kindly point out that my online name is spelled differently than his, and that I primarily started out by creating YouTube content for World of Warcraft. Any form of research into either of us at that time would also show that we are not the same person whether it be what guild we were in, etc.
For date validation, I began posting content to YouTube in September of 2013 (7 years ago) to my main/current channel
-> https://i.imgur.com/uHDNgRk.png
As time went on, I started to get somewhat harassed by complete strangers through whispers in-game, often times referring to me as the "fake preheat". I assumed this stemmed from Preheat's standing in high ranking guilds, but I couldn't understand why I was being targeted to that extent. In February of 2018, I went ahead and reached out to him (Preheat) via. Discord to hopefully dispel the (if any) rumors that I was out on some sort of quest to copy or impersonate him in any way. I believe lot of this "There are two Prehea/eets??" confusion initially began when I had written a guide on the altered-time website. I opened up a direct message with him and the following conversation happened
-> https://i.imgur.com/TPZdFY0.jpg
And here's the original guide I had written for reference and date validation
-> https://www.altered-time.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4974&hilit=crit+build+7.3
Now, it's pertinent to note here that while I was made aware of this other player named Preheat, I did not see an issue with it whatsoever. As you've seen in the screenshot of the conversation, I was willing to endure the constant need to remind people that we are not the same person. And in hindsight, I should have stood my ground. I had been creating content on YouTube for a few years at that point, and had every right to stand up for myself, but I was younger, and didn't feel as though arguing and fighting over an online name would come to anything positive. And to put it bluntly, I acted like a coward when I was faced with those situations. I wish I had the integrity and maturity to handle that situation differently back then, but /shrug.
Since then, I've dealt with countless amounts of bull*** where I have simply bit my tongue, and let it go for the sake of not wanting to invest too much energy. And while I've tried to maintain composure, I've at times let that slide to the wayside and given into the banter myself (or so I thought it was banter). I'm definitely not innocent in all of this, and I've done my fair share of stirring the pot on occasion. I've gone as far as making an April Fool's themed video with the subject being me changing my name to NotPreheat. The unlisted video can be found here
-> https://youtu.be/nERzs3RKz9A
(I took this video down shortly after it was posted, as the initial intention was for it to purely be a "meme")
I of course... did not actually change my name. It's editing. I realize that spending that much time for a tongue-in-cheek April Fools video is somewhat childish, but I was tired of shrugging off the ever-present bullshit surrounding the subject. I need to explain to you all that I obviously realize where I have been at fault. This thread isn't meant to absolve me of all fault. It's to categorically state that this has been happening for a long time, and it needs to come to an end.
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Knowing everything I've written above, dates & backstory included, I implore you to look over the following and form your own opinion about all of this. Keep in mind him and I have had very, very minimal communication, and not for the sake of my attempt to do so. (Adding dates would not be accurate, but I'm sure those familiar with the content the clips have i.e. the Eternal Palace Raid, etc. can piece together when this took place)
Preheat's YouTube Channel, where he only began posting WoW Related content regularly not even a year ago
-> https://i.imgur.com/0SX9opd.png
Preheat commenting on the situation, openly, in a public discord (Altered Time)
->https://i.imgur.com/7etOjnf.png
further in that same conversation -> https://i.imgur.com/jBDr3I7.png
Screencap sent from a friend stemming from Preheat's Discord server (safe to assume there probably existed a lot of that sort of stuff. i.e. mocking me or creating a bad image of me
-> https://i.imgur.com/WWMxCd8.png
Clip taken from Preheat's livestream, where he very obviously directs his sentiments toward my channel in front of his viewers
-> https://streamable.com/uria2x
Clip taken from Preheat's livestream, where he openly states he will start making YouTube videos
-> https://streamable.com/l6ltcx
Clip from limit_maximum (Preheat's Guild Leader) where he openly discusses the situation from Preheat's point of view in front of 3000+ viewers
-> https://streamable.com/c6gmrk
(Unfortunately the clip ends, but he then proceeds to pull up my YouTube Channel, on screen, and tell his viewers not to subscribe to my channel) I lack the video evidence of this happening, but I have dozens of people who can attest to this. I will do my best to find a clip if it has not been deleted already. At that time, I was fuming. That sort of slander does a lot of harm to someone's image, especially in the environment we find ourselves creating content in, i.e. online and video game related.
Clip taken from Preheat's livestream, where he reserves a character with the name as I spell mine (Preheet) making it so that I must create a character with a different name (Shadowlands Alpha)
-> https://streamable.com/gd4nqu
Clip taken from Preheat's livestream, where he targets me with something that happened (that of which I still do not understand) and berates me on stream with his guild members.
-> https://streamable.com/md5nho
Proof that I actually did not do whatever he spoke about. No response by him was given after reaching out, yet again.
-> https://i.imgur.com/sEVJD7c.png
Proof of the cease & desist order (I've redacted names & the legal firm it was sent from for obvious reasons)
-> https://i.imgur.com/UDpjk3X.png
Please note the date included in the C&D, it indicates he reached out to me and asked that I change my name on February 5th, 2018. That is the same date I reached out to him to put to rest these rumors initially. Here is a screencap of him editing what he sent me in order to change the story and fit his narrative. He added "(Please change your name)" this year when he applied for his trademark.
-> https://i.imgur.com/YU0LFc0.png
He also deleted his response to me afterwards, which did not reflect well on him.
He edited the message on May 5th, 2020 (This year). He also submitted a trademark request for PREHEAT earlier this year in February as well. Here is the trademark status directly from the government's website along with the registration date
->
https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=88812590&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch
His trademark was legally granted September 8th, 2020 (This year). 10 days later, I received the cease and desist.
~~~~ Besides all of this, I continue to be berated and talked about in public discord servers in a bad light for no apparent reason other than the fact that Preheat plays in the world first guild and is likely more "favored?". I'm not including any of that for the sake of not wanting to drag people under the bus. It isn't my goal nor what I want to accomplish with this. If you want to find proof of that, you're welcome to search the word "Preheet" in the Altered-time discord and read the newest/oldest conversations surrounding me.
I'm sure there's more if I found the energy to dig for it, but in total honestly I just want to talk about my take on the situation. It's of my opinion that this whole ordeal wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't backed by a much larger entity than me (I of course am not backed by brands, associations, etc). Aside from that, I can only assume that his intention is to simply put, make it known that he's the best/only "real" one around, and I'm posing as a threat to that mentality, meanwhile this is very obviously having an impact on me as a content creator and all of the work I've put into building myself and my/our community. Flexing World Rankings and guild status is not something I've ever found to be representative of a good character, but it's very obviously one of the things he has leaned into in order to establish some sort of legitimacy among his viewers/community. And to be clear, I'm not de-legitimizing his achievements here, because they are impressive. I'm simply stating what I've found through his comments in Discords about me as his way of providing "evidence" that he's legitimate and in the right.
I really don't know what else to say. I've been dead focused on trying to create a name for myself, and at the same time build an amazing community for people that share the same goals and mindset as I do. Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly content with what my community and I have achieved so far, and every day I'm grateful that I can turn my stream on and have people come hang out with me, who have over time, become like family to me. It's just very disheartening trying to do that when someone is constantly making things harder for you, especially when their backed by such a large brand with a huge following. If this does anything, the hope is that it sheds some light on the situation and shows people a side of the story that's gone seemingly unnoticed for far too long.
- Pre