Scrubing / PS5 Restock Alert Tracker on Youtube · @Scrubings
23rd Mar 2022 from TwitLonger
My history with Admiral Bahroo
My History with Admiral Bahroo
First and foremost I want to make this post to talk about my own personal experiences with Bahroo as well as to collaborate with everyone else who has been making public statements on him, his actions and for me especially stealing of art work and branding and coming into my stream to steal ideas and content for his own stream. My friend Alex had a very good personal story he tweeted out and would recommend reading his before or after mine for more context. https://twitter.com/ArexBold/status/1506267549369085955 Throughout this I had multiple chances to speak with Alex. After seeing his statement there’s far too many similarities with how Bahroo treated me, my emote artist, how he copied my branding and our friendship that I’m making this statement for anyone in the future to not be treated the same way I and many others have been treated.
Bahroo has a long track record of doing this to multiple folks, streamers both big and small and mistreating artists and using them as his own personal object. With this tweet I’d like to confirm that although he publicly denied wrongdoing in other situations he has had a long history of using, abusing, gaslighting and moving onto the next person throughout his Twitch career. I’d like to post this to support both Strippin in coming out and also support both Alex and Layna in their interactions with Bahroo and other content creators. Plus Bahroo’s personal actions against me that follow the consistent trend he said he’s not a part of.
For anyone who may not know me, I’m Scrubing who’s been around Twitch since the Justin.TV days. Emotes were always something special to me and my community and many folks know me as one of the first “emote stores'' of twitch after specializing in cat emotes and branching into other emotes besides just the common place “chair for when streamer is AFK'' or “sub hype” emote. I took a lot of general inspiration from especially DansGaming at the time who went to show that emotes can be more than just basic channel specific icons and something that people can use throughout Twitch. To my channel and my history of Twitch emotes has been one of my most personal and favorite branding things I’ve done with my community and channel.
As I became a partner I focused especially on cat emotes and as I grew my stream at the time (a lot of this was 2013-2017 era of Twitch) I found a lot of awesome usages of Twitch chat when it comes to emotes. I was even highlighted on Twitch panels discussing branding and had my emotes used on both public panels, highlighted on Twitch platform itself through Twitch official branding and even had my emotes used in Twitch’s internal slack system (with my permission for all of these by me) along the time. Loads of folks even now have been subscribed to my channel purely for my emotes and discord emote usage. Throughout my years as a streamer I’ve worked with multiple different artists and have made hundreds of emotes and created and helped other streamers and friends with their own emote branding.
The only reason I bring this up is because this has and still has been my favorite aspect of my stream, life, something I invested hundreds of hours of time with working with artists and making the perfect representation of my brand and all the hard work my artists have done throughout the years. Every artist I’ve worked with has been incredible and have helped me shape amazing work throughout the years.
Now onto the actual issues at hand regarding Admiral Bahroo. Bahroo at the time saw my success on emotes and started hanging out in my stream. At the time, he did not have any panda pure branding and was more focused on the rescue force character and branding: https://gyazo.com/cbdf28fc373625729f23addfdbfda1c6 I would like to note though that he DID have a few pandas, although it was more on an pixel bit artstyle as referenced here: https://gyazo.com/bf77d55d99fdbe388c385c45984dc76f | Bahroo saw my success and loads of folks on Twitch using my emotes (I think at the time I was around 2,400 paid subscribers per given month) and at that point around 50-100 viewership concurrents at the time being a variety streamer.
Even now I have people every day subscribing just to use my emotes on Twitch/Discord and to this day I appreciate it. Bahroo slowly started trying to integrate himself into my stream. I want to mention this because Alex recently posted very similar experiences. He saw a lot of my success, people subscribing to me not even following my channel to use my emotes and he wanted to integrate himself into my community and become my “friend” when I was experiencing some success. At the time Bahroo was not as big of a streamer or had nearly as CLOSE as many subscribers as he has now. At the time he’d usually average around 600-1,200 viewers which even in today's standards is huge, but compared to what he has now is a fraction of the size at the time (and even now).
With Bahroo being in my chat I at that point NEVER had issues with people in the industry. Which, looking back on had me as too naive of the world especially in the world of content creation. Back then people didn’t understand much about the potential of making “millions” off of content, even back then YouTube was barely being established as a proper media source and “job”. Heck, even TWITCH didn’t have the full amount of emote slots it has now and soft locked people at 25/30 slots depending on how many subs you had (similar to the current system as of now.) So to me I thought this was someone who genuinely wanted to be friends. I had bigger streamer friends who I did content with, I had best friends who had more viewers than him so I felt nothing wrong with him being my friend. We did a few dual streams, and I was even his sub-alert for a few months with a “GODDAMNMIT SCRUBING” meme from when we played games together. At the time I just thought we were two people having fun playing games together.
The main issue started once he wanted to get in touch with my emote artist, Domadness (https://twitter.com/DominicKeravel ), at the time. Dom was a lovely artist and made some of the most iconic emotes on my channel I still have today: https://twitchemotes.com/channels/32073647/emotes/1556899 and other special emotes. At the time, Dom and I worked for hours and multiple days to get it right. I have to give him the utmost respect for dealing with the multitude of changes I had for every emote of mine he made. Since I had so many folks subscribed to me both for my emotes as well as for a “quality” of work, we probably worked 10x as harder as he usually does on his emotes due to how picky and involved I was https://gyazo.com/a9d1e064b65d1ad459c2d5ec48668f91 here’s a random screenshot from back in the day showing how many just small intricate details he did for me. Dom did an amazing job and to be frank never got a lot of the credit he deserved as both a streamer, person and artist. So I always have to give credit to him for helping me make such involved art. Although as Alex mentioned Bahroo didn’t see Dom as how I did apparently: https://gyazo.com/0e6fd7cca03b38e08cc1f2b1c23db1c6 after the fact. Once my emote set was made and even more folks started subscribing, this is where Bahroo did EXACTLY what he’s done with Alex as well as has done with other people both before and after me.
Alex included a discord dm that Bahroo sent to him HOUNDING him for art, access to his artist, “permission” to use it: https://gyazo.com/e1ab9b631b9d8c99d7f257997dc3f38a
This is the process Bahroo used on me. He waited until we were on stream together (apparently a tactic he’s done multiple times as per Alex’s post) to wait until he’s in a position where someone can’t really say “no” and then spring it up on them. Through our messages he wanted to have a “dual'' emote where my bingCry emote was facing his “rooCry” emote and this was the very first “panda” emote on his channel which is and has been his entire branding since then. Ever wonder why his rooCry was facing that opposite direction? Reference: https://gyazo.com/295d5e8692f388bac695dfa53faadb7e
Although I do have to give credit to Bahroo, the day of the emote going live I was given credit on his channel. Although he almost had to due to the fact that it was mentioned on his channel prior and obviously people would remember. Although after that is when his behavior got worse. Afterwards he had MULTIPLE panda versions of my emotes. Now I’m sure a lot of artists and streamers use other emotes as a baseline of what they want roughly and put their own spark and twist into it, people could even say the same thing for maybe my current “bingJuice” although that inspiration is taken from a BTTV emote than his, but some of his emotes were a complete 180 from his prior emotes I mentioned before. Some examples of this basically being one for one emotes just panda versions besides the planned bingCry/rooCry duo.
I do want to reiterate that all my emotes were made first, and he put HEAVY stress on my artists to copy it and take inspiration from other streamers. I will never blame any artist or someone who uses reference art. But someone like Bahroo basically forced it to happen. I’m sure most artists hate this more than anything, but to all credit to my artist Domandess since he did try to add more originality to the emotes, sadly Bahroo just didn’t want it. I’m sure I could go all day on my emotes and other people’s emotes and branding he’s copied but some of the bigger ones are down below here:
rooScared / bingGasp: https://gyazo.com/763234ca104e6b9c0232c0b3bf4bd6e0
(I even changed the color of mine even AFTER it was made due to it being too similar.)
bingBlank: https://gyazo.com/63fbc114254e2974877d1fdc6983596a
rooBlank: https://gyazo.com/5dcd514a7c4475e3883e97ae72616f9d
Some additional time stamps are having my original bingCry work being done on April 16th 2016 while his rooCry emote was June 10th 2016.
All of this was heartbreaking to see with all the hard work and time spent with my artist, it felt like my channel lost its own personality after all of this unfolded. Although nowadays everyone on Twitch has similar variations of emotes just how he conducted himself, felt like he used me and moved on is the thing that hurts more than the copying of the emotes themselves. Twitch emotes and branding has for sure become more formulaic and a consistent copyfest off of one another.
After he did one without my permission like he had for the bingCry/rooCry combination I asked him to stop both privately as well as in his Twitch chat and he instead just decided to think I was joking and said “we’ll have it this week.” Then doing exactly what Alex described: framed it where it’s almost impossible to say no. “Chat you’d REALLY like this emote right?” or “Chat, isn’t THIS emote cute?” which somewhat sets his viewership mob against you. So even after I requested he stop, he kept on trying to copy my emote style as closely as he could. There are more references included at the time, but I think you all get the picture.
I would like to note too, once he got in with my emote artist he essentially stopped interacting with me both publicly and privately. Now obviously in a normal sense that’s fine, friendships end or people move on. But time and time again it goes to show he just shows up for whatever he wants (as shown by Alex begging for artist help and recommendations) or when he has something to gain with it. If it was just a one time thing whatever, it happens. The fact that it’s happening to multiple people even people who haven’t been comfortable enough to come forward yet as well as KEPT HAPPENING throughout the years goes to show his consistent using and self-centered behavior. There have been multiple times when I had certain meme ideas and concepts on my stream and the next day we ended up seeing him do it. The bitcup from way back in the day where I set it up where I had 50 of them up and just memed on having chat try and crash my PC. Next day, Bahroo is doing that. I tried to have memes of my emotes (https://gyazo.com/a1a0f1e7808029f3104e2b30473625ca and then the next day or two he’d have the same with his own “memes'' he came up with. https://gyazo.com/4e2670abcd099afa166838e41fd5fccc (zoomed in extra sass emotes etc.)
This happened to myself and other streamers too many times to count and still happens to this day. During the initial drama reactions people on reddit were even bringing up other streamers and channels on how fast bahroo tried to rip and copy different emotes and channel memes from other streamers.
Although the stranger thing, Bahroo has unsubscribed and unfollowed me ages ago, he STILL on multiple times has shown up in my chat whenever my viewer count was high. When I was on the front page he was in my chat or when I was having good viewership days or playing with my friends. My mods throughout the years have noticed this and his moderators showing up in my channel multiple times with IRC and such. Which once again goes to show an issue with control and things out of his control. Or him trying to keep tabs on everyone he “dislikes”.
We did try to reconcile multiple times, but every single time it just felt like I was talking to a brick wall. I even tried to “be the bigger man” since what can he even do? He stole a lot of my branding and used me as a stepping stone to grow his own audience and subscriber base and try and get as many emote subscribers on Twitch as possible. As mentioned, this had people assuming I was the person who copied him. At one point, before my emotes were blocked in his channel, he even laughed and said “who?” when someone brought me and my emotes up in his channel. There were even content creators who were apprehensive of being my friend from all of this going on in the background. Even if I asked him to remove any emote he would have just done what he recently did and just “remake” the same exact emote and same exact color scheme etc, just with a different artist. There was no fix to our issues or him so for the sake of trying to move on with my life I basically accepted it.
He even reached out to me recently and unblocked me on discord for his own personal gain regarding an ongoing court battle. I obviously was skeptical to say the least. We talked about our own issues wanting to “solve” it first and foremost and it felt like talking to someone going through the motions just to get to the information he wanted to hear.
He just stole a lot of my hard work and effort and then disregarded me as a friend and person. I tried to be the bigger person since at the time he was doing collaboration streams with my close personal friends and I don’t think if I have personal issues with someone someone else should be negatively affected. Although we tried to talk out our problems, he just ended up blocking me after we “made up”. Even if I made a public statement like this there’d be folks calling me a liar/clout chaser/user/“sad” or “bitter” or any other names of the sort. At the end of the day I’d mostly like to move on after saying my peace.
Although I will say dealing with him has made me lose so much passion on my Twitch stream itself. Made me feel uncomfortable trying new things or emotes, scared of doing popular Twitch meme emotes (such as the bingJuice) mentioned because I feel like I’d seem like a huge hypocrite although I’ve seen that in both BTTV emotes and anime alike. I know no one in the general sense cares about that, and that’s all the product of my own doing for trusting someone and I understand. Although as a creator being afraid to spend time in channels constantly being reminded of him, afraid to say anything and afraid to try anything new in my channel in the chance it just gets ripped off was heartbreaking for me and something I still have issues with now, and with meeting new people online in the social media world.
The last thing I’d like to address is the fact that it’s such a common thing. I’ve had multiple streamers come forward to me since my dislike for him was pretty well known, especially people who saw what happened from the sidelines or had it happen to themselves. It hurts me knowing that in the future other people will be affected by his actions. Whether it’s an upcoming streamer being used for new viewers or another streamer with cool artwork, branding, or something personal to them. I’ve always been afraid to make a statement and even talking with Alex we both agreed on how scary it is to go against the grain especially with how committed Bahroo’s fanbase can be. But throughout the years I’ve had folks think I’m crazy for having his emotes blocked in my chat. I’ve had people think I was the original copycat due to me being smaller. I’ve had his viewers come into my chat to tell me to kill myself and that I’m an “unoriginal c***” and that I should remove my emotes. Or viewers just telling me they’re unsubscribing because “Why should I be subbed to two channels with the same emotes”.
Although this is not Bahroo’s doing and obviously he can’t control every single one of his viewers, but him recently telling people to do this and publicly calling out the other content creators involved in this and having his viewership go to their channel to insult and harass them is the perfect example of why this took me so long to do a proper throughout statement. Even now I’ll assume he’ll find some way to be a victim and use this as some way to insult me. Which if he does that’s fine, I don’t want him canceled off the platform. I just want him to use his platform for good, whether it’s for charity or supporting artists. At the end of the day if he wants my sincere acceptance I just want him to do good. No going on Twitch and insulting people. No going behind people’s backs and trying to stop friendships. No abusing and using artists and smaller creators. No fake friendships. Just be you. Although his consistent lack of care for anyone he’s negatively affected has been shown these past few days quite heavily and hopefully will change in the future.
So I’d like to finish this by stating a big apology to anyone throughout the years who had their friendships or our personal relationships hurt by this. Viewers and streamers alike. I had close streamer friends I could barely watch due to their channel being spammed by panda emotes, I had viewers in my stream who couldn’t use an emote they paid for and when asked why I always gave a half ass reason to not stir up more drama. Because at the end of the day Twitch is meant for people to have a place in their life to meet friends, talk about games and have a good escape from reality. Not deal with petty drama and conversations that should just be dealt with in private. So sorry for anyone who uses Twitch as the escape from the world who ended up having to read this. I also just want to be able to move on and not have to constantly have this weight over my head. Years over years of dealing with this and seeing more and more people added to his list has taken a huge mental toll on me and I’m sure everyone else who has had a horrible experience with him. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
As well as my own personal message to Bahroo: I hope seeing multiple people coming out discussing their experiences with you will end up being a positive change in your life. I know currently having multiple people come out discussing their life and experiences with you is hard, and although you did hurt me in so many ways I wish you the best and hope this is a moment in your life that changes you for the better.