Asmongold
Early life
Asmongold was born in Florida and raised in Austin, Texas. He grew up with an interest in video games, particularly role-playing games (RPGs), and was introduced to World of Warcraft by a friend in 2006. He quickly became captivated by the game and started playing it extensively. Asmongold later attended college but dropped out to focus on his streaming career.
Career
Asmongold began his online career in 2009 by creating YouTube videos about World of Warcraft, in which he shared his insights, strategies, and game knowledge. His YouTube channel experienced steady growth, and he eventually started live-streaming on Twitch in 2011, initially as a hobby, and he began his active streaming career on Twitch in 2014. As of 2019, his content mainly consisted of gameplay, guides, discussions, and reviews related to World of Warcraft expansions and patches.
Upon the release of World of Warcraft Classic in 2019, he surged in overall popularity. He became one of the most popular streamers on the platform in the same year. He was one of the platform's most popular World of Warcraft streamers during the 2020 release of Shadowlands. On July 3, 2021, Asmongold started playing Final Fantasy XIV to hundreds of thousands of viewers.
In 2022, he started to branch out into a larger variety of stream styles.
Business ventures
In October 2020, he co-founded One True King (OTK), a streaming and content creation organization, with other streamers and content creators, including Mizkif and Sodapoppin. In August 2022, he announced OTK's new PC building company called Starforge Systems in collaboration with fellow content creator MoistCr1TiKaL. The company was quickly met with backlash due to the high prices of their products, to which they responded by decreasing their prices by $100.
He hosts a weekly podcast entitled Steak & Eggs Podcast along with fellow One True King members Emiru and Tectone. Episode 1 was released on February 17, 2023.
Political opinions
Asmongold's main Twitch account was briefly suspended in August 2017 for a comment he made about survivors displaced by Hurricane Katrina. He later addressed the statement in a TwitLonger, clarifying his point of view and reaching an understanding with Twitch staff.
In 2022, he reached out to Republican senator Ted Cruz to discuss regulating loot boxes in video games on Cruz's YouTube channel. Cruz expressed interest in meeting him but said he held a "strong libertarian bent" on the subject.
He criticized Samantha Rivera Trevino, commonly known as Rivers, who won the fan vote for the 2024 Esports Awards Streamer of the Year, saying "I’m salty because it was obviously a diversity pick because she’s a woman, and everybody knows it. It should’ve been Speed or Kai, or CaseOh, or like three other people... You put her up there because she’s a female. It’s embarrassing, it’s patronising. She’s not even a top female streamer either."
In a Twitch stream on October 14, 2024, he called Palestinians "terrible people" from "an inferior culture" that "kills people for their identity" and "is directly antithetical to everything Western values stand for." He also said that they "have genocide built into Sharia law right now, so no, I'm not going to cry a fucking river when people who have genocide that's baked into their laws are getting genocided." His ZackRawrr account on Twitch was banned for 14 days due to violating the platform's hateful conduct policy. He posted an apology, stating that he deserved the backlash and the ban.
Personal life
Before beginning his streaming career, he worked for the Internal Revenue Service for two tax seasons in 2012/2013. Asmongold acquired a business degree and was preparing to apply to law schools, but had to abandon that plan as he was taking care of his mother.
In October 2021, his mother died after complications from advanced COPD, leading to his temporary hiatus from streaming.
Awards and nominations
Year | Ceremony | Category | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | Esports Awards 2020 | Streamer of the Year | Nominated | |
2022 | Esports Awards 2022 | Nominated | ||
The Streamer Awards | Best MMORPG Streamer | Won | ||
2023 | Won | |||
2024 | Nominated |
References
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- ^ "FAQ with Asmongold". YouTube. May 24, 2014.
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- ^ @OTKnetwork (January 31, 2023). "Introducing @steakandeggs🍳 Our brand new podcast all about gaming, anime, pop culture and a whole lot more! Hosted by: @Asmongold @emiru @Tectone New episodes every Friday starting Feb 17th!" (Tweet). Retrieved March 24, 2024 – via Twitter.
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- ^ "Asmongold and xQc Believe Streamer of the Year Was 'Rigged'". Esports Illustrated On SI. August 27, 2024. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
- ^ "Asmongold cree que Rivers es la streamer del año solo por ser mujer". Movistar eSports (in Spanish). August 27, 2024. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
- ^ "RiversGG vence a 9 hombres en la elección de Mejor Streamer del Año y un competidor reclama que solo se lo dieron "porque es mujer"". Tarreo (in Spanish). August 27, 2024. Retrieved October 22, 2024 – via Yahoo Finance.
- ^ Snavely, Adam (October 14, 2024). "'I don't give a f**k, they're terrible people': Asmongold sparks huge backlash with Palestine comments". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 15, 2024.
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- ^ "Asmongold Steps Down Following Twitch Ban". Esports Illustrated On SI. October 16, 2024.
- ^ Zack [@Asmongold] (May 7, 2021). "2012-2013 Era My first day working at the IRS" (Tweet). Archived from the original on February 11, 2023. Retrieved February 14, 2023 – via Twitter.
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- ^ Zack [@Asmongold] (October 29, 2021). "Earlier this week, my mom passed away. I'm honestly still in shock, it's hard to imagine that it's even real. I don't know if I'll ever be able to come to terms with it. She was my best friend and the light of my life. I'll love you, always and forever" (Tweet). Archived from the original on September 7, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2023 – via Twitter.
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