Tragic Details About Offline TV
Live streaming has been a launchpad for the careers of several gaming content creators, but it isn't always necessarily the end goal. Many streamers who get their start on platforms like Twitch eventually decide to branch out to places like YouTube where they can make all kinds of content and aren't held back by the constraints of being consistently live. One of the most successful instances of this is Offline TV, a collaborative project in which various famous streamers and pro gamers moved into a house together in order to focus on creating content that's separate from what they do live. The roster has fluctuated over the years, but Scarra, Pokimane, LilyPichu, Michael Reeves, Yvonne, and Disguised Toast have all been members at some point in time, making it easy to see why the project has been so successful. The Offline TV YouTube channel currently sits at over 2.8 million subscribers and is still growing.
It hasn't all been sunshine and rainbows, however. The untold truth of Offline TV is that as successful as the project has been, the channel and the people who make it have certainly seen more than their fair share of rough patches.
The first house was a failure
The Offline TV that viewers know today is actually it's second iteration. There was another house and another crew of content creators that William "Scarra" Li tried to set up, but it never quite managed to catch on.
Scarra had roots in both the esports and live streaming communities and he saw an opportunity to create a space where various creators could come together to collaborate. The first house was intended to generate content for Vine. Scarra was joined by housemates BasedYoona and Fragnatic, but the trio never really managed to get the project off the ground.
According to Scarra in the Season 1 team's introductory video on YouTube, "I had a three man house with two other people. It didn't work out and we ended up learning how to fail in that other house." The loss of time, money, and effort had to be a serious blow. This didn't stop Scarra however. He understood that the idea still had value even if his initial attempt had resulted in failure. "I saw potential and possibilities to succeed. So rather than, just like, cut my losses there, I doubled down and got, like, a really, really big house with twice as many people in the house as before, if not more, and I thought that we could create something in terms of content that has never been seen before."
It's a good thing he didn't give up, or else OTV might never have existed.
Some of the housemates cars were broken into
Back in June 2020, Scarra was playing a round of "Teamfight Tactics" on stream when there was a knock at the door and he was forced to quickly leave the room, stating that he would "be right back." A few minutes later, viewers saw a police officer walk by with her gun drawn. This led many to believe that someone had swatted the Offline TV house.
Scarra later went on stream to give a more detailed account of what actually happened. "I went upstairs. Cop with a gun in our living room. Rest of the house is on the couch, so I immediately think we're getting swatted. This is not fun. Turns out that's not the case," Scarra said. "Turns out Poki's Postmate driver called 911 because both me and Fed's car got broken into last night and on top of that, there's a lot of packages on our lawn that we're too lazy to bring in so they thought that our house got ransacked."
While it's good that the Offline TV house didn't get swatted and managed to maintain its anonymity, it's never fun to have the police walking through your house and letting you know that two of your housemates' cars were broken into.
Albert Chang cheated on LilyPichu while they were living together
There are a lot of streamer relationships that are kept private, but it's hard to do that when you're living in a collaborative content creation house like the one used by Offline TV. Lily "LilyPichu" Ki and Albert "SlightlyMusical" Chang were in a committed relationship for two years while both living together before they broke up in November 2019.
The community first knew that something was up when Pokimane posted a strange message on Twitter, stating, "it's insane how the best of people can turn out to be massive snakes." This, of course, raised more questions than answers. Two days of speculation later, Lily came forward and told her community that she and Albert were no longer together and that she would be taking a break from streaming. She still didn't reveal why they had broken up. It was only two days after that when Albert came forward and admitted his infidelity. "I'm sorry for the people I've hurt in all of our communities," he stated. "I'm sorry for the friends I let down at Offline.TV, and most of all I'm sorry for hurting you, Lily."
Albert then left the OTV house and took a break from content creation before returning to Twitch under a new channel. Lily has remained with the channel and is now dating fellow Offline TV streamer and content creator Michael Reeves.
Fedmyster was asked to leave after sexually harassing his housemates
People have left the house for many reasons over the years. Sometimes new opportunities pop up and sometimes people leave for logistical reasons, but only one member of Offline TV was ever asked to leave: Fedmyster. This happend following allegations of sexual misconduct.
Fans of the project would later learn that his behavior was a major contributor to why Pokimane ended up leaving the house, but the problem was first brought to light when Yvonne posted a lengthy tweet via TwitLonger titled "my truth" in which she explained that Fed had entered her room while she was asleep and touched her in ways that made her uncomfortable. She then went on to explain that Lily and Pokimane had both had similar experiences. "One night the girls were hanging out together," the tweet stated, "and when the topic of Fed came up, we realized we all had our stories about him."
Offline TV's group Twitter page shared Yvonne's post, stating "we strive to be a place where everyone can feel comfortable and safe. With that in mind, Fed has been removed from Offline TV. He will also no longer be living with us. We wholeheartedly support Yvonne, her statement, and anyone else who has the courage to share their story."
While it's good that he was asked to leave, it's truly awful that Yvonne, Lily, and Pokimane were put in that position in the first place.
Many of the creators have dealt with online harassment
The sad truth about being a streamer or content creator is that harassment from toxic fans kind of comes with the territory. Some have definitely had to deal with more than others however.
Pokimane shared some of the most toxic Twitch messages she's received, revealing many of the truly disturbing messages she gets in her channel's unban requests that fans don't usually see. Aside from the casual toxicity she puts up with all the time, there was one fan who took things way too far. Dexerto reported (speaking about a now-deleted stream) that one individual had launched a campaign of harassment against her that lasted nearly four years. "...I get enough random people in my emails," Dexerto reported Pokimane stating. "You know there's this one guy who's been calling me the c-word in my emails for three and a half years? Maybe four?"
She isn't the only one either. Lily has posted on Twitter that she is, "no stranger to being doxxed, harassed, swatted, etc." She also made a post on Reddit specifically requesting fans report any private information that might somehow be captured in their videos so that it cannot be shared online.