Just a month after admitting to inappropriately messaging a minor on Twitch, getting fired from his own game studio, and announcing a hiatus from streaming, Guy "Dr Disrespect" Beahm is about ready to go back to business as usual.
The disgraced streamer posted on X today for the first time since June, sharing an image of himself playing chess across from an unseen opponent who's playing with checkers pieces. A not-so-deep interpretation of the post is that Beahm is following through on his promise that he's "not f***ing going anywhere," as he stated before his self-imposed 36-day hiatus, and that he believes he's several moves ahead of his detractors and accusers.
The list of his "opponents" is only getting longer. In the time since Beahm's last statement, several streaming friends have distanced themselves from the Doc. His line of Turtle Beach peripherals was removed from sale, the San Francisco 49ers dropped their partnership with him, and Dr Disrespect was even removed from NBA 2K24 in a patch. Midnight Society, the game studio he co-founded and was fired from, has scrubbed Beahm's name from its official website and are now refunding premium cosmetics that referenced his channel.
While, in all likelihood, Beahm will eventually return to his YouTube channel and we can all go back to ignoring him, he might have a new permanent problem facing his operation. Shortly after confirming the reason for his Twitch ban and taking a break from streaming, YouTube disabled monetization on his channel.
"We have suspended monetization on Dr Disrespect’s channel for violating our Creator Responsibility policy," a YouTube representative told PC Gamer in June.
It's unclear if Beahm, who was one of the largest streamers focused on YouTube before his admission, will be allowed to collect money on the platform again. If not, I can think of one controversial streaming platform that might take him in.