A 7.1 magnitude earthquake shook a huge part of Southern California over the weekend. At the time, Twitch streamer Shroud was playing Apex Legends live. His stream captured the moment the earthquake hit, before him and his friends continued playing through the tremor.
The clip above shows the moment Shroud starts to panic as he realizes what’s happening. While Californians are generally prepared for earthquakes, due to the area being close to some major fault lines, it can still be an unnerving experience when they actually hit.
Shroad's chat also goes crazy as the trio’s language turns the air blue. Luckily for them, it happened just as they were preparing to enter a new game, so they have a few moments to absorb what’s going on.
As the quake continues you can see Shroud’s monitor, desk, and microphone begin to shake. He starts to freak out a little as it the rumbling persists. At this point, Shroud says “what do we do?” repeatedly. While one friend orders the group to “get under the table, boys,” the other wants to just “play through it.”
The shaking then subsides. They begin to compose themselves, just as their legends are preparing to land. The trio then goes on to win the match.
The earthquake was the second to hit California in recent days and its epicentre was near the city of Ridgecrest, roughly 240km north of Los Angeles.
The tremor was so large that it was felt by Shroud’s friend in Las Vegas, who is heard in the video.
Thankfully, the earthquake damage was much less than initially feared. Around 3,000 people were initially left without power, and there were reports of fires and gas leaks in the area. However, emergency services reacted swiftly, and there are no reports of any fatalities, although there are some minor to moderate injuries.
Shroud wasn’t the only one continuing his game through the disruption. The Los Angeles Dodgers were also playing when the earthquake hit, and footage from their Twitter shows them seemingly unaffected by the whole thing.