As with most of us, 2021 wasn't the best year for Pokimane. In August, the Twitch streamer opened up about feeling "burnt out" and being "ready to give up". Owing to that, she took an extended break from streaming, eventually returning on September 8. However, Pokimane has been hit with her first Twitch ban of 2022, only a few days into the new year.
It appears that she was streaming episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender. That's a big no-no according to Twitch's copyright policies, resulting in her account getting slapped with a temporary ban. "Confirmed 48 hour suspension!" she said on Twitter. "see you guys monday morning for a 12 hour comeback stream".
A 48 hour ban is just a slap on the wrist for a fairly victimless crime. Fortunately, Pokimane does seem to be in higher spirits than she was in August last year. She opened up about her feelings, saying, "I just find myself doing so many things that I’m not excited about...I’m just a f**king shoulder. I always do things that I feel like I should do. All these years, I’ve been living my life and framing it in such a way where I avoid having any regret. But avoiding regret does not mean you are pursuing what you want. Those are two very, very different things."
"Why do I have seven figures in my bank account for? To feel like a slave to what I’m expected to do or to the capitalistic idea of making the most amount of money you can? I just don’t want this to be my norm.”
Things seem to be in a better place for her, as she recently co-founded RTS, a consulting firm for aspiring esports stars and content creators. The talent management firm offers consultation to those looking to make a career out of streaming video games or playing competitively.
More recently however, she talked about feeling like she hasn't "lived life at all" due to Covid-19. "For anyone else in your 20's, did you come out of the pandemic and covid feeling like, 'two years of [the] fun part of my life were just stolen'?"