Everything You Need To Know About Stream Sniping

If you’re a gamer, then you most likely know about Twitch.tv, the most popular video game streaming website on the internet today. If you’ve (somehow) never heard of Twitch before, it’s a website that allows content creators to stream their own gameplay and interact with their viewers. With over two million monthly broadcasters, there’s a channel dedicated to just about every video game out there. Want to watch someone speed-run the latest Mario game? Or maybe you’re more interested in competitive shooters like Fortnite and Battlefield? Regardless of the type of games you enjoy playing (and watching), there’s most likely a Twitch channel for you.

Some of you reading this may even be Twitch streamers yourselves. If so, it’s possible that you’ve been the target of stream sniping. Don’t know what that is? Below, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about stream sniping.

What Is Stream Sniping?

The term stream sniping is typically used to describe someone watching their opponent’s stream in order to gain an unfair advantage over the player. Take the game Hearthstone for example. Hearthstone is a popular, online card game, in which two players battle against each another using cards drawn from their deck. Like most competitive card games, the players are restricted from seeing their opponent’s cards. However, if one player is streaming their gameplay, and the other “snipes” their stream during the match. That player would be able to see everything on their opponent’s screen, including their cards. As you can see, this gives one player a huge competitive advantage over the other. And considering the fact that many of Hearthstone’s top players stream their matches, you can imagine just how big of an issue this is at the game’s highest rankings.

Queue Dodging

While Hearthstone is certainly a major target for stream snipers, it’s also not the only game where this practice takes place. In fact, many of the top competitive games also have a problem with stream sniping. Especially those that feature some sort of in-gaming ranking system or leaderboards. In some cases, stream snipers don’t even need to watch their opponents stream to gain an edge. With a practice known as “queue dodging”, lesser-skilled player browse through top ranked players streams to see when they’re online. If they notice a top player is currently active, they’ll avoid playing matches until that player stops playing. That way, they can ensure that they do not face them while they try and climb the leaderboards.

Twitch Streamers Aren’t The Only Ones At Risk

There’s no question that Twitch is currently the most popular site to watch top players stream their gameplay. However, it’s also not the only place broadcasters and viewers can go for high quality gaming sessions. YouTube Gaming and Mixer are both popular alternatives to Twitch, and there are several more out there as well. That being said, these platforms all suffer from the same issues plaguing Twitch. Though, you may find fewer stream snipers and queue dodgers on these sites as there are less broadcasters overall. So, if you’re a up-and-coming streamer and want to avoid being stream sniped, your best bet may be to avoid Twitch and choose one of it’s alternatives instead.

Originally published on Digital Addicts.