Elon Musk Vs. Asmongold—The Gaming Feud, Explained

1 year ago 40

Elon Musk is feuding with Twitch streamer Asmongold

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Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is in the midst of a heated feud with gaming streamer Zack Hoyt, better known as “Asmongold,” who is accusing Musk of cheating at Path of Exile 2.

Asmongold is not the only gamer who is accusing Musk of cheating, as the larger gaming community, particularly Path of Exile players, believe that Musk is paying people to play games for him, leveling up his characters and arming them with powerful equipment, a practice known as “boosting.”

After Musk played Path of Exile 2 on a livestream, gamers quickly noticed that his actions did not match that of a proficient player, and compiled a list of evidence on Reddit that strongly implies that Musk is boosting his characters.

Commentators responded in bemused disbelief—one wrote that Musk “doesn’t seem to understand why he can’t pick up items when his inventory is full.”

It should be noted that Path of Exile 2 is a very difficult game that requires a serious time commitment to reach the level that Musk’s character achieved (level 97 on hardcore mode).

A man who is running multiple businesses simply does not have time to do this.

What Happened With Elon Musk And Asmongold?

Like many gaming streamers, Asmongold watched Musk’s livestream of Path of Exile 2 and came to the conclusion that Musk did not know how to play the game properly.

Asmon took it a step further, and challenged Musk to prove that he had reached level 97 by himself.

If Musk could prove this, Asmon promised that he would stream on X (Twitter) for a full year. Once the news of Asmon’s challenge made its way to X, Musk didn’t take the criticism very well.

Musk, who had been following Asmongold on X, quickly unfollowed the Twitch streamer. Asmon then reacted to Musk in a video titled “Elon Musk has lost it,” stating:

“Elon unfollowed Asmon? He’s probably not happy about the PoE video. There’s no way he played that account … it was so obvious! You cannot get mad at me for bringing this up. Everybody was talking about this. Come on, man.”

Musk responded by posting on X, writing:

“Asmon behaves like a maverick “independent”, but in reality has to ask his boss for permission before he can do anything. He is not his own man.”

It wasn’t clear what Musk was referring to, until Musk leaked private DMs between himself and Asmon, in which Asmon refers to his “editors” on YouTube.

Like many Twitch streamers, Asmongold also has a YouTube channel that posts shorter, edited clips of his streams. The editing is done by others, and the revenue from the channel is shared between them.

Elon Musk appears to have misunderstood the role of a YouTube editor, and presumed that editor translated to a journalistic editor who decides what kind of stories a publication should cover.

Thus, Musk seemed to be suggesting that Asmon’s content was being censored to some degree.

Musk then criticized Asmon in another X post, writing:

“No other way to say this, but, while Asmon IS good at caustic commentary and making fun of people, he is NOT good at video games.”

Asmon responded to Musk’s provocation, writing: “Leaking my DM's is one thing but this is absolutely uncalled for.”

After watching the feud, some of Musk’s fans in the gaming community seemed disappointed, with many expressing that the world’s richest man had lost their trust.

One commentator wrote: “As a gamer, you have a lot of pride in your rank/level. Trying to fake that while also being the richest guy in the world is just so absurdly unnecessary. I would say it also makes me wonder, if he is willing to lie about this, what else is he willing to lie about.”

Others pointed out that there was absolutely no need for Musk to pretend to be a skilled gamer—the man has accomplished more in the real world than the digital realm.

Some doubted Musk’s other questionable gaming accomplishments, such as his claim to be one of the best players in the world at Diablo 4.

Others took the opportunity to post Musk’s legendarily inept Elden Ring build, which boasted no less than two shields, but no healing flask (somehow, his character had managed to reach level 111).

Just to be clear, it’s more than understandable if Musk isn’t particularly good at playing video games, whether it's Path of Exile 2 or Elden Ring.

Musk is a father to 11 children, the CEO of multiple companies and is soon expected to have a place in Trump’s White House. He clearly doesn’t have time to play these time-consuming games at the difficulty level he claims, nor should he.

Of course, he doesn’t really have time to beef with Twitch streamers either, and yet, here we are.