Ice Poseidon
About
Ice Poseidon is the online handle of vlogger and livestreamer Paul Denino, best known for streaming the game Runescape and for broadcasting various real-life pranks.
History
YouTube Channel
In January 2015, Denino began posting Runescape videos to YouTube (shown below).
On May 31st, 2017, Denino posted a video titled "Speed Dating College Girls (Police Called For Hate Speech)", in which he set up a speed dating booth to mock students at the University of California, Los Angeles (shown below, left). On July 20th, 2017, he uploaded footage from a livestream in which he accumulated upwards of $5,000 while sleeping for eight hours (shown below, right). Within three months, the video received more than 1.8 million views and 4,500 comments.
Twitch Channel
In May 2015, Denino created the Ice Poseidon channel on Twitch, where he initially streamed himself playing the game Runescape. Eventually, Denino began streaming pranks out of his home using a custom-made portable streaming setup. Denino's channel was permanently banned from the site following a swatting incident in late April 2017.
Subreddit
On October 19th, 2015, the /r/Ice_Poseidon[4] subreddit was launched for discussions about Denino's content. Within two years, the community gathered upwards of 56,000 subscribers. In late October 2017, a post on the subreddit featuring a screen capture of Denino appearing to hold a vibrator to nude model Aria Nina reached the frontpage of Reddit, gathering upwards of 48,500 points (57% upvoted) and 1,700 comments within 14 hours.[5]
In May 2016, Denino created the @RealIcePoseidon[2] Twitter account, which gathered upwards of 115,000 followers over the next 15 months.
Controversies
Swatting
On April 27th, 2017, Denino was escorted off of an airplane after a bomb threat was called in using his name. The following day, YouTube smeep cx uploaded footage of Denino reacting to the swatting. The following day, Denino was permanently banned from Twitch for revealing his location on the livestreaming platform.[3] That day, smeep cx uploaded a video showing various streamers reactions to the ban. On April 28th, Stream Highlights uploaded highlights on the story to YouTube (shown below). The video gained 251,000 views in two years.
N-Word Controversy
In early September 2017, Denino streamed an argument with a Black man over his use of the word "nigga." On September 7th, a clip of the incident was submitted to /r/LivestreamFAIL,[6] where it received more than 1,400 points (79% upvoted) and 890 comments over the next month.
Corinn Esque Livestream Controversy
On April 30th, 2018, YouTuber Corinn Esque broadcast a livestream from Denino's apartment, during which she was handcuffed by Denino and mocked by others present, including alt-right streamer Baked Alaska. Following the incident, Corinn Esque sprayed shaving cream on Denino in retaliation, leading him to ask her to leave his home. In the coming hours, Esque accussed Denino of stealing her iPad and assaulting her, leading her to call the police and ask stream viewers to swat Denino's house.
On May 1st, YouTuber Mister Metokur held a livestream about the incident, including footage from various streams of those present. Within 24 hours, the stream gathered more than 143,000 views and 3,000 comments. That day, Metokur's stream was submitted to the /r/Drama[8] subreddit by Redditor Mother_Jabubu. Meanwhile, two posts asking about the incident were submitted to /r/OutOfTheLoop.[9][10]
News Media Coverage
On June 9th, 2017, Rolling Stone[7] published an article about Denino titled "On Air With LA's Most Wanted Man, 'Life Streamer' Ice Poseidon." On August 28th, the No Jumper YouTube channel uploaded an interview with Denino, which received more than 355,000 views and 2,900 comments over the next two months (shown below).
FBI Raid
On February 26th, 2019, Sir Scammalot uploaded a video featuring Ice Poseidon describing his business which was argued to be a ponzi scheme (shown below). The video gained 28,700 views in a month.
That day, Keemstar came to Ice Poseidon's defense in a video posted to Twitter, claiming that the Ponzi scheme accusations were false (shown below).
REALIcePoseidon</a> <a href="https://t.co/fGfBK7dgku">pic.twitter.com/fGfBK7dgku</a></p>— KEEM 🍿 (KEEMSTAR) February 26, 2019
On March 19th, Ice Poseidon[11] tweeted, "cant exactly go live today something has come up, i apologize but i might be going somewhere soon" (shown below). The tweet gained 874 likes and 407 comments in a couple of days.
News soon traveled through pictures on Twitter that Ice Poseidon was raided by the FBI. On March 20th, YouTuber Liutauras uploaded a video of streamers reacting to the news (shown below). The video gained 88,000 views in two days.
Dexerto[12] reported that although many speculated that the raid had to do with the alleged ponzi scheme most speculated that, "Denino's phone number was 'spoofed', potentially by one of his fans, and then used to make fake bomb threats, prompting the response from authorities."
On March 21st, A video uploaded by Scuffedcookies in February featuring a black boxed phone that contains incriminating evidence against Denino began circulating again and included in speculation (shown below).[13]
Search Interest
External References
[1] Twitch.tv – Ice Poseidon
[2] Twitter – REALIcePoseidon
[3] Dexerto – ICE_Poseidon Permanently Banned from Twitch After Being Swatted on a Plane
[4] Reddit – /r/Ice_Poseidon
[5] Reddit – ILL SEND EVERYONE WHO UPV0TES 10$ IF WE CAN GET THIS POST TO THE FRONTPAGE (Warning: NSFW)
[6] Reddit – Black dude made at ice saying nigga
[7] Rolling Stone – On Air With LAs Most Wanted Man
[9] Reddit – /r/OutOfTheLoop
[10] Reddit – /r/OutOfTheLoop
[11] Twitter – REALIcePoseidon
[13] Dexerto – New Claims
Top Comments
HumbleWaterFilterMerchant
Oct 31, 2017 at 02:38PM EDT in reply to
Druplesnubb
Nov 01, 2017 at 05:20PM EDT