Paul Denino (born September 29, 1994), better known as Ice Poseidon'','' is an American
Internet personality
An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social m ...
, and
live streamer
An online streamer or live streamer is a person who broadcasts themselves online through a Livestreaming, live stream to an audience.
History
Streaming arose in the early 2010s, originating on sites like YouTube where users could upload videos ...
, primarily of the video game ''
Old School RuneScape
''Old School RuneScape'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Jagex. The game was released on 22 February 2013. When ''Old School RuneScape'' launched, it began as an August 2007 version of the ...
'' and the genre. His peak prominence was in 2017 when his IRL streams became popular. He is best known for his IRL streams, which he describes as "life streaming". ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' named Denino as a "pioneer 'life streamer'."
Initially a streamer on
Twitch
Twitch may refer to:
Biology
* Muscle contraction
** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation
** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction
** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...
, Denino was publicly banned from the platform for being
swatted
Swatting is a criminal harassment tactic of deceiving an emergency service (via such means as hoaxing an emergency services dispatcher) into sending a police or emergency service response team to another person's address. This is triggered by ...
off an airplane at Phoenix airport after a viewer called in a bomb threat under Denino's name.
Following several years of streaming on YouTube, Denino moved to
Mixer, only for the streaming platform to shut down in July 2020. Denino has returned to streaming on YouTube and continues streaming regularly as of June 2021.
Streaming career
Twitch
Denino was a partnered streamer on Twitch.
He rose to prominence for his ''
Old School RuneScape
''Old School RuneScape'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Jagex. The game was released on 22 February 2013. When ''Old School RuneScape'' launched, it began as an August 2007 version of the ...
'' streams in 2015 playing under the pseudonym "Ice Poseidon", which he created using a random name generator when he was twelve years old.
He moved into streaming IRL, beginning by streaming himself playing ''
Pokémon Go
''Pokémon Go'' (stylized as ''Pokémon GO'') is a 2016 augmented reality (AR) mobile game, part of the ''Pokémon'' franchise, developed and published by Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for iOS and Android ...
''.
He was banned multiple times on Twitch. In late December 2016, Twitch announced the launch of the IRL section, allowing Denino to stream without the involvement of gaming for the first time. Denino was banned during the section's launch day because he revealed a phone number on stream. This was his third ban on the platform, this time resulting in a 45-day ban. During the ban, Denino decided to move to California to pursue his Twitch career full-time. He frequently traveled around the country IRL streaming, averaging ten to thirty thousand concurrent viewers.
Suspension from Twitch
He was banned from Twitch on April 28, 2017, after being
swatted
Swatting is a criminal harassment tactic of deceiving an emergency service (via such means as hoaxing an emergency services dispatcher) into sending a police or emergency service response team to another person's address. This is triggered by ...
on
American Airlines
American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...
Flight 458 in Phoenix, where police officers removed Denino and another person. The incident made national news across the US as a
hoax
A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...
bomb threat had been called in by one of Denino's viewers under his name. While this was not the first time he had been swatted during a livestream it was the first on Twitch to lead to a permanent suspension.
The decision to ban Ice Poseidon from Twitch sparked controversy with some believing his ban was unjustified, including Denino himself.
[ Some members of the community demanded that Twitch undo the ban citing complaints that the Twitch terms of service were too vague and with Denino stating "when you look at the erms of service there was no rules saying that you shouldn't leak your location".]
YouTube
Following his ban from Twitch
Twitch may refer to:
Biology
* Muscle contraction
** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation
** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction
** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...
in spring 2017, Denino took to YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
, taking most of his fans (the "Purple Army") with him, a rarity for streamers.
Denino's fanbase is controversial, with some describing the community as 'toxic' due to their frequent use of racial and sexual slurs, and harassment. His community is largely based around his sizeable Discord
Discord is a VoIP and instant messaging social platform. Users have the ability to communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media and files in private chats or as part of communities called "servers".The developer documenta ...
community and his Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...
subreddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...
/r/Ice_Poseidon which was initially placed under "quarantine" by Reddit, and subsequently banned in October 2019 along with its community-run sister Subreddit /r/Ice_Poseidon2. Denino admits that it is nearly impossible to hide anything from the "Purple Army".
Denino quickly became one of the most popular livestreamers in the world focusing primarily on the IRL genre using a mobile broadcasting rig of his own design. His streams are known for their 'edgy' humor and interaction with viewers through text-to-speech
Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system converts normal languag ...
and viewers meeting him in public by determining his location, a process known as 'stream sniping'.[ Denino's openness about his life has led to multiple incidents in public due to viewers calling and harassing nearby store owners by making baseless threats and warning that Denino is a risk in order to provoke violence or have police called on Denino.
During Denino's trip to Europe, he visited Zurich, ]Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, and was featured in a tabloid magazine that discussed him being evicted out of multiple hotels for harassment and disobeying filming laws of the country.
His continual swatting provoked a debate within the streamer community on whether such content should no longer be publicized due to the media contagion effect which may encourage more people to swat him and as a result many Twitch/streamer communities banned the posting of swatting clips.
On the morning of March 21, 2019, Denino's residence in Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, was raided by the FBI and his Cx Network subsequently folded in March 2019.
Mixer
On August 1, 2019, Denino started streaming on Microsoft's
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...
streaming-platform, Mixer. He stated that he was trying out Mixer in comparison to YouTube and that Mixer's community and active staff-support made the community much more welcoming than YouTube. Another reason given for the platform switch was "Youtube has only downgraded their streaming discoverability Discoverability is the degree to which something, especially a piece of content or information, can be found in a search of a file, database, or other information system. Discoverability is a concern in library and information science, many aspects ...
over the years which sucks for the streamers." On the week of January 20, 2020 to January 24, 2020, Denino hosted Mixer's first 5-day long game show called "Scuffed Brother" featuring other Mixer streamers and partners. The reality event modeled CBS' Big Brother where contestants are locked in a house and compete for money. The event was a success, with the 5 days racking up 500,000,000 sparks from viewer voting and 350,000 views.
As of June 12, 2020, Ice Poseidon had 39,995 followers and 2,225,145 total views. On June 22, 2020, Mixer announced it was shutting down and partnering with Facebook Gaming.
Esports
NRG
From September 2016 Denino was affiliated with the eSports
Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...
organization NRG Esports
NRG Esports is an American esports organization based in Los Angeles, California. It has rosters in '' Apex Legends'', '' Clash Royale'', ''Dragon Ball FighterZ'', '' Fortnite'', ''Gears of War'', ''Hearthstone'', ''Overwatch'', '' Rocket League ...
as part of their ''Old School RuneScape
''Old School RuneScape'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Jagex. The game was released on 22 February 2013. When ''Old School RuneScape'' launched, it began as an August 2007 version of the ...
'' roster and as a content creator. The sponsorship provided management services through team NRG's Brent Kaskel. In June 2019, Denino announced he was no longer working with Kaskel after allegations of sexual abuse were made against Kaskel. Denino earned about US$60,000 dollars per month through various sponsorships.
CxCoin
Denino launched in July 2021 a cryptocurrency
A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It i ...
he called "CxCoin" with the aim of allowing streamers to "receive support" despite previously admitting in an earlier YouTube stream that he would use cryptocurrency to scam unsuspecting buyers out of their money. In January 2022, Paul admitted to scamming over $500k from his fans in a pump and dump
Pump and dump (P&D) is a form of securities fraud that involves artificially inflating the price of an owned stock through false and misleading positive statements, in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price. Once the operat ...
crypto scheme by removing funds from the liquidity pool as well as withdrawing from the pre-sale and marketing wallet. He later denied the project was a scam arguing he did not advertise the project to casual fans and defended his withdrawals from the liquidity pool. The CxCoin website permanently went offline between June 18 and August 30 2022.
Other ventures
On October 23 2022 it was announced that Denino would face Brandon Buckingham in a boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
on November 19 at the Moody Center, Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
, US.
Boxing record
Awards and nominations
References
{{Reflist, 30em
External links
IcePoseidon YouTube Channel
Ice Poseidon Instagram
1994 births
American fraudsters
American people of Italian descent
American YouTubers
Twitch (service) streamers
Living people
YouTube streamers
People from Florida
People from California