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Ice Poseidon
Denino in 2019
Born
Paul Denino

(1994-09-29) September 29, 1994 (age 30)
OccupationBroadcaster
OrganizationKick
Height6 ft 3 in (191 cm)[1]
Twitch information
Channel
Years active2015–2017
Followers296 thousand[2]
Kick information
Channel
Years active2023–present
Followers149 thousand[3]
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2015–2023
Subscribers700 thousand[4]
Total views100.6 million[4]
100,000 subscribers
Last updated: Sep 28, 2024

Paul Michael Joseph Denino (born September 29, 1994),[5] better known as Ice Poseidon, is an American Internet personality, live streamer. and YouTuber.[6] He is primarily known for streaming the video game Old School RuneScape and his IRL streams. Denino gained peak prominence in 2017 when his IRL streams became popular. He is best known for his IRL streams, which he describes as "life streaming". Rolling Stone recognized Denino as a "pioneer 'life streamer'".[7]

Initially a streamer on Twitch, Denino was publicly banned from the platform for being swatted off an airplane at Phoenix airport after a viewer called in a bomb threat under Denino's name.[8] Following several years of streaming on YouTube, Denino moved to Mixer,[9] until the streaming platform shut down in July 2020.[10] On May 6, 2023, Denino started streaming on Kick.[11][12]

Denino admitted to taking over $500,000 in funds from the liquidity pool of CXCOIN, a cryptocurrency pump and dump scheme, profiting him over $300,000. Denino stated his intention to reimburse $150,000 to the investors he had defrauded; however, reports indicate that only $40,000 have been verified as returned to the token holders.[13]

On June 28, 2023, Denino was arrested in Bangkok after he live-streamed himself giving his girlfriend a lap dance, and charged for violating Thailand's anti-pornography laws. Denino published an apology video on his Twitter promptly after being arrested.[14] On August 18, 2023, Denino revealed that criminal charges against him had been dropped and that he had left Thailand.[15]

Streaming career

[edit]

Twitch

[edit]

Denino was a partnered streamer on Twitch.[16] He rose to prominence for his Old School RuneScape streams in 2015 playing under the pseudonym "Ice Poseidon", which he created using a random name generator when he was twelve years old.[17][18] He moved into streaming IRL, beginning by streaming himself playing Pokémon Go.[7] He was banned multiple times on Twitch. In late December 2016, Twitch announced the launch of the IRL section.[19] Denino during this time would also decide to move to California to pursue his Twitch career full-time. He frequently traveled around the country IRL streaming, averaging thousands of concurrent viewers.[17]

Permanent suspension from Twitch

[edit]

He was permanently banned from Twitch on April 28, 2017, after being swatted on American Airlines Flight 458 from Los Angeles to Phoenix while live streaming on the platform. Police officers removed Denino and another person from the plane after landing in Phoenix. The incident made national news across the US[20] as a hoax bomb threat had been called in by one of Denino's viewers under his name.[21][22] 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.[23][24]

The decision to ban Ice Poseidon from Twitch sparked controversy with some believing his ban was unjustified, including Denino himself.[8] 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 terms of service, there was no rules saying that you shouldn't leak your location".[25]

YouTube

[edit]

Following his ban from Twitch in spring 2017, Denino took to YouTube, taking most of his fans (the "Purple Army") with him, a rarity for streamers.[7]

Denino's fanbase is controversial, with some describing the community as 'toxic' due to their frequent use of racial and sexual slurs, and harassment.[26] His community is largely based around his sizeable Discord community which has 92,000 members as of April 2024. His Reddit subreddit /r/Ice_Poseidon was initially placed under "quarantine" by Reddit, and subsequently banned in October 2019 along with its community-run sister Subreddit /r/Ice_Poseidon2.[7][27] Denino admits that it is nearly impossible to hide anything from the "Purple Army".[17]

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.[7] His streams are known for their 'edgy' humor and interaction with viewers through text-to-speech and viewers meeting him in public by determining his location, a process known as 'stream sniping'.[8] 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 to provoke violence or have police called on Denino.[28]

During Denino's trip to Europe, he visited Zürich, Switzerland, 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.[29][30]

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.[31]

On the morning of March 21, 2019, Denino's residence in Los Angeles, was raided by the FBI and his Cx Network subsequently folded in March 2019.[32]

Mixer

[edit]

On August 1, 2019, Denino started streaming on Microsoft's streaming-platform, Mixer.[33] 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.[34] Another reason given for the platform switch was "YouTube has only downgraded their streaming discoverability over the years which sucks for the streamers."[35] 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.[33] On June 22, 2020, Mixer announced it was shutting down and partnering with Facebook Gaming.[citation needed]

Kick

[edit]

On December 7, 2022, Denino joined the Kick livestreaming platform.[36][37]

Arrest of Ice Poseidon in Thailand

[edit]

In June 2023, Denino and several others were arrested in Bangkok, Thailand. The incident occurred during a live broadcast on Kick, where Denino performed an explicit lap dance for his girlfriend at a hotel restaurant. This act was deemed disrespectful by the hotel's management.[38][39]

The hotel's general manager confronted Denino and his group, leading to their arrest by local authorities. Denino was charged with "distribution of obscene content", a serious offense under Thailand's Computer Crime Act.[40] He faced the possibility of up to five years in prison.

Following his arrest, Denino spent time in a Thai jail before posting bail, which cost him $12,000. He described the conditions in the jail as extremely harsh.[41]

As of mid-2024, Denino's legal situation had improved, with reports indicating that the charges against him were dropped.[42]

Arrest of Ice Poseidon in Australia

[edit]

On September 21, 2023, during a stream in Queensland, Australia Denino and frequent stream collaborator Sam Pepper invited an escort for $500 to enter his hotel room, with the intent of streaming the escort interacting with another local streamer as part of a prank.[43] They agreed on an extra fee to record the interaction and the camera livestreaming was pointed out to the escort immediately as she entered the room.[44] Ed Craven, founder and owner of the streaming platform Kick was active in the stream chat while this was unfolding, sending laughing emotes.[43][44][45] After being made aware of the whole situation via text message from a friend, the woman attempted to leave the hotel room before being temporarily blocked by the third streamer who chased after her.[44]

Later, Denino and Pepper exited the hotel where police officers apprehended the pair, placing them under arrest for sexual assault. They were later released without charges.[44]

Esports

[edit]

NRG

[edit]

From September 2016 Denino was affiliated with the eSports organization NRG Esports as part of their Old School RuneScape roster and as a content creator.[46] The sponsorship provided management services through team NRG's Brent Kaskel.[17] In June 2019, Denino announced he was no longer working with Kaskel after allegations of sexual abuse were made against Kaskel.[47] Denino earned about US$60,000 per month through various sponsorships.[48]

CxCoin scheme

[edit]

Denino launched in July 2021 a cryptocurrency he called "CxCoin"[49] named after the "Cx" signature of his live-stream following. The cryptocurrency token aimed to allow 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. The coin was advertised as a long-term hold asset, however, in January 2022, Paul admitted to scamming[50] over $500k from his fans in a pump and dump crypto scheme by removing funds[6] from the liquidity pool as well as withdrawing from the pre-sale and marketing wallet, netting Denino about $300k after paying close to $200k to developers.[51]

Denino remains widely criticized for showing no remorse after the scheme caused losses for investors and fans. In an exposee interview by YouTube crypto-journalist Coffeezilla, Denino states "If you want the answer, yeah I could give the money back, it is within my power, but I am going to look out for myself and not do that."[52] Denino 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.[53] Denino later promised that $150k of the funds withdrawn would be returned to the liquidity pool however, only $47k were accounted to be returned. The CxCoin website permanently went offline between June 18[54] and August 30[55] 2022.

Other ventures

[edit]

On November 19, 2022, Denino made his professional boxing debut against Brandon Buckingham at the Moody Center, in Austin, Texas.[56] Buckingham defeated Denino via first round knockout.[57]

Denino took part in the first ever tag team boxing match on March 4, 2023 in the Telford International Centre in Telford, England. Denino's partner was Anthony Vargas and their team name was 'D-Generation Ice'. Their opponents were Luis Alcaraz Pineda and BDave named as 'Los Pineda Coladas'.[58] They lost after Pineda and BDave both hit a flurry of shots onto Denino causing the referee to stop the bout, leading Denino and Vargas to lose via TKO.[59]

Boxing record

[edit]

Professional

[edit]
1 fight 0 wins 1 loss
By knockout 0 1
No. Result Record Opponent Type Round, time Date Location Notes
1 Loss 0–1 Brandon Buckingham KO 1 (4), 2:13 Nov 19, 2022 Moody Center, Austin, Texas, U.S. MF–Professional bout

Tag team

[edit]
1 fight 0 wins 1 loss
By knockout 0 1
No. Result Record Team Opponents Type Round, time Date Location Notes
1 Loss 0–1 D-Generation Ice
(with Anthony Vargas) 		Los Pineda Coladas
(Luis Alcaraz Pineda & BDave) 		TKO 2 (4), 0:50 Mar 4, 2023 Telford International Centre, Telford, England

Awards and nominations

[edit]
Year Award Show Category Result Ref
2016 Golden Gnome Awards Best OSRS streamer Nominated [60]
2017 Esports Industry Awards Streamer of the year Nominated [61]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "BoxRec". boxrec.com. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  2. ^ "TwitchTracker". twitchtracker.com. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  3. ^ "Kick Channel". Kick.com. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  4. ^ a b "About Ice Poseidon". YouTube.
  5. ^ Denino, Paul [@REALIcePoseidon] (2019-09-29). "Just landed in prague. We'll have a birthday stream today when i drop off stuff at hotel. Im 25 now so im starting to get up there i better start to settle down and pull out my non existent 401k lol. And what i want for my bday? To go to mars homie" (Tweet). Retrieved 2020-02-09 – via Twitter.
  6. ^ a b van der Velde, Issy (1 February 2022). "Ice Poseidon Steals $500,000 From Fans In Crypto Scam". TheGamer. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  7. ^ a b c d e "On Air With LA's Most Wanted Man, 'Life Streamer' Ice Poseidon". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2018-07-01. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  8. ^ a b c "For Twitch Streamer Who Got Swatted On A Plane, Notoriety Is A Double-Edged Sword". Kotaku. Retrieved 2018-01-31.
  9. ^ Denino, Paul [@REALIcePoseidon] (2020-01-21). "SCUFFED BROTHER LIVE FIRST MIXER EVENT for 5 days straight" (Tweet). Retrieved 2020-05-01 – via Twitter.
  10. ^ "Microsoft to shut down streaming service Mixer, will shift to Facebook Gaming". USA Today. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  11. ^ "iceposeidon - Channel Streams on Kick". Streams Charts. Retrieved May 28, 2024.
  12. ^ Iyer, Ravi (5 July 2023). "Ice Poseidon's Thailand restaurant video becomes his tenth most popular on Kick". Streams Charts. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  13. ^ Alford, Aaron (31 January 2022). "Ice Poseidon admits to scamming $500k from fans in pump and dump crypto scheme". invenglobal. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  14. ^ Denino, Paul [@REALIcePoseidon] (2023-06-29). "A public message from Paul Denino" (Tweet). Retrieved 2023-07-08 – via Twitter.
  15. ^ Shrivastava, Aarnesh (2023-08-18). ""F**k the haters wanting injustice" - Ice Poseidon reveals he's out of jail and has left Thailand, claims he got "very lucky" with a nice judge". Sportskeeda.
  16. ^ Kaser, Rachel (2017-05-01). "Twitch bans streamer targeted by malicious airport prank". The Next Web. Retrieved 2017-05-04.
  17. ^ a b c d Chen, Adrian (2018-07-09). "Ice Poseidon's Lucrative, Stressful Life as a Live Streamer". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2018-07-02.
  18. ^ Hernandez, Ivan (2018-03-11). "Live Streaming — The New Online Streaming Niche Still Has Its Fair Share of Problems". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2018-08-25.
  19. ^ "Announcing: IRL, Mobile Broadcasting, and Updated Community Guidelines". blog.twitch.tv. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  20. ^ Erickson, Jon (2017-04-28). "Internet personality says he was target of prank threat at Sky Harbor". KNXV. Retrieved 2017-05-04.
  21. ^ "Twitch Banned the Streamer Who Got Swatted Off a Plane". Motherboard - Vice. May 2017. Retrieved 2017-05-04.
  22. ^ "Police Draw Guns On YouTube Star During Possible Internet Prank". CBSLA. 2017-06-02. Retrieved 2018-01-31.
  23. ^ "Ice Poseidon Banned From Twitch: What Happened?". International Business Times. Newsweek Media Group. 2017-04-30. Retrieved 2018-05-16.
  24. ^ Asarch, Steven (2017-10-28). "IRL Streaming: Spontaneous Entertainment For An Audience That's Always Live". Newsweek. Retrieved 2018-05-16.
  25. ^ "Twitch's contentious IRL section sparked the platform's biggest debate in 2017". Polygon. 2018-01-03. Retrieved 2018-05-16.
  26. ^ Asarch, Steven (2018-01-03). "Ice Poseidon Stream Numbers Drop As Community Flees". Player One. Newsweek Media Group. Retrieved 2018-05-16.
  27. ^ Sommer, Will (2018-09-28). "Reddit 'Quarantines' White Nationalist Subreddits". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  28. ^ Naquin, Ryan (2017-04-25). "Livestream ends violently inside N.O. restaurant, owner blames trolls". FOX 8. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  29. ^ Sahli, Michael (2018-10-17). "Influencer fliegt aus zwei Zürcher Hotels". Blick (in German). Retrieved 2019-11-26.
  30. ^ Denino, Paul [@REALIcePoseidon] (2018-10-17). "I made the most read newspaper in Switzerland. I have no idea what it says, but probably something along the lines of being an international criminal genius after I fled the country because it's illegal to stream there lol" (Tweet). Retrieved 2019-11-26 – via Twitter.
  31. ^ Alexander, Julia (2018-03-09). "Major Twitch subreddit debates whether swatting posts should be allowed". Polygon. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  32. ^ Asarch, Steven (2021-05-03). "One of YouTube's top Minecraft streamers apologized for past support of a creator known for his 'toxic' history". Insider. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  33. ^ a b "ice_poseidon". Mixer.com. Retrieved 2019-08-12.
  34. ^ Denino, Paul [@REALIcePoseidon] (2019-08-03). "the streamers on this site have been extremely nice and welcoming and thats really nice to see, instead of drama nonsense. its made me feel so happy to not be shunned" (Tweet). Retrieved 2019-08-12 – via Twitter.
  35. ^ Danino, Paul [@REALIcePoseidon] (2019-08-01). "Might give @WatchMixer a try for chill or gaming streams and keep irl on youtube. I'm down to see where it goes with that because youtube has only downgraded their streaming discoverability over the years which sucks for the streamers unless u play fortnite exclusively. Opinions?" (Tweet). Retrieved 2019-08-12 – via Twitter.
  36. ^ "Kick API". Kick (service). Retrieved May 28, 2024.
  37. ^ Sung, Morgan (2023-06-27). "Kick lures disenchanted Twitch streamers, for now". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  38. ^ Dexerto
  39. ^ Sportskeeda
  40. ^ Thaiger
  41. ^ Dexerto
  42. ^ Dexerto
  43. ^ a b Sung, Morgan (2023-09-30). "Kick streamers consider leaving over CEO's comments in a sex worker 'prank' stream". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  44. ^ a b c d "Police say they arrested and un-arrested livestreamers who broadcast a sex worker they hired". NBCNews. 6 October 2023. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  45. ^ "Rich Lister accused of encouraging 'incredibly inappropriate' behaviour". Australian Financial Review. 2023-10-12. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  46. ^ NRG [@nrggg] (2016-09-08). "Ice Ice Baby too cold! @REALIcePoseidon joins the NRG family!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  47. ^ Denino, Paul [@RealIcePoseidon] (2019-06-08). "Just a reminder, after moving out of la I have no affiliation with MOST of the people I've streamed with in la anymore and I'm also NOT affiliated with SSJ anymore, nor do I have a manager. I dont condone anything that my old affiliates may or may not do" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  48. ^ Grandi, Annalisa (2018-07-11). "Ice Poseidon, vita da live streamer: così guadagno 60 mila dollari al mese". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved 2018-07-22.
  49. ^ "CxCoin". cxcoin.net.
  50. ^ Winslow, Jeremy (February 2022). "Notorious YouTube Streamer Stole $500,000 From Fans In Crypto Scheme (And Won't Give It Back)". Kotaku. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  51. ^ "Ice Poseidon admits to scamming $500k from fans in pump and dump crypto scheme". InvenGlobal. January 31, 2022.
  52. ^ Velde, Issy van der (2022-02-01). "Ice Poseidon Steals $500,000 From Fans In Crypto Scam". TheGamer. Retrieved 2024-01-20.
  53. ^ Denino, Paul [@REALIcePoseidon] (2022-02-02). "My one and only response on the subject". TwitLonger. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  54. ^ "CxCoin". Archived from the original on 18 June 2022.
  55. ^ "Cxcoin.net". Archived from the original on 30 August 2022.
  56. ^ Netherton, Alexander (2022-11-15). "Brandon Buckingham vs. Ice Poseidon: Date, start time, TV channel and live stream". DAZN. Retrieved 2023-02-10.
  57. ^ Lelinwalla, Mark (2022-11-20). "Deen The Great shocks Walid Sharks in third-round TKO after being dropped twice at MF & DAZN: X Series 003". DAZN. Retrieved 2023-02-10.
  58. ^ Schuller, Rudi (2023-02-27). "BDave & Luis Pineda vs. Ice Poseidon & Anthony Vargas: Boxing tag team match date, start time, TV channel and live stream". DAZN.
  59. ^ Batungbacal, Karl (2023-03-05). "WATCH: Tag Team Boxing Makes Successful Debut In England". International Business Times. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  60. ^ "Golden Gnome Poll". RuneScape. 2016-08-30. Retrieved 2018-05-09.
  61. ^ "eSports Awards through the years". Esports Awards. 2021-04-23. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
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