Kyedae Responds to Backlash After Winning Best Valorant Streamer at The Streamer Awards

Blaire aka QTCinderella’s The Streamer Awards celebrated the best in the streaming industry and awarded many talented streamers and content creators. The event had multiple high-profile sponsors including Discord and AT&T and was supported by Twitch. Notably, Valorant content creator Kyedae "Kyedae" Shymko received the ‘Best Valorant Streamer’ award by beating other big names like Jodi “QuarterJade” Lee, Tarık “tarik” Çelik and Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan. While many stated that Kyedae deserved the award, others opined otherwise, noting that tarik deserved to win. 

Following this, Kyedae opened up about winning the Best Valorant Streamer award and acknowledged that “Tarik is much deserving of this award than anyone.” But she reminded people that it was fan-voted.

Kyedae’s acceptance speech and her tweet on winning the award

After the winner of the Best Valorant Streamer category was announced, Kyedae was visibly shocked and as she made her acceptance speech she also joked about her diagnosis. She said, “I didn't have a speech prepared today because I was expecting someone else to win. But I did talk to QT(Cinderella) on the sideline and this was my Make-A-Wish. So, thank you very much, everyone! I appreciate it. Thank you!”

Following this, Kyedae also commented on the post announcing her as the winner. She replied, “The moment I won I felt more dread than anything because I knew the hate I’d get. Woohoo. Tarik is much deserving of this award than anyone but it was fan-voted. Not my fault. And I’m so sorry for whoever this upset.”

Kyedae acknowledged the criticism because many fans believe Tarik should have won. On a post of internet personality Jake Lucky, comments read: “tarik hella robbed,” “Kyedae is great but why not tarik?” and “I know it sounds harsh, but tarik should win it. however tho, she was actually strong to make such jokes.”

Many fans, content creators, and streamers including tarik himself rallied in support of Kyedae after her comment.

Tarik commented, “Kyedae I’m seriously sorry that you gotta even deal with that bs. You actually grind hard af and 100% deserve the recognition. Y’all need to chill out fr.”

Meanwhile, QTCinderella pointed out that the award was 70% based on popular (fan) vote and added that she was genuinely considering removing the Valorant category next year based on the community’s reaction to Kyeadae winning. According to the final numbers, based on popular votes, Kyedae was leading the charge with Jodi, tarik, and ShahZaM following her in that order.

QTCinderella added, “It’s sad to see results from my award show being used to hate on creators who are meant to be celebrated. Please grow up and do better.”

Notably, the award show stated clearly that the winners will be decided based on a combination of fan votes (70%) and the panelists’ votes (30%) “to give a voice to fans but still maintain integrity.”