After one of its most famous former members started streaming on the platofrm, esports and content organization OTK has just announced a new partnership with Kick. The deal will see Kick and OTK team up to create a series of livestreamed events as part of Kick’s new production intiative, Kick Studios.
The first event of the deal is scheduled for Friday, June 13. OTK will host a livestream celebrating its Kick collab live from Austin, Texas where the organization is headquartered. The stream will broadcast exclusively on Kick. According to a release, multiple popular streamers will appear on stream throughout the event, including Asmongold, who recently began his own livestream on Kick, although his is not an exclusive relationship. OTK-affiliated streamers confirmed for the event include ExtraEmily, Cyr, Sodapoppin, and Esfand.
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Asmongold was one of the founding members of OTK, but exited the organization last year after he came under fire for controversial statements about the conflict in Gaza. Just last week, the organization also saw the departure of popular host and content creator Will Neff.
Details regarding future events are limited in the announcement, but the release did state that streams will “roll out over the next year” and include a suped-up version of OTK’s Game Day tournament.
While Kick has signed deals with a number of streamers over the last 18 months or so, exclusive deals are rare. In fact, the era of platforms paying large sums to popular streamers for exclusive rights is largely at an end. This makes the event-focused collab for OTK a unique relationship in the streaming space.
“In livestreaming, authenticity is king,” said OTK CEO Tips Out in a release. “When KICK explained the vision behind their new studio project, we knew this opportunity was precisely what we had been looking for; an audience-first partner willing to just let OTK be OTK, hair down and all. We’re excited to elevate our streamers in an unprecedented way and deliver on OTK’s founding vision: to create the greatest livestreamed content in the world.”
Reactions to the announcement thus far have been somewhat mixed with fans of Asmongold and the old guard of OTK excited at a potential reunion while others are concerned about the decision. Many of Kick’s most popular streamers used to stream on Twitch before receiving bans on the platform for controversial statements or actions. Perhaps the most prominent example is Adin Ross, and Asmongold himself received a two-week ban for the statements that ousted him from OTK last year.
Some fans have already begun to theorize that the Kick deal could by a reason why Will Neff departed the organization.
OTK has not yet released its own announcement at time of writing, nor have any of the creators involved spoken about the potential backlash to the deal from portions of their fanbase. EsportsOnSI will update this article as more information becomes available.
Fans can tune in to the first exclusive event on June 13 at 8pm ET on kick.com/otk
