Twitch bans 15 streamers

In late April 2026, Twitch was rocked by a wave of mass bans of Russian-speaking streamers. The reason, it seemed, was an ordinary broadcast of an esports tournament for Counter-Strike 2 - the Alabuga Polytech Cup. The organizer was the Alabuga Polytech educational center, located in the Alabuga special economic zone in Tatarstan.

The problem was that the Alabuga SEZ is under sanctions from the European Union, the USA, and Great Britain. The reason is the production of strike drones on its territory, including Shahed-136 drones (the Russian version is "Geran-2"), which are regularly used for attacks on Ukraine. Students of the Alabuga Polytech college, according to journalistic investigations, are involved in the assembly of these drones, and those who refuse to work face fines and expulsion.

The tournament was actively advertised and broadcast on Twitch. The platform, which is obliged to comply with US laws (where its headquarters are located) and EU laws, has no right to provide advertising services to sanctioned organizations. Initially, moderation did not see any violations, but mass user complaints forced the administration to act.

Initiator of the bans: the role of JesusAVGN

The streamer Alexey Gubanov, known as JesusAVGN, played a key role in the unfolding scandal. He actively opposes the war and is recognized in Russia as a "foreign agent."

It was Gubanov who drew public attention to the tournament. He encouraged subscribers to massively complain about broadcasts of "Alabuga Polytech" and streamers who advertised it. According to him, any promotional activity related to a sanctioned project should raise questions for the platform.

Chronology of events: from ban to unban

April 25, 2026 — Twitch began mass blocking channels involved in broadcasting and advertising the tournament. Not only streamers who conducted live broadcasts were blocked, but also those who simply placed a tournament banner in their channel description. In total, about 15-17 channels with a total audience of approximately 5 million subscribers were blocked. Most received restrictions for 30 days.

April 27, 2026 — information about the bans spread through the media. It became known that the official channel of the tournament itself, "Alabuga Polytech Cup," was also blocked.

April 29, 2026 — an unexpected turn of events occurs. Twitch lifts the bans from all involved channels. The restrictions lasted only three days instead of 30. Alabuga advertising banners were removed from the channels. The platform administration did not explain the reasons for this decision.

May 1, 2026 — information about new restrictions appears. Twitch introduced geo-blocking for users from Ukraine and some European Union countries to view content from previously blocked streamers.

Full list of banned streamers

According to several sources (Sport.ua, Cybersport.ru, The Insider, DW), the following channels and streamers were banned:

Main list (about 15-17 people):

r4dom1r
anastaze (Nikita Abramkin)
flamie (Egor Vasilyev)
Alabuga Polytech Cup (official tournament channel)
Dosia_csgo (Mikhail Stolyarov)
lentbb
poka (Kirill Starovoitov)
almazer5 (Almaz Assadulin)
onehend
forzorezor (Artemy Nevedomsky)
bandurka (Dmitry Bandurka)
fandercs (Ilya Bagreev)
yurapivo
fasoollka (Anna Chernyuk / Akyuliych)
pch3lk1n (Alexey Pchelkin)

Important clarifications on individuals:

Egor flamie Vasilyev — former professional player of the Natus Vincere CS:GO roster, played for the Ukrainian organization for more than 6 years (from March 2015 to December 2021).
Anna fasoollka/Akyuliych Chernyuk — streamer from Donetsk, now living in Moscow. In an interview, she stated: "I do not consider myself Ukrainian, because neither my relatives nor the country wanted to accept me. And in Russia, I was well received." She has almost 2 million subscribers.
Alexey pch3lk1n Pchelkin — one of those who simply placed a tournament banner in the channel description but was still blocked.

What is "Alabuga Polytech" and why is it under sanctions

"Alabuga Polytech" is an educational center located in the Alabuga special economic zone in Tatarstan. Formally, it is a college that trains specialists for work at the production enterprises of the SEZ.

However, according to journalistic investigations (including a joint material by "Protocol" and the YouTube channel "RZVRT" from July 2023), students of this college are involved in the assembly of Shahed strike drones. Investigators claimed that students faced fines and expulsion for refusing to do this work.

In December 2023, the European Union imposed sanctions against the Alabuga SEZ. The sanction document states that enterprises involved in the assembly of unmanned aerial vehicles used in the war against Ukraine are located on its territory.

Why Twitch reacted

Twitch is an American platform that must comply with the laws of the United States and the European Union. According to these laws, the service has no right to provide advertising and promotion services to sanctioned organizations.

Initially, Twitch moderation did not see any violations in the tournament broadcast. However, mass user complaints, initiated by JesusAVGN and other activists, forced the administration to reconsider the decision. As a result, the channels were blocked for "direct or indirect promotion of a sanctioned organization."