What Are Stream Snipers and How to Deal With Them

One of the most popular platforms for live streaming is Twitch. There are countless benefits that it can provide for both content creators and viewers as well. However, there are often annoying issues that come with being a streamer, as something called Stream Sniping is a horrible situation to find yourself becoming a victim of.

What Is a Stream Sniper?

what is a stream sniper

The term stream sniper is usually related to gaming content. This is a person that waits to queue against you in games like CS: GO, Dota 2, or League of Legends, and countless more. As your opponent, they can join your live stream of the game and spy on every move you and your team make, thus ruining the entire gaming experience for you and your team.

How to Deal With Stream Snipers?

Many streamers have been struggling with this issue for a while now. The more popular the streamer the more stream snipers they have to face. There are a few methods that can deal with the problem to some extent, but they often feature sacrificing something else in return for a solution.

In any case, these are a few effective methods to fight against Twitch stream snipers:

Using a Pseudonym

One of the best ways to avoid stream snipers is to not let them find you in the first place. Using any random pseudonym you can think of is a great solution for a short period of time and for new snipers. It’s not going to be a permanent solution, as these users tend to catch on pretty quickly, even more so if you’re using a streaming webcam. However, not using the username everyone recognizes you by is still one of the easiest methods to avoid stream snipers.

Using Twitch Covers

For some gamers, using images to cover certain areas of the screen is a solid solution to prevent stream snipers from seeing crucial information about the game. However, this method isn’t useful for all games and is only a partial solution to this problem. Why is that?

This is useful for games like Dota 2 and League of Legends, as you can cover the map and the hero icons in the initial stages of the game. On the other hand, when the game begins you can’t really cover up what you and your team are doing as this would prevent viewers from enjoying your live stream fully.

Using the Twitch Broadcast Delay Feature

If all else fails and you happen to notice a stream sniper as your opponent in a game, then you have one more option that Twitch itself provides for streamers. It’s called the broadcast delay feature, and all this does is delay your stream for several seconds and up to 15 minutes.

Here is how to set this up:

Create Delay in Streamlabs OBS

  1. Click on Settings
  2. Click on “Advanced”
  3. Go to Stream Delay, enable the box, and select the amount of delay time

The process is extremely similar to set up with XSplit as well. Simply go to Settings, find the Stream Delay window, and set the number of seconds you wish to delay the stream for.

About The Author

Stole Trishanski

Ever since Stole was a kid, when he wasn’t playing video games he was probably in some corner disassembling any gadget he could get his hands on. His curiosity and will to learn made him into a huge tech nerd and enthusiast. Finally, after years of practice, learning, and breaking hundreds of gadgets Stole is helping others learn everything about tech.

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