iShowSpeed has been one of the best representatives of the World Cup. However, the viral social media sensation is at the center of controversy after he and his team removed a group of journalists and volunteers from an elevator.
It was a bad look.
I do not know why iShowSpeed need an elevator to himself in the first place. Nor do I know why he couldn’t wait for the next one.
Who is iShowSpeed?
If you are reading this article, I would imagine that you have at least some understanding of Darren Jason Watkins Jr., who known best as iShowSpeed— or just Speed. He is one of the biggest stars on the entire planet right now.
iShowSpeed has more than 120 million total followers across his main social media platforms. That includes ~50 million followers on Instagram and ~55 million subscribers on his YouTube channel. The 21-year-old focuses a lot of his content around soccer and his Ronaldo fandom, as well as competitive footraces, warrior-style challenges and world travel.
His latest thing has been live streams at the World Cup. Speed has traveled all over the United States to attend matches between the United States and Paraguay, Brazil and Morocco, France and Senegal, Portugal and DR Congo, Mexico and South Korea, Netherlands and Sweden, Argentina and Austria, Portugal and Uzbekistan, France and Norway, and — most recently — Portugal and Colombia. He will continue to attend matches during the knockout rounds. His streams draw millions of viewers.
Just to give an understanding of how big he really is, more than six million people watched iShowSpeed watch a soccer match on Saturday. It was not even his most-viewed stream of the tournament.
All of this goes to say that, even if you don’t know who he is, iShowSpeed is one of the biggest celebrities on planet earth today. He gets mobbed everywhere he goes. He has to travel with a large team of security.
The viral streamer needed his own elevator for safety reasons.
iShowSpeed sat in a private suite at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami for the World Cup match between Colombia and Portugal on Saturday. He pulled up to the stadium with no less than three body guards. Stadium security kept a close watch on his perimeter upon arrival. It was quite the scene.
Unfortunately, his team went too far.
Zach Lowy is the chief editor of breakingthelines.com, an opinion-based soccer website. He also holds (or held) bylines on ESPN, The Guardian and The Times, among others.
Lowy and a group of other journalists and volunteers were in the elevator at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday. They were asked to get out of the elevator for what he claims was “an emergency.”
However, the “emergency” was just iShowSpeed, who apparently needed an entire elevator for himself.
To be fair — I don’t think iShowSpeed made this call on his own and I am not entirely sure that he was aware of what happened. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a bad look. His security team put him in an awkward situation that reflects poorly on the man they are hired to protect by removing a group of reporters and volunteers from the elevator. Is that really necessary?
For additional context, there is only one “media elevator” at Hard Rock Stadium and it was a long line. In fact, our own Jorge Alonso got caught waiting with him at a different point in the evening.
Jorge even suggested that Speed take the stairs with him and he did. The incident with Lowy was a one-off occurrence.