Life of video game players isn't easy and it becomes worse especially if you make a name for yourself as a gamer. James Varga can vouch for that as his life recently turned into a nightmare, thanks to hackers who were out to get him.
Varga, who has the handle Phantoml0rd, said he was the target of hackers on various sites and online video games earlier this week, probably because he has been the top gamer.
The hacker (or might be a group of hackers) called DERP, performed DDoS attacks on games and services like Dota 2, League of Legends, Club Penguin and battle.net as Varga began streaming them on Twitch.
Varga, who has been watched by 47.4 million people while playing video games was allegedly followed by the hackers as he attempted to play those games.
Riot Games, creator of the world famous game "League of Legends" later confirmed the attack. "We're one of the organizations targeted in today's DDoS attacks. Sorry if you weren't able to get in game today. We're investigating," read the tweet.
We're one of the organizations targeted in today's DDOS attacks. Sorry if you weren't able to get in game today. We're investigating.
— Riot Games (@riotgames) December 31, 2013
Varga also claimed the attackers made prank calls to police saying that he held five hostages in his home. In response, police stormed Varga's home, briefly detained him and searched his home. Later, he was released without any charges.
Varga is one of those individuals who makes a living entirely from streaming his gameplay on Twitch. After he started his stream again, he apologized for any of his actions that may have caused inconvenience to users as well as related companies.
"If that was a mistake, I accept it," he said. "I apologize to the people who were affected by this, to the companies that their infrastructures were messed up, that had issues; it was not my goal for this to happen. It was not what I ever thought would happen. I knew it would have kept going, maybe, but not to the extent of what it was. I really did not know that it would be this intense."
The entire episode is similar to the one when a World of Warcraft live streamer was also arrested after someone pulled a prank by called the police with the motive to interrupt his stream.
