Popular Twitch streamer shroud is doubling down on The Game Awards being “rigged” after Arc Raiders failed to earn a GOTY nominee despite his best efforts to campaign for it.
Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek, one of Twitch’s biggest FPS streamers, pushed hard for Arc Raiders to win Game of the Year in November, urging his fans to vote for Embark Studios’ title.
The Polish-Canadian’s demand was met with both agreement and disdain as fellow streamer Asmongold put Grzesiek on blast, stating that Arc Raiders doesn’t hold a candle to the “generational” Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Shroud, who has a history of making claims about The Game Awards being rigged after Black Myth: Wukong didn’t win in 2024, was right back at it, labeling the 2025 installment a facade as well.
Shroud reacts to Arc Raiders not getting nominated for GOTY
Shroud was live on stream when the nominees were announced, and he was visibly annoyed at some of the games being nominated for GOTY.
“Bias. Bias paid off Nintendo,” shroud proclaimed after seeing Death Stranding 2 and Donkey Kong Bananza get nominated, poking fun at Geoff Keighley’s relationship with Hideo Kojima and Nintendo’s big pockets.
When Arc Raiders didn’t appear, the 31-year-old face-palmed and argued that the world wasn’t ready for AI in video games.
“They’re just not ready, but at least they nominated it for something,” he said, referring to the Best Multiplayer Game category. “I genuinely thought they weren’t going to nominate it for anything, because they were afraid to get backlash.”
However, shroud still made his disappointment known, adding that it was “yet another rigged year.”
“We know Expedition is going to win. It’s going to win like 12 categories. We know it’s going to win.”
Amazingly, probably the last game you’d expect managed to earn shroud’s vote.
“Imagine Donkey Kong. Dude, if Donkey Kong wins, this award show is chalked. If Donkey Kong wins, zero credibility. Nobody’s playing Donkey Kong Bananza. Nobody. I’m going to vote Donkey Kong, where do I vote?”
The Game Awards will be streamed live on December 11, 2025 and shroud has promised to play whichever game manages to win GOTY, even though he considers the awards a giant sham.
