Twitch streamer dies after 22 hours of gaming

Twitch streamer and World of Tanks player Brian “PoShYbRiD” Vigneault was found dead Sunday evening. He passed away during a 24-hour charity event, which he was hosting and producing alone from his home in Virginia Beach, Virginia. His profile says he was 34.

Vigneault stepped away from the livestream at 4:30 pm ET, writes PVPLive. Virginia Beach Police told Polygon they were called to Vigneault’s residence a little over an hour later to assist an “unresponsive individual.” He was pronounced dead at the scene, reports Polygon.

Vigneault had regularly hosted charity streams on his channel, raising as much as $10,000 for various organizations, according to his Twitch profile page. His community learned of his passing in a Discord chat room. After an absence, his activity light went on. Instead of Vigneault, however, one Redditor says it was a police investigator using his account.

His death is being investigated by the Virginia Beach homicide unit. Police tell Polygon this is standard procedure for any suspicious deaths in that community. “There is no reason at this time to suspect foul play,” the spokesperson said.

Twitch began life as a precursor company called Justin.tv, which streamed many types of user created content before consolidating. The company eventually shifted exclusively to gaming content before it was acquired by Amazon in 2014 for nearly $1 billion. In December 2016, the streaming service unveiled its IRL category, which is intended to “share content captured from [creators’] everyday lives.” That change has greatly increased the type of content creators can share on the platform.

Wargaming.net, publisher of World of Tanks, shared the following statement: “Wargaming is saddened to hear of the loss of streamer and tanker Brian Vigneault, aka ‘PoShYbRiD,’ a devoted player of World of Tanks and contributor to the Make-A-Wish foundation. We offer our most sincere condolences to his family and friends during this difficult time.”