Somebody Stole the Streamer Awards Trophies. Here's Who Deserves Them Anyway.

Somebody really stole the Streamer Awards trophies. Off a porch. QTCinderella posted it on X on October 29, the trophies got delivered to one of the producers and then they just disappeared, and she asked people in LA to keep an eye out at pawn shops and secondhand stores. The one bit of good news is the winners' nameplates don't go on until the night before the show so nobody's name is out there floating around.

The show is still happening. It's Thursday, November 12 at 3 PM PT, 6 PM ET. Voting closed October 31, fans vote and the Streamer Awards panel counts for 30% of it, and this is the first year Kick streamers could even be nominated.

I want to say why I care about this show plainly. This is the closest thing streaming culture has to its own Grammys, and a lot of the people at the top of these categories are Black creators who are basically running the internet right now. Speed, Kai, CaseOh. That's not a side note, that's the story of streaming in 2026.

So the trophies might be gone but the categories aren't. These are my picks in the categories I actually care about. Not a ranking, just who I'd hand it to and why.

My Streamer Awards 2026 picks

Streamer of the Year

Nominees: CaseOh, IShowSpeed, Joe Bartolozzi, Jynxzi, Stable Ronaldo

Speed performed at the World Cup final. Like the actual final.

He ran a five week World Cup tour this summer with FIFA behind it, and on July 19 he opened the closing ceremony at MetLife with "World Cup (Champions)" before Spain beat Argentina in extra time. Win.gg reported his final stream peaked over 1 million concurrent viewers. Joe Bartolozzi said on stream that Speed is too big for this category now, that he's a celebrity and not a streamer, and I get it. But that's the argument for him. He did all of that live, with chat, holding the camera. That's the job.

My pick: IShowSpeed. That would be three straight after 2024 and 2025.

Gamer of the Year

Nominees: Feinberg, iiTzTimmy, Jynxzi, supertf, TheBurntPeanut

Even the people nominated against him are voting for him.

Jynxzi has four nominations this year, tied with Speed and Kai for the most, and the Chained Together run with Stable Ronaldo and LosPollosTV is up for both Best Marathon Stream and Best Streamer Collab. When Bartolozzi gave his own Streamer of the Year pick he said Jynxzi, because Jynxzi is the one grinding. Gamer of the Year should go to whoever made the most people want to watch somebody play a game, and right now that's him.

My pick: Jynxzi.

Best Breakout Streamer

Nominees: Arky, Joe Bartolozzi, Katie B, Marlon, Yonna Jay

He broke out so hard he ended up on the Streamer of the Year list.

Bartolozzi is up for Streamer of the Year, President of Chat, and Best Breakout. Being nominated next to Speed and CaseOh in the same year you're up for breakout is crazy. And he's out here talking about the awards honestly on stream, telling you who he thinks should win even when it's not him, which is about the most streamer thing you can do. Marlon is right there too and he already won Rising Star last year, but this is Joe's year.

My pick: Joe Bartolozzi.

Best Streamed Event

Nominees: 24 Hour Tag (PaymoneyWubby), Streamer Games (Ludwig), Streamer University (Kai Cenat), ZEvent (Zerator)

Kai took nine months off and came back with a college.

His return stream in July went over 1 million viewers combined on Twitch and YouTube, his first time ever streaming on both. Then Streamer University ran at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas and Streams Charts had it peaking at 731,000 viewers. Ludwig's Streamer Games was a great time too. But the whole point of Streamer University is putting small streamers on, and it worked. Suburb Baby went from a few hundred viewers to a 200K peak during the week. I already said Kai was Streamer of the Year back in 2024, and this is the kind of thing that keeps him in the conversation even in a year he barely streamed.

My pick: Streamer University.

Best Mainstream Collab

Nominees: BenDadon & Drake, Cinna & Girlset, Kai Cenat & Tyla, N3on & Iggy Azalea, WardrobeWinter & Lizzo

Two years after "we're friends though," they went to Disney World.

On July 27 Kai and Tyla reunited on stream for the first time since the 2024 clip everybody still quotes, while she was out promoting A*POP, and it was her first time ever at Disney World. The funny part was the jokes. The part I respect is when somebody in the crowd started catcalling Tyla and Kai stopped and checked him. If you're bringing a Black woman into your space on stream you're responsible for making sure she's safe there, and he did that in front of everybody.

My pick: Kai Cenat & Tyla.

Best Content Group

Nominees: AMP, Clooless, CORE, F.S.L.R., QSMP

Six ex FaZe guys started over and got swatted on day one.

Marlon, Adapt, Lacy, Stable Ronaldo, Silky, and JasonTheWeen launched CORE this spring out of a reported $20 million LA house. Their first full day streaming, May 2, they got swatted live. Their YouTube channel got terminated by mistake. And they still did over 13 million hours watched from May 2 to 6 according to Streams Charts, then won Best Group at Streamer University. CORE stands for Create Own Run Everything. I respect AMP, AMP is the blueprint. But the name of this category is content group and CORE turned leaving an org into the content.

My pick: CORE.

The bottom line

If I'm right Speed goes three for three, Kai goes home with something in a year he spent mostly offline, and the ex FaZe boys get their first trophy as their own thing. If I'm wrong, I'll own it on November 13.

Whoever wins, I hope the trophies show up. And if you're watching this show thinking you want in on it someday, start with the setup. I put together the streamer essentials I'd actually buy.

The show is Thursday at 6 PM ET. Come tell me who I got wrong in the CXM Discord, I'll be in there during the whole thing.