A hot potato: Dr Disrespect is - or was - one of the biggest streamers around. Three months ago he signed an exclusivity deal with Twitch for a "life-changing" fortune. But now, his account has been wiped squeaky clean and his thirty thousand subscribers have been refunded.

It seems clear enough that he's been banned, but bizarrely, Twitch won't confirm this so we'll optimistically call it a suspension for now. Twitch's official statement is: "As is our process, we take appropriate action when we have evidence that a streamer has acted in violation of our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. These apply to all streamers regardless of status or prominence in the community."

It's difficult to ignore the timing of his suspension. In the days previous, allegations against a shocking number of streamers came to light and Twitch announced it would start permanently banning streamers for sexual harassment and assault.

Until just recently, Dr Disrespect stayed pretty quiet himself. During the last few minutes of his (final?) stream, he appeared to receive a message and go quiet, before angrily mumbling the following: "I appreciate everyone watching today... we'll, we'll get through this Champions Club, uh, it's yeah... uh, I know it's a - life's weird right now... we'll... we'll get through this, okay? And, uh... F*%#!"

Admittedly, that's not an optimist's farewell.

Dr Disrespects wife, Mrs Assassin, posted a message on her Instagram story shortly after. "The outpouring of love, support, strength and kindness from the arena has been truly overwhelming," she said. "You all have made my heart full and I can not thank you enough. No one better out there than the CC. You guys are amazing! Much love to you all."

Tim The Tat Man, one of Dr Disrespect's friends, said in a tweet that "Twitch's ban system is kinda all over the place so we will wait and see what happens with Doc... need to wait for an official statement." As one didn't come, he went on stream to say that Dr Disrespect himself didn't seem to know exactly what was going on, and was talking to Twitch to "figure out what happened."

It seems that Dr Disrespect didn't get any answers quickly because he tweeted the above a while later. Note that "specific reason" doesn't preclude him from knowing the approximate reason for his ban - it's more likely than not an issue with his behavior.

Image credit: Martin Garcia and Getty Images