Before Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel became the world’s biggest streamer, he genuinely believed his career might be over before it ever began.

Back in 2018, xQc was a rising Twitch creator and Overwatch talent who joined the Dallas Fuel for the Overwatch League’s inaugural season. At the time, OWL was the peak of competitive Overwatch, and breaking into the League was seen as the ultimate goal.

That opportunity didn’t last long.

Just weeks into a turbulent first season for the league, Lengyel was suspended twice. After the second suspension, he was released by the Dallas Fuel, a decision he says came amid pressure from the League itself. While the moment would eventually fuel his rise, it initially left him convinced he had just torpedoed his future.

xQc says OWL ban was “dangerous” but “exciting” for his career

In an exclusive interview with Dexerto, xQc explained that Overwatch was everything to him at the time. Being kicked out of the League’s brand-new ecosystem felt like losing his credibility overnight.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do,” he told Dexerto. “I genuinely thought I was done for. I thought that was going to be the end of my career pretty much.”

Blizzard

xQc raised the T-Mobile MVP award at the 2017 OW World Cup

Despite that fear, Lengyel said he never begged to stay. He spoke with higher-ups and came away with the clear sense that the league wanted him gone.

“I was almost excited,” he recalled. “It’s a very weird self-destructive feeling that I sometimes will enjoy. I’m forced into a spot that’s very dangerous, but it’s exhilarating.”

He likened the situation to standing at the edge of a cliff. There was nowhere else to go, but if he jumped far enough, he might land somewhere new.

That leap came on his very next stream.

Leaving Overwatch League let xQc experiment and grow

xQc described the broadcast as one of the best of his career, pulling massive viewership as fans tuned in to see what he would do next. The controversy became a turning point, even though he knew the spike wouldn’t last.

“I knew that things would fall off from that height because it’s a big ban moment, right? Everybody wants to see what he’s going to do next. I knew that I was at a crossroad where that big stream that I just did is going to be who I am now.”

Rather than chase numbers, Lengyel focused on grinding and rebuilding. Streaming alongside M0xyy played a key role, giving him confidence to experiment even when the results were uncertain.

“When I was with M0xyy, it didn’t matter if we failed. It didn’t matter if we were doing good because we’re together, right? And it sounds a little bit corny, but we had such confidence in our cohesion that we could play a game that nobody wanted to watch, and people would want to watch.”

That period forced him to prove he could succeed outside of Overwatch, even if the content wasn’t always polished.

Instagram: xqcow1

xQc is one of the net’s top streamers who famously took a $100M deal to broadcast on Kick in 2023.

“We needed to show we can do something else. And that something else was sometimes complete garbage. But it mattered to some people. And if you do that thing that is good for some people every day, it’ll be good for a lot of people to the point where at one point variety is something that a lot of people care about.”

Eventually, xQc stopped worrying about viewership altogether.

“I cared about what me and him were doing. And that seeing that vision through was very rewarding because me and him ended up doing great things.”

What once felt like a career-ending ban ultimately became the catalyst for xQc’s transformation from an Overwatch League prospect into one of the biggest streamers on the planet.