The funeral of professional Call of Duty player Phillip Klemenov, known to his fans as PhiZZURP, was streamed on Twitch yesterday to thousands of fans.
Around 9,000 people tuned into Klemenov's Twitch channel to watch the service. The pro-gamer, who was at the time of his death a member of H2K's Call of Duty squad, had accrued a dedicated following who attended the service digitally in order to pay their respects.
Klemenov was involved in a fatal road accident in Aurora, Colorado, which sadly cut short his bright career.
Teammates and fans have been remembering the talented player on Twitter and Twitch.
Livestreaming a funeral may seem odd, but Twitch, YouTube and the culture of sharing video is deeply embedded in competitive gaming.
Thankfully, most of the usual nastiness within the Twitch comments section was absent during the service. Most viewers were clearly in the stream for the right reason and behaved accordingly.
What to Read Next
This isn't the first time online gaming communities have come together to memorialise a fellow player. World of WarCraft has famously seen entirely virtual funerals take place within the game's servers.
via Kotaku
