Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has found himself embroiled in a hilariously petty spat with gaming streamer Zack Hoyt, better known as “Asmongold,” over allegations of cheating in Path of Exile 2. Because clearly, running multiple billion-dollar companies isn’t enough to keep Musk entertained.
The gaming community, especially fans of Path of Exile, are convinced that Musk is paying people to play the game for him—leveling up his characters and decking them out with top-tier gear in a process known as “boosting.” Musk’s recent livestream of the game has only added fuel to the fire, as eagle-eyed Redditors wasted no time compiling evidence that suggests his gameplay skills might not quite match up to his character’s elite status.
The pièce de résistance? One Redditor summed up Musk’s supposed inexperience with brutal precision: “He doesn’t seem to understand why he can’t pick up items when his inventory is full.” Ouch.
For context, Path of Exile 2 is notoriously difficult and requires a serious time commitment to achieve Musk’s reported in-game feats—like reaching level 97 on hardcore mode. Let’s face it, a guy running Tesla, SpaceX, and X probably isn’t grinding loot drops between board meetings.
The Musk-Asmongold Showdown
Enter Asmongold, gaming streamer extraordinaire, who watched Musk’s livestream and called him out for, well, not knowing how to play. Never one to mince words, Asmon laid down the gauntlet, challenging Musk to prove he’d reached level 97 on his own. If Musk could do it, Asmon vowed to stream exclusively on X (formerly Twitter) for an entire year.
Naturally, Musk didn’t appreciate the shade. After Asmon’s challenge went viral, Musk unfollowed him on X—a move as dramatic as it was petty. In response, Asmon posted a video titled “Elon Musk has lost it” and took aim at the billionaire’s apparent defensiveness.
“Elon unfollowed me? He’s probably mad about the Path of Exile video. Come on, man, it was so obvious you didn’t play that account!” Asmon laughed. “You can’t get mad at me for saying what everyone else is thinking.”
Musk’s Counterstrike
Never one to back down, Musk fired back on X, accusing Asmon of being a faux independent thinker:
“Asmon behaves like a maverick ‘independent,’ but in reality has to ask his boss for permission before he can do anything. He is not his own man.”
If you’re wondering what Musk meant by “his boss,” don’t worry—you’re not alone. The drama escalated when Musk leaked private DMs between himself and Asmon, in which the streamer mentioned his YouTube editors.
Apparently, Musk misunderstood the concept of a YouTube editor and assumed they were some sort of shadowy overlord censoring Asmon’s content. In reality, like many streamers, Asmon employs editors to cut down his Twitch streams into bite-sized videos for YouTube, sharing the revenue with them. Hardly a grand conspiracy, but Musk’s misinterpretation adds an extra layer of absurdity to this already ridiculous feud.
So here we are: a tech mogul, a gaming streamer, and a fantasy RPG walk into a Twitter feud. The punchline? They’re all still talking about it, and so are we. Pass the popcorn.
