Draft:Zeb89

• Comment: Steam and Youtube videos are not acceptable sources. Also, other Wikipedia articles themselves can't be used either. Urban Versis 32^KB ⚡ ^{(talk / contribs)} 21:32, 18 August 2024 (UTC)

---

Zeb89

Kenneth Caselli (born May 6, 1989)., better known as Zeb89, Zeb89AceGamer is an Italian YouTuber and streamer. He is best known for his YouTube videos wich go from gameplays to commentary. His figure is charachterised by his catchphrases and the straightforward attitude that he shows while giving his opinions on various topics, making him both a loved and a hated figure amongst the italian internet community. He gained so much popularity during the early 2010's that he's considered as one of the pioneers of Italian YouTube.

According to the Serious Sam HD Hall of Fame and himself, Caselli has to his name the title of "Old World Champion" going from 2009 to 2013, even though neither he nor the website specify the competitions he took part in to gain such title. Alongside other members, he was part of a Serious Sam clan called "The Butcherz".

Early and personal life

Born on May 6, 1989, Caselli has never given any official answer to where he was born. While talking about his life in Bibbiena in older videos, he most recently affirmed, during a Twitch livestream, about how he spent his early years in Malta and later moved to Italy. Son of the italian anthropologist Giovanni Caselli and his mother, he lived most of his life in Tuscany. He stated that he didn't complete the five years high school course, and therefore does not have the diploma.

Internet career

2006-2011: First videos

Following the advice of his friends, in 2006 he decided to start a YouTube channel concerning the world of video games, namely Zeb89. After opening the channel on September 30, 2006, he began uploading videos only in 2007. The very first video ever uploaded is Serious Sam - Noob Ownage, later removed from the channel because the background song was copyrighted.

The earliest videos uploaded to the channel are generic, mostly being goliardic videos, also unrelated to the world of video games, and uncommented gameplay. It can be said that the year of the birth of the Zeb that everyone knows is 2008: it is in fact in this year that Zeb uploads his first negative review, concerning Team Fortress 2, commented completely in English.

2012-2016: Grow in popularity

By 2011/2012 Zeb is already very popular, and his video series titled "Giochi di Merda"(Shit Games) becomes very popular on YouTube: in this series he aggressively criticizes many video games, especially titles generally considered good by the masses, which gets Zeb many haters but just as many subscribers. In the rallies he later organizes, there were many fans who showed up to show him their appreciation; during this period he is often joined by the youtuber Mr. Amorth.

His aggressive criticism, originally aimed only at video games, is also reserved by Zeb for somewhat more serious topics, like politics, and the inefficiencies of telephone agencies such as Telecom, resulting in him accumulating more and more fans.

During the 2013/2014 period he uploaded a lot of videos regarding topics such as homosexuality, immigration and taxes. Also in this period he also published several videos against popular characters of the moment, for example Andrea Dipré, Dudubbi (YouTube Fa Cagare) and Favij. He was harshly criticized because of these videos and much controversy was created about them. Nowadays many of these videos have been deleted and Zeb disavowed everything he said in them.

In 2015 he opened his own network, called Ace Gamer Network.

From 2011 to 2016 a youtuber named Leprechaun will make videos against Zeb, complaining about his website and the computers he sold that he thought cost too much for what they could offer. In the years to come he will often make videos against the opinions and actions Zeb will make, part of the community also saw him as a ''nemesis'' of the tuscan YouTuber.

In 2016, his video game "Ultimate Arena FPS", worked on together with developer ScienziatoGM, was released on Steam.

His popularity peaked when he began to make himself the protagonist of very unpopular statements and actions towards his own followers. These episodes include when he expelled the administrators of his TeamSpeak and rumors spread that they were unfairly expelled, when he asked his followers to pay for lodging for himself and his girlfriend on the occasion of his participation in an edition of Lucca Comics, and especially when he included an Adblock uninstaller in the download of a mod of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that he created. Regarding the latter fact, Zeb repeatedly denied his responsibility regarding the presence of the uninstaller, a kind of malware that removed AdBlock and prevented its reinstallation, but, on the contrary, several videos uploaded by various users seemed to nail him down.

2016-2018: Last years on YouTube

His popularity dropped dramatically when he accused some youtubers, such as the Fancazzisti ANOnimi and Favij, of having risen to success thanks to the push of a management agency named Luca Casadei Management. The annoyed stakeholders demanded to have a direct confrontation with Zeb in a public live show to respond to the latter, who eventually did not show up. He was replaced by ScientistGM, his close collaborator, who caused discomfort in the live show.

On September 30, 2016, he rached 10 years on YouTube. However, the video dedicated to his anniversary was uploaded in January, 8 months early.

Since November 2016, he started doing live streams on his channel focused on the video game Dead By Daydlight (broadcast on Sunday evenings and lasting 4 hours), which peaked at 20,000 viewers and received a very large amount of spontaneous donations from users. In particular, during one of these 4-hour live shows, Zeb received as much as 1,500€ in total. Zeb's tendency to receive live donations has often been the focus of criticism within the Italian YouTube community.

On August 13, 2018, Zeb publishes the video "Lo Schifo di Fortnite" (The Scum of Fortnite) - (RIP Unreal), in which he criticizes the video game Fortnite, then in the height of its popularity in the gaming world, pointing to Epic Games' product as the culprit behind the cancellation of the same company's FPS Arena video game, the new Unreal Tournament installment. This video has the distinction of being essentially “the last one” uploaded to his YouTube channel. In fact, despite Zeb had repeatedly stated that he always wanted to remain active on Google's platform to the detriment of Twitch, he will definitely move to Amazon's own streaming service, justifying his choice with the meager earnings offered by YouTube, compared to those offered by Twitch. The video is also deliberately nostalgic: Zeb shoots it in Bibbiena, his hometown, from which he had moved to Arezzo, and replays classic sketches from his old videos, including visiting the local butcher and uprooting the climbing ivy on the wall behind him, analogous to the GTA V video "GTA V - Che tipo di gamer sei?" - (What kind of gamer are you?).

2019-2023: Twitch period

In May 2019, after 9 months of general inactivity, he finally moved to Twitch, where he started live streaming, broadcast Monday through Sunday, excluding Saturdays, from 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm. He published on his YouTube channel only compilations of clips from his Twitch live streams. On November 9, 2019 he published the video "UT Noob Ownage", a video similar to his very first video uploaded to YouTube, Serious Sam - Noob Ownage, a 3-minute montage about the video game Unreal Tournament.

On June 21, 2021, he starts doing live only in English and as demonstrated by several videos on the net, just writing in Italian or some references to Italy in chat leads to banning, they are also easily found live where he himself will say he never wants to speak in Italian again.

On September 3, 2021, Zeb89 blocks Italy from his channel created in October 22, 2012, “Zeb89International,” to make it active again as the official Zeb89 channel in English. Initially it was impossible for those living in Italy to watch the channel, unless using a VPN; after a few months this changed and it is now possible to watch Zeb89 content from any country.

Return on YouTube

In May 2024, Zeb shared a photograph together with Giovanni Caselli, his parent, on his own Facebook page. In the comments, Mr. Caselli announced Zeb's return to live broadcasts in both Italian and English.

On May 26, 2024, Zeb scheduled a YouTube live broadcast for 9 p.m. on the same day. The event preview alone garnered thousands of viewers (35.000 circa) and significant donations, standing at hundreds. At 9 p.m., Zeb began his live broadcast focusing on the Resident Evil 4 Remake, conducting the session in Italian. The broadcast received numerous donations, some of which amounted to 100 euros each, in addition to an increase in subscriptions and exceeding 40,000 simultaneous viewers.

Zeb expressed surprise at seeing the affection of his fans, who expressed keen interest in his return.

Zeb's return to social media has generated wide debate, even culminating in disputes. One segment of users, argues that his return is motivated by economic reasons.

Mediatic impact

• In 2016 he became popular on social media through clips of his old videos, coming to be known even among people who never followed the YouTube world and making him a real meme: in fact, his phrase “Eh! Volevi!” (Eh! You Wished for it!) became a famous meme
• During the period when Zeb decided to do exclusively live in English, he faced numerous problems caused by people entering his chat to annoy him, often violating the rule of not speaking in Italian and ending up being banned. Despite these difficulties, a significant portion of the audience began to view Zeb with nostalgia. This led to the appearance of numerous tribute videos about Zeb, recalling the times before his choice to speak exclusively in English.
• His public and private story was told in the video: "How Zeb Became Irrelevant" by youtuber Ciancianguilla. However, Zeb stated that the video is unreliable and inaccurate, as it contains several pieces of information retrieved from unreliable sources.