Kai Cenat’s wildly successful Streamer University, held July 15–20 at Arkansas’ Hendrix College, has become one of the biggest creator events on the internet, but the viral phenomenon is now facing a pair of lawsuits.
Lawsuits Pending
The Twitch superstar and internet personality, who has amassed a $35 million fortune, is being sued by two men over separate incidents, with one alleging dangerous conditions at Streamer University and another claiming he was assaulted by Cenat’s bodyguard during the 2025 Dominican Day Parade.
In one lawsuit, Caleb Gottfried, who streams under the name SNVRK, claims he nearly suffered heatstroke twice while attending a Streamer University event in Manhattan in June. He alleges poor crowd control, inadequate ventilation, and unsafe conditions left him in medical distress. Gottfried is seeking more than $330,000 in damages.
He also claims his likeness appeared in promotional material for the event without his permission, alleging he was used as “background talent” despite never signing a release authorizing the commercial use of his image.
In a separate lawsuit, Dustin Batista claims Cenat’s bodyguard, Lamont “Cuddy” Gilbert, assaulted him during the 2025 Dominican Day Parade in New York. Batista alleges he was punched without provocation and is suing Gilbert for assault and battery while also seeking to hold Cenat liable under claims of negligent hiring and vicarious liability.
Cenat has not publicly responded to either lawsuit.
The lawsuits arrive as Streamer University 2026 is wrapping up for the year. SU has grown from an online experiment into a multimillion-dollar entertainment brand. What began as a creator boot camp now attracts millions of viewers, major corporate sponsors, and a growing roster of influencers hoping to capitalize on the booming creator economy.
This year Cenat streamed simultaneously on Twitch and YouTube.
SU started in 2025 at the University of Akron in Ohio and lasted three days. According to Tubefilter, viewers logged roughly 27 million hours watched on Twitch during the event. People magazine reported approximately 23 million watch hours.
Aspiring streamers lived together, collaborated with established influencers, and broadcast nearly every moment of the experience. SU covers travel costs, food, housing, uniforms for the students to attend the free event.
Cenat expanded the concept in 2026 to six days. Some 120 student creators attended classes by established creators, interacted with celebrities such as Lizzo, participated in competitions, collaborated with celebrity creators, and produced content around the clock for audiences watching across multiple platforms. There’s even a homecoming. One participant this year, Benjy said he added 100,000 followers on his Twitch account in just three days of the event this year.
For many of the invited streamers, it gave them direct exposure to Cenat’s enormous audience. He has over 21.2 million followers on his KaiCenat Twitch channel, making him the most-followed streamer on the platform. He has 17 million followers on Instagram, 10 million subscribers on his primary Kai Cenat YouTube, and 22 million on TikTok.
When Cenat returned from a nine-month streaming hiatus on July 6, he revealed the Streamer University roster during his first-ever simultaneous broadcast on both Twitch and YouTube, Tech Times reported. The announcement stream peaked at roughly 711,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch and nearly 404,000 on YouTube, pushing the combined live audience past one million viewers.
YouTube generally gives creators a 70/30 revenue split on channel memberships, allowing creators to keep about 70 percent of subscription revenue. Twitch’s standard partner agreement, by comparison, has traditionally offered a 50/50 split. But its Partner Plus program gives qualifying creators a chance to earn up to a 70/30 split after meeting subscriber thresholds.
A creator earning $5 from a monthly membership receives approximately $2.50 under Twitch’s standard arrangement but about $3.50 on YouTube.
Cenat announced that Streamer University would return in 2027 with its first international edition in Europe.
