UK-based Yogscast Twitch streamer Lydia Ellery, aka SquidGame or SquidGaming, is facing a tough time for sharing her name with the popular Netflix show.
Squid Game the survival drama TV series first launched on Netflix in September 2021, however Lydia has had her SquidGame name for more than a decade, and is now considering changing it due to recent abuse and missing out on work opportunities in presenting and advertising.
Some followers of the show have sent Lydia abuse because they incorrectly assumed she took the name from the show for clout. Others have tried hacking into her Instagram account.
Lydia was temporarily banned from Instagram a few weeks ago, where she has the Insta handle ‘squidgame’, as some people were trying to gain access into her account, leading to many password reset requests and emails flooding her inbox.
Lydia had apparently broken Instagram’s rules around “pretending to be someone else”.
She told the BBC: “For me [my name SquidGame] it was just a silly name I thought up on the spot. My friends called me squid because it rhymes with lid, and my name is Lydia.
“I’ve received a lot of hate from the [Netflix show’s] fans and I’ve been turned down for work because of it [the name]. More recently I’ve been turned down for work because of my handle. I feel down about the whole situation and incredibly fed up.”
Lydia’s SEO (search engine optimisation, or how she appears on the likes of Google) when people search for ‘Squid Game’ has also been affected, with the TV show appearing higher up than her in the search rankings.
Squid Game the TV show has courted some controversy since launching, for its content and the response its received from some members of the public. The show focuses on hundreds of people who have to participate in fatal games for money.
Some councils and schools in the UK have sent letters out to parents asking their children not to watch the Squid Game show or imitate its games on the playground.
It’s an unusual and unlucky situation for Lydia, who now faces the difficult decision of possibly changing her name of more than a decade, or considering other action.
Esports News UK has reached out to Lydia and also legal experts for comment on this, and will update the article if we hear back.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
