Mark Rober may be participating in YouTuber CallMeCarson’s $20,000 8Ball Tournament on popular streaming platform Twitch, all thanks to a simple running joke among competitors that escalated to his name landing on #1 of Twitter’s trending page.
The six words that started it all: “Do you like my profile picture?” contestant Chris giggled to host CallMeCarson. Carson immediately recognized Rober and rushed to Twitter in a comedic bid to get the situation trending. It took minutes for only the words “Mark Rober” to trend with no context. One of the 92K tweets read, “i[sic] just realized whoever isn’t watching the 8 ball game is confused on why mark rober[sic] is trending”.
Rober quickly took notice, challenging Carson’s viewers to get his name to #1, saying that #2 is for chumps, a reference to Labor Day still being the most tweeted topic. He offered his participation in the stream, and unsurprisingly, it took an hour for his name to skyrocket.
Canada and the UK were the first victims to the massive succession that is the trending of Mark Rober. His name reached #1 on Canadian and UK Twitter far before it could in the United States; however, Carson insisted on a broadcast that it couldn’t be considered a victory quite yet. Streamers everywhere played their part, leaving Labor Day with no chance. “Welp.” Mark tweeted with a screenshot of his name finally boasting first place in the US.

WHO ARE THEY?
Mark Rober is a former NASA and Apple engineer, who now creates playful and educational videos for a YouTube audience of 13.8 million. He is widely regarded as a popular Internet meme, mostly for the irony that he used to work for NASA yet has such an immature and silly nature. His content consists of wild experiments, including one titled “Shark Attack Test- Human Blood vs Fish Blood” that got a whopping 28 million views. He’s mostly respected and is jokingly “worshipped” by the Twitch community.
CallMeCarson is an Internet personality who boasts a YouTube audience of 3.1 million. He occasionally live-streams video games on Twitch although his brand focuses on sarcastically nitpicking various subjects on YouTube. He is widely regarded as nonchalant and even helped certain contestants during the competition with no visible remorse or consideration. “You know me by now. I want to make this tournament a living hell,” Carson jokes.
CallMeCarson and Mark have had no known interaction in the past, making this occurrence even more comedic. As creators, this spontaneous collaboration has benefited them both. Rober got his name to the top of Twitter trending while Carson got massive exposure for his event.

THE EVENT
Carson hosted his 8ball tournament on streaming platform Twitch. He posted his contestant bracket the day before the broadcast, sending fans into a rampage. He chose famous YouTubers and streamers alike to participate, even mentioning how more would probably be added. The $20,000 reward was made possible by a sponsorship from the game Ball Hall. Carson expresses his gratitude towards the brand several times throughout the stream and was seen wearing hoodies and shirts with their name in large text.
The event was described as unorganized. People were added and removed from the bracket throughout the event. The game frequently glitched and contestants struggled with inconsistent sensitivity. Most fans didn’t mind this and insisted it made the game more comedic, while others claim it annoyed them and ruined the quality of the event all together. Ball Hall was encouraged to make adjustments.

WHAT DO FANS THINK?
Most feedback on social media and from fans has been outstandingly positive. Sydney Ruiz, freshman student in Riverside, expresses her happiness in seeing her favorite creator getting exposure. She says, “I am really glad that Carson is gaining popularity through this. It’s overall a comedic situation that has a lot of perks.” Some other fans express their skepticism. Sophia Nguyen, freshman student in Corona and loyal subscriber of CallMeCarson notes, “The campaign sounds a little fake, kind of unreal. Sounds as if it can be apart [sic] of a fan fiction.” Another fan who’d like to remain anonymous has similar thoughts, “I think it sounds a little too good to be true and they’re probably using it for clout. But even if it were fake, people would still find it entertaining.” They mention “clout” which is a slang term for social media popularity.