Accused of inflating Path of Exile 2 rank, Elon Musk beefs with gamer who asked him to prove skills

He may be the richest man in the world and the owner of big corporations such as Tesla, X and SpaceX, but is Elon Musk a top gamer too?

According to netizens, no.

Many turned suspicious on Jan 7 after watching the 53-year-old livestream the action role-playing game Path of Exiles 2, where he played as a high-ranked character.

For example, a Reddit post pointed out that if Musk were so proficient at the game, "one would expect a decent baseline understanding of how the game works".

However, referring to clips from the livestream, it pointed to Musk seemingly not knowing basic things like using a mana flask when he ran out of the resource, or working the map mechanics.

He would also pick up low-tier items over higher-tier loot drops, and "seemingly struggled to understand why he cannot pick up an item when his inventory is full".

One comment alleged: "His gear is better than a lot of full-time streamers. No way it is real. Account sharing or boost of some kind."

Boosting is the practice of a low-level player hiring a better one to play using the former's account and inflate their ranks. This is frowned upon and considered cheating by most gamers.

Musk's character Percy_Verence was ranked seventh in the game's hardcore mode leaderboard by the time the character died on Jan 10.

Documenting the Saga of "Elon Musk's" Account
byu/InstructionOk1175 inPathOfExile2

Asmongold challenges Musk to 'prove' himself

Reddit was not the only platform pressing X to doubt Musk's skills, with a scathing YouTube video making its rounds.

It argued that Musk was unlikely to reach a high rank on his own, given how long it takes.

The saga then drew the attention of Asmongold, a renowned World of Warcraft player, who challenged Musk.

"Did Elon Musk play this account to level 97? The answer is very simple: no," he said in a Twitch stream on Jan 13.

"Unequivocally, without a doubt, if Elon Musk can prove that he played this account to 97, I will stream on X starting the day that he proves it for an entire year straight, every single stream that I do."

[embed]https://youtu.be/wlCCtrOCvu0?si=ThPJMuHSGxuWIeEz&t=1434[/embed]

Three days later on Jan 16, Musk made scathing posts about Asmongold, whose real name is Zack Hoyt.

"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," he posted, sharing private messages between them where Asmongold says he has editors to clip his livestreams.

The bizarre claim was refuted by X's own Community Notes. "Elon Musk seems to think Asmongold is an employee with editors overseeing him. That's incorrect. Asmongold's 'editors' are actually his employees — they edit/upload his content for a revenue share. They don’t control what he does."

pic.twitter.com/bcJfuE8yLQ

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2025

Musk also wrote: "I’m on hundreds of streams on YouTube/Twitch playing live with the world’s best players.

"No other way to say this, but, while Asmon IS good at caustic commentary and making fun of people, he is NOT good at video games."

Asmongold replied: "Leaking my DMs is one thing but this is absolutely uncalled for."

The community pushed back again, pointing to Asmongold being highly ranked in certain World of Warcraft raids.

Leaking my DM's is one thing but this is absolutely uncalled for https://t.co/I4eRo2QPKF

— Zack (@Asmongold) January 16, 2025

Musk also posted his Diablo 4 gameplay, possibly to pad his credentials, but has yet to address questions around Path of Exile 2.

And with the beef between the two men, it's safe to say that Asmongold is unlikely to move from Twitch and YouTube to X for streaming.

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drimac@asiaone.com