Did a Symbolic Random Chat Room Name Appear After Etika’s Death?

After the death of YouTube gaming streamer Etika was confirmed in late June 2019, his on-and-off girlfriend Alice Pika hosted a memorial livestream on June 26 2019.

Not long after, a rumor circulated on Reddit and other sites about what the appearance of a random name that was interpreted as a sign or signal from Etika during the four-hour streaming session:

In the above screengrab from June 28 2019, a forum user wrote:

About two days ago, Etika’s on and off girlfriend held a tribute stream for his friends after he was confirmed dead.

About 14 minutes in, she was creating a room for online play in Super Smash Ultimate for everyone to join. When she went to give everyone the code, it read M4GGY.

For those that understand why it was important, Etika always called her Magnolia or Maggy to tease her. The room code itself is always random so this is one hell of a coincidence. And it happened in a Smash stream no less

In his I’m sorry video, he said he would send a sign if it’s possible. [link to stream provided]

That post made reference to a since-removed video published by Etika shortly before his death. Although the original video was not available to verify his purported promise, a Reddit comment pointed to a mirror with a transcription of Etika’s comments. In that video, Etika is quoted at 8:33 as saying that “as far as we know, there is no life after death,” adding that if possible, he will send “as many blessings” as he can “from the other side.”

Rough transcriptions of Etika’s spoken comments in the “I’m Sorry” video did not include the quote. However, the original video’s description field was well-documented. In it, Etika wrote:

I don’t know what awaits me on the other side, but I’m ready to face it. As far as we know, there is no life after death. My time ends now, but if there is a way for me too, I’ll send you all as many blessings as I can from the other side.

In addition to Reddit’s r/EtikaRedditNetwork, the story was shared to r/NeverTellMeTheOdds and r/PewDiePieSubmissions. The latter post was titled: “I don’t know if this was posted, but it gave me the chills. 1 in 60.5 million odds of that code being generated. You’re 5x more likely to win the lottery then this happening.”

In at least three tweets before his death, Etika called Pika “Magnolia”:

At roughly the 14-minute mark of the livestream, Pika arranges a room for players to join a game of Super Smash Brothers:

She informs viewers of the code and reads it out, stating:

It’s M-4-G-G-Y

At around 14:10, Pika realizes that the randomly generated code, M-4-G-G-Y, appears to spell out “Maggy.” She then explains Etika used to call her “Magnolia” or “Maggy,” adding (as he said in his tweet) that he “always liked ‘M’ names.”

Users speculated that the odds of such a code being generated were slim, proposing rudimentary calculations for the odds “M4GGY” would come up as a chat code name:

It’s really interesting when you consider the chances of M4GGY coming up at random. I don’t know the exact limits of how the code is generated but assuming it uses all 26 letters and 10 digits, that’s 365 possible codes. That’s 1 in 60,466,176.

I normally don’t really believe in an afterlife but ever since I saw this image I haven’t stopped thinking about it. Coincidence? Maybe, but the chances are slim.

Assuming that room codes are five digits, those odds would probably change if you account for other symbolic five-character room names, such as “Etika” or “Alice.” Still, the appearance of “M4GGY” as a code was likely a long-odds occurrence.

In short, the screengrab about Etika’s purported message makes a number of claims. One is that Etika promised to send a signal “from the other side,” which appears to be referenced in a copy of one of his last transmissions. Another is that Etika called Pika “Maggy” or “Magnolia”; in extant tweets, he replies to her account referencing her as “Magnolia” (for which “Maggy” is a nickname). Another is that the code randomly generated in a livestream, which is accurate as seen above and was witnessed by many viewers. Whether the conclusion is legitimate is a matter of personal interpretation, but the claim was honestly represented in its various forms on social media.

If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, a list of suicide prevention lines by country can be found here.