[5] In a 2015 Reddit thread, Gastrow mentioned that his channel's profile picture was designed by Newgrounds animator and YouTuber Chris O'Neill.

[5] During his channel's initial years, Gastrow was primarily known for his coverage of the 2009 multiplayer online battle arena game League of Legends.

According to Yannick LeJacq of Kotaku, Gastrow "had a special place in the League of Legends universe for consistently producing some of the best, and definitely the funniest, material in the game's massive community".

[10] However, he quit making League videos in September 2015, after he was banned for "toxic" behavior, such as repeatedly insulting other players on his team in the in-game chat.

[14] In August 2021, Gastrow joked in a live stream that Kanye West's then-upcoming album Donda would sample a song from the animated short film Strawinsky and the Mysterious House (2012); upon the album's release, the track "Remote Control" sampled the exact clip, leading fans to theorize that West's team watched Gastrow's stream.

[22] In January 2023, Bigmode announced its first title, Animal Well,[23] which was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Windows in May 2024 and for Xbox Series X/S in October 2024, receiving critical acclaim.

Gastrow's videos depicting League of Legends and Overwatch (2016) are examples of the latter; he stated in an interview that he "would try to cut out the funniest parts.

"[3] For instance, he has criticized Nintendo for demonetizing his review of Super Mario Odyssey (2017) on copyright grounds,[26] and Microsoft for its business practices, including the cancellation of their Summer of Arcade deal.

[3][27] Gene Park of The Washington Post described Gastrow as one of the most influential critics on YouTube, noting he has inspired a number of imitators, and called him the Lester Bangs of video games.

[3] Patrick Klepek, writing for Vice, said Gastrow is one of the few YouTubers to whom he subscribes, calling him "a video editing maestro whose ability to make you laugh and understand why a game's interesting at the same time is unmatched.

"[27] Gastrow's ban from League of Legends for verbal abuse divided his followers; some defended him while others expressed surprise he considered insulting other players acceptable.

[32] It is a common misconception and a running gag on the channel that Gastrow is black, which Leah attributes to his voice and the fact that he rarely shows his face in videos.