Thumbnail for YouTuber Dream’s video “The Truth” uploaded in 2023.

According to the Oxford language dictionary, grooming is defined as the practice of preparing or training someone for a particular purpose or activity.

YouTube controversy has headed overseas to Brighton in East Sussex, South England as Minecraft Youtuber and Streamer Tommyinnit (Thomas Simons) attempts to distance himself from previous friend and mentor Dream (Clay Huff) while perhaps taking Dream’s career along with him.

Ever since the face reveal in 2022 of fellow Minecrafter and media persona based in the United States, more and more scandal has been revealed from behind Dream’s mask. This year, audiences were let into the behind-the-scenes experiences of Simons regarding his relationship with Huff, one video and crashout-livestream at a time.

On Jan 12, 2025, Simons released a video to YouTube titled “Dream.” In this five minute video Simons sits down and speaks to the camera. There is no editing, music, or added videos or photos. The video has so far garnered 4.3 million views and the reception of the video was positive, going off of the 510k likes to hidden 26k dislikes ratio, and the swift backing of Simon’s fanbase in the comments.

Simons began the video shaming Huff for calling the Tommyinnit fanbase the r-slur in a meme uploaded to X (formerly Twitter) on Jan 11, 2025. But Simons didn’t stop there — he began to pick apart Huff and his friends’ character, saying “you and your friends’ references and the way you talk about women behind the scenes has been so sexist.” Simons also claims that Huff sells lazily designed merchandise and uses other streamers to boost views and sales.

“I have watched you take advantage of vulnerable people and use them to benefit yourself,” said Simons. Unbeknownst to many fans, he also accuses Huff of harassing Simons’ mother over text, attempting to ruin their relationship. That being said, the lack of receipts in Simons’ video left an opportunity for a dramatic response from Huff.

“I’m Sorry (but not to Tomminnit)” was uploaded to YouTube by Huff on Jan. 13, 2025, currently with 3.1 million views — after commenting on the situation in a three hour livestream on Jan 12. The video is nine minutes long and takes the opposite approach to Simons’ minimalist video,utilizing dramatic music, multiple screenshots, and video clips. Huff prefaces the video with an apology for using the r-slur, acknowledging it was wrong and that it had gone against the anti-slur stance that he had taken in the past. But rather than disprove any of Simons’ claims, Huff makes a new round of allegations against Simons instead.

Huff addressed the claim of harassment towards Tommy’s mom by showing a screenshot of the message, suggesting that it was sent in good faith.

“The way he words that, you would think I spammed his mom’s phone for weeks with slurs and threats,” said Huff. Huff also notes that there is no context behind Simon’s claims of misogyny. When commenting on lazy merchandise, Huff accuses Simons of using child labor for his Tommyinnit merchandise. Huff represents this by showing stock images of child laborers and edits Simons’ face onto a YouTube video made by CoffeeZilla, “Insane Creator Scam,” in Dec. 2023 explaining the controversies around the merch company Revolt.

But what led to the most time consuming reaction was the manipulation of clips in “I’m Sorry (but not to Tomminnit)” from Minecraft Youtuber, Streamer, and friend of Simons, Tubbo (Tobias Smith).

Smith responded to “Dream” and “I’m Sorry (but not to Tomminnit)” in three lengthy live streams, one being a phone call with Huff. Smith calls out Huff’s editing techniques as manipulative and points out mixed messaging between Huff’s initial live stream and his response video. The livestreamed phone call was exhaustive, and the two talk in circles, covering accounts and receipts of Huff and his friend’s misogyny, the merch company, and the text to Simons’ mom. Ultimately, the two fail to agree on Dream’s intent and impact.

But perhaps what isn’t being discussed enough is the age gap between Simons and Huff at the height of their communication. Derry Ireland native and Brighton transplant Adam MacIntyre, known for his tumultuous relationship with Miranda Sings (Colleen Ballinger), had a different approach to the crafter controversy on his drama reaction Youtube channel. In a video “tommyinnit exposes dream…it’s bad” reacting to Simons’ “Dream,” MacIntyre connected the sentiments of Simons to his own experience with Colleen Ballinger.

In 2020, MacIntyre released  “colleen ballinger, stop lying,” on YouTube. In this video, MacIntyre shares screenshots and accounts of his time working with Colleen Ballinger while he was minor. He raised concerns of grooming and Ballinger’s inappropriate contact and content towards himself and other children. Initially MacIntyre’s video was met with harsh criticism, disbelief, and hatred from Ballinger’s loyal fanbase. Many believed that MacIntyre initiated the parasocial imbalance. But as the subject resurfaced in 2023, MacIntyre’s allegations were taken seriously and backed up by other victims and multiple other drama YouTubers like Swoop and H3H3.

Feeding MacIntyre’s argument is the context Simons provides in “Dream.”

“Dream, four years ago, you were awful to me. When I was 16, you gave me YouTube advice and held that over my head for years,” said Simons.

At the time, Huff was 20 years old. Around this time, 2020, when Tommyinnit began streaming on the survival multiplayer server (SMP), Huff’s channel skyrocketed to popularity.

“The DreamSMP, a lot of your success, just wouldn’t have happened without me,” said Simons.

Huff defends himself in his video by playing clips of Simons at age 16 and 17 giving Huff praise. He explains that it isn’t possible that he did anything bad to Simons if those are the types of things he said when he was younger.

“Tommy keeps bringing up the fact that he was 16 and 17, I mean, I was 20 and 21,” said Huff.

After seeing that a majority of the communication between Simoms and Huff took place when Simons was a minor, MacIntyre believes that Huff fostered an inappropriate relationship with Simons, using him for his hard work and popularity, and now is holding it over his head.

MacIntyre also did his due diligence reviewing the drama by taking a deeper dive into DreamSMP controversy. In “reacting to dream’s ‘The Truth’  video” uploaded on Jan. 28, 2025, MacIntyre commented on “The Truth”, posted by Huff on Dec. 19, 2023. Huff’s video addressed a herd of allegations, but largely  discussed accusations that he groomed and shared explicit images with minor fans.

On Feb. 9, Simons released a month-long vlog from January called “not doing well,” expressing the overwhelming emotions from his journey from 16 years old to now.

While grooming and sexual misconduct by Dream can’t be confidently verified, it is clear that Dream’s ‘friendship’ with Tommyinit has led to dissonance. The tornado of drama goes far back with numerous parts, many of which seem to point to an ongoing, questionable relationship with minors.

A comment on Simons’ “Dream,” posted by @ghostpop with 60k likes, says, “Pretty funny to see Tommy quite literally grow up out of the DreamSMP and Dream at the same time as his audience.”

Is DreamSMP mining to bedrock? With other popular Minecraft creators like Quackity, Ludwig, and the ‘Brighton lot’ against him, can Dream’s dedicated fanbase keep him afloat?