# Alpharad

Jacob Rabon IV (born December 19, 1995), better known by his online name Alpharad, is an American YouTuber, Twitch streamer, Esports personality, and musician. He is known for his gaming videos, especially on the Super Smash Bros. series along with his participation in the fighting game community as an announcer/commentator. He is also known for his "Nuzlocke" content, a variation on the game Pokémon to make it more difficult. Currently, he focuses on creating variety content, commonly with his friends.

## Early life

Rabon was born on December 19, 1995, in Norman, Oklahoma. He gained an interest in filmmaking around the fifth grade, uploading comedic videos for his friends, one of his first videos being Major O's. Later, he would take video editing and cinematography classes in high school. His original goal was to be an editor of some kind, but pursued being a creator once his channel had begun to take off, dropping out of his community college to do so. Rabon has also admitted that his not becoming an editor was not because of lack of creative freedom, which is a reason he often uses.

## Career
### YouTube
#### Alpharad

Rabon created his main YouTube channel on January 13, 2014. Since its creation, he has made various gaming videos on his channel, Alpharad, including the Super Smash Bros. series, Pokémon, Splatoon, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Among Us, as well as other Nintendo titles. He has also dabbled in speedrunning, specifically in a video of him playing through a Super Mario 64 first-person shooter fan game, as well as being a Super Mario Odyssey speedrunner.
Other videos of his include video game related challenges and streams. In 2021, Rabon collaborated with YouTuber Jaiden Animations on a charity stream for Red Nose Day which involved removing Pokémon from their team after reaching various donation incentives. In 2022, he played Pokémon Go in the Warner Grand theater located in Los Angeles during a Halloween event. Following a series of Nuzlocke challenges as provoked by his friend, fellow YouTuber, and self-proclaimed rival Pokémon Challenges, on April 10, 2023, YouTube Gaming officially dubbed him the "Nuzlocke King".
While a majority of his channel has gaming content, Rabon's channel also includes recounts or videos of fun challenges or experiences he has had, such as him talking about his experiences at Universal Studios, Japan, or an edited video of an Awards Show he hosted for his friends.
In 2020, Rabon signed with the Creative Artists Agency. Rabon's main YouTube channel has reached over 3 million subscribers as of April 2023.

#### Alpharad Platinum

In 2015, Rabon created his secondary YouTube channel, Alpharad Plus, in which he created generally unedited gaming videos with JoSniffy, which on September 23, 2020, was rebranded to Alpharad Deluxe. At the beginning of 2023, this was once again rebranded to Alpharad Gold, which had the goal of having a video posted everyday of 2023, each featuring a different video game, which he accomplished. After a nine month hiatus from January 1, 2024, the channel has since been rebranded Alpharad Platinum, and posting has resumed as of October 2, 2024.

#### Alpharad Replay

On February 6, 2016, Rabon created a tertiary YouTube channel called "Alpharad Replay," which posts archives of his past YouTube and current Twitch streams.

#### Friends Without Benefits

On June 24, 2016, Rabon co-founded the collaborative YouTube channel Friends Without Benefits. On December 23, 2018, Rabon announced he was leaving the group to focus on his solo projects.

#### Alpharad Live

On September 21, 2020, Rabon created a fourth YouTube channel, Not Alpharad, which posted extremely short videos as well as clips of him or his experiences. Due to clips being replaced by YouTube Shorts which would just be posted onto his main channel, he rebranded it to Alpharad Live, which currently posts highlights of his Twitch streams.

#### WILD/CARD

In 2023, Rabon, alongside Jaiden Animations, created a fourth channel, WILD/CARD, with the purpose of introducing their large collective audience to several of the smaller content creators the two of them considered friends. This collaboration began with Sunflowersmith, Weegee Plays, gsmVoiD, Giwi, Fyrus, Captain Kidd, and has since additionally included Vulpixie since October 2024.

### Twitch

On the 19th of November, 2014, Rabon created his current Twitch channel, which was originally named "AlpharadTV", but has since been renamed to just, "Alpharad". Many of Rabon's current YouTube videos were first streamed on Twitch, and edited and scripted into a video.

### Esports

Rabon has been involved in esports as a tournament organizer and affiliate with other prominent esports personalities. In January 2020, he participated in a Pokémon VGC tournament hosted by Wolfe Glick with fellow competitive Super Smash Bros. players Ludwig Ahgren, ESAM, and Mew2King amongst other content creators.
Two months later, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rabon co-hosted five online tournaments for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate called the "Quarantine Series" with fellow YouTuber Cr1TiKaL, which consisted of two events, Minors and Majors, offering $5,000 and $10,000 in prizes, respectively. The major invitationals featured top Super Smash Bros. players such as MkLeo, Samsora, Nairo and Marss, and was streamed on both Cr1TiKaL's Twitch channel and Rabon's YouTube channel.
In 2018, Rabon purchased a monthly stake for the esports organization, Panda Global, becoming their content director and a minority shareholder. He had previously expressed his desire to hold more weight in the organization.
In 2021, Rabon hosted another tournament in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, dubbed a "Portal Smash" tournament, that involved competitive players fighting on recreated stages with added obstacles and hazards. Later in October, Rabon hosted a Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl charity tournament with Panda Global member Coney for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The tournament featured content creators such as Cr1TiKaL, Ludwig Ahgren, Jaiden Animations and Trihex, and ultimately raised over $100,000.

## Other ventures
### Music

Rabon is also a musician, and he formed a band called Ace of Hearts. Their first single was "Fool for You", which was released on April 1, 2020. The band's first EP, Monophobia, was released on June 5, 2020. This was then followed by another single, "Silver Lining", which was released nearly a month later on July 1, 2020. The band's second EP, Scorpion Queen, was released on December 13, 2020. The band's single "Lights Off" was released on March 31, 2021. Ace of Hearts' most recent single, "Deadbeat Boulevard", released on November 11, 2021. Their newest album, "Frozen in Time", was released on December 10, 2021.

### Theatre
#### Copypasta Theatre

On June 27, 2021, Rabon announced a one-time pop-up show to be held the very same day, named the Copypasta Theatre. He and thirteen other creators dramatically read copypastas to a live audience at the Black Box theatre in Los Angeles. Stage guests included Daniel Thrasher, Adriana Figueroa, Drumsy, Mari Norwood, Jules Conroy, Phil Visu, Cristina Vee Valenzuela, Ross O'Donovan, Dan Fulling, cjya, Johnny Rico (who impersonated Bruno Mars), and Rabon's project manager Deanna Gowland. The viral video of the performance involved a segment where several of gaming streamer Ninja's Twitter posts were read aloud; Ninja later shared the video on his Twitter page.

#### Romeo and Juliet

On September 12, 2021, Rabon announced a rendition of the play Romeo and Juliet, which was held on the same day. He performed with thirteen other creators, including Jaiden Animations, cjya, Adrisaurus, and many more. In this performance, the actors had no rehearsals and instead performed on cue-cards which outlined the general actions of the characters in each scene.

### Cup-Pong

On April 13, 2022, Rabon announced a Cup-Pong tournament in order to raise money for Extra Life, to be held on July 1 of that year. This involved thirty-two others which were split into sixteen teams, with thirty-one being creators (including Ovilee May, Altrive, Ted Nivison), plus Rabon's father, under the nickname "Alphadad". This event ended up raising $30,253.19 USD for the charity, with Ted Nivison and Ethan Nestor being the winners.

## Personal life

During an episode of Rabon and Coney's podcast, How Did We Get Here?, Rabon opened up about his experience being diagnosed with ADHD. In the same podcast, he also revealed that he is somewhere in the asexual and aromantic spectrum. Rabon has also confirmed he is bisexual.
Rabon and fellow YouTuber Jaiden Dittfach purchased a house together in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles in 2022. At the end of February 2024, Rabon and Dittfach moved to a different home together.