Asmongold says he “can’t use a controller”, which is wild for a guy who built an empire on WoW
The massive streamer struggled with the new Star Fox on Switch 2 and admitted he has real trouble with controllers and fine hand coordination. So how does a guy with a legendary World of Warcraft career say that? The answer is actually pretty interesting.
Asmongold, one of the biggest streamers on the planet, just made a confession that sounds like it can’t possibly be true: he says he basically can’t use a game controller.
That’s a head-scratcher for a guy who built an entire career, and a gaming empire, on World of Warcraft. Doesn’t that take serious hand coordination? Here’s what he actually said, and why it makes more sense than it first sounds.
What Asmongold said
It came up while he was playing, and struggling with, a new game.
Like a lot of people, Asmon fired up the new Star Fox on the Switch 2, a remake of the N64 classic. He was playing on normal difficulty and kept dying to a late boss, Star Wolf, on the final level, to the point where he nearly dropped it down to easy.
His explanation for the struggle was blunt: “My hands don’t do controllers. I literally just cannot. I don’t have the motor skills to use a controller.”
He went further, revealing that his trouble with fine hand coordination goes way back. He said he nearly failed art class in 9th grade because he couldn’t physically manage calligraphy, and the school had to give him an exemption. So this isn’t a new excuse, it’s something he’s apparently dealt with his whole life.
The upshot? He says he never wants to play a game on console again, with one exception he’s willing to make for the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake.
The obvious question: but… World of Warcraft?
Here’s where your brain does a double-take. This is a guy famous for WoW. How does that square?
It’s a fair question, and it gets at something a lot of people don’t think about: playing on a controller and playing on a keyboard-and-mouse are completely different physical skills.
Asmongold’s entire gaming career, World of Warcraft and beyond, has been built on a PC with a keyboard and mouse. And that setup, it turns out, asks very different things of your hands than a controller does.
Why keyboard-and-mouse is a different beast
Let’s break down the actual difference, because it’s the whole key to the story.
A controller demands fine, continuous motor control from your thumbs. You’re working two little analog sticks at once, nudging them by tiny degrees to aim and move, while your fingers juggle triggers and face buttons. It’s a lot of delicate, simultaneous micro-movement packed into a small space, exactly the kind of fine coordination Asmon says his hands struggle with.
A keyboard and mouse works totally differently. Movement is just pressing keys, you hit W to go forward, no delicate analog nudging required. And aiming is done by sliding your whole arm and wrist with the mouse, which uses bigger muscle groups, not tiny thumb adjustments. For someone whose fine motor control is a weak spot, that’s a far more forgiving way to play.
So it’s not that Asmongold lacks the coordination to game. It’s that the specific kind of dexterity a controller needs is the kind he’s bad at, while the kind a keyboard and mouse needs is the kind he’s spent 20 years mastering. The paradox dissolves the second you stop treating “gaming skill” as one single thing.
He’s not alone in this
This PC-versus-controller divide is real, and Asmon’s far from the only one who feels it.
Plenty of lifelong PC gamers find controllers genuinely awkward, and plenty of console players find keyboard-and-mouse impossible. They’re learned skills, and the muscle memory doesn’t automatically transfer. Someone can be a god at one and a total mess at the other, y’know? Asmon’s just an extreme, and unusually honest, example, since his hand-coordination challenges make the gap even wider than normal.
It also lines up with a bigger truth the gaming world keeps proving: there’s no one “right” way to play. From PC purists to controller diehards to disabled gamers who’ve beaten Elden Ring with a chin or Super Mario 64 with eye-tracking alone, people find the setup that works for their hands and run with it.
The takeaway
So, no, Asmongold isn’t a fraud, and there’s no contradiction here, just a fun bit of nuance about how gaming actually works.
The man built an empire on World of Warcraft with a keyboard and mouse, the tools that fit his hands. Hand him a controller and ask him to thread two thumbsticks through a Star Fox boss fight, and suddenly he’s the one struggling on normal difficulty. Different tool, different skill, same guy.
It’s honestly a decent reminder for anyone who’s ever felt clumsy with a setup their friends swear is “easy.” Dexterity isn’t one-size-fits-all. Find your weapon, keyboard, controller, chin, eyeballs, whatever, and play the way your hands actually let you. Asmon found his a long time ago.
He just plans to never, ever let Nintendo make him pick up a controller again.
Want More Clownfish TV?
This article was brought to you in part by The Reefers of more.clownfishtv.com. Free subscribers get articles like this one in their inbox. Paid subscribers get the full Clownfish TV podcast feed, livestreams, and members-only episodes that never hit YouTube.
D/REZZED is part of Clownfish TV. For more news, views, and rants on gaming, tech, and pop culture, watch @ClownfishTV on YouTube and find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeart.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
Hat Tips:
Dexerto (June 2026), verified for Asmongold’s Star Fox playthrough, the “my hands don’t do controllers / I don’t have the motor skills to use a controller” quote, the 9th-grade art-class calligraphy exemption, the never-play-console-again declaration, and the Ocarina of Time remake exception
General gaming knowledge, for the keyboard-and-mouse versus controller motor-skill distinction (analog-stick thumb control vs. whole-arm mouse movement and key presses)
Dexerto and Attack of the Fanboy (2026), for the broader disabled-gamer context (HandicapableSean’s eye-tracking Super Mario 64 run, Brolylegs’ controller play) illustrating that gaming setups adapt to different physical abilities