Host at a Brazilian TGA jury outlet says jurors “don’t even like video games that much”

One of the 14 Brazilian outlets with a vote at The Game Awards 2026, Flow Games has drawn criticism after Cross, one of the channel’s hosts, described the awards jury his outlet sits on as the “red media” (a nod to Nintendo’s red branding), a term for the press that, in his view, favors Nintendo in the competition.

The comment came on O Upgrade, a gaming show on Cross’s YouTube channel that he co-hosts with Zero.

“I think the favorite in this contest will be Zelda,” Cross said while discussing the chances of the The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake beating GTA VI to Game of the Year.

The reason, he said, is not the quality of the games, but who chooses the nominees and winners at The Game Awards: “the red media, who are the ones voting.”

In the host’s view, the public has already chosen a winner, and the jury his outlet sits on would go against that choice. “Most people are for GTA 6,” he said.

The opinion video dates back to September, before either game’s release, but began circulating on social media again this week following the reception of the Ocarina remake.

The problem, as Cross sees it, is that voting is left to “the crowd who don’t like very long games,” people who “don’t even like video games that much” and just want to get the job done and leave. “And that crowd is the red media, okay? Just to be clear,” he added.

2026 marks Flow Games’ third appearance on the TGA jury. Cross is one of its hosts.

Streamer pushes back against Cross

The remarks spread on social media and reached PH, from the TVPH channel. Responding, the streamer said he had broken a personal rule to address the issue. “Today I broke my rule of never speaking badly about other people’s work,” he said.

Some of his frustration is personal. According to PH, Cross removed him from a Summer Game Fest WhatsApp group that a colleague had added him to, even though the two had never spoken. In his response, he called the host “pathetic” and used other insults.

His main argument, however, concerns the channel’s work. PH says that, even though he watches little creator content, he eventually hears about something good from almost everyone in the scene. He cites Nautilus and Jogabilidade, two fellow jury members. With Flow Games, he says, that has never happened.

“When have these guys ever come out with an opinion outside the box?” he asked. In his view, the channel wastes its access to the industry, including trips to Rockstar: the only message that reached PH from Davy Jones’s video about one such visit was that the host “was the first.”

PH believes Flow Games “farms” its rivalry with the rest of the gaming press. “The only thing I ever hear about them doing is talking shit about games they don’t know,” he said.

What the numbers say about the “red media”

The claim that the jury favors Nintendo is not reflected in TGA’s Game of the Year record. Across 12 editions, from 2014 to 2025, the company had 11 nominations and one win, for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in 2017, according to Jogometria’s analysis of Nintendo’s TGA losses (in Portuguese), based on nominee and winner lists. In 2016, 2018 and 2024, no Nintendo game was nominated for the night’s top award.

Across all jury-decided categories, Nintendo received 104 nominations and 24 wins, a 23% win rate. One-third of those trophies came from a single category: Best Family Game.

On November 4, Cross responded to the criticism on X. He said he “loves the red media” and that people complain in the comments “even though they know it’s a joke.”

In the same post, Cross mentioned Nautilus, another of the 14 Brazilian outlets on the jury. The channel’s Ricardo Regis replied that he had not said anything.

Zelda’s 96 and GTA’s November 19 release

The remake arrived on Switch 2 on Thursday, November 5, with a Metascore of 96, the highest score of 2026 on Metacritic so far. The 1998 Nintendo 64 original remains the site’s all-time leader with 99.

GTA 6 launches on November 19, one day before TGA’s eligibility cutoff on November 20.

Nominees are expected to be announced in the middle of the month, and the ceremony takes place on December 10 in Los Angeles.

Flow Games is on the jury

The criticism of the jury comes from within it. Flow Games appears on the official 2026 jury list, alongside Adrenaline, Canaltech, Combo Infinito, Folha de S.Paulo, Jogabilidade, Nautilus, Omelete, O X do Controle, O Vício, TechTudo, Terra Game On, Veja and Voxel.

The channel joined the jury in 2024, according to Jogometria’s research on the jury.

This year, the jury comprises 160 outlets, and Flow Games has one of those votes. Under the awards’ rules, each vote represents the collective opinion of the outlet’s editorial team, not the preference of a single host.

When winners are chosen, the jury accounts for 90% of the vote, with public voting on TGA’s website making up the remaining 10%.

How Flow Games works

Flow Games is the gaming arm of Flow, a brand that began with the Flow Podcast. Davy Jones proposed the gaming venture in 2021, and the flowgames.gg website launched in November 2022, according to editor-in-chief Bruno Micali in an interview with República DG.

The operation has two sides. In video, the Flow Games Podcast brings together Davy Jones, Thais Matsufugi, Guilherme Phoenix, Bruno Micali and Cross, while MD3 covers esports. In writing, the website has its own newsroom and, in its own words, editorial independence from the shows.

Since 2023, the channel has also run its own awards, the Flow Games Awards. Staff and the public vote, with paid channel members’ votes carrying more weight.

Its 2025 Game of the Year was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the same game selected by TGA voters.