Craig Joseph Thompson (born: January 7, 1995), better known online as Mini Ladd, is an Emirati-born Northern Irish YouTuber. Craig was born in Dubai, and later moved to both Singapore and Northern Ireland at a young age. He currently resides in Texas.
Channel[]
Craig started his channel as a hobby on May 12, 2011, while at a secondary high school in Northern Ireland. While some of his early videos are privatised, he classed his first video as a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 kill-streak video.
In November of 2011, iHasCupquake featured Mini Ladd on her channel, as the 'Gamer of the Week'. From this point, he continued to produce Call of Duty commentaries, as well as Minecraft commentaries.
One of his videos was a Minecraft 'skit' video of a film called 'The Journey', with Teseride. Some of his videos throughout 2012, included trolling and funny moments on Call of Duty. A video, titled '3v3 Riot Shield Battle', was one of Mini's first videos which included heavy editing. It was here where he discovered his enjoyment in editing. By February 2013, he reached 10,000 subscribers. Several videos were released by some of Mini's friends during 2013 when he was playing Call of Duty while drunk.
Craig hit 10 million views by April 10, 2014 before he started producing 'Garry's Mod: Sandbox' videos - an original concept for YouTube videos. He reached 1.5 million subscribers on March 8, 2015, before hitting 2 million subscribers, on July 19th, 2015. Mini hit 200+ million views in August 2015. As of 5th May of 2016 Mini Ladd dyed his hair to pink after raising more than $55,000 in a 24 hour live charity event, though sometimes he had to stop the dyeing as his hair was continuously growing. His GMod Player Models consists of him using either his GTA V Character or the giant Mario character. When the game Fortnite started rising in popularity, many of his friends had started to only play Fortnite. Mini Ladd assured his fanbase that he would not start playing Fortnite, and that he would keep playing multiple different games. One outcome of this is apparent when he did his "REACTING TO MY OWN SUBREDDIT" video, where there was a meme a user created that made fun of I AM WILDCAT, who is one of Mini Ladd's friends of permanently switching over to Fortnite.
In late-August 2018, Mini started censoring swear words out on his videos, this was so he could start being monetised often as he used to be, since YouTube only allows YouTubers to swear up to a certain point, any swearing that is heard in one of Mini's videos are replaced with the noise of a dolphin, this change has seen a mixed reaction from his fans, as most of his friends stay monetised yet don't censor their content. However, as of late September and early October, he has stopped censoring his swearing. (It doesn't sound like you're at SeaWorld whenever you watch one of his videos now.) In May 2019, he once again started censoring his videos, this time muting the swears rather than replacing them with a dolphin. However in September 2019 he stopped censoring his videos, as he claimed that it still wasn't helping his channel being monetised, though the first two minutes of his video contain swear mutes.
In September 2018, Mini created a second channel under his real name Craig Thompson, where he uploads real life videos.
In April 2015, he created a third channel titled "Mini Ladd Vault" which he did not start uploading on until July 2019. The focus of the channel was to move his demonetised content to the vault channel while being able to provide the main channel with demonetisation. He briefly uploaded some videos dating from 2014 to 2016 until he stopped uploading on the channel in August. He admitted in his Cards Against Humanity Revisited series that despite him deleting the videos and moving them to his "vault" channel that it did absolutely nothing.
In July 2018, he branched away from being included in videos with VanossGaming, he admitted that he just mainly wanted to be known as a friend of Evan, and to focus on his own ventures in his career.
In November 2019, he won the Content Creator of the Year award.
In January 2020, he took a break from YouTube after breaking up with his girlfriend Sami. In Februrary 2020, he made a video called "Why I Left", this video talked about the break-up with Sami, moving out of Portland and returning to his home in Los Angeles. He admitted that despite breaking up with Sami, they are still friends.[1]
In mid-June 2020, he was at the centre of a sexual harassment/paedophilia scandal which resulted in him stepping away from YouTube for a month-and-a-half. He admitted that his mental health took a turn for the worst, and chose to return to his hometown of Derry, Northern Ireland to reside with his family. However, on August 12, 2020, he returned to YouTube with an introduction to his latest video explaining why he left and how he promised to change and take a journey through mental health issues.
Controversies[]
Feud with Terroriser[]
The first signs of a dispute came in a Mario Kart 8 stream at some point around mid-2018 where Craig was playing with subscribers. He received a $20 tip from a viewer, who praised his content but wondered how come he didn't play with YouTubers like Vanoss.
Around the same year, Mini Ladd's dog, Mochi sadly passed away while they were at Insomnia 62, Mini Ladd did meet Terroriser at the event and they discussed what was going through their heads at the time, they would not meet again until E3 2018, this would be when things suddenly turned sour between the two.
In April 2019 during Mini Ladd's 12 Meme Stream, he was given a clip that was submitted by a viewer that was the song "Shave my Balls". While he watched it for a short time, he eventually skipped the video stating that "it's probably copyright" and claimed that he was kicked out of their chats, but shortly after he took back that statement.
Later in the stream, he wanted to clear some things up, he said that all the group did was play GMod and Fortnite and talk negatively about other YouTubers, Craig admitted that he didn't like that and broke away from the group. He said that he had "never felt better" and had a more stronger community and that he was pulling in more views and that he was "a lot more happier as a human".
During Brian's Minecraft stream on YouTube called "Mine-Cracked Out of my Mind! Diamond Hunting :D (Minecraft Livestream #3)" he was asked why they don't play with Mini anymore. He also explains how he too outgrew the group GoodGriefing who he used to play with yet dealt with it in a different manner, instead of badmouth the people he used to play with like Craig did. He also says Craig didn't get kicked out of the chat, but that he left willingly on his own. For full details on it, Brian's explanation starts at 21:46 and ends at 24:05.[2]
On August 27th 2019, Craig posted a tweet on his official Twitter and his Instagram account admitting why people think that he hated everyone he used to play with and his mental health struggles. He admitted in the tweet the following reasons. As of November 2019, both of these posts have been deleted.
The clash regarding him and Terroriser was in June 2018 during E3, where Terroriser said nasty things about Craig in-person, and joked about his mental state at the time, presumably after the sudden death of his dog Mochi. Craig said that Terroriser told him he was too "fucked up in the head to take a joke anymore". He admitted that they wanted to sort things out in the hopes that he would apologize but got no response, he had also tried reaching out while staying at I AM WILDCAT's home asking to fix it with no response either.
He claimed that Brian had been making out that he now hated everyone that he used to play with. Craig denied these rumors as false as he had admitted that he had WILDCAT and Fourzer0seven at his home a few weeks ago and had stayed at WILDCAT's home a few months ago.
Mainly people assumed that after he stopped collaborating with Evan that the two had fallen out. Craig responded to these long-lasting rumors, he admitted that although he doesn't play with Evan anymore, He mentioned that he is still good friends with Evan and that they they still meet when Craig is in the Los Angeles area. This most likely dispersed the rumors regarding Evan and Craig having a disagreement together. He stated that he is going on tour with BigJigglyPanda like he would, and that he would like to think that he is still friends with everyone. He admitted the only person that he is not friends with is Brian and that he didn't appreciate him saying he went off and ditched everyone.
Finally, he admitted that all friends come and go and although him and Brian made some "banger" videos they just sadly drifted apart, he admitted that he still wishes Brian the best of luck in his future and his adventures. Soon after he posted his admissions regarding the situation he was going through, Terroriser responded with the following statement:
"And I wish you all the best too Craig, but that “quote” is pure slander. Accusing me of making fun of mental health is just wrong Craig. There’s more information you’ve omitted from this whole thing in order to paint a certain picture in the public’s eye. Kinda low."
Craig followed up his response to Terroriser: "It was a near quote. That's the whole reason I stopped the conversation at the 3BD party is because that comment. You know about my mental health struggle and that was a stab in the gut. If you really want to sort this, DM me."
Brian replied for a final time: "That is a nowhere near quote Craig. Your reason for your actions the day before was “my dog just died” and my reply was “Craig, my dad just died but it doesn’t give me an excuse to mistreat others because of my personal issues”, you can’t tweet this out and then ask for DM."[3]
Two days later, on August 29, Terroriser made his statement on the situation and what he had experienced with Craig. According to him, it all started when Terroriser joined in on a joke about Mini's Ferrari, and then it continued when he made a joke about peeing in his pool. However, he explained that Craig was bothered by this, and proceeded to invite everybody from the "Vanoss crew" to dinner, except for Brian and his girlfriend. Craig attempted to excuse his actions by blaming the passing of his dog, to which Brian replied that his father just died but it was not an excuse to mistreat others because of his own personal grievances. The same statement responded to the accusations that the "Vanoss crew" were "shit talkers": "As for the “shit talkers” that he presented the group as, we have talked about other Youtubers, as people do. People speak about other people, YouTubers speak about other YouTubers. Was it all good? No. Was it all bad? No. But that’s because people have different opinions about lots of things. Many times we would discuss things happening in the YouTube scene and some would have opinions others might not have, but to paint us purely as gossipers isn’t right. We spoke about other YouTubers with no ill will towards them but more as water cooler talk. To be honest the vast majority of our talk was about ourselves within the group chat and talking shit to each other. We would plan recording sessions and speak about upload times so we don’t upload videos at the same time as one another."
Craig and Brian both prefer to keep this private. From the look of things, it is unlikely that they will play together again. Additionally, the two were nominees for "Content Creator of the Year" for the Esports awards, though the two didn't see each other as Brian was too ill to go.[4]
Pedophilia/Sexual Assault Allegations[]
In late June 2020, Craig was called out by two people by the names of Halley and Ash who made accusations to Craig about him manipulating the two women while he was in his twenties while the pair was underage. later his former girlfriend, SuniDey described their relationship as toxic and manipulative, she also addressed false rumours that Craig had raped her - Following these allegations, Craig took an indefinite leave from YouTube and tweeted out admitting his behaviour and that he would seek therapy - Ty Widdas, his editor, later removed his mention of Craig in his bio on Twitter, most likely signalling that he would no longer be editing his videos, but this remains unconfirmed as of this time.[5]
Subscriber Milestones[]
Note: The following dates are according to Social Blade. Dates may vary by one or two days due to differences in time zones.
Mini Ladd[]
- 1,000 subscribers: December 12, 2011
- 10,000 subscribers: February 19, 2013
- 50,000 subscribers: July 28, 2013
- 100,000 subscribers: October 14, 2013
- 500,000 subscribers: May 23, 2014
- 1 million subscribers: October 31, 2014
- 2 million subscribers: July 22, 2015
- 3 million subscribers: April 17, 2016
- 4 million subscribers: May 30, 2017
- 5 million subscribers: September 3, 2018
Decline[]
- Below 5 million subscribers: October 6, 2021
Craig Thompson[]
- 500,000 subscribers: December 12, 2018
- 1 million subscribers: August 16, 2019
Decline[]
- 1 million subscribers: January 20, 2024
Trivia[]
- He was born in Dubai and later lived in Singapore, Thailand, and Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland before moving to the USA, where he resided in LA before heading to Oregon and then back to LA, he would move to Texas soon after where he currently resides.
- He is 6 feet tall.
- The name "Mini Ladd" originally came from an old gamertag he had and his friends in Northern Ireland used to do. Each would add "lad" do the end of their gamertag. Since there were two Craigs in their friend circle, he was referred to as "mini" instead of as he is younger, hence the name Mini Ladd.
- This led to his fanbase joking about him being a midget.
- In November 2011, he was featured on IHasCupquake's channel as her "Gamer of the Week".
- His neighbors in his old apartments in Los Angeles constantly gave him noise complaints, which was an ongoing joke in his channel. When moved into his LA house, the joke has transformed into light complaints due to him leaving certain lights in his house on.
- On 17 February 2017, he got hit by a Toyota Tacoma that ran a red light and ended up in the hospital for 4 days due to a cracked spleen. He had to use a walker that he nicknamed "Walker White" for several weeks. One of his friends Jay was also hit and received much more severe conditions but is on the road to a full recovery.
- He went to a secondary school called Foyle and Londonderry College.
- He is one of the youngest people in the world to go skydiving, having gone at the age of 8 in New Zealand.
- He played rugby through high school but now has back problems because of the strain the sport put on him and the injuries he received. Later though, he agreed a sponsorship with the City of Derry's Rugby team and a stadium is named after him as the Craig Thompson Stadium. However, as of August 2020, the stadium is being re-named after he lost the sponsorship due to recent controversies.
- On 20 August 2017, he entered a relationship with Twitch streamer SuniDey. However, as of the 11th of January, this has ended. As stated above, Suni saw the relationship as manipulative, which is most likely why she left Craig. Even though Craig initially denied it, he later admitted it.
- In multiple Drunk Higher or Lower videos, he drinks liquor from the northern Irish brand Bushmills, which he also claims that he lived 30 minutes from the distillery in Northern Ireland.
- On 10 February 2018, he and girlfriend SuniDey went out to the airport to get their new nine-week-old Samoyed puppy Mochi. Unfortunately, on 29 March 2018, Mochi passed away due to choking on something and couldn't bring it back up while both Mini and Suni were at Insomnia. Craig and Samantha said their last goodbyes on 31 March 2018.
- Mini Ladd's beef with Terroriser had a huge effect on the future growth of his channel, as he stagnated at 5.74 million subscribers between September 2019 and June 2020.
- Mini took a 2 - 3 month break, and during the break he moved back to Los Angeles, California.
- One of his famous running gags was torturing former editor Ty Widdas with drums, cymbals, and snares. Almost every time he did this, he would eventually stop due to the possibility that his editor might leave him. Coincidentally, because of the harassment cases, Ty stopped any future editing work with him, leaving this gag completely unusable.
- Since the sexual misconduct information came to light, Craig has lost over one million subscribers.
- Mini Ladd's clothing website was hacked and was replaced with information over his sexual misconduct.
References[]
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG36pYrujIo&t=611s
- ↑ Mine-Cracked Out of my Mind! Diamond Hunting :D (Minecraft Livestream #3)
- ↑ https://x.com/Terroriser/status/1166494756576186368?lang=en
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Terroriser/status/1195908664231489537
- ↑ https://twitter.com/MiniLaddd/status/1275950555416809472/photo/1