El Rubius
Rubén Doblas Gundersen, better known as elrubiusOMG or simply El Rubius, is a Spanish YouTuber whose channel primarily consists of gameplays and vlogs. He has the most subscribers in Spain and was among the top 50 most subscribed-to channels of the platform in the world.
In 2014 he published El Libro Troll. During 2015 and 2017 he published a total of three comics from his Virtual Hero series. He was also part of an anime series based on the comics. A tweet from his official Twitter account in 2016 was once the most retweeted tweet in the world.
In 2016, Time magazine included him in its list of "next generation leaders" and named him an "online conqueror". In 2018, he achieved the world record for live viewers during an online YouTube broadcast for a tournament of the Fortnite video game. He is one of the most popular streamers on Twitch, with the fifth-most-followed Twitch channel in the world.
Early life
Rubén Doblas Gundersen was born on 13 February 1990 in Mijas, Andalusia, Spain. He is the son of a Norwegian mother named Bente and a Spanish father, with a younger sister called Liv on his mother's side and two brothers on his father's side. When he was three years old, his parents divorced; he and his mother moved to Bergen, where she became a partner with another Spanish person named Héctor, to whom Rubius often refers as "The Godfather" in his videos. He moved back to Madrid because of this, where he went through primary and secondary school. His first console was an SNES, to which he admitted that it was essential to develop his love for video games and geek culture and that if it hadn't been for that he would never have reached where he was.In his high school stage, his parents separated again when aged 16. He relocated to Norway again and finished his studies and returned to Spain with his godfather. He worked as an intern and in a supermarket there. He later entered to study 3D modelling and animation in Arteneo School in Madrid.
Career
First channel and beginnings (2006–2011)
Rubén Doblas Gundersen created his first YouTube channel in 2006 under the name "elrubius". He claimed this channel to be a play on words, referring to his name and the fact that he had blonde hair when he was little. His first video "The audience" was uploaded on 8 December 2006. His video was a montage of the video game Grand Theft Auto IV in English. During 2011, he began regularly uploading videos of montages of the newer video game Skyrim, where Rubius commented on unusual and humorous situations in-game. In January 2012, despite the growing popularity of his videos, he announced that he would change his channel because the one he had at that time could not be associated with a contract with Machinima Network, Inc. This was due to uploading three copyright infringement complaints on YouTube.Growth and popularity (2012–2013)
On 19 December 2011, El Rubius created another channel under the name of "elrubiusOMG". In January, he began to reupload his old The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim montages, in addition to other montages in which he commented on situations of various video games such as Battlefield and Happy Wheels. At this time, it was a very popular format on the platform. Rubius was one of the pioneers in making this type of videos known in the Spanish-speaking community. Its popularity began to increase dramatically. On 28 January 2012, he created the video "MI CARA". He revealed his identity for the first time on YouTube there. At this time, he created a segment on his channel called " in 1 minute". In these videos, he tried to summarise a video game in an ironic and humorous way. This section became one of the most viral sections on YouTube in Spain at this time.On 14 March 2012, he uploaded a parody of Chayanne's song "Torero", where he modified its title and lyrics to "Minero", alluding to the Minecraft video game. The song was based on the parody. Because the popularity of the video game was emerging at that time, the video became extremely viral. Today, it is the most viewed video in the channel's history, with almost 100 million views. The popularity of Rubius and the channel continued to rise and rise. On 27 April 2012, the channel reached 100,000 subscribers, which Rubius celebrated by streaming on YouTube, answering questions from his followers.
On 22 July 2012, his channel reached 200,000 subscribers. On 29 July, he uploaded a vlog where he met Mangel for the first time in-person, another Spanish YouTuber who met Rubius on internet forums when both were teenagers. Rubius and Mangel announced that both would move to live together in Madrid when they got a contract with a production company called BGames. There, they had to dedicate themselves to creating videos for the platform. On 16 September 2012, his channel reached 300,000 subscribers. On 7 October, Rubius uploaded a video of him in Chatroulette. Chatroulette is a video conference website. There, Rubius showed situations in his conversations with strangers on which the website had. Three days later, he uploaded a collaboration with Willyrex. He remained the largest YouTuber in Spain until 2012. A week later, his channel reached 400,000 subscribers. In December, his channel reached 500,000 subscribers, which Rubius announced by uploading a montage of himself.
Rubius became the most subscribed Spanish channel in November 2012 by surpassing fellow YouTuber Willyrex. In January 2013, he started another segment called "Meet The Rubius". Rubius recounted anecdotes from his personal life there. In a period of two months, on 18 February 2013, his channel reached one million subscribers, becoming part of the 10 Spanish-speaking channels that had that reached that level at that time. Two months later, his channel reached two million subscribers. In June 2013, he was invited by Ubisoft Spain as a content creator for E3. In July, he attended the Gamepolis event in Malaga, alongside Mangel and other famous YouTube content creators.
10 million subscribers, media appearances and other projects (2014–2015)
In 2014, El Rubius published an interactive book full of challenges titled El Libro Troll. The book reached number one in sales in Spain for eight weeks and was a bestseller at the Madrid Book Fair 2014. The Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio deemed it unsuitable for children and teenagers. It was described by parents as a sexual book. He also made a cameo appearance, this being in Torrente 5, a Spanish comedy film by Santiago Segura. On 25 September, he announced via video that Microsoft would contact him to participate in the Spanish dub for the video game Sunset Overdrive. In February 2015, he became the first Spanish YouTuber whose channel reached 10 million subscribers. In April 2015, he participated in the first edition of the Club Media Fest in Argentina.On 2 June, he had an interview on Antena 3 in the Spanish programme Al rincón de pensar. The programme's journalist was Risto Mejide. Rubius couldn't suppress his tears after telling Mejide that he was suffering from depression due to the burden of fame and being away from his family. Spanish publishing group Planeta published Rubius' first comic, titled El Rubius: Virtual Hero, in September 2015. In October 2015, he received the Diamond Play Button at the YouTube 10th Anniversary Party in Madrid, along with fellow Spanish YouTuber Vegetta777. During this month, he participated in the second edition of the Club Media Fest in Argentina and Chile. In December, he made a collaboration in a video with the Spanish singer Edurne dancing in the video game Just Dance.
Problems with the press and censorship, direct and hiatus (2016–2018)
In February 2016, El Rubius denounced the Spanish newspaper El Mundo through a video, saying that they had distorted and manipulated an interview that he himself granted, in order to "sell more". He announced that he would not give any more reports or interviews for the press. In April, Rubius participated in the Colombian edition of the Club Media Fest, where he made a presentation mixing live electronic music, received the "Youtuber of the Year" award at the 1st Play Awards ceremony held in Palma de Mallorca, and in April 2016 he uploaded a music video titled "Pokemon HEYEYEYEAH" with Narehop, a parody of What's Up? by Rock band 4 Non Blondes. In May he participated in a YouTube event in New York with the most famous YouTubers in the world, where he met PewDiePie in-person. During the event, he organised an event for people over 18 in Barcelona where he performed a concert mixing music. The second part of Virtual Hero, whose title is Virtual Hero II: La torre imposible, was published in June 2016.After surpassing 20 million subscribers in August 2016, Rubius made a big draw with a tweet saying "Limonada". As of September 2019, it is the fifth most-shared tweet in history. In September, he uploaded a video criticising YouTube's system of new anti-censorship rules. There Rubius joked that he was going to have to change his style as "he didn't want to lose his partner and that he loved his money". However, during the video, he went on to break all the new rules imposed, with the video being demonetised and age-restricted. A couple of weeks later, he uploaded another video denouncing a new magazine dedicated to gossip about YouTubers that had leaked photos of himself and his partner on their vacations, declaring "I can't believe how this shit of continuing to invade people's privacy is still legal in the middle of 2016". In 2016, the HeYou Games company launched the YouTurbo video game for iOS and Android. There Rubius is a playable character along with other YouTubers, such as Willyrex, DaniRep, iTownGamePlay, TheGrefg, and more.
In December 2016, he was part of the promotion of the film Passengers, making a video in collaboration with Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, protagonists of the film. Later, during an interview with Lawrence on Jimmy Kimmel's late night show, he and the video were mentioned. During 2016 and 2017 he participated in Spanish advertising campaigns of Fanta. In June he participated in the edition of the Club Media Fest in Mexico. In October he participated in the edition of the Club Media Fest in Peru. The third and last part of his comic series Virtual Hero was published in April 2017. It was entitled Virtual Hero III: La máscara del troll. In October 2017, El Rubius announced the production of Virtual Hero, an animated television series produced by Motion Pictures from Barcelona and Jaruyi studio from South Korea, together with Movistar+ and Zeppelin TV, based on his comic series. The plot follows the adventures of Rubius, who must free the 100 best gamers of Trollmask, a vengeful enemy, in a virtual world.