People recognize the pillstream & the gunt picture as Ralph's downfall. I was wondering what would be considered Nick's equivalent to that. I don't think nick has hit Miami trip or faith arc bad. But who knows.
The Gunt picture has quite a few similarities to the Balldo.
When the Gunt picture was taken, at the time it only caused mild mockery and horrifying ratings from a few people. Ralph still had goodwill left even though people were a bit wary about his increasing alcoholism that was ruining shows, and getting into fights with chat. If I remember correctly (bear with me, as I wasn't particularly following Ralph on his post-Knoxville adventures out of disappointment for the way he was acting), at some point, people started spamming that gunt picture in his stream chat, causing Ralph to react negatively, further encouraging the trolls. Even then, people were on Ralph's side when he had a spat against Xander later that month, but it was all downhill from here. Ralph would react poorly to criticism on the thread, causing more people to turn against him, especially after the disasters that happened shortly after. The Miami trip, the botched Pedo Hunter stream, and of course the Pillstream.
With Nick, the Balldo worked in the same way. It was yet another point of concern (though a particularly egregious one) that disappointed people, but the thread was still pro-Nick. The AssBottle pic, an even more egregious hit against his "trad Christian father" persona, is what actually rocked the boat, with more and more people turning their backs on Nick as he started reacting negatively to the resulting criticism, alienating old fans, and starting to rewrite history. His reactions also brought out greatest hits such as "You are all prudes.", "I was always like this" and This was never a law channel." and of course doing a 180 on his stance on the Karen Farms. But he still loved everyone and hoped for the best of us.
With their downfall well underway, both the Gunt and the Balldo both became a retroactive symbol of their downfall for being both funny and perfectly encapsulating how they fucked up. The former for his health and reacting poorly to the picture, the latter for his degeneracy.
As for Pillstream moments, it's true Nick didn't hit Miami levels YET. Nick's closest one has been his infamous 10 minute hot tub stream where he heavily slurred more than ever before while having visibly twitchy eyes from all of the alcohol he consumed. However, that didn't *quite* have the same effect as the Pillstream since it was so short and it didn't have tech issues/muted audio or attempted interventions live on air. Even though it's technically less comparable to a Pillstream, I'd argue the SIX HOUR endurance match of Nick drunkenly seething about Eric July's 10 MINUTE video is a more infamous moment. What didn't do him any favors is that it followed the equally infamous Nick vs July stream where he poorly pretended to be on July's side while twisting his words, sucking on Juju's cow tits and going on and on on hypotheticals that never materialized or didn't make any sense (ie: everything involving shooting Riley or the IRS).