Don't Reward 5: Paid Raids. Buying raid traffic from raid-services or coordinating with bot networks.

How platforms detect paid raids:

• Raid traffic IPs match known commercial raid services
• Raid viewers immediately leave the receiving stream (the raid bots only stay long enough to register the raid)
• No chat activity from raid traffic (real raids produce chat spam from the visiting audience)
• Pattern of receiving raids without sending raids in return (one-way commercial pattern)

The cost:

• Filter layer downgrades the receiving stream's ranking
• Both the buyer (streamer who paid for raid) and seller (streamer providing the raid) get flagged
• Repeat detection results in suspension or permanent ban

What to do instead: build organic raid relationships through the strategic raiding pattern in Tactic 5 (Module 4). Send raids to peer streamers. They'll often return raids without you ever asking. The reciprocal pattern is the algorithm-rewarded version.

The pattern that works: consistent organic raids both sent and received over 6-12 weeks build the network signal. Paid raids never build this — they're a shortcut that the algorithm catches and discounts.