Stage invaders jump Gamescom Opening Night Live stage within minutes to ask for GTA 6

Geoff Keighley just can’t seem to catch a break. After someone snuck onstage at The Game Awards last year to deliver a perplexing shout out to Bill Clinton, an enterprising crew of stage hoppers have conspired to deliver a repeat performance, complete with once again name dropping the former president, at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live. 

After a live performance of a selection from the Starfield soundtrack by Inon Zur, Bethesda Softworks’ longtime composer, the show took a bit of an unexpected turn. Two men (YouTube footage is unclear about this, but a Dot Esports editor who was present at ONL can confirm that there were, indeed, two of them) managed to slip past security and climb up on stage, one of whom approached Keighley in an attempt to hijack his microphone. 

To his credit, Keighley did a decent job at maintaining his poker face, even as the unidentified stage invader fervently asserted that “Bill Clinton wants to play GTA 6”—which, incidentally, has almost no chance of being shown off at ONL, given that the show is focusing on previously announced games and smaller-budget reveals. 

Related: ‘Bill Clinton’ stage crasher hijacks Elden Ring GOTY win at The Game Awards—and is promptly arrested

The man’s accomplice, on the other hand, posed for the cameras, wearing a shirt urging viewers to follow the pair on TikTok. Unfortunately, the immediate social media reaction was limited, with none of the confusion of the first incident, perhaps proving the old adage that sequels are never as good as the original.

Apparently, this isn’t the first time these two have tried stunts like this. as they’ve made a habit of getting past security for various broadcasts to make their feelings known.

The incursion lasted only seconds before the men were removed from stage by security—if they’d waited just a little longer before enacting their strategy, they could have even shared the stage with Todd Howard, just as their predecessor did with Hidetaka Miyazaki last year.

As it was, however, the prank was simply a minor hiccup, with Keighley expressing that he was “really disappointed” before getting right back into the show.