Edward Gaming responds to sexual assault cover-up allegations from former employee

The organization denied any evidence of sexual assault.
Photo via Riot Games

Chinese esports organization Edward Gaming is facing allegations from a former employee claiming the company covered up and facilitated sexual assault between two staff members. The former employee posted her experience to Weibo today alongside message logs and video evidence.

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EDG later responded to the accusations and denied any evidence of sexual assault.

Co-host of the League of Legends podcast Pod of Ages and former operator of the English LPL Twitter account “iCrystalization” posted to Twitter a translation of the former EDG staffer’s Weibo post.  

The former EDG employee served as a director and post-production editor of “Fight Back” and the LPL team’s ELOG series. She said she was repeatedly assaulted by one of the crew’s cameramen, referred to as “A Yuan,” over a year-long period. She first reported the sexual assault to the management leader in January, hoping that the org would remove him from the work environment.

“I hoped they could get rid of him; there was just no way I could work with someone like that,” the former employee wrote. “But the company didn’t do anything (at the time, when I had decided to come out, EDG’s behavior made me feel very helpless).”

In several screenshots, the former employee informed EDG’s operation manager of the sexual assault. She was advised to “seduce” A Yuan to gain evidence against him. Additionally, the images suggest EDG attempted to pay the victim into remaining silent.

The former EDG staffer later posted an 18-second video clip showing A Yuan inappropriately touching the former employee. In the video, she moves away from him and he follows to resume touching her.

The former employee said she didn’t want to compromise the shoot and “didn’t dare to stick [her] head out” while she was still new to the profession. In an attempt to solve the issue herself, she tried to avoid being alone with the cameraman and would distance herself from him. Despite her attempts, she says EDG created opportunities for the two to be in close proximity.

“I tried my best to avoid being alone with him, I tried my best to control the distance between us,” she wrote. “But I never would’ve though that, not only did EDG not help me, but intentionally or unintentionally, they created an environment where A Yuan could come in contact with me, for example, changing stations so he stood next to me.”

EDG responded to the accusations on Weibo. The org claimed that the former employee failed to provide evidence outside of verbal complaints made in January. EDG also wrote that in April it submitted a video to its legal administration for review but that the clip did not show evidence of sexual assault.

Additionally, the organization claimed the money it sent to the victim was not a “hushing-fee” but instead a bonus for the video team’s work in 2019, which was allegedly distributed across multiple members of the team.

EDG wrote that it conducted investigations into the assault and did not find definitive evidence of sexual assault. The organization added it has a “zero tolerance” policy for this type of behavior.

The full post can be found on EDG’s Weibo account.


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Author
Rachel Samples
Managing Editor. In 2018, Rachel graduated from the University of Texas with a bachelor’s in Rhetoric and Writing and first entered the esports industry in the same year. Her favorite games include fast-paced FPS titles, deckbuilders, and the entire Mass Effect franchise. Need any calibrations?