Kick creators accused of harassment following incidents at DreamHack Melbourne

DreamHack Australia has today issued a statement condemning the actions of a selection of creators for “disrupting and harassing” attendees at the Melbourne festival last weekend. Further details revealed a number of the accused were invited to the event as part of streaming platform Kick’s partnership with the festival.

DreamHack Australia’s April 29 statement came less than two days following the conclusion of the festival at Melbourne Park. DreamHack made it clear in the statement, which was posted on X (formerly Twitter), that those who intended to cause harm or harass attendees would not be welcome and that lifetime bans were issued to those who have been identified. “Incidents that we are/were aware of from the weekend have been dealt with, and those individuals will never be welcome at any of our events now or in the future,” the statement read.

DreamHack Australia also called on festivalgoers to report any incidents from the event with several stories posted in response on the X thread. One such Kick creator, Louiex, received bans from both the platform and future DreamHack events after noted instances of harassment both at the festival and later in greater Melbourne.

According to a clip posted on @KickStreamingNews on X/Twitter, Louiex was spotted physically confronting a man on an inner-city Melbourne street. In the clip in question, the argument escalates to the point where both men throw several punches at each other in the middle of the road. Louiex’s Kick account has since been taken down by the platform.

Kick announced a partnership with DreamHack in mid-April, with the one-year deal seeing the streaming giant work hand-in-hand with the ESL FACEIT Group at the Melbourne, Atlanta, Dallas, and Stockholm festivals through 2024. The deal includes extended face time with creators and activations on-site.

Dot Esports reached out to DreamHack and Kick for further comment. The festival responded by telling Dot Esports that investigations into further incidents were ongoing, while Kick has not commented at the time of publication. Kick’s head of strategic partnerships, Andrew Santamaria, said he would be discussing the April incident and the platform’s approach to “streaming etiquette” in a livestream later this evening.

It’s a mark on an otherwise perfect weekend in Melbourne Park where attendance records at DreamHack Melbourne were shattered. Over 35,000 people converged on the gaming festival—a 40 percent boost compared to numbers in 2023—with both gaming and esports crowds well-catered to over the three days.

Update, April 30 at 2:02am CT: Kick responded to Dot stating they were aware of an incident involving an individual at the festival and that the platform had taken “swift action” to ban the creator from the platform. “[Kick] does not in any way condone their actions,” they said in the statement.