While reflecting on his experience at TwitchCon San Diego over the weekend, YouTube star Ludwig Ahgren criticized the event for having what he described as safety concerns and hazards.
Although he had a good time at the event, which he jokingly described as a “reconnaissance mission,” he was dead serious about shedding more light on these issues.
The first one was the foam pit that wound up causing multiple people to seriously injure themselves, including adult actress Adriana Checkik, who broke her back in two different places.
“Although this seems like a delightful foam pit that goes miles deep, it’s about two full foam blocks thick, which is about an inch of padding when you’re really jumping onto it,” he explained.
Ludwig fought in the pit, so his description is based on direct experience.
What irked him even more, however, was the fact Twitch didn’t acknowledge the issue and let it carry on. “They didn’t shut down the booth after that, shockingly,” he said. “They kept the booth open.”
According to Ludwig, the safety concerns didn’t stop there.
He was particularly concerned about the location in which the Dream & Friends: The Ultimate SMP Reunion panel took place, claiming it had a 400-person capacity despite being a massive draw, and it wasn’t enough.
“You’re talking about Dream, after a face reveal, with all the biggest Minecrafters, doing a panel with a 400-person capacity at an event with over 30,000 attendees—a lot of whom are teenage Minecraft fans,” he said.
“There were lines out the door that were five times the amount of people who were actually allowed in, which created a lot of safety hazards. I think there were some people who even fainted at some points.”
Ludwig also claimed it was “very difficult” for people with accessibility issues, such as those who are wheelchair bound, to try to get into a lot of things, including photo booth lines.
In the end, he concluded it was probably a result of Twitch growing far more than it might have anticipated, which in turn, makes it harder to organize large scale events like this.
Still, he thinks there’s no excuse.
“There’s a lot to learn from this for them,” he said. “Generally, most of the weekend went well, but it clearly had a few big problems.”
Published: Oct 11, 2022 12:44 am