Attendees of the 2019 Summer Games Done Quick (SGDQ) event and the speedrunning community as a whole have been shaken by sexual harassment claims made against well-known speedrunner Calebhard42 by streamer Cincynancy.
On Thursday afternoon, Nancy accused Caleb of groping multiple women, including herself, in a tweet. She said she was “about to go up and say something,” likely referring to event staff who had the ability to kick attendees out.
She said she chose to publicize her accusation in case anyone else at the event had a similar experience or wanted to go with her to speak with staff.
“I don’t think a police report will do much against an ass grab, but if someone is making others uncomfortable at this event I want that to be known,” Nancy said.
Caleb quickly responded to Nancy’s first tweet by denying the allegations.
“I remember speaking to you for a total of 2-3 minutes, with MULTIPLE people around me that can call this as a lie,” Caleb said. “I would love for you to present some sort of proof.”
Speedrunner Oatsngoats replied to Caleb’s tweets to mostly corroborate his innocence.
“Me and my friends were with him 90% of the night and saw nothing inappropriate,” Oats said. “Can’t speak about the other 10%.”
Nancy deleted both of her initial tweets shortly after posting them, claiming to have only made them to see if others had any similar claims since “obviously, I didn’t have proof.” She also said she never intended for her tweets to “snowball the way it did.”
Roughly seven hours after posting her initial claim on Twitter, Nancy shared a screengrab of a lengthy statement addressing everything that happened up to that point.
“There were also accounts of inappropriate and threatening language,” Nancy said. “As these conversations grew, more and more people told me the same thing: ‘I do not feel safe.’ I hope that it would make more people aware, as well as influence others to speak up if they too felt unsafe. I also hoped that anyone who may be guilty of inappropriate touching or threatening language would learn to check their behavior.”
Nancy said her priority was ensuring the safety of the people at SGDQ, and that “everyone here is like family to me, and nobody messes with my family.”
Nancy doubled down on her claim that Caleb was the perpetrator in a follow-up tweet. “You seem to think I changed my story because I didn’t use names,” Nancy said. “I’m still talking about the same person. I know who touched me.”
She also said, “I deleted the tweets after I talked to Twitch staff.”
Since tweeting his denial, Caleb has remained almost entirely silent on the issue. The only additional engagement he’s seems to have made in connection with the topic was liking a tweet that made fun of the accusation.
Interestingly, Nancy retweeted a post from @PAOPUFR00T on Tuesday discussing sexual misconduct at past Games Done Quick events. It’s unclear whether the tweet was just a general reminder to be respectful or an implication of other rumors floating around SGDQ 2019 prior to Nancy’s public allegations against Caleb.
The semiannual speedrunning marathon seems to never run its course without claims of misconduct at the hands of either the staff or attendees. So far at SDGQ 2019, one runner received a controversial two-year ban for comments made in 2018, while another claims he was banned from the hotel hosting the event after he was physically assaulted.
Dot Esports has reached out to Calebhart42, Cincynancy, PAOPUFR00T, and Oatsngoats for further comment.
Published: Jun 28, 2019 04:25 pm