Speedrunner banned from Games Done Quick following sexual harassment claim
Chad 'dgexe'The ‘Awesome Games Done Quick’ charity speedrunning event has been hit with controversy, after a popular speedrunner announced on Twitter that he’d been banned from all future events.
While many eyes have been trained on Awesome Games Done Quick (the winter edition of the Games Done Quick charity series), the attention swung in a different direction on January 10, after allegations of sexual harassment hit social media.
Legend of Zelda speedrunner Chad “cdgexe” posted a lengthy Twitter thread on the same day, in which he stated that he’d been banned from all Games Done Quick events “for a sexual harassment claim that has no merit.”
I’ve been permanently banned from @GamesDoneQuick events indefinitely for a sexual harassment claim that has held no merit. It saddens me, because it is the responsibility of the staff to ensure these claims are meritous. @Mari_mba_ has reported me, and I will make it clear, now.
— cdgexe/Chad @AGDQ (@cdgexe) January 10, 2019
There has been no official comment from GDQ or ‘Mari_mba’ on the matter, meaning that all fans have to go on is cdgexe’s side of the story.
According to his thread, a fellow speedrunner named ‘Mari’ reported him for sexual harassment, leaving him saddened by the situation since “it is the responsibility of the staff to ensure these claims” have merit.
The conversation, shown on Twitter through screenshots provided by cdgexe, allegedly started with him asking Mari if she wanted to stay in his room during AGDQ, to which she agreed before they made arrangements for the event.
Games Done Quick has raised almost $17 million across 21 different marathons since their inception in 2010.
From there, the conversation turned to them discussing cuddling during their time at AGDQ – at which point Mari asks if he wanted to just cuddle or if he wanted to have sex as well. The rest of the conversation was not shown by cdgexe out of “mutual respect.”
The events that actually occurred at AGDQ once it got underway on January 6 aren’t perfectly clear, but cdgexe did confirm that they cuddled one night before there was a “slight escalation” that eventually ended their contact together.
Which, is when there was a final say so, we immediately parted our ways to not deal with the situation any more. I don’t know what to state otherwise/regardless to the situation other than we cuddled one night, slight escalation, and we stopped and separated the next day.
— cdgexe/Chad @AGDQ (@cdgexe) January 11, 2019
Cdgexe also retweeted a description of the events, which claim he kicked her out of his room after the “escalation.”
As Mari has yet to speak out on the allegations, there has been no confirmation on any of the alleged events in question.
Dexerto has reached out to Games Done Quick for an official statement on the matter, but no response was received at the time of this article’s publication on January 11. We’ll be sure to update this story as soon as a response is received.