The Legend of Zelda speedrunner Chad “cdgexe” announced on Twitter yesterday that he’s been banned indefinitely from all Games Done Quick events after a sexual harassment claim that has “no merit” was brought against him.
Cdgexe says a fellow Zelda runner, Mari, made the claim to the Games Done Quick organizers and that he is sad about the allegations because “it is the responsibility of the staff to ensure these claims are meritous.”
Information about what happened is scarce right now, since Games Done Quick has yet to comment on the situation and Mari hasn’t publicly explained her version of the story.
Cdgexe shared screengrabs on Twitter of a private conversation he had with Mari on Discord on Jan. 1. The messages show cdgexe inviting Mari to be his roommate at AGDQ so that she could attend the event. They made the arrangements and he offered to “cover her ticket.”
The following few messages show cdgexe and Mari talking about cuddling. An hour later, she asks if he would be open to having sex with her, with some restrictions. Cdgexe then opted not to share the rest of their conversation “out of a mutual respect.”
It’s unclear what happened once Mari arrived in Rockville, Maryland for AGDQ, which kicked off on Jan. 6. Cdgexe was clear that he did initiate some kind of sexual interaction with Mari, but said that he respected her boundaries. “We cuddled one night, slight escalation, and we stopped and separated the next day,” he tweeted, then retweeted a message that said he “kicked her out” of his room afterward.
Mari hasn’t publicly talked about the moments before she was allegedly kicked out of cdgexe’s room. Apparently, after being kicked out, Mari reported cdgexe for sexual harassment to GDQ, which led to the ban.
Dot Esports has reached out to Games Done Quick for comment, but did not receive a reply by publication time. We will update this story if GDQ responds.
