High-profile Twitch streamer Emiru was assaulted at a meet-and-greet held at TwitchCon, the convention that offers fans the opportunity to interact with their favorite streamers on the gaming-focused platform.
Emiru, whose real name is Emily Beth Schunk, is a 27-year old streamer, YouTuber and cosplayer best known for her “League of Legends” livestreams on Twitch, where she has nearly 2 million followers.
A video shared online appears to show a man quickly approach Emiru, embrace her, and lean in to kiss her.
“The safety and security of all those attending TwitchCon is our highest priority. The behavior displayed by the individual involved in the incident yesterday involving a high profile streamer was completely unacceptable and deeply upsetting,” the organizers said in a statement shared on X Saturday.
“In line with existing TwitchCon security protocols, law enforcement and event security were on site and responded to the incident. We immediately blocked this individual from returning to the TwitchCon premises, and they are banned indefinitely from Twitch, both online and in-person events. We are coordinating with the impacted creator’s team and, per our standard protocols, continue to cooperate with any law enforcement investigations.”
The statement continued, “We have increased security at the Meet & Greet attendee check-in point and will have additional security personnel surrounding participating streamers. If you’ve RSVPed for a Meet & Greet, please note that we are unable to accommodate +1s for the remainder of the event.”
“Twitch has zero tolerance for harassment or acts that inhibit the safety and security of our community,” organizers concluded.
Emiru also released a lengthy statement on X. After assuring her followers she is OK and thanking them for her concern, she explained, “Yesterday, the man who assaulted me was allowed to cross multiple barriers at twitchcon and even in front of another creators meet and greet to grab me and my face and try to kiss me. Fortunately he wasn’t able to, but a lot of people have pointed out it could have been a lot worse!”
She added that though this is not the first time someone has assaulted her at an event — but that Twitch’s response made this situation worse than it needed to be.
“Like I said, I don’t understand how he was allowed to make it to me in the first place. The security in the clip who reacts is my own security (it’s true my favorite and usual security guard was banned for holding a stalkers arm to bring him to police, at a past Twitchcon),” she wrote. “However, there were at least 3 or 4 other Twitchcon security staff in the area who did not react and let the guy walk away, as you can see in the clip since they don’t even appear in the frame LOL.”
“The woman who is walking me away is my own personal manager, and behind the booth, the only two people who were checking on me and comforting me were her and my friend. None of the Twitchcon staff came to ask what happened or if I was okay,” she added. “My friend who was present told me Twitch security were also behind the booth afterwards joking about how they didn’t even see what happened and immediately laughing and moving on to talking about something else.”
