Here’s a list of the most well known bans to have taken place during or ahead of a GDQ speed running event. More detailed explanations for each are below this list.
- Patty – 2021 – Historical Tweets
- Mekarazium – SGDQ 2022 – Faked a run
- MatrixTN – 2011 – Smelling
- werster – 2015 – Exploring the hotel
- GamePro011 -SGDQ 2015 – making jokes deemed offensive during his run
- A_Cute_Lynx – AGDQ 2015 – Harassment
- Big Jon – GDQ 2015 – Circumventing the submission process
- Luzbelheim – AGDQ 2020 – Discriminatory views
- Bonesaw – GDQ 2017 – Being annoying
- Controllerhead – AGDQ 2014 – Being drunk and a nuisance
- Dugongue – GDQ 2017 – Harrasment
- PvtCinnamonbun – AGDQ 2017 banned for wearing MAGA hat, unbanned after proving he wasn’t wearing one, re-banned for supposedly unplugging equipment
- Cyberdemon531 – AGDQ 2017 – wearing MAGA hat on stream with Cinnamon bun
- Clint Stevens – GDQ 2017 – Variety of reasons
- Vysuals – SGDQ 2020 – C word in a tweet
- Shift – AGDQ 2019 – Homophobic slur
- BubblesDelFuego – AGDQ 2018 – Sharing marijuana
- DrFatBody – GDQ 2019 – Getting drunk and handsy
- Calebhart – GDQ 2019 – Racist messages
Who’s been banned from GDQ, when and why?
Patty
Patty who is a variety streamer applied to be a commentator and was banned during GDQ’s internal investigation who found. The ban came in 2021 and lasts until November 2022. The reason being historical tweets and messages targeting protected classes such as non-binaries and so on.
This was met with bemusement by Patty and his community but from our experience with GDQ they do not need much of an excuse to ban people and defend the brand. Here’s one example which was cited for the ban.
Almost everything he said is on Twitch’s banned word list.
Mekarazium
This is as bizarre but cut and dry as you can imagine. Mekarazium was banned from SGDQ 2022 for streaming previous footage of a run rather than just running it live. Remember, this is a charity event so cheating really isn’t necessary. He is a solid MGSR runner and could have easily just ran it live but chose not to resulting in a permanent ban from all GDQ events.
This made the news big time at the time – remember GDQ has more eyes than ever on it and the thought that people donate to a cheater is pretty serious.
MatrixTN
MatrixTN was banned after his Theatre Neo 2011 GDQ appearance for lack of hygiene. Apparently, he smelled so bad that it made people physically sick. 2011 was still early days for GDQ events so it was not as professional as it is now and it wasn’t made clear how important hygiene is for these events.
GDQ does indeed have hygiene in their policy, such is the nature of working with Twitch and speedrunning streamers.
Werster
This is a bit of a mystery. Most people are aware of some GDQ controversy surrounding Werster but as of now he isn’t banned. The rumour is he stole hotel keycards but his official explanation is just exploring the hotel.
The most probably reason? Werster was already in the sights of GDQ staffer since an alleged N word bomb in 2013, we think GDQ wanted to wait for any reason to ban him and when he was seen being suspicious in the hotel that was enough for them.
This is a common theme with GDQ bans – certain speed runners are already in the sights of some staff members and any reason no matter how minor it is enough. This is a shame as Werster is one of the most well known speed runners worldwide and would bring a lot of eyes to these events if he was to return.
GamePro011
GamePro011’s ban at SGDQ 2015 is a divisive one but pretty obvious. His now infamous run on Crash Bandicoot 2 is littered with bizarre anecdotes and over the top mentions of suicide. His comments on the live stream were unsavoury at best with many commenters wondering what the big deal is.
But, as we’ve said before GDQ want to protect their brand, their ability to get sponsors and to even ask for people to donate so for anyone to be divisive is a huge risk that they just aren’t going to take.
Here’s a summary of clips, make your own mind up.
A_Cute_Lynx
Variety streamer A_Cute_Lynx was banned from AGDQ 2015 for harassment and entering a restricted area. However, ACL was already on GDQ staff watching list for the “fire thing” from 2014 and these incidents were probably the last straw.
BigJon
During a planned Super Mario speed run in 2015, Big Jon started bringing out a copy of a game which was not accepted during the proper submission process. In January 2016, GDQ staffer seemed to be all over him.
The straw that broke the camels back, however, was when BigJon raised money for runners to go and one of the people who got the money was a little dodgy. Suffice to say that GDQ brought the hammer down badly on this occasion and perhaps they simply didn’t like him.
Luzbelheim
Luzbelheim was a victim of cancel culture and stupidity. He is a supporter of a far-right political party (Vox) and had discriminatory sentiments in his twitter bio. Regardless of what you believe about freedom of speech and so on, everyone knows GDQ does not like any statements like that so a ban was going to be obvious for Luz. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of consequence as any future GDQ runner needs to remember.
The outrage was such that it was picked up in The Gamer
.
Bonesaw
Bonesaw was banned from GDQ 2017 because of his Jack and Daxter run in SGDQ 2016. In this run, which was fairly enjoyable and is still live on GDQ’s YouTube page, contained too many Owen Wilson impressions (you read that right) and his instructions to viewers to spam Air Canada was a step too far. Many people still claim this to be one of the best GDQ runs.
This goes well past the “Kill all the animals” stuff.
We feel this ban was put in place because managing his behaviour is just not worth it for the staff.
Controllerhead
Controllerhead was banned from AQDQ 2014 for being a total nuisance and aggravating other runners, staff in and outside of the event. He was also intoxicated and out of control at the hotel which he was also kicked out from.
Here’s a better summary than what we can muster.
Dugongue
Harassment of staff, plain and simple. An unsavoury character who is now banned rom Twitter, Twitch and even Speed Demos Archive (SDA).
PvtCinnamonbun
Now this one’s a real story. During an Ape Escape 2 run couch members revealed some MAGA (Make America Great Again) hats and put some on people’s heads. PvtCinnamonbun was promptly banned despite never actually wearing the hat.
Shockingly, the conversation was recorded here.
This was a tale of a group of nerds trying to be funny and GDQ staff jumping to conclusions and banning before all the facts were presented. He was unbanned, but then banned again for tampering with equipment. The reality? GDQ were embarrassed about their original mistake and just wanted that reminder gone. A very sorry affair but a lesson to anyone going to GDQ – do not say or do anything political no matter how much in jest it is.
Cyberdemon531
Same event as above, but unfortunately a MAGA hat did make it on the head of Cyberdemon531 who was later banned. GDQ have a ZERO tolerance policy so to even attempt this was just stupid and worthy of a ban.
Want to see this disastrous part of the event? Click here.
Clint Stevens
Ah, the myth of why Clint Stevens was banned. Clint is a massive Nintendo streamer with one of the biggest followings on Twitch – this could explain his behaviour at GDQ 2017. There have been so many rumours about why he was banned that it would be easier to give you a list and you can just pick one.
- Doesn’t like the nerds [at GDQ]
- Punched a staffer in the face when they didn’t let his girlfriend on the couch
- He isn’t actually banned, it is a story he made up because he chokes at live events
- Smoked weed in the hotel bathroom
- Harassing Spike while registering
- “Fapping”
- He would have been late anyway
There are also ridiculous rumours he signed an NDA about his reasons for being banned. This is probably another myth.
Vysuals
Hollow Knight streamer was banned from participating in 2020 due to historical tweets using the word Cunt – about 5 of them. That really is the reason given and that’s that. GDQ is always criticised for its censorship and we feel that this case is probably one of the harshest we’ve ever seen. Until we dug deeper and found someone who had actually done the digging.
This thread here exposes way more than the odd Tweet, with some racism, transphobia and homophobia thrown in.
His Twitter and overall opinions is pretty colourful and the likelihood is that they saw a few borderline example cases but just cited the C word ones. GDQ can refuse anyone, for any reason, let’s remember. If they look like they could be trouble then they will avoid it.
Vysuals, to put it mildly, is a wildcard online and GDQ would be taking a huge risk putting im in front of a live audience considering what he’s capable of elsewhere. It seems reasonable to want to not have him at an event from the lens of GDQ themselves.
Shift
SpongeBob streamer Shift was banned as a runner from SGDQ 2019 for a homophobic slur on Twitch which got him a 30 days suspension. Shift snapped, having been victim of constant targeted harassment on his stream for a year. The slur was not acceptable, but you can at least see the reason.
However, it’s worth pondering that when you get angry and snap do you suddenly use homophobic slurs? I don’t.
Would you want someone who has done so in the past to sit live in front of thousands of potential donators? Maybe not…
BubblesDelFuego
This story was so big Kotaku covered it. At AGDQ 2018, BubblesDelFuego shared some of his edible marijuana (which he takes for chronic pain) with others at the event. This led to the receiver getting a panic attack and the need to go to hospital. This was against the law in the Virginia, where the event was taking place. So, not only was it against GDQ policy (probably) it was also a crime happening live.
Perhaps an innocent act on the face of it but in the context of GDQ it was a really stupid move and no one can complain that the ban was deemed reasonable.
However, this story does have a sad note. Bubbles is a two-time cancer survivor (hence the medical marijuana) so to band a cancer survivor from a Cancer charity event is not a good look.
DrFatBody
This one will drive you insane. When people get banned from GDQ there’s a common theme that they will Tweet their bemusement and surprise on why the ban happened, then a little later the truth comes out which doesn’t put a good light on the banned person. In this case, DrFatBody claimed he was confused, then the truth came out via Punchy, before DrFatBody finally apologises.
Turns out, DrFatBody likes a drink and when he does his hands begin to wander.
Calebhart
Caleb was barred from submitting runs after his private messages revealed racist words. To be fair, Caleb “Iceless” Hart’s chat is pushing boundaries as it is and this incident was enough for GDQ to not want to take the risk. Even CarcinogenSDA was pulled into this sorry affair by simply being messaged “sup nigger” by Caleb Hart. The N word being a prickly subject in the Twitch scene to say the least.
You can see the clip here.
Here’s a great Caleb quote for you “It’s easy to get cast away as an anti semite if you talk about the Jewish Question in this climate.” Now you can see why he is banned.
