Maniac steps back from ESL Pro League broadcast following sexual assault allegations

4-9-2024 20:58

Maniac removed himself from the ESL Pro League broadcast amid multiple allegations of sexual assault leveled against him.

In response to sexual assault allegations leveled against him, Swiss analyst Mathieu "⁠Maniac⁠" Quiquerez announced his decision to step back from the ESL Pro League Season 20 broadcast on Wednesday.

"I refuse to distract the audience from the Counter-Strike and it is in everyone's best interest for me to take a step back," he said.

The announcement came just hours after freelance British journalist Hannah Marie ZT detailed her account of an exchange with Maniac in which she claimed she had been "repeatedly groped, inappropriately touched, grinded on, and grabbed despite clear discomfort and no reciprocation" by the 34-year-old at a Counter-Strike afterparty which took place this summer.

In his response, Maniac outlined his "drastically different recollection" of the exchange and said he does "not believe any sexual assault took place." He claimed that there had been an understanding that the exchange was mutual, but he left the door open to the possibility that he had missed cues that his behavior was no longer accepted through the interaction.

Shortly after Maniac's response, esports host and interviewer Daisy "DAMP" Powers released a post on X in which she corroborated Hannah Marie ZT's account of events and claimed she herself had also been "groped" and "chased across the dance floor" by Maniac at the same party in front of witnesses. Maniac did not reply to the second allegation at the time of publishing.

Both women stated they reported the incident to "relevant parties." According to Hannah Marie ZT, the company in question ran an internal investigation and "upheld [her] allegations."

Sources told HLTV that the party took place following the conclusion of the BLAST Premier Spring Final this June, where Maniac worked as an analyst, and that the organizers of the tournament were notified about the allegations.

HLTV reached out to BLAST for a comment but did not hear back at the time of publication.

Disclaimer: HLTV worked together with Maniac on various projects in the past, but there is no existing working relationship between the two parties and HLTV's ability to report on the story is unaffected.

Never thought HLTV would post this, respect

2024-09-04 20:59

846

7 replies

2024-09-04 21:06

Why not?

2024-09-04 21:10

Not even "sports mode" can save you from this.

2024-09-04 21:19

cya maniac

2024-09-05 01:20

If what is said in the article is true, he is really a trash.

2024-09-05 08:08

2024-09-05 11:29

why? as long as it isnt saudi or hunden HLTV is right up everyones arse

2024-09-05 21:21

RIP

wtf

wut

thank you Striker

117

Wow

2024-09-04 21:00

rip his career if true

I thought his reply meant he was innocent, did ESL remove him just in case?

2024-09-04 21:01

12 replies

Maniac was due to work as on-air talent at ESL Pro League Season 20 for almost three weeks from September 3-22 but cut it short after just two days "for the sake of the broadcast," according to his statement. "I refuse to distract the audience from the Counter-Strike and it is in everyone's best interest for me to take a step back," he said. This seems more like his own decision

2024-09-04 21:05

4 replies

He is not gonna say he was removed even if he was removed. This is just PR. ESL will not lets such person with severe allegations work on their broadcast

2024-09-04 21:37

3 replies

He could just as well pre-fired and removed himself before he got removed by ESl.

2024-09-04 21:46

1 reply

good point, and smart from him

2024-09-05 01:42

Crazy how false allegations might end someone's career, the world we live in

Didn't he say that he's "removing himself"?

2024-09-04 21:08

People just don't read articles

2024-09-04 22:13

where did it say he was innocent? He literally said it happened and that she has the right to feel that way, he just doesnt feel that way himself.

2024-09-04 21:26

Everyone is innocent until you find proof. As of right now, there isn't any proof, just word of mouth.

2024-09-04 21:39

shut up. the amount of people that have regrets from being drunk. it's so common.

2 replies

the amount of people who would rather deny they didnt consent than acknowledge that they were assaulted is why you can blanket define that statement. They didnt wake up and think aw i wish i didnt let that guy feel me up. What youre describing is different than what they are accusing. btw nice 13-0 choke

2024-09-04 21:43

innit

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK MAN :(

Let it develop.

2024-09-04 21:14

Nice job ruining your life and reputation Maniac

2024-09-04 21:02

We don't know whether he did it. He might be innocent and it was that woman, who ruined his reputation. I can't recall exact people, but I'm almost certain things like that happened before.

2024-09-04 23:32

Sure, making accusations is always a totally positive experience for victims :)

2024-09-05 16:03

name checks out!

name checks out.

wtf this is really disapointing, I didn't expect this kind of behavior from him :(

9 replies

Why be disappointed? Maybe his version of the story is true.

2024-09-04 23:13

5 replies

Maybe, I hope so

2024-09-05 14:30

well, he has proof, that some of her story is not true. also i've read she had accused other men of sexual assaulting her before. i find it very hard to believe her.

2024-09-05 15:03

if that uber receipt really exists, it makes her statement more than questionable

2024-09-05 19:06

He‘d be crazy to mention the receipt, if it didn‘t exist.

2024-09-05 19:22

Well ...

2024-09-06 13:53

What if a random girl said your sexually assaulted her. But you never seen her before and you never talked to her. See, maniac is innocent and those girls need money. That's it

2024-09-05 16:04

Not simple as that

2024-09-05 16:43

well what he has to lose if he lies about that?

2024-09-06 18:48

Well, hope the truth comes out, whatever may it be, whatever consequences shall it carry.

Hopefully they are not true

oof

2024-09-04 21:03

Stay strong Maniac!

that disclaimer at the end somehow makes it sound worse than it already is. As if someone already knows those allegations aren't JUST allegations on the other hand from i understand we have the classic on display here. he made advances, she didn't shut it down immediately (public place btw, if i understand it correctly), and then played the victim after the fact... i don't care about maniac but this to me seems like nonsense that is way too common these days

2024-09-04 21:09

my thoughts exactly, seems like a very poor attempt to garnish some attention.

Exactly my pov.

2024-09-05 13:05

not saying "no" isn't consent

2024-09-09 10:36

Oh boy........ Looks like Mauisnake gets a chance back at desk tho.....

2024-09-04 21:04

CAUGHT

Disgusting behaviour.

whaaaaaaat

2024-09-04 21:07

Stay strong buddy and come back please

maybe this will open the door for some analysts that add value to the broadcast

Remember that he's not guilty until proven otherwise, not the other way around. Please don't harass him cuz of the allegations atm

too late, it seems

Whattt No way, Maniac is literally the most likeable character out there wtff

How so? He strikes me as really arrogant.

2024-09-04 21:42

How so ? Never really got that impression

2024-09-05 05:28

+1 really arrogant and not particularly talented

2024-09-06 11:22

WELL RIP

2024-09-04 21:11

Fired?

2024-09-04 21:13

Hope to he will back

Oh man, doesn't look good

not good for his career as talent

2024-09-04 21:20

HES OVER! I believe in the woman

2024-09-04 21:21

Unless you're the judge/BLAST CEO/ESL CEO, we don't give a damn

2024-09-05 16:34

Going to support Maniac until there is proof

2024-09-04 21:22

how's that going?

2024-09-06 09:32

The most likeable dude could be a real life Maniac, ouch. I hope that all of this is false :(

2024-09-04 21:23

Not a good week for maniac

2024-09-04 21:24

Kudos to HLTV for actually reporting on this. Striker the goat.

2024-09-04 21:32

this is where valve shoild step in an ban him from ever working a CS event again

Yes, please

2024-09-04 21:29

damn it. i liked having him on the desk. but hopefully the truth prevails

2024-09-04 21:28

I'm always super confused how people can read one statement and immediately just blindly buy into it and branding the other side as guilty. As of now it's word against word, with no evidence at all to support either side and yet everyone's already gone and giving Maniac shit. What happend to "Innocent until proven guilty"?

Harsh week for Maniac. I hope the investigation clarifies what happened.

2024-09-04 21:30

welp

i doubt he really did that but i respect his descision to step back from the broadcast

2024-09-04 21:31

I'll never understand why women just drop this on social media instead of trying to report and cooperate with the local police and court to jail the alleged abuser,those posts with no proof at all are hard to believe since the recent modus operandi of attention seekers/gold diggers is exactly this Why not doing like in the Dani Alves case?

#freeManiac

2024-09-04 21:33

Such a waste for the analyst desk tbh hope it's not true Maniac doesn't seem to be this kind of person.

2024-09-04 21:34

what the absolute fuck

Can anyone send a threadreaderapp unroll of the concerned tweets for us Brazilians who can't access X/Twitter (t's blocked in our country rn and the use of a VPN to access it incurs in a 9,000 USD fine) and want to stay on top of this story?

imgur.com/a/Rooe1Ur dont know what's that but i am gonna give you the screenshots of the tweets.

2024-09-05 05:10

Most pitiful thing is, that this is literally lose-lose situation for everybody Community is split towards hltv - some praise the article, some say they "gossip". If they didnt report it at all, first side would blame them they are not doing "journalism". If they do report, they have to report the whole thing, not just say "Maniac steps down from EPL". So there is no win situation for HLTV. Then for Maniac, some will stand against him, some will stand his side. For the first, he is disgusting, for the second side, he is a victim (with a big "if", because it can be true). For the girl, I got no idea what she gets from all this (i guess exposure and maybe justice, if it happened and was as bad as she describes?) So in the end, it just brings toxicity, negativity and sexism to the community. But at the same time, it can be true and then it totally must be reported. So what the fuck do we do :D

2024-09-04 21:49

+1... Exactly this. Sometimes the fallout is so bad, that even if proven innocent, the reputation is already tarnished.

2024-09-04 22:40

We grab the popcorn.

2024-09-04 22:51

I would if it was somebody i disliked, but maniac always was one of my favorite talent :( not a good tasting popcorn for me

2024-09-04 23:20

I also like him but you have to learn to distance yourself. You don't know him, you're not friends, this doesn't concern you. I don't take pleasure from the situation but I also don't feel bad. Just spectate because the comments and reactions from other personalities will always be entertaining

2024-09-05 00:58

I agree. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not feeling sad at all about it :D it doesn’t concern my life whatsoever. I just participated in the discussion because it’s interesting how people from all over the world perceive these situations. All I’m saying is if that was kassad for example, the popcorn would taste much better:D

2024-09-05 07:16

Apparently Jacky is the fiancé of the second woman? x.com/Dampptowel/status/1803388728125079.. hltv.org/player/10027/jacky

2024-09-04 22:04

2024-09-04 22:11

His look screams woke, so his fiance is probably the same

2024-09-04 22:17

That explains far too much.

2024-09-04 22:27

con·sent noun permission for something to happen or agreement to do something.

2024-09-04 22:10

Waiting for actual evidence before judging

2024-09-04 22:12

Jacky response - x.com/Jackyesports/status/18314260159583..

2024-09-04 22:18

Not a psychologist but I don't trust this guy at all. Blinks once every 2 seconds, usually not a sign of a truthful person.

2024-09-05 16:44

Not sure if true or not. but I do know women can very easily destroy a man’s reputation even if he didn’t do it

2024-09-04 22:19

this

2024-09-04 22:25

Thank you for making an article about this, Striker. This at least will curb some of the threads that will be inevitably made about this incredibly ugly situation. I agree with Maniac's decision to step down until this gets sorted, I think that's a good move so that it doesn't detract from the sole purpose of what the event is supposed to be for, which is CS and anything CS-related. I just hope there is clarity for all parties involved here, as in this day and age, destroying one's reputation and image is unfortunately very easy to do; you never truly know right from wrong with how many times something like this has occurred. I'll make no judgement until I have all of the evidence at hand.

2024-09-04 22:34

average based jonty comment

2024-09-04 23:16

I have no words...

2024-09-04 22:39

x.com/Jackyesports/status/18314260159583.. Someone needs to compare what he said to the 2 girls that accused him, they are all saying different things. Jacky saying "they took it to the appropriate people" - the hr of the companies he works for? You need to contact the police and notify the venue and try to gather camera footage to build a case.

2024-09-04 23:09

The hr of the companies he works for are 100% the appropiate people when you are talking about sexual harassment at work

2024-09-04 23:24

6 replies

You are right, I phrased that like shit. I meant that he should take it to the police first, HR is appropriate I agree

2024-09-04 23:26

yeah, take it to the police and said that they were dancing on a dance floor on a party and someone was flirting, see how many cops manage to catch their breath within 2-3 minutes.

2024-09-05 12:53

Huh? If the accusation is that he was groping multiple women's private parts without consent, the police would at least take a look.

2024-09-05 14:26

I wonder if they could make the same accusations in the police station, or were those accusations only possible on social media where you are not held responsible for overblowing what happened. A single man groped multiple women for 3 hours straight and no one stopped him. It makes every other man on that party look worse than Maniac would look if all that was somehow true.

2024-09-05 14:31

Yep, people who say police would do nothing have never dealt with police before. So there had to be a reason for them not contacting them. And "not wanting to ruin his life" is not the reason, since they didn't just let HR solve it internally, but went to twitter to get clout -> hence ruining his name

2024-09-05 14:38

They would have contacted the police if there was enough to do it. HR was likely involved in it, it's why it took 3 months for this to get to twitter. It's likely accusers did not like the conclusion of the internal investigation and they know they ain't got enough to go to police or even sue Maniac. Because if they were to sue then posting it online would be one of the worst moves you can do.

2024-09-05 14:40

@Striker Maniac was replaced by cadiaN in BLAST Premier Fall Groups. Is it because he was under investigation? Any comments from sources on this?

2024-09-04 23:53

I read both statements and saw the video Jacky posted. All I can say is that there are inconsistencies at every level, with phrases that contradict each other and don't make sense. I'm standing by Maniac, innocent until proven guilty. All I can say is that if Maniac is banned from the CS analyst circle and his career is destroyed over these baseless and unfounded accusations, it would be outrageous.

2024-09-04 23:56

Sad to hear, I like maniac but this is obviously morally reprehensible behavior and he deserves the punishment coming his way.

2024-09-05 00:07

Hope you're innocent Maniac until proven otherwise, stay strong.

2024-09-05 00:14

okay this is insane

2024-09-05 00:16

The best CS Analyst either just wrongly accused or the end of career. Both not nice.

2024-09-05 00:32

if the allegations are true, then he deserves to lose his career let this be a lesson to everyone: be on your best behavior if you're at a work event related party

2024-09-05 01:37

i mean not "best" behavior, like dude if i was an analyst / caster whatever id get littt asfff bro but don't fucking with women that don't fuck with you, you're straight up harassing people and maniac does deserve for his cs career to be over with this behavior

2024-09-06 08:56

these are always tricky situations. honestly, a good response from maniac. but I hope the allegations are not true. both sides deserve to be heard.

2024-09-05 01:52

These accusations ruin talent careers even if not true. Now everyone will remember him as a predator even if he didn't do shit. Not saying that he didn't do of whats he being a accused, there is always a chance he did do it.

2024-09-05 01:57

The situation obviously happened, and the interactions clearly happened too, but I think its a stretch to say that Maniac was trying to be predatory. From the description the picture it paints in my head was that he was trying to dance with girls at a party and made the first move but they obviously weren't into it and he was not having appropriate awareness to realise that they were not into it. if anything I think its more likely he embarrassed himself at a party with an overly touchy and failed attempt to pull, I don't think he was just at a party going around trying to grope girls for sexual pleasure or aiming to hurt anyone. This is just what the accounts sound like to me, maybe I am wrong but I just dont see it.

2024-09-05 02:11

I was wrong, sorry

2024-09-12 08:58

First of both sides should be heard and SA victims are never to be blamed and this should be investigated by the police... but seriously, as someone who frequented nightclubs before (as I'm sure you have), I've seen my friends, girlfriends and even strangers be in these situations before, take 2 steps forward, move spots, go get a drink, say no? I just don't understand how she was touched, groped and grinded FOR 3 HOURS on (which I'd assume it was for some period of non-insignificant time) in a public space surrounded by people she knows... also, you'd certainly would think a club with load of high profile people has cameras? why is this even a 'investigation', just fking go to the police, get a warrant and get the danm tapes?!

2024-09-05 02:30

That's the thing that sounds weird. 3 hours and just standing there. What happened to a good slap in the face?

2024-09-05 18:58

I mean if the allegation is true then he deserves it tbh. However let's not jump to conclusion too quickly lmao. She should contact the police since allegations are a dime a dozen and just talking to HR isn't going to fix anything. People are innocent until proven guilty anyway.

2024-09-05 02:58

If this shit isn't true. I pray to GOD he sues the F*** outta those 2 women.. There is a woman on twitter that also says she has proof time stamps contradicting the ''Victims'' statements. If he DID do it. I pray to GOD the police were notified right away and he is dealt with in the court of law. It's either a lie or it wasn't. As of right now its literally just an allegation. Anyone can make an allegation against me or anyone of us here even if it's true or NOT. How are people on here that brain dead that they don't understand that. Just so you guys know ''Allegation'' does NOT mean ''Guilty''

2024-09-05 03:43

So Maniac went around this nightclub for hours like a fiend, touching and grouping women in front of their fiances etc and no one did anything or filmed it?

2024-09-05 07:35

Really dislike seeing the sentiment that multiple people professionally involved with the Esports Industry, some of whom have been involved for most of all of the past decade, must just be blowing shit and trying to ruin his career just because they are women. These are serious accusations coming from co-workers and professionals in the same field as Maniac, and it's a *very* hard thing to come out about exactly because of this general sentiment and reaction that the CS community is going through. It's innocent until proven guilty, but brushing off the topic immediately and saying everyone is guilty of lying and trying to move on is an awful way to react. Disappointing, but not surprising from the CS community.

2024-09-05 08:22

Learn to respect women ffs All of you, most of you Us Me Please learn

2024-09-05 09:33

If my colleague groped my wife in front of me i would separate his head from his body. The man is disgusting.

2024-09-05 11:57

Lesson from Maniac and Sadokist: Don't sh*t where you eat.

2024-09-05 13:27

#FreeManiac There is absolutely no clues about his guilty, so this kurwas girls are motherfucking liers. Dirty b1ches

2024-09-05 16:14

Nobody knows what happend, but its always Strange when These things come out 2 month later and suddenly a scond woman feels the same. I hope, that maniacs Story is true.

2024-09-05 16:24

Blast released a statement saying they investigated it and the complaint was upheld. Maniac 100% did it and lied about it when he was caught. “ can confirm that this complaint was immediately and formally investigated and resulted in the complaint being upheld against the talent member” x.com/BLASTPremier/status/18316869537685..

2024-09-05 16:30

HUH welp, name truly checks out if true, hopefully he didnt do it and will be able to come back like HenryG did

2024-09-05 16:41

sicko womans enjoy watching someone downfall

It's simple really As a public figure that is popular enough to get cancelled but who isn't rich enough to be jobless Just don't interact with women in any shape or form especially in the first place

2024-09-05 16:46