BLAST, PGL to no longer work with Maniac in aftermath of sexual assault allegations

5-9-2024 16:32

BLAST confirmed a complaint of misconduct against Maniac was upheld following their investigation.

BLAST and PGL have indicated they have no current plans to work with Mathieu "⁠Maniac⁠" Quiquerez after multiple sexual assault allegations were made against the Swiss analyst on Wednesday.

In a statement on X, BLAST confirmed a misconduct complaint was made against Maniac following a BLAST event, and that it was investigated and upheld. It went on to say the organizer has "no current plans to work with the talent member."

The tournament organizer said it is "unable to disclose specific details for reasons of confidentality" and did not mention any details of the complaints made against Maniac.

BLAST however made a clear stance against conduct that "has been described to us and on social media," saying "behavior of this type has no place in any setting" and that "it will not be tolerated" in an apparent reference to two women's allegations that they had been sexually assaulted by Maniac.

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

In a brief comment to HLTV, Romanian tournament organizer PGL, who worked with Maniac in the past, also distanced itself from the Swiss analyst. "We won't hire him for the next PGL events," a representative from the company said in response to a question about their reaction to the allegations.

PGL is due to organize the English broadcast for the Perfect World Shanghai Major RMRs and the Major itself in November and December, and will also host at least four of its own events in 2025.

Meanwhile, ESL confirmed Maniac would not be a part of the ESL Pro League broadcast any longer, which the Swiss analyst previously announced, and said an investigation into the matter is ongoing.

"We are aware of allegations made against an on-broadcast talent who has appeared on EFG's analyst desk this year. While this incident did not take place at an EFG event, the safety of fans, players, and staff is our No. 1 priority. We are investigating the matter, and moving forward, the talent will no longer be part of the ongoing broadcast of ESL Pro League."

Rip

2024-09-05 16:32

7 replies

Blast and PGL have to have their priorities on making the workplace comfortable for all of their staff. Those allegations would make any woman not want to be around Maniac, thus not want to work at events Maniac attends. So, until we have answers, it is in Blast and PGL's best interest to not hire him.

2024-09-05 16:42

151

4 replies

Agreed, I am not familiar with the case. But this is devastating for his career if this turns out to be defamation. I understand the organization being careful, but I doubt they add him if he is innocent after all.

2024-09-05 21:18

3 replies

There's been another article published on dust2 where multiple women and also a few eyewitnesses said the same, I can believe in one girl framing the guy for hype but not tens of them. Based on that article and the whole situation, blud thinks with his d and is a heavy drinker (also a big ego).

2024-09-05 23:36

2 replies

even cypher came forward to corroborate those claims if a pro player confirms allegations against you, it's joever

2024-09-06 00:21

I suppose there is substance to the argument. Then he is due for what he is getting. I’m sure it will all work out as it should.

2024-09-06 03:55

Blast and PGL have all the tier S tournaments from January to June lol

2024-09-05 16:43

deserved

2024-09-05 17:20

Damn Edit: Deserved if true

2024-09-05 16:38

damn

rip maniac career

OH NOOO!!

2024-09-05 16:33

career over

thank you Striker

Just curious, what was striker's role in this?

2024-09-05 18:55

1 reply

wrote this news

2024-09-05 19:44

gg carrier

i wonder if this is because they learned more than the community did(and its a matter of time before we learn it too) or theyre just scared because of the community backlash.

I assume 2nd

2024-09-05 16:36

Blast's statement says that they investigated the complaint and found the allegations to be truthful

2024-09-05 17:04

am the community knows jack shit and it has no right to know the details. blast investigated and found the evidence compelling enough. case closed.

2024-09-05 17:44

shame

RIP

2024-09-05 16:34

good start

welp, it really looks like its over rn

RIP best analyst

2024-09-05 16:35

uhhh it so over for him

nah I heard Acer Predator might need a new spokesperson

2024-09-05 18:47

axaxaxaxa +1

2024-09-05 18:50

can't wait for Richard Lewis report on this hopefully more in depth view and contacts with information.. we are currently looking at the end of career for forever

what happened to INNOCENCE TIL PROVEN GUILTY? he should sue each and every one of these "orgs" who judge without knowing..

2024-09-05 16:37

its like in any public audience (tv, cinema, etc) when you are public, organisations cant stay with this kind of image until its proven he is not guilty. even if he's not, this mark is hard to clean

2024-09-05 16:41

what happened to READING THE ARTICLES? Blast literally says that they investigated it and found the allegations to be truthful, READ

2024-09-05 17:06

Caster's are definitely free-lance contractors so wouldn't do anything anyways

2024-09-05 17:55

its joever

don't be sad, at least you can be a full time podcaster with Thorin!

Good decision, safety first.

2024-09-05 16:39

That's it what you get

Does anyone even know whos right here?

"...formally investigated and resulted in the complaint being upheld..."

2024-09-05 18:04

It’s so joever for him

Ouch

"In a statement on X, BLAST confirmed a misconduct complaint was made against Maniac following a BLAST event, and that it was investigated and upheld" Now all the "innocent until proven guilty" regards can stfu

innocent until proven guilty is a worthy value

2024-09-05 17:34

but irrelevant in this case

2024-09-05 17:46

because he was proven guilty by their investigation, yes

2024-09-05 17:57

This was expected its too much risk for companies

a big risk for all the women who may unfortunately find themselves around him too

2024-09-05 20:09

For real though, people who "can't believe this is true" How many times haven't you seen creeps from your network or school or work or whatever who just changes completely when drinking? I have seen even big leaders being so professional irl and suddenly changing into a evil person when drunk and starts being toxic and loud and touchy One guy where I worked (the best sales person, had family and kids etc) We was out on a job event for Christmas, with sleepover at a hotel included. The whole evening he kept asking for coke so loud and didn't give a flying fuck who was around At the end of the night he followed one colleague and blocked her from closing the door and begged like a puppy dog to sleep on her bed in front of everyone We were all like wtf is this, because she was chuckling a little bit but became red and embarrassed when he became too clingy and was a creep putting his hand under her skirt and laughed It was strange af, we didn't know if we should do something or what Next day we heard he had refused to leave her room but fell asleep snoring like a drunk dog and didn't do anything but if that was my girlfriend or wife I would be very mad and wanting to hurt him

2024-09-05 16:49

rip career

2024-09-05 16:53

This is so magazine stuff, there are only rumours/accusation/allegations. Nobody has proof too. I don't defend Maniac but it should not be so easy to destroy someone's career.

2024-09-05 16:54

Blast said they investigated it and found that it was true.

2024-09-05 17:41

2024-09-05 18:05

Clowns shouldn't be allowed to post on these forums, IMO.

2024-09-06 00:19

I still don't understand why Blast did not take any actions. But, we keep gettıng more announcement/proofs. I take my words back after hearing new announcements.

2024-09-06 01:21

I felt he had this weird sexual vibe for years. He just made the stream uncomfortable when Freya was co-casting

2024-09-05 17:00

based

2024-09-05 16:55

Sad world we live in… please put out actual evidence before canceling anyone. There is only statements from both sides.

2024-09-05 16:58

what evidence you want? tell me. none of the people on this party showed up and said yo this is fake maniac did nothing wrong. that should be your evidence already. also maniac didn't say its fake or didnt say he didnt do it. he said he did it and missed the cues. in other words just ignored the cues.

2024-09-05 17:03

Lol 0 statement either regarding that he did someting also i dont belive 0 cameras are in a party… and after the girl made these claims 100% they saved footage or someting…

2024-09-05 17:10

you want them to show you the video or smth? lmao. i said MANIAC SAID HE MISSED THE CUES. did you read it? read it again. now again. now ok. so what cue he would be missing here if he didnt touch her? hes not going to say yes i touched her b0bs. lol. that means he Did it in his own words. also why didn't he say "yo this is fake"? kekw. he cant. because he did it. also why dont he report these fake allegations to police? kekw. he cant. + blast already watched the video and did investigation and removed maniac. like, what else you want?🤣 i cant anymore

2024-09-05 17:15

cameras are in a party? and they film everything? and they are easily accessible to the public? and the public DESERVES to see the footage? is that it? 4 people ACCUSSED him! blast INVESTIGATED and CONFIRMED. But you want some nonexistent footage to show you how a drunk man groped a women? Who are you to demand anything at all?

2024-09-05 17:49

What’s sad is trash like you defending a sexual assaulter. High likelihood you’ve behaved similarly.

2024-09-09 19:30

Lol nice one i commented this after the first and only accusation came out… hindsight is 20/20 i guess. I belived in him my bad… he is clearly a bad person but whenevery shit comes out like this its mindblowing rhis has to go on for years and years until somenone break silence and everyone looks sideways so real shame is on other casters/esports workers who tolerazed his behavior for years

2024-09-09 23:02

Expected

Maniac to Thorin's podcast in 3.....2....

Bubzkji or Cadian gonna be permanent replacement for him now

2024-09-05 16:59

A lot of commenters here seem to forget that these organizations (Blast in particular) are privy to a lot more information than you are. Remember that Maniac didn't work Fall groups, they instead had cadian stand-in. And if there's been an investigation in the background for months, it looks like there's already proof of the actions, especially since they are upholding the decision. So saying that this happened just because of Twitter is false, it was happening behind the scenes already. You just didn't know about it. Regards

2024-09-05 17:01

Now bring back Sadokist!

2024-09-05 17:02

Rip to one of the GOATs analysts

2024-09-05 17:05

☠️🥳🥳🥳 partyyy

All you need are allegations to have your career and sometimes the whole life ruined. What a world...

maybe dont touch girls without their consent?

2024-09-05 17:17

Allegations + a follow up investigation confirming those allegations, yes.

2024-09-06 00:20

Quick PSA "Innocent until proven guilty" is not the same thing as "Victim is lying until perpetrator proven guilty"

2024-09-05 17:09

Too bad man, you are a fool if you did this, and thought it would work out. You will be missed, have a great life.

Pity. In my opinion, he was the best analyst. Besides, there is not much competition compared to such icons as pimp, Mauisnake, ynk. It's going to be hard to get over, but after what probably happened, it's well deserved. It's his own fault.

2024-09-05 17:11

RIPBOZO

2024-09-05 17:12

geniuses are freaks , sad for cs tho .

2024-09-05 17:14

GG career

Rip if true. Things are not looking good atm

2024-09-05 17:25

RIP Maniac

2024-09-05 17:26

With the story and the investigation confirmed from BLAST side, I am not sure if "innocent until proven guilty" still applies. That is a rule for the law, and in front of law, he still is innocent. But if they investigated it and confirmed the allegations, in the eyes of BLAST he isnt innocent anymore, so what are we talking about again?

2024-09-05 17:27

Look what an accusation can do… innocent until proven guilty, yea right…

2024-09-05 17:30

but the investigation proved him guilty..?

2024-09-05 17:59

0/8

2024-09-05 18:06

even if he's innocent, he was stupid enough to put himself in a setting where he could be accused of sexual harassment. its his own undoing in the end. just dont be desperate and keep your D in your pants, is it that hard? good women are aplenty, he chose to go hard and fast now crash and burn lol. nice one Maniac, you had a good and promising career, now you're going to be terminally online doing talkshows with thorin and other talkshow mains until you're proven innocent. and even then, i doubt you'd be hired much... sexual harassment allegations always have a nasty stain on the accused even if proven innocent, the stigma is already there

2024-09-05 17:54

He admitted to it, hes a pado eipstein island recruiter.

2024-09-07 17:19

can u not just fucking wait for the outcome, just take a break with him instead of cancelling him right away

2024-09-05 17:56

11 replies

"...formally investigated and resulted in the complaint being upheld..." READ

10 replies

BLAST however made a clear stance against conduct that "has been described to us and on social media," so what is it bruuh, real investigation and how was it made? or just trusting social media

2024-09-05 18:10

9 replies

#101 lol

2024-09-05 18:11

bruh why dont they use clear stupid words then, 100k dudes are speculating

2024-09-05 18:12

your comment is half incomprehensible and you are complaining about them not using clear words

2024-09-05 18:14

yea shit im drunk man sorry

2024-09-05 18:21

lol nws

2024-09-05 20:36

Bro they're saying that they confirm the allegations that are floating around on Twitter. What the fuck are you talking about? Are you able to read correctly?

2024-09-06 00:15

didnt u read that i was drunk bruh my bad

2024-09-06 00:24

... Reply needs to have actual content

2024-09-06 00:25

cmon forgive me i never chose to be on his side ultimately, it was just very hard to believe

2024-09-06 00:37

2024-09-05 18:43

No one reads articles lmao. Literally the second headline: "BLAST confirmed a complaint of misconduct against Maniac was upheld following their investigation."

2024-09-05 18:45

#221

2024-09-05 22:16

2024-09-05 19:01

"BLAST confirmed a misconduct complaint was made against Maniac following a BLAST event, and that it was investigated and upheld." It's over.

2024-09-05 19:04

rip

2024-09-05 19:15

2024-09-05 19:40

Such a waste. I really think he brought some depth in his analysis. Why do good casters / analysts end up being such social defects ?

2024-09-05 19:54

I will say that again and again. Alcohol is evil. It makes monsters from normal people. Maniac was this kind of person in CS scene that he would be hired probably for decades, now this is done. I feel sorry for the victims and also for him, may God forgive him. Good luck to both parties with dealing with it emotionally.

2024-09-05 21:17

Nah that guy is scum even without intoxication

2024-09-05 22:24

Do idiots here suppose that blast should have to wait 1-2 years for it to be resolved in court? Keeping a sexual predator on payroll as a formality? They resolved the issue on their own. Good fucking riddance.

2024-09-05 21:35

pfft. L for blast and pgl. Do they know what the word "allegation" means? I don't think pgl and blast do... Once again - i don't care about maniac but he isn't guilty until PROVEN otherwise

2024-09-05 21:55

5 replies

to add to that: "BLAST however made a clear stance against conduct that "has been described to us and on social media" - so basically they made a decision based on a twitter post?? lol?????

2024-09-05 22:11

Deranged

2024-09-05 22:25

elaborate edit: don't elaborate, d2.us actually popped up something more substantial than this article. edit2: do elaborate anyway as if d2.us article never was published. im curious

2024-09-05 23:05

#101

2024-09-05 23:32

but I appreciate the way you responded even tho I was being a dick. It's just that you could have just looked around more before typing that. Also "...confirm that this complaint was immediately and formally investigated and resulted in the complaint being upheld...".

Maniac is finished, how disappointing that he turned out to be such a piece of shit

2024-09-05 22:26

So it's just them listening to their version and having no proof to back it up. It's actually sad that they did not learn from the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard fiasco. Disney did the same until they realized they did him wrong because it was in fact her that did abuse him with more and more evidence against her. They tried to hire him back but the damage was done. DO NOT CONDEMN WITHOUT PROOF! The more you read/listen to their stories the more you see some part are disconnected. Examples: - He did harass 2 girls for 3 hours... but he was there for 1 and a half hour, - For 3 hours he was assaulting them but no one did warn him, take actions against him or just film him? Especially since one of the husband was there, I mean come on... One of my friend was once trying to flirt with my girl in front of me and I bumped into him asking to calm down or I'll slap him until he sobers up. He stopped. - You tell me ABSOLUTELY NO ONE stood against him when it took 3 hours in from of many people? - Maniac isn't some kind of gigachad, the dude isn't tall or particularly muscular, anyone would deter him from harassing/assaulting a girl. And let's be real, he was in a relationship with Hedje (instagram.com/hedjexo/) and you tell me he would be attracted to these 2 girls? Come on.

2024-09-05 22:48

Yeah, he is 100% done: dust2.us/news/52580/further-allegations-.. "Eight sources have come forward to provide more details about Quiquerez's actions at a G2 Esports-sponsored June 16th afterparty in London following the BLAST Premier: Spring Final." "In speaking to Dust2.us, four others who attended the London event, including Counter-Strike 2 pros Cai “CYPHER” Watson and Rhys “Rhys” Stumbles, claimed they witnessed Quiquerez behave inappropriately towards Daragh and two other women. Stumbles, for his part, said he personally intervened to separate Darragh from Quiquerez throughout the evening." "Quiquerez’s behavior at the Lafayette event venue in London appears not to be isolated to a single night. On Wednesday and Thursday, multiple women came forward to Dust2.us to share their experiences with Quiquerez over the past few years, which includes sexually suggestive messages over Instagram. In one instance, the analyst messaged one woman who said she was 17 at the time. The messages, which the woman provided to Dust2.us, show Quiquerez asking in June if she was excited to turn 18 soon. " "In another incident at the 2022 BLAST World Finals, three witnesses told Dust2.us that Quiquerez was physically removed from the venue due to inappropriate behavior towards another woman. Two on-camera talent working the event, who have requested anonymity due to the nature of their jobs, described that Quiquerez continued to harass that woman throughout that evening by groping and attempting to kiss her." "One woman, who has worked in the esports industry for years and requested anonymity, spoke to Dust2.us about two incidents involving Quiquerez. The first incident was during IEM Katowice 2022... the second incident occurred at the 2023 HLTV Award Show afterparty"

2024-09-05 22:52

Do they not have security people for these kind of events? If they knew he was a drunky I would hire some peep to watch this guy and be sure he didn't do weird shit. This shit stinks. If he did assault women he deserves to be in jail tbh... but if it's just to overtake him or throw some shit at him I don't understand why you would make this up.

2024-09-05 23:03

Considering theres at least like 10 different sources all claiming the same thing and no public figure has come to defend him its most certainly real

2024-09-06 05:46

It's crazy that it took so long for action to be taken. I mean, it might not have gotten to twitter at the Time, but surely these incidents were reported to the TOs. Them accepting the risk for bad reputation could mean they knew but swept it under the rug...

2024-09-06 11:24

Rip in peace maniacs esports career. Stay away from women lad's, they can destroy you. Go the gay way, less drama.

2024-09-05 23:00

Bro lives up to his name

2024-09-06 00:09

i swear every human is a piece of shit more you know them thats why i stick to 2D anime girls

2024-09-06 01:30

Clearly he has no game.,All these after parties, everyone getting wasted, women all rolled up for the club. He needs to get some tips from the guy who screwed tacos mom in mibr. And hooked up with a hostess after they won the major.

2024-09-06 01:37

bro idk if that middle part is real or made up but if former - please tell me more, that sounds like an S-tier story

2024-09-06 02:12

Fnx, just remembered his name. He slept with tacos mom, and the team split. He smashed some event caster chick at the major after party. It was all over Twitter, and I saw some threads on here years ago. But he's got them Brazilian foreigner good looks, and sweet tats. Maniac not so much. The caster chick confirmed it on Twitter, "Were both adults, it happens" No regret revenge posting

2024-09-06 20:33

rip douchebag

2024-09-06 11:36

Total RIP. Best desk analyst, but seems to be quite a douchebag once the cameras are off. It is surprising that a MSc in Psychology would have such little control of his own inner demons.

2024-09-06 13:44