‘Overwatch’ Team Manager Fired After Twitch Streamer Accuses Him of Sexual Assault
By Bryan Ke
Max ‘Hotaruz’ Bateman, the manager of “Overwatch League” team San Francisco Shock under NRG Esports, was fired on Monday after Twitch streamer Krystlin accused him of sexual assault.
Andy Miller, founder and chairman of NRG Esports and owner of Shock, took to Twitter earlier this week to announce that Bateman is no longer part of the company under NRG Esport’s zero-tolerance policy regarding sexual assault.
Krystlin went into detail about what happened before and during the incident, which took place on Sept. 30.
She wrote that she and Bateman went out with a few NRG “Overwatch” players for a drink at a beach club. In her TwitLonger post, which went live on Sunday, Krystlin continued:
“I had a normal amount of drinks and started to feel sick which wasn’t normal. The last one I had was made by Max. I started to feel dizzy, confused, and started to dry-heave. That’s when Max suggested we should just leave so we Ubered back to Max’s place to get my house keys. He was supposed to drive me home after I had gotten my keys,” she said.
“Next thing I remember is falling asleep on Max’s couch and woke up because I was coughing up saliva/blood. I went into his room to lay down. He was in there playing games on his computer and left to go clean up the couch. After he was finished he came back into the room and played games for a couple more hours. At this point I was in and out of consciousness. I remember Max laying next to me but didn’t think anything of it because we’ve shared a bed in the past and nothing’s happened.That’s when he sexually assaulted me. In my mind I knew what was happening wasn’t right but I couldn’t move. I was frozen. After I woke up I got my keys from his car and he dropped me off at home.”
A few days after the incident, Krystlin confronted Bateman through a series of text messages about what transpired that night. She posted some of their messages on her Twitter account as proof, in which Bateman admitted: “Yes I realize what I did was wrong.”
Compete Kotaku reported that Krystlin went to an OB/GYN on Oct. 5 for a checkup and have her blood work done.
The Twitch streamer filed a report with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department on Oct. 6, according to Break the Game.
Bateman, meanwhile, denied requests for comment about the sexual assault allegations. Instead, he released a statement explaining his side of the story via TwitLonger:
“Now that I’ve arrived back home from Blizzcon and I have consulted with an attorney regarding these false allegations, I would like to make a short statement while this goes through the correct legal process. I communicated with Krystlin that the detective called me, so I wanted to talk to her and see if we could settle it between us before I went to the police. I did, in fact, go and meet with the detective to give him my testimony. The detective read all my text messages from the day of the beach club to a few days after where we went to a hookah lounge together, as well as two escape rooms with the OLD NRG roster, and we also went to Top Golf. I even showed the detective a photo of us from after the escape room. I was let go and I have yet to hear from the detective despite me trying to contact him on multiple occasions. In addition, you can see Krystlin was talking about us sharing a hotel room at the start of the text message (these are from October 3rd, 4 days after the supposed assault) for Twitchcon later that month. She still requested to stay in the same hotel room with me after the alleged assault. I will not be answering questions as recommended by my counsel. I will be taking this through the correct legal process and not the public domain.”
Bateman primarily worked for NRG Esport’s “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” squad since February, but he was transferred to San Francisco Shock in July shortly after Blizzard officially announced the seven teams that will compete for its “Overwatch League”.
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