An assault on Emiru shocks TwitchCon. The streamer is now criticizing Twitch’s total failure in security and crisis management.
Last weekend, TwitchCon 2025 took place in San Diego – and a serious incident overshadowed Twitch’s in-house exhibition. Well-known streamer Emily “Emiru” Schunk was physically assaulted by a participant during a public meet & greet. Emiru had already been the victim of a stalker attack in March after she refused to give him her phone number.
Although the attacker was stopped in time, the incident casts a negative light on the event’s security measures and the crisis management of Twitch and its CEO, Dan Clancy.
What exactly happened at TwitchCon?
On Friday, October 17, 2025, the incident occurred at the meet-and-greet booth of Emiru, one of the biggest streamers on Twitch and co-owner of the OTK organization. A male visitor broke through several barriers, approached the 27-year-old, grabbed her face, and tried to kiss her. As can be seen in a video clip, the assault was only prevented by the quick intervention of Emiru’s personal bodyguard.
Emiru assaulted at Twitchcon
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The streamer commented shortly afterwards in a statement about the incident: She said she was “okay” but deeply shaken—not only by the attack itself, but above all by the reaction of the organizers: “To be honest, I’m much more hurt and upset about how Twitch handled the situation during and after the incident.”
Contrary to Twitch’s official statement that security personnel responded “immediately,” Emiru reports that her private bodyguard and manager had to intervene to remove the attacker.
The Twitch security personnel present were “nowhere to be found” and did not recognize the seriousness of the situation at all. The attacker initially managed to escape and was only caught hours later, at the insistence of Emiru’s manager.
She also reported that no one from Twitch asked how she was doing and that Twitch employees not only failed to take the incident seriously, but even made jokes about it:
My friend who was there told me that Twitch security guards later stood behind the booth and joked that they hadn’t seen what had happened, immediately laughing and moving on to another topic.
“A blatant lie”
After the video went viral, the Twitch platform released a statement emphasizing that safety was a “top priority” and that the perpetrator had been “immediately removed from the premises and permanently banned from Twitch and all events”:
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.
In line with existing TwitchCon…
— Twitch (@Twitch) October 18, 2025
Emiru described this portrayal as “blatant lie.”:
Twitch’s statement said that the man was immediately apprehended and arrested, but unfortunately that is a blatant lie. He was simply allowed to leave my meet & greet, and I didn’t find out he had been apprehended until hours after the attack. I get the impression that this only happened because my manager pushed for it, and not because the TwitchCon staff present considered it a big problem.
Particularly controversial is Emiru’s statement that Twitch initially only considered a 30-day ban for the perpetrator before, at the vehement insistence of her manager, an indefinite ban from the platform and all future events was imposed:
Twitch’s initial response to the assault
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Party instead of crisis management?
While the incident and its aftermath shocked the streaming community, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy also came under fire. According to Emiru (from 11:55 in her statement), several high-ranking Twitch employees were partying at TwitchCon during the critical hours when she had to deal with the assault and the lack of support, instead of taking care of crisis management.
This alleged prioritization has further fueled the anger of many streamers and fans who accuse Twitch of not taking the safety and well-being of its streamers seriously—and not entirely without reason: There have been similar incidents in the past that have shaken confidence in TwitchCon’s safety measures.
In 2022, for example, a foam pit incident caused a stir when several visitors, including streamer Adriana Chechik, were injured, some seriously:
Chechik broke her back in two places after jumping into the pit, which was only a few inches deep and covered by a concrete floor. She had to undergo extensive surgery and learned in the hospital that she had suffered a miscarriage due to her injuries and the necessary treatment.
Another example, which Emiru also cites in her statement, is the assault on streamer Nick “Nmplol” Polom last year. During a stream at TwitchCon, a man licked his nipple without asking:
In response to the scandal and public pressure, Twitch has announced that it will tighten security measures at meet & greet points and no longer allow “plus one” guests who have not been vetted in advance. Emiru also reported that Amazon had flown in its Global Head of Security, as Twitch’s security concept was clearly not good enough.
In any case, the streamer’s trust in Twitch has been broken for good: She stated in her stream that this would be her last TwitchCon and advised other streamers to “seriously reconsider” their participation in future events, especially since similar incidents, such as those involving Nick and Wake Wilder last year, who were also sexually harassed, were not taken seriously enough, particularly when male streamers were involved. GlobalESportNews has asked Twitch for a statement on the allegations.
