Adriana Chechik was among the content creators decided to invite to this year’s TwitchCon San Diego. Unfortunately, things went south after she participated in the Lenovo and Intel exhibit. In the booth in question, content creators competed in gladiator-style matches in a large foam pit. Chechik is just one of the people who suffered injuries while visiting the exhibit, but hers are by far the worst.
All of this points to a serious lack of management oversight. As well as other creators have been speaking out, calling into question the exhibit’s safety precautions. They’ve also brought up the issue of liability, blaming Lenovo, Intel, and Twitch as a whole. Given the gravity of the situation, it appears that the streaming service will have to make significant changes for events in the future.
Foam Pit Injuries at TwitchCon San Diego 2022
The foam pit at TwitchCon San Diego had been a collaboration between Lenovo and Intel. Its main draw was the Face Off challenge, in which two Twitch streamers used to have to stand on raised pedestals and employ a foam noodle to push the other off. Streamers like ludwig and xQc were able to compete inside the TwitchCon tournament without incident, but others were not so fortunate.
Streamer LochVaness was one of those who left the booth with such a dislocated knee. The worst case scenario, by far, is Adriana Chechik’s injury at the TwitchCon booth. After falling off of the pedestal and into the pit, she decided to break her back in two places. These injuries occurred due to the lack of proper cushioning beneath all of the foam – only hard concrete. Worse, the commentators have been encouraging individuals to leap into to the pit, even claiming that their booth was “all about safety.”
TwitchCon Needs to Be Tighter with Its Safety Measures
Josh Strife Hayes, recognised for his previous comments on New World’s sausage chat meme, did weigh in on the situation because he previously worked at a trampoline park. According to him, the foam pits were at least 2 metres deep, with springy, hardwood surfaces that could bend or even break to decrease the impact of a bad fall. He then claims that TwitchCon foam pit was extremely dangerous: “There is no way that two foam blocks on pinnacle of concrete is going to safeguard anyone.” If anything, this demonstrates that the Face Off challenge team failed to bring in an expert whom can instruct them on how make the foam pit a safe play area.
Twitch has yet to comment on Chechik’s condition or the foam pit fiasco, however the company will need to make changes to its health and safety procedures when it did come to booths hosted by other organizations, particularly those involving rough, physical contact. Allowing third parties to set it up their exhibit just at convention isn’t enough. The TwitchCon team must also take care to ensure that all of its booths are as as safe as possible for its attendees.
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