TwitchCon Attendees Severely Injured in Intel, Lenovo Exhibit

An “gladiator game” exhibit run by Lenovo and Intel during TwitchCon over the weekend has left at least four attendees severely injured when they fell or jumped into a shallow pit of foam cubes scattered over concrete.

As NBC News reports(Opens in a new window), the exhibit consisted of two platforms surrounded by foam cubes laying on top of a concrete floor. Attendees were tasked with fighting each other in a duel attempting to knock their opponent off the platform and into the foam pit. However, the foam cubes did little to cushion the impact and injuries occurred.

One Twitch streamer named Adriana Chechik, jumped into the pit after winning a duel and as the video above shows, was instantly in pain. She later tweeted(Opens in a new window) that her back had been broken in two places and surgery is required “to put a meter rod in” for support.

Another Twitch streamer known as LochVaness managed to dislocate a knee and sprain an ankle(Opens in a new window) when dismounting the platform. She ended the day in a wheelchair and going to hospital to check if anything was broken. In both cases, the injuries were caused because the attendees assumed they were jumping into a soft pit of foam, where as it was anything but. At least two other attendees were injured: Logiiiic(Opens in a new window) and Chirs Ricks(Opens in a new window).

Before anyone could take part they were required to sign a waiver, but it looks as though Twitch, Intel, and Lenovo didn’t ensure a safe environment for the exhibit. They also didn’t shut down the exhibit after the first person reported an injured, which allowed more injuries to occur.

When asked for comment by NBC News, neither Lenovo nor Intel initially responded. Video game reporter Nathan Grayson spoke to a member of staff at the exhibit yesterday who said the exhibit was closed because “people were breaking rules(Opens in a new window).”

Twitch referred questions to Lenovo’s PR team, which did eventually respond to a request for comment from Kotaku(Opens in a new window) earlier today:

“We are aware of the incidents of TwitchCon visitors who sustained injuries in the gladiator game soft foam pit at the Lenovo booth. The area has since been closed for any further use while we work with event organizers to look into the incidents.”