As much as Esports might be full of combat, with players from all over the world coming together to digitally slay one another in brutal arenas of death, rarely does that animosity spill out beyond the games themselves. However it did at this year's Dreamhack, where Esports journalist Richard Lewis traded blows with pro-DOTA 2 gamer Jonathan "Loda" Berg, purportedly over a disagreement on social media.
"During the afternoon today at DreamHack Winter 2015 there was an incident at the CS:GO backstage area, where Loda and Richard Lewis were involved in verbal dispute that escalated into a physical confrontation," the Dreamhack organisers said in a statement (via VG247)
"The situation was witnessed by DreamHack staff, who intervened and pulled both parties apart when the confrontation began. After cooling down the situation, DreamHack Security Crew was called to the site, and took official statements of the involved the parties. DreamHack also notified Police that came to the location to take statements from both parties and witnesses."
As regular social media users however, it's no surprise that both player and journalist have traded barbs and explanations via Twitter. Based on their statements, it seems that Loda took exception to a Lewis' joke about sleeping with a fan. However he then claims that Lewis began strangling him when confronted, and was summarily detained by security staff.
Don't worry though, the pair made up and shook hands afterwards.
Have you ever come to blows with someone over something video game related?