Reports are coming in that Matt Loter, the owner of Elm City Games, was allegedly involved in physically assaulting and battering Jeremy Hambly, the popular pundit and commentator from the YouTube channel The Quartering, at this year’s GenCon event taking place in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The incident occurred on August 1st, 2018 and was briefly discussed in a video shortly after it happened by Hambly on his YouTube channel The Quartering.
Hambly mentions that he filed a report with the police, but also notes that the owners of the bar where the incident took place, called the Tin Roof Bar, were unwilling to be cooperative with filing the report. If you search up the City of Indianapolis incident reports in the area, there is no filing of the incident at that location on either August 1st, 2018 or August 2nd, 2018.
No filings were submitted at the time of writing this article under “Jeremy Hambly” either. However, the database does state that it may take up to seven days for a report to show up in the database.
[Update 8/4/208: The search results for the City of Indianapolis report portal has been updated, and Jeremy Hambly’s case is now available to purchase from the database.]
However, the incident did certainly take place according to eyewitnesses. Hambly did describe what the attacker looked like and what he was wearing, and shared a photo.
Bounding Into Comics did a detailed recount of the eyewitnesses identified Matt Loter, who was at the bar, wearing a white wifebeater with rainbow colors on it. Loter was also spotted at GenCon 2018 this year.
this man matches the description and was at Gencon Yesterday. I didn’t get a good look at him but others did… pic.twitter.com/NxIDRDvozd
— TheQuartering (@TheQuartering) August 2, 2018
After several people who was with Hambly confirmed that that was him, Hambly publicly stated that he would be calling the police.
Eye witness from last night confirming this man is the man who assaulted me. @prettiest_matt is his twitter profile. I need his name and I will call the police and have him arrested. pic.twitter.com/Qka43tfwT0
— TheQuartering (@TheQuartering) August 2, 2018
Some internet sleuths found a post that indicated that Matt Loter, going by the Twitter handle Prettiest_Matt, had been tipped off back in May about Hambly, and that the attack was premeditated, as indicated in the tweet below that was posted on May 31st, 2018.
@Gen_Con heads up on this trash fite of a man. He’s tried for media passes in the past and I believe he’s been rightly rejected.
Ping @Prettiest_Matt @BoldBebo heads up. Jeremy is blight on the MTG and comic community. pic.twitter.com/uaH91ylTyn— ☆Cheshire☆ – Golem Creature (@CheshirePlays) May 31, 2018
A couple of days later, after receiving the message from the Cheshire Golem Creature, Matt Loter tweeted out that he would be fighting people at GenCon 2018 if they had a problem with Anita Sarkeesian from Feminist Frequency. Loter posted the tweet on June 5th, 2018.
After news spread about Loter’s intention to fight people at GenCon, and that he was identified by eyewitnesses as the man who attacked Hambly at the Tin Roof Bar, Matt Loter proceeded to protect all of his tweets and lock his account down.
Loter also locked his other social media accounts and restricted access to social media photos. Loter also closed off the Elm City Games Facebook page from being viewed.
Some attendees and concerned gamers have been asking GenCon on their social media accounts if they will address the situation or make a statement about it, but so far the company has not responded. In fact, the company continues to address some attendee concerns regarding badges and names, but refuses to make any statements about Matt Loter’s attendance at the event.
Oh dear – so sorry about that!
— Gen Con (@Gen_Con) August 2, 2018
Please ask Customer Service!
— Gen Con (@Gen_Con) August 2, 2018
One of the reasons people are asking for GenCon to respond, or to take action against Loter, is because he violated the GenCon attendance policies. Over on the official website it clearly states that violating laws (in this case, physical battery) is grounds for expulsion.
In case you’re unable to read the image, it states…
“If you experience or witness any of the above, please seek out Gen Con Event Staff or Gen Con Security to report the incident. If you can’t locate an Event Staff member, please report the incident to Show Management in the Show Office located in Room 112 of the Indiana Convention Center.”
Again, multiple people have been contacting GenCon about Loter’s attack on Hambly, but the staff has so far refused to answer or acknowledge the assault and battery.
I also reached out to GenCon’s social media account to ask if they would be addressing the violence that took place at the hands of Loter, but so far have not received a response as of the writing of this article.
[Update:] Jeremy Hambly provided an update on Twitter with the status of the police report.
Statement now @gen_con pic.twitter.com/kZnZH9z2qO
— TheQuartering (@TheQuartering) August 3, 2018
