The Game Awards, popularly known as the “Oscars for video games”, has had its best year yet. Geoff Keighley, the show’s creator and host, has once again put up a great show with a wide selection of presenters, great music, and exciting announcements, all the while maintaining a succinct length of under three hours. After the downfall of E3 due to complications during COVID and poor management, The Game Awards has more or less replaced it as the new premium platform to make grand gaming announcements.

Even better, the community seems to be very happy with the awards overall, especially as fan’s favorite since its release in February, FromSoftware’s Elden Ring, won Game of the Year – as well as Best Direction, Best Art Direction, and Best Role-Playing Game.

But just as game director Hidetaka Miyazaki concluded his final words after receiving the award for Game of the Year, something very strange happened.

Something ultimately harmless, but very strange.

Source: YouTube
Source: YouTube

 A teenager with dark hair had inconspicuously followed the representatives for FromSoftware up to the stage and remained behind them, waiting until after Miyazaki finished his speech. Some viewers did notice that the teenager did not fit in with the group of Japanese developers, but he remained in the back without interrupting.

Then, as the group was about to leave the stage, he took to the mic and mumbled a few words before being cut off.

This is what he said:

“I think I want to thank everybody and say that… I think I want to nominate this award to my reformed orthodox rabbi Bill Clinton, thank you everybody.”

The moment can be seen in the official Game Awards Livestream on YouTube at 3:52:53.

Immediately after this, he was escorted off the stage by security and Geoff officially closed the ceremony with a few final words, making no comment on the incident at that moment. Geoff would later tweet that “The individual who interrupted our Game of the Year moment has been arrested.” (Source: Twitter)

For a while, it was unclear whether there was some hidden meaning behind this statement, if the teenager poorly tried to convey an agenda, or if he was ultimately just trolling for 15 minutes of fame.

Ultimately it’s nothing that would ruin an otherwise great night, but it was an odd thing to happen right at the final moments, especially given the potential security threat an intruder like this could cause.

Source: PushSquare
Source: PushSquare

As you’ll see below, little is known about the kid and he was probably just trolling, but something much, much worse, could have happened. The teenager managed to get into the ceremony and sat there the entire time, later managing to sneak into the stage in broad view of everyone before finally being stopped. All he did was say some apparent nonsense, but it’s not hard to imagine how bad it could have gotten.

It was difficult to find anything about the teenager as well, who is now confirmed to be 15 years old, but Forbes journalist Paul Tassi managed to find a few pieces of information about the kid – later noticing that a Twitter profile that seemed to belong to the culprit was following his own account. Since his DMs were open, he asked some questions and got some answers, but all of them only seem to confirm it was all a prank.

As for this kid, his “message” at the Game Awards could mean any number of things, as much as it could mean nothing at all given his interest in stunts on live television – in 2019, he was seen on TV during an NBA game holding a shirt that said “fight for freedom/stand with Hong Kong”. (Source: Twitter)

When asked by Tassi what his message was, he said “There was no underlying far-right message. I just couldn’t think of a better person than Bill to give the spotlight to at that moment.”

This more or less confirms that the teenager was more interested in playing a prank than sending any real message, whatever his agenda is.

The latest bit of info on the teenager came from reporter Jason Schreier, who managed to interview the young man. He stated on Twitter that the teenager said his name was Matan and he was 15 years old.

He also shared his belief that the kid was just a “Jewish prankster” because he apparently understood a question asked in Hebrew by the reporter, but then pretended he didn’t. (Source: Twitter)

Source: Twitter
Source: Twitter

For now, this is the end of this unusual stunt that ultimately wasn’t used to benefit any agenda, good or bad. Hopefully though, security is a bit tighter in the Game Awards next year – which given his reputation, is something Geoff Keighley should address publicly at some point soon.