A suspicious individual invades the stage and steals popular YouTuber Hikakin’s mic during an influencer event

A suspicious individual invaded the stage during the offline event for popular streamers and YouTubers called “All-star Daiundoukai @ Yoyogi National Gymnasium produced by 超滅 & Crazy Raccoon,” which was held in Japan on August 14. The intruder took the YouTuber Hikakin’s mic and proceeded to make a statement before being removed from the stage by staff.

All-star Daiundoukai is an event organized by UUUM. The participating streamers are divided into four teams and compete against each other in 10 different contests, ranging from video games, such as Valorant, to real life games, like group jump rope. Hikakin was seated alongside the two MCs of the event who were providing commentary.  

The trouble on stage occurred during the eighth contest: a deathmatch in the multiplayer action game Super Bunny Man. An individual holding an umbrella with a shopping bag hanging on his arm suddenly appeared behind the seated commentators. Standing behind Hikakin, he proceeded to wrap his arm around the streamer’s head, grabbed his mic and said, “Nice to meet you all. I’m going to become the coolest man in the world.” Staff quickly grabbed the culprit and removed him from stage, but those on-stage were left dumbfounded. Hikakin too, displayed an uneasy expression throughout the ordeal.

It wasn’t just those at the event who witnessed the incident, as many saw it while watching the official broadcast on YouTube. Streamer and singer Dasoku was also present at the event and expressed his shock regarding what took place.

UUUM has issued a press release regarding the incident which states that the individual has been handed over to police custody and that nobody was harmed. Following the event, Hikakin released an update on Twitter saying that he was fine, both physically and mentally. He was sorry that viewers had to see such shocking footage and thanked them for their concern.

The fact that no staff or performers were hurt is the only positive to come out of this unfortunate event, but it is concerning that the intruder was able to get close enough to possibly harm the performers. It is very distressing to see that not only was the intruder not prevented from reaching the stage but that the event staff were not able to deal with the situation until after said intruder made contact with Hikakin and spoke to the audience.

Hikakin is one of Japan’s top YouTubers with over 10.8 million subscribers. Seeing such a famous person in potential danger was particularly shocking for many people, especially as it comes so soon after the July assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe.

In offline events where streamers and YouTubers directly interact with fans, it is imperative that attendees abide by the rules of the event and that the organizers have thorough security measures in place to prevent trouble from occurring. Let’s hope that both performers and attendees can safely enjoy these events in the future.

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-08-15 12:41 JST)