Smash player, tournament organizer, and content creator Sky Williams is allegedly in heavy debt to multiple people in the gaming, esports, and FGC communities. According to these allegations, Williams owes almost $360,000 total, which he's borrowed over a period of five years.
The allegations first broke from popular League of Legends caster Nick "LS" De Cesare, analyst and color caster for the Korean League of Legends circuit, the LCK. In response to Sky Williams live stream on Tuesday, July 7, on which Williams addressed his connection to numerous sexual assault allegations in the Smash community, LS tweeted that "Shy has owed me $10,000 for 2 years after promising to pay me back in 8mo. Then proceeded to keep asking for more".
Williams' debt situation was supposed to be one of the many talking points of the live stream. Under a section named "Elephant in the room (Me). A collection of my sins", Williams listed not only his "financial debt and deceit" but also mental abuse, fan service deterioration, his silence on (supposedly) the aforementioned sexual assault cases, and his "complete lack of accountability".
LS' tweet was only the first of many, however, and for the next 24 hours, a lot more new allegations were made public. FLASHPOINT commissioner and former League of Legends and Overwatch League caster Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles stated that Williams owes him $1,000.
"In my case I thought it would be simple for him to make the money back with his YouTube channel. Wild," Mykles wrote.
Professional Smash player Ramin "Mr.R" Delshad also came out with a tweet detailing Williams' debts to him — another $1,000.
While the amount of money allegedly owed to MonteCristo and Mr.R are relatively small, more stories emerged where the amount Sky Williams borrowed and didn't pay back is in the five figures. According to one Spencer Samuelson, he lent Williams $55,000 after Williams approached him while in "serious debt to the IRS".
"He told me he would go to prison and his career would be over unless he received a significant amount of money. After several back and forth messages I eventually agreed to lend him 55,000 dollars," Samuelson wrote, adding that the money never went to paying the IRS but rather renting the "infamous Sky Mansion".
"That place only exists because I funded it not knowing the kind of person he had become." Samuelson also included stories about Williams lying about his father having cancer to get loans, and gambling away the borrowed money on trips to Las Vegas, "which included him buying a couple roommates prostitutes and hotel rooms".
As more people came forward with their allegations, the number increased significantly. One person claimed they're owed $13.6K, dating back to 2018. Another claimed $14K and "tons of mental abuse on top of that." A third: $3K dating back to 2017. According to LS, the total number exceeds $359K over a period of five years.
Apart from being one of the topics he would've discussed on his live stream, Sky Williams has commented on several occasions about his debts. In a video blog from 2017, Williams admitted that he owes over $300,000 to friends, as well as the US government.
"I am over $300K worth of debt to IRS, to friends, because of my image and spending habits. And I think borrowing money is going to help me out, and I keep doing it and I keep getting back in debt, over and over. I am not good at being an adult."
Williams also spoke about the issue earlier today, saying:
"The pain I've caused my creditors was always something weighing heavy on my mind - when I ended the 'sky house' months ago, I streamed for 67 days and began paying people back slowly," confirming once again that he's in debt both to friends and individuals and the IRS.
"I've no credit, no savings, this isn't for you to pity me at all, its to express that I certainly am not 'living well' and I deserve that in FULL," Williams added.
Sky Williams made recent headlines as his Smash households (a.k.a Sky Houses) were connected to several of the sexual misconduct allegations within the Smash community. Those included the sexual assault on minors Jacqueline "Jisu" Choe (resident of a Sky House) and "Katie" by Smasher Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios; Richard "Keitaro" King who admitted to his sexual relationship with a minor he met at one of the Sky House parties; and pro Smasher McCain "MacD" Lavelle who reportedly sexually harassed fellow competitor Brandon "Sparky" Wayne while living in the Sky Mansion in 2014.
On his stream, Williams confirmed his knowledge of these relationships, and while he denied knowing the harassment of Sparky by MacD, he admitted to having known about Jisu's case.
"Even if I was convinced she was being abused, I wasn't smart enough or strong enough to take definitive action," Williams said on stream.
Earlier today, however, a new allegation surfaced by one Saeka BoardSong, who shared his accounts of a sexual date he had with Williams in 2015. According to Saeka, he and Williams met at Fanimecon 2015 while heavily inebriated, and ended up in Williams' hotel room.
"He said that he and I would play video games together, and be friends online. I didn't have a working computer at the time, and said he would give me $3000 for a whole new rig. He then asked me if I would make out with him. I felt pressured, and shakily agreed. He then asked if I would prefer an alley or his hotel room. And at this point even my horrendously drunk mind thought something was wrong here. I said the alley, as I could get away there if I needed. So he took me up to his hotel room, taking time to stop and talk to people, and made sure I was seen with him. The next thing I remember, I was in his hotel room, and he wasn't wearing any pants while he was masturbating.
The story is developing and InvenGlobal is reaching out to affected parties for comment.
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