Adriana Chechik (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
TwitchCon is seeing an unusual amount of injuries this year due to what appears to be a very unsafe foam block pit that has left attendees with dislocated knees, twisted ankles and broken bones.
Twitch streamer and adult entertainer, Adriana Chechik, leaped into the pit doing the splits and lands on her tailbone. When she tried to get out of the pit she said “I can’t get up.”
Early this morning, Chechik confirmed that she was far from okay. “Well, I broke my back in two places and am getting surgery to put a meter rod in for support today,” she tweeted. “Send your support. When it rains it pours and I am definitely feeling the rain right now.”
The foam pit was a joint promo between Intel and Lenovo. A spokesperson for Lenovo told Kotaku:
“We are aware of the incidents of TwitchCon visitors who sustained injuries in the gladiator game soft foam pit at the Lenovo booth. The area has since been closed for any further use while we work with event organizers to look into the incidents.”
Apparently a big part of the problem was the foam bit was deceptively shallow, with just a few foam blocks between the top and the floor. Actual foam pits are supposed to be deep enough to swallow you up, and that is clearly not the case here. Washington Post’s Nathan Grayson tweeted that the pit “goes up a little past my knee” and “the foam blocks are… not exactly soft” which seems to defeat the purpose of a soft foam pit—neither soft nor actually a pit.
“According to one British manufacturer of foam pits, standard gymnastic pits should be at least 6 feet deep, with base pit-liner foam to help absorb shock. USA Gymnastics has said that foam pits vary from 4 to 8 feet in depth and are typically built on a trampoline foundation.”
The pit closed at around noon Sunday.
Back injuries are incredibly serious and can lead to chronic pain and reduced mobility. Clearly this could have a serious impact on Chechik’s career. The streamer and adult performer has 3.8 million followers on Instagram, over 800,000 on Twitch and has been nominated (and won) countless awards at the Adult Video News Awards.
I suspect we will hear more about this in the coming days as this certainly seems like the kind of thing that will spark lawsuits. Attendees had to sign a waver to enter the foam pit, but clearly people were not aware of the pit’s dangerous design shortcomings.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2022/10/10/streamer-adriana-chechik-breaks-her-back-in-twitchcon-foam-pit-accident/