Our Code of Conduct is meant for everyone in our community to follow and that includes our staff and anyone who works or partners with Rooster Teeth. We have parted ways with two employees whose conduct did not reflect the values we strive to uphold in our Code of Conduct.
— Rooster Teeth (@RoosterTeeth) October 7, 2020
Popular gaming network Rooster Teeth has let go of its hosts Ryan Haywood and Adam Kovic, known for their Achievement Hunter and Funhaus videos.
This comes shortly after numerous sexually-explicit photos of Haywood and Kovic circulated across different discussion forums last week. Tessa Graves, the recipient of Haywood’s pictures also came forward to reveal her encounter with Haywood in the PAX conferences. She claimed the Achievement Hunter host sent Graves explicit photos when she was 17 and told him she was 18 at the time. They later met at PAX 2017 and began exchanging photos. The pair allegedly planned to meet again for sex at PAX 2019, while Haywood was married with children.
According to GamesIndustry, Graves’ video prompted two of Haywood’s Rooster Teeth staff from Twitch to corroborate the claims. They stated the issue was brought up and acknowledged Haywood’s behavior. But the moderation staff claimed were unable to publicly address the news without Graves’ consent and Haywood was “convincing and manipulating” when they confronted him.
Haywood later admitted to the allegations on Twitter and stated he would be leaving Rooster Teeth to “focus on rebuilding family and life.” He also asked the public to stop harassing and threatening his family – something Graves also requested in her video story. A longer (but now deleted) statement from Haywood discusses full accountability while admitting he engaged in more explicit relationships with other “members of the community.”
Funhaus host Adam Kovic was let go on a separate account following his explicit photos being released online. According to Game Revolution, Kovic was tricked by an unknown troll claiming to be a porn star and sent nude photographs which were later redistributed. The sexually explicit photos were also taken inside the Funhaus office while a separate video showed Kovic having intercourse with his wife. A few unknown sources claimed his wife was unaware a video was recorded and no victims have spoken.
Rooster Teeth published their own Tweet stating they were letting Haywood and Kovic go as their “conduct did not reflect the values” of their company.