Paul ‘Redeye’ Chaloner, one of the most well-known names in esports, has stepped away from the industry.
Paul has resigned as MD of agency Code Red Esports for personal reasons, after a series of accusations were made towards him by fellow British host and interviewer James Banks, and put out a statement (at the bottom of this article).
The pair have known one another for some time and, according to information published by James over the past few days, had an initial altercation while they worked together at Gfinity back in 2015.
Shortly after Paul joined Gfinity in March 2015 as head of broadcasting, James claims Paul called him up and told him he wasn’t good enough as a caster for CSGO and StarCraft and wanted to move him to an interviewer role instead.
James initially resisted. He said: “I was then told that I must listen to what he said otherwise he will make sure I never work in the industry again. That is when I first dealt with the bad side of Redeye.”
In his account of what happened, James Banks also accused Paul of threatening behaviour, preventing James from getting work in the industry and assaulting a colleague while he worked at Gfinity.
Paul denied the majority of James’ claims, including assault and preventing people getting work in esports, but did admit he’s difficult to work with and that he needed to improve his behaviour:
Code Red COO Luke Cotton also responded to James’ claims here and here.
After this, James Banks responded to Paul and Luke with more claims, including details of a past court case in which Paul was found not guilty and post-case comments from an alleged juror. Esports News UK will not be republishing these purported comments for legal reasons.
Today, one day after James posted the above allegations, Paul said he is leaving esports for good.
Another former Gfinity employee, Lewis Farley, also claims Paul was allegedly not considerate of the wellbeing of staff while working at Gfinity.
Sam Van Tilburgh has also since stepped forward and claimed that he’s the person Paul allegedly punched while at Gfinity. Paul claims neither of them punched one another.
A few years ago, Paul Chaloner told Esports News UK in an interview that esports almost killed him, speaking openly about his time at Gfinity, and how he was physically exchausted and emotionally burnt out, and how having a break from it saved him.
Via an anonymous source, James Banks alleges that Paul actually went on that break as a month’s paid leave by Gfinity to ‘cool off’ following the alleged punching incident.
Paul Chaloner’s final statement in full
“I might have been able to cope with all the shit being thrown at me (a mix of truths, half truths and falsehoods) but when my children were dragged into this, that went beyond any reasonable attack and become cruel and vicious,” Paul said.
“I will no longer by hosting esports events or continuing a public life within esports. I have resigned as managing director of Code Red with immediate effect.”
The news comes after a disturbing spate of accusations around harassment in the esports and video games industry emerged over the past week, including some that resulted in Method almost falling apart.
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
