'I Am Not a Predator': Game Show Host Adam Blampied Maintains Innocence After 2023 Scandal

Adam Blampied claims malicious comments from an ex ruined his career.

By John Connor Coulston

YouTube personality Adam Blampied has issued his side of the story following the 2023 scandal in which fellow YouTuber Gnarly Carley Gaming accused him of being a "predator." Blampied — who had previously been involved in a 2017 sexual harassment scandal — left his job with Trident Digital Media in the wake of the allegation. Now the QuizzleMania game show host has explained his side of the situation and offered some surprising insight into the events around his departure.

While we encourage readers to hear Blampied's full comments in context due to their sensitive nature, we have summarized the key points and quotes in the below article. Do note that he does not name the inciting party in his video, only using the pseudonym "X." He does not say that Gnarly Carley Gaming (real name Carley Reinhard) is X, only that X is someone who made "vague comments on a YouTube video."

"I am not not a predator," Blampied plainly stated at the beginning of his video. "I have not coerced anyone. I have not harassed anyone, induced anyone. I've not threatened anyone physically or otherwise. There is nothing that I have done in my private life to justify what I've been accused of online by people. These accusations themselves [were] sparked by purposefully vague comments on a YouTube video."

Adam Blampied Claims Affair and Failed Relationship With "X" Sparked Issues

Blampied admits that he had begun an online affair with X in 2021, despite being in a monogamous relationship himself. He eventually ended his relationship in 2022 and then pursued a relationship with X. Dating X did not work out, though the two worked together regularly and maintained a professional relationship afterward.

However, the two had a falling out in January 2023 after an allegedly "volatile" outburst from X that was said to have stemmed from a work colleague not properly tagging her on Instagram. Blampied said, "The unpredictable and unstable volatility of the January outburst, honestly, it [shook] me. It left me pretty jaded, and we eventually faded from contact."

Adam Blampied Explains Trident Digital Media's Investigation

Blampied then revealed it was he himself who came to Trident Digital Media in July 2023 about an issue that sparked the scandalous investigation that saw him pulled from the company's WrestleTalk, partsFUNknown and No Rolls Board YouTube channels. A family member of his former partner (the one he dated before X), had allegedly made incendiary comments about him on Reddit, and Blampied felt Trident should be aware of them. (Blampied does not elaborate on these Reddit comments, and it's unclear what they were.) The NRB Play Blood On The Clocktower host says he fully cooperated with the ensuing investigation.

"In July 2023, I was made aware that a sibling of my former partner who I was with when I met X was taking to Reddit to say horrible, and in some cases, untrue things about me," Blampied recalled. "I immediately brought the situation to my employer and was subsequently removed from videos as an investigation was begun into my private life. I cooperated with this investigation. I believe X was invited to do so. However I do not have the full picture of this investigation."

As this investigation began Blampied says X then called him a "predator" in YouTube comments, a word he believes was purposefully used to damage his career and incite online backlash against him. 

He said, "All of a sudden X reappeared and then proceeded to make these vague comments online about me, falling short of making an official accusation, yet explicitly using my name and the word 'predator' knowing what that would do to the internet at large — especially to me."

Blampied does not believe any sort of official allegation came out as a result of Trident Digital Media's investigation. He claims X did not do anything to "justify her statements." However, he decided to exit the company to "avoid further damage" to his mental health and the reputations of his colleagues who worked with him on Trident properties. He has since explored legal options against X and says he is only comfortable speaking out in full now.

Adam Blampied Explains His Silence on the "Predator" Allegation

"I did not intend for this length of silence and I reject any idea that the reason I've been silent this long is an admission of guilt," Blampied stated. "I am far from perfect I have never claimed to be. I have definitely acted in a way in my private life which I find personally shameful and addictive. I still have work to do on myself. However, while I deserve the consequences I've received in my private life, I do not believe that I have done anything in this situation that deserves to have my career ruined.

"I believe that this is what X has done, or attempted to do. I believe that in making these comments, X has attempted to ruin my career. I would like to think that it was otherwise, that this was just someone who had been hurt speaking in offhand YouTube comments from place of hurt. However, other incidences from this period have led me to think that the aforementioned comments were in fact made in bad faith."

The QuizzleMania host then detailed an alleged example of X using "vague" but explosive language to blackball a work colleague: the aforementioned Instagram blow-up. Blampied's video explains that incident in full, and it has been corroborated by the third party in that scenario, Angela from the YouTube channel Hobby Night.

"I would have liked not to release more information about my private life or private things that I've done, that I'm not proud of, but me simply saying to you 'I am not a predator, please trust me,' felt weightless in light of some people saying that I am unworthy of said trust because of my past," Blampied said towards the end of his statement. "The sad reality is — and I accept my part in this — after everything from seven years ago, if someone wants to destroy me, it is incredibly easy to do so. People want to believe people who are presenting themselves as victims and use incredibly incendiary emotionally charged language."

Blampied has not explained what legal action he is taking against X, though he claims to have screenshots, messages and a handwritten letter from X that corroborate his side of the story if needbe.

Gnarly Carley Gaming's 2023 Comments About Adam Blampied 

While Blampied did not name Reinhard in his video, she sparked media coverage and social media discourse in August 2023 by calling him a "predator" who engaged in "problematic behavior."

"While I do believe that most of the folks at NRB are decent humans, I will no longer work with them or support them personally or professionally so long as an individual that I know to be problematic and predatory still works there, and until they've fixed their systems that allowed for abuse in the first place," Reinhard wrote. "I am being told they are taking steps now to protect cast members and fans alike from this individual/ future similar situation, and believe in the heart of the folks doing so, but at the moment none of that change has manifested yet (save what I understand to be a temporary disciplinary leave). In no way will I return or support them while I believe their ethics don't align with mine. 

"At the moment [they] care more about 'the privacy' of a predator than safety of others and doing the right thing. They are a business, and I can understand this choice as a business, but it simply doesn't align with my values."

She added in a follow-up comment, "I, likewise, very much believe in the capacity for folks to change and grow. I am very glad to have had the space to grow and change from the person I was say a decade ago, and like to extend that grace of being able to grow to others in my world. I did at one point believe that words of change that were uttered to me. Unfortunately, if you're familiar with Adam's history, it is more or less and copy and paste of problematic behavior. NRB is fully aware of this, and has stated to me that they intend to pursue better systems for protecting folks and some element of discipline, but, I do not believe they will address it head on, publicly, or put safety and human decency ahead of protecting the face of their channel. 

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"It is all incredibly sad, and makes me sick as seeing abuse within a community I adore is very very hard to stomach."

X has not officially identified themselves as of press time, and neither has Blampied's former partner nor their sibling. Neither Trident Digital Media nor Reinhard have issued statements on the matter. Click these respective hyperlinks to read our full stories on the 2023 allegation and Blampied's Trident Digital Media exit.

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