Elden Ring was always the favorite to win Game of the Year, even with God of War: Ragnarök in the same category. But the night will be remembered for the stage invader who got out of their seat and followed Elden Ring’s director Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team onto the stage as they went to collect the award. Jump to the end of the video above to see what happened. The way the person casually walked alongside the devs and then stood behind them on stage ensured security and the award winners assumed he was supposed to be there. As the group started walking away and the outro music began playing, the hijacker jumped on the microphone. “I want to thank everybody and say that I think I want to nominate this award to my Reformed Orthodox Rabbi Bill Clinton,” they said. Host Geoff Keighley returned to the stage looking perturbed but never mentioned the incident. He later tweeted, “the individual who interrupted our Game of the Year moment has been arrested.” Twitter users have posted Discord chat logs and text messages showing that the invasion was pre-planned. One person said the invader revealed their intentions to them while they were playing Warzone four days ago. They are referred to as “the same kid who was on Info Wars,” which, for those don’t know, is Alex Jones’ conspiracy theory site. As for the awards themselves, Elden Ring won Best Game Direction, Best Art Direction, and Best Role Playing in addition to GOTY. God of War: Ragnarök had been nominated in ten categories and won seven of them, including the best performance award for Christopher Judge as Kratos. Looking at some of the awards, Final Fantasy 14 won Best Community Support, Bayonetta 3 won Best Action Game, and Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope won Best Sim/Strategy Game. Arcane: League of Legends won best adaptation, beating the excellent Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Full list of Game Awards 2022 nominees and winners:

Game of the Year

A Plague Tale: Requiem Elden Ring - WINNER God of War Ragnarok Horizon Forbidden West Stray Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Best Game Direction

Elden Ring - WINNER God of War Ragnarok Horizon Forbidden West Immortality Stray

Best Narrative

A Plague Tale: Requiem Elden Ring God of War Ragnarok - WINNER Horizon Forbidden West Immortality

Best Art Direction

Elden Ring - WINNER God of War: Ragnarok Horizon: Forbidden West Scorn Stray

Best Score/Music

Olivier Deriviere - A Plague Tale: Requiem Tsukasa Saitoh - Elden Ring Bear McCreary - God of War: Ragnarok - WINNER Two Feathers - Metal Hellsinger Yasunori Mitsuda

Best Audio Design

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Elden Ring God of War Ragnarok - WINNER Gran Turismo 7 Horizon Forbidden West

Best Performance

Ashly Birch - Horizon: Forbidden West Charlotte McBurney - A Plague Tale: Requiem Christopher Judge - God of War: Ragnarok - WINNER Manon Gage - Immortality Sunny Suljic - God of War: Ragnarok

Games for Impact

A Memoir Blue As Dusk Falls - WINNER Citizen Sleeper Endling - Extinction is Forever Hindsight I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

Best Ongoing Game

Apex Legends Destiny 2 Final Fantasy 14 Online - WINNER Fortnite Genshin Impact

Best Indie Game

Cult of the Lamb Neon White Sifu Stray - WINNER TUNIC

Best Debut Indie Game

Neon White NORCO Stray - WINNER TUNIC Vampire Survivors

Best Mobile Game

Apex Legends Mobile Diablo Immortal Genshin Impact Marvel Snap - WINNER Tower of Fantasy

Best Community Support

Apex Legends Destiny 2 Final Fantasy 14 Online - WINNER Fortnite No Man’s Sky

Best VR/AR Game

After the Fall Among Us VR BONELAB Moss: Book II - WINNER Red Matter 2

Innovation in Accessibility

As Dusk Falls God of War: Ragnarok - WINNER Returnal Return to Monkey Island The Last of Us Part 1 The Quarry

Best Action Game

Bayonetta 3 - WINNER Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II Neon White Sifu Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

Best Action/Adventure Game

A Plague Tale: Requiem God of War Ragnarok - WINNER Horizon Forbidden West Stray TUNIC

Best RPG

Elden Ring - WINNER Live a Live Pokémon Legends: Arceus Triangle Strategy Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Best Fighting Game

DNF Duel JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R The King of Fighters 15 MultiVersus - WINNER Sifu

Best Family Game

Kirby and the Forgotten Land - WINNER LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope Nintendo Switch Sports Splatoon 3

Best Sports/Racing Game

F1 22 FIFA 23 NBA 2K23 Gran Turismo 7 - WINNER OlliOlli World

Best SIM/Strategy Game

Dune: Spice Wars Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope - WINNER Total War: WARHAMMER 3 Two Point Campus Victoria 3

Best Multiplayer Game

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Multiversus Overwatch 2 Splatoon 3 - WINNER Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

Content Creator of the Year

Karl Jacobs Ludwig - WINNER Nibellion Nobru QTCinderella

Best Esports Athlete

Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon (Gen.G, LOL) Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (T1, LOL) Finn “karrigan” Andersen ( (FaZe Clan - CS:GO) Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev (Natus Vincere, CS:GO) Jacob “Yay” Whiteaker (Cloud9, Valorant) - WINNER

Best Esports Coach

Andrii “B1ad3” Horodenskyi (Natus Vincere, CS:GO) Matheus “bzkA” Tarasconi (LOUD, VALORANT) - WINNER Erik “d00mbr0s” Sandgren (FPX, VALORANT) Robert “RobbaN” Dahlström (FaZe Clan, CS:GO) Go “Score” Dong-bin (Gen.G, LOL)

Best Esports Event

EVO 2022 2022 League of Legends World Championship - WINNER PGL Major Antwerp 2022 The 2022 Mid-Season Invitational VALORANT Champions 2022

Best Esports Game

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive DOTA 2 League of Legends Rocket League VALORANT - WINNER

Best Esports Team

DarkZero Esports (Apex Legends) FaZe Clan (CS:GO) Gen.G (League of Legends) LA Thieves (Call of Duty) LOUD (Valorant) - WINNER

Most Anticipated Game

Final Fantasy 16 Hogwarts Legacy Resident Evil 4 Starfield The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - WINNER

Best Adaptation

Arcane: League of Legends - WINNER Cyberpunk: Edgerunners The Cuphead Show! Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Uncharted