Infinite Esports & Entertainment, the ownership group for OpTic Gaming and the Overwatch League’s Houston Outlaws, will reportedly drop investor Deep Space Ventures after a managing partner was charged with aggravated assault on Sunday, according to an ESPN report.
Deep Space Ventures managing partner Stephen Hays was arrested on Sunday for allegedly assaulting his wife with a hammer after a Panic! At the Disco concert. He’s since posted a $50,000 bond. Christine Hays told police that Hays hit her with the hammer and threw “multiple items including a picture frame” at her, according to a police report obtained by Dallas Morning News.
Related: Texas Rangers co-owner Neil Leibman has acquired OpTic Gaming
Christine Hays left her home and went to a relative’s before being taken to an emergency room. She was treated for “a laceration to the back of her head, a cut above her left eye, and appeared to have bruising on her left and right arms.”
Hays tweeted multiple times throughout the alleged attack’s timeline. Just before the attack, which Christine Hays said was around 4am CT, Hays tweeted about being unable to stream on Twitch because his Spectrum internet “is completely aids.” Hours after the attack, he tweeted once more. “I am too old to go to two concerts, two nights in a row,” Hays wrote. “I’m sore. My neck, my back…”
Hays was charged in November for attempted assault and attempted extortion, where a woman alleged that Hays pushed her down and she fell down a set of stairs. Hays later told VentureBeat he’s not guilty.
Deep Space originally invested in Infinite in December, according to ESPN. Other investments listed on the Deep Space website include Battlefy, PlayVS, FanAI, Mobalytics, and Ateyo.
OpTic Gaming declined to comment.
Update, Aug. 9 at 12:40pm CT: Esports startup PlayVS has “severed ties” with Deep Space Ventures following the allegations made against managing partner Stephen Hays. In a statement issued to press, a PlayVS spokesperson said the company is “horrified” by the incident. “Deep Space Ventures is a minor shareholder and is in no way operationally involved with PlayVS,” the spokesperson wrote. “PlayVS was built by overcoming adversity and has a zero tolerance policy regarding domestic volience with respect to its employees, investors, sponsors, and partners.”
