The internet has been abuzz over the kid who “crashed” this week’s The Game Awards with a bizarre shoutout to his “reformed orthodox rabbi” Bill Clinton.

The announcement came shortly after Elden Ring received the game of the year award, and Hidetaka Miyazaki from FromSoftware had stepped away from the mic. So who is this kid? What did he mean?

People were quick to point out that the kid had actually made appearances on InfoWars, which he has since disavowed. He appeared on the show when he was just 12 years old but said in an interview with Motherboard that “I never was an avid viewer nor am I now”.

The reason for this connection being brought up was for the potential of his “reformed orthodox rabbi” statement somehow being an antisemitic dogwhistle.

This isn’t too farfetched though through his scarce contact with the media, he’s distanced himself from these allegations and has explicitly disavowed that his statements were an “antisemitic or far right message”.

So who is the “Bill Clinton kid”? He has since been identified as Matan Evan, which is at least his internet handle if not his real name and The Game Awards isn’t the first time he’s made waves at public events.

In 2019 he appeared twice, the first time was at an NBA game and when the big TV panned over the crowd and stopped at a young and dancing Matan, he was prepared with a t-shirt which read “Fight for freedom stand with Hong Kong” which he displayed proudly before the camera quickly turned away.

His second appearance was just a few weeks later at BlizzCon 2019 where Matan got close to the stage and began pacing and shouting before being given the mic and an opportunity to shout “Free Hong Kong” to the audience at the World of Warcraft Q&A panel.

This was shortly after the “Blitzchung” incident, when Blizzard suspended a collegiate for supporting Hong Kong on stream during a tournament. His other advocacy includes taking part in the #StopAsianHate social media campaign against racially motivated hate crimes.

At the end of the day, the only deeply held belief it appears Matan has is his support for Hong Kong against the current regime in mainland China, so why didn’t he give them the shoutout at The Game Awards?

According to Forbes, Matan simply felt it “wasn’t the right moment” but he reportedly still holds feeling about the situation in Hong Kong.

And as for his message being a dog whistle? “There was no underlying antisemitic or far right message,” he said, while adding “I just couldn’t think of a better person than Bill to give the spotlight to in that moment.”