Almost a dozen content creators in the Sea of Thieves Partner Program have announced that they are stepping down from their roles following allegations of child sexual abuse made against one of the community’s officially designated “Boatswains,” a title given to Sea of Thieves creators by Rare to “celebrate the Pirates who are positive members of [the] community.”
A content creator named Bruno, also known by their in-game handle Heslashthem, was previously alleged to have engaged in inappropriate conversations with underage players on Discord and in streams. These claims were compiled into a Google document called “The Bruno Files,” which included screenshots of alleged Discord conversations.
But a recent update to the document by a user named realThatGuyVic on May 12 included new allegations based on alleged screenshots of Discord conversations that appeared to show Bruno soliciting explicit pictures from an anonymous player alleged to have been underage. RealThatGuyVic, along with other Sea of Thieves content creators, have now accused Rare’s moderation team on Discord of attempting to “bury” the controversy by aggressively moderating the topic and deleting “any messages discussing it.”
Bruno has appeared to have deleted all of their online accounts and Kotaku was not immediately able to reach them for comment.
uploaded a shorter concise version of the bruno files controversy. once again sorry to expose people to this gross behaviour. YT short version in reply #seaofthieves pic.twitter.com/4a7JXYxBG9
— crud (@crudmasterTV) May 14, 2026
A screenshot being shared among players purports to show Rare’s Sea of Thieves senior community manager, known as j0toro, appearing in game sessions with Bruno, following allegations of acting inappropriately toward minors in the past. According to a recent post on the r/seaofthieves subreddit, Bruno’s Sea of Thieves account has now been banned, and his Discord account has since been removed from the game’s official server.
Some members of the Sea of Thieves community have called on Rare and Microsoft to address the situation publicly. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Rare’s community managers did vaguely address the “reports” in an announcement post in the Sea of Thieves Discord server.
After a lot of thought, I’ve decided to step down from the @SeaOfThieves Partner Program.
I love Sea of Thieves and I’ll always be thankful for the opportunities, friendships, and memories that came from it. But seeing the recent news surrounding someone who was elevated and…
— HitboTC (@HitboTC) May 14, 2026
“Hi all, we need to keep this server compliant with our rules – so while our predominantly EU-based team take some time to rest, we are slowing this server right down,” reads the post. “However, I want to be clear: we are investigating and escalating all reports with the appropriate urgency. And, as has always been our policy, we are unable to comment on individual reports or incidents publicly.”
Several prominent members of the Sea of Thieves Partner Program have stepped down from their roles in the past three days in light of the allegations made against Bruno, and their concerns about how the situation has been handled by Rare. Those include Phuzzy, HitboTC, Ozurian, TotallyFluxxx, NessieDoes, AShinyRayquaza, and Captain Falcore.
“Hello Sea of Thieves, I’d like to request the removal of my name from the game website, as long as the removal of the Hat of Unfeasibly Glorious Fame from my in game account,” Ozurian posted on X on May 13. “I wish to not be associated with the brand after the recent events. The attitudes of the community management team reflected on how I perceive the game and Rare, the company behind its development. I kindly request that the higher ups contact the authorities to handle the situation and address the community properly with an statement.”
