It was the powder keg, yes. As I recall, the original Five Guys post made the rounds on 4chan mid-August. This caused people to start digging for connections, and finding out about the tangled mess that is the web of relationships between devs and journalists. Adam Baldwin coined the term #Gamergate, and the Gamers are Dead articles popped up shortly after. While Gamergate had been spreading before said articles were released, it was debateably what caused it to turn into a full-blown controversy.