After several years in legal battles between Billy Mitchell against Twin Galaxies for the infamous defamation lawsuit has finally come to a close on January 16th, 2024, as the involved parties have reached a private settlement to finalize the lawsuit.

Billy Mitchell is a widely known character in the professional gaming community for his then records of famous arcade games, like Donkey Kong and Pacman. Since then, his original records have been heavily questioned by the community, hinting at plausible fraud in the videotapes Mitchell submitted back then to achieve his records, with comparison videos and analysis given between his videos and how MAME loaded levels for the games he achieved records at, essentially claiming he cheated to achieve them.

Given the whole ordeal, Billy Mitchell started throwing defamation lawsuits to those claiming he cheated to get his records, and the one of those lawsuits was against the authoritative body that documents achievements and records in gaming since 1981, Twin Galaxies. Mitchell's defamation lawsuit came after Twin Galaxies decided to remove Mitchell's records from their databases back in 2018. Mitchell officially filed for the defamation lawsuit in 2019 in the state of California.

Since then, both parties have been involved in a legal war, and it wasn't until January 16th, 2024, that the case came to a close with a private settlement set between the two involved parties to officially end the lawsuit, after the expert opinion of Dr. Michael Zyda, who gave his full opinion and is currently available for public viewing.

Twin Galaxies released a statement on their official website regarding the private settlement, detailing a summary of how the whole ordeal came to be, and how it ended given the settlement that just took place. While the statement is somewhat lengthy, one of the most important paragraphs out of the statement is the following:

In fair consideration of the expert opinion provided by Dr. Zyda on behalf of Mr. Mitchell, and consistent with Twin Galaxies' dedication to the meticulous documentation and preservation of video game score history, Twin Galaxies shall heretofore reinstate all of Mr. Mitchell’s scores as part of the official historical database on Twin Galaxies’ website.

Dr. Zyda's opinion can basically be summed up to hardware failures, degradation, quality loss and/or non-maintenance of either the arcade cabinets Mitchell used to achieve the records, or the hardware used to fabricate or distribute the videotapes.

Just as Twin Galaxies released their statement, Billy Mitchel also released his own statement on his X account (currently locked to followers only) regarding the private settlement, where he mentions the following:

Twin Galaxies has reinstated all of my world records from my videogame career. Here's my statement:

As for the legal parties involved, in an interview with Arstechnica, Twin Galaxies' lawyer David Tashroudian goes into some details about the private settlement, with the possibility of the settlement being made to avoid both a long term legal action, and most of all, avoid large expenses:

A ton of cases end up settling prior to trial, just to avoid the expense and for all the parties to get finality and certainty on their own terms, there were going to be an inordinate amount of costs involved, and both parties were facing a lot of uncertainty at trial, and they wanted to get the matter settled on their own terms without putting it to a jury.

Tashroudian additionally mentions that Twin Galaxies had almost everything ready for a potential upcoming trial against Billy Mitchell, including evidence questioning Mitchell's witnesses and experts, as well as photo evidence of Mitchell in score events with arcade cabinets that had modified joysticks, which invalidates any record from being registered due to the hardware being modified.

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What does this mean at the end of the day?
Were Billy Mitchell's scores reinstated after all?

While Billy Mitchell's previous records have been restored to Twin Galaxies' historical database, this doesn't mean that Mitchell's original scores (which were the ones being brought into question) were reinstated. Only the historical database showcases Mitchell's records for archival purposes, but not the current main records by Twin Galaxies, meaning that Billy Mitchell's records are not going to be reinstated to the official main world records, and Billy Mitchell still remains banned from Twin Galaxies competition as well.

In an email response by Twin Galaxies, they answer the following questions to clear out any doubts about the settlement of the case:

Twin Galaxies' Statement
Billy Mitchell's Statement
Twin Galaxies Historical Database

 

[AkiraKurusu]

Billy is the textbook definition of a man child at this point. I’m really surprised he isn’t just sitting in his mothers basement all day long waiting for his chocolate milk

If Billy had been smart, he would've not cheated at all.
But since he did regardless, the smart thing to do next would be to remain silent - he still got his time as a WR holder, however illegitimate it was, and he should've just allowed himself to become nothing more than a historical footnote. As I said, he was recognised as a top Pac-Man player for a bit, and that should've been enough; no need to make himself way more widely known as a cheater and infamous sue-happy asshole. Only Twin Galaxies and Pac-Man competitors and the like should've known or cared about him, if he had remained quiet and disappeared from the scene.

That's what I'd do, if I were to successfully cheat a World Record - soak up my time in the spotlight, then when I inevitably get found out, don't engage before disappearing. That way I wouldn't become basically ubiquitously infamous.

 

[Defective1Up]

the quicker Karl goes away the better everything becomes. Still waiting to this day for the acutal lawsuit to manifest in anyway shape or form. Same with the Wata Lawsuit and the Jirad one. To me all i have seen is Karl be a worthless liar and scamming thousands out of people for suits that doesn't exist on paper and just his word.

Do you have any proof, or are you just on here to ragebait? smh what a bad take

 

[SylverReZ]

I think so, or at least he tried to.

He ultimately failed suing CN for copying his likeness.

 

[Xzi]

He ultimately failed suing CN for copying his likeness.

Which means he acknowledges that the portrayal is recognizable as him, in turn drawing even more attention to it. Good way to self-own.

 

[Nerdtendo]

As much as I think Karl Jobst is a scumbag, Billy Mitchell is worse and deserves having to to up against him

Post automatically merged: Jan 18, 2024

I don't like how he's been acting lately, he seems a bit too confident in what he's saying, even when it's not entirely true.

I'm not trying to defend Billy Mitchell, he is a cheater and everyone knows that, but some of the information on that video is misleading (including the title itself) and he deliberately decided to not include some crucial context like the fact that Twin Galaxies lawyer faced misconduct claims, this will only give more weight to whatever Billy decides to say in his lawsuit against him, also the fact that he is downplaying Mitchells lawyers just because they are there to represent him feels dishonest (he often do that to anyone he disagree).

I have the exact same opinion about The Completionist situation, again, not trying to defend the guy (Jirard in this case), but Karl's claims that the charity is a fraud without giving evidence that shows they used the money for something else probably wouldn't do him any favors in case Jirard decides to sue him.

This is where I'm at. Did you see the moon channel video about the Jirard situation? It's pretty good stuff

 

[whitesword7]

As much as I think Karl Jobst is a scumbag, Billy Mitchell is worse and deserves having to to up against him

Post automatically merged: Jan 18, 2024

This is where I'm at. Did you see the moon channel video about the Jirard situation? It's pretty good stuff

Saying “I am the final boss” is pretty arrogant by itself. He’s just like any other youtuber that makes money from negative drama. really don’t like the guy at all and people just worship him mindlessly

 

[genxor]

But we can still say Billy Mitchell's hot sauce causes bowel cancer, right?

 

[The Catboy]

Todd Rogers' scores are also up in that database.

Todd Togers*

 

[DarknessPlay3r]

Unfucking believable. I wonder how much money TG got from all of this...

 

[Vanessa__]

I forgot this guy existed lol

 

[AdenTheThird]

This is from Twin Galaxies' official shop.
Man, they are loving this!

 

[Lumstar]

If Billy had been smart, he would've not cheated at all.
But since he did regardless, the smart thing to do next would be to remain silent - he still got his time as a WR holder, however illegitimate it was, and he should've just allowed himself to become nothing more than a historical footnote. As I said, he was recognised as a top Pac-Man player for a bit, and that should've been enough; no need to make himself way more widely known as a cheater and infamous sue-happy asshole. Only Twin Galaxies and Pac-Man competitors and the like should've known or cared about him, if he had remained quiet and disappeared from the scene.

That's what I'd do, if I were to successfully cheat a World Record - soak up my time in the spotlight, then when I inevitably get found out, don't engage before disappearing. That way I wouldn't become basically ubiquitously infamous.

AFAIK, strictly speaking, he was only accused of cheating at Donkey Kong. Although for obvious reasons, cheating in any game casts considerable doubt.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

The evidence against him is considerable, and I've listened to the statement from the man who essentially singlehandedly got him reinstated. I don't believe you can really blame video artifacting for what was seen on Michell's tapes. I would love to see someone recreate his setup and make an attempt to prove/disprove him playing on a genuine cabinet, but I'm unconvinced of his innocence for now. Even if his score is legitimate, I don't think he was playing on an original arcade board.

 

[HarveyHouston]

Why is this guy suing? I mean, in the long run, does it really matter? So, you get a Guinness World Record, and it gets removed. It's likely to be surpassed or replaced, anyway. I mean, sure, it's cool to have your name in something notable that makes you famous, but IMHO that's not reason enough to seek litigation when it's removed.

Also, Twin Galaxies should be a bit more lenient on arcade machines, nowadays. It's getting harder to play on original, unmodified hardware, because it's not being manufactured as much anymore. Even at the time of King of Kong, there were few Donkey Kong cabinets that were original. As long as it's the original game, with no mods to the game itself whatsoever, then why worry? Also, if they are so concerned about it, they could authorize their own consoles to be used in record-breaking scores.

Just my thoughts; probably means nothing now. What's done is done, so... whatever.

 

[gameboy]

Post automatically merged: Jan 18, 2024

Billy mitchell proved his legitimacy years ago, but Karl Jobst has been manipulating the youtube algorithms to keep his lies going in fear of getting sued. Lots of gaslighting, virtue signalling and all different kinds of fallacies on both sides, more so on Karl Jobst side than anyone else.

 

[NinStar]

Post automatically merged: Jan 18, 2024

Billy mitchell proved his legitimacy years ago, but Karl Jobst has been manipulating the youtube algorithms to keep his lies going in fear of getting sued. Lots of gaslighting, virtue signalling and all different kinds of fallacies on both sides, more so on Karl Jobst side than anyone else.

I don't think anyone is doubting his recent records done live and the fact that he is indeed a skilled player, the thing is with his early record tapes that he still tries to pass as being recorded on arcade when given all the circumstances and evidence they were clearly played on an emulator (which by me counts as cheating), also the fact that so many things he says are half truths at best (probably in an attempt to appear better than he actually is) puts his entire reputation into question, the "video game player of the century" title he likes to use so much is a clear example of these half truths he tells all the time and there are countless other examples.

And as I mentioned in my other message, it is bizarre how Karl is slowly starting to do the exact same thing he says he is trying to combat.

 

[JuanMena]

Why is this guy suing? I mean, in the long run, does it really matter? So, you get a Guinness World Record, and it gets removed. It's likely to be surpassed or replaced, anyway. I mean, sure, it's cool to have your name in something notable that makes you famous, but IMHO that's not reason enough to seek litigation when it's removed.

Also, Twin Galaxies should be a bit more lenient on arcade machines, nowadays. It's getting harder to play on original, unmodified hardware, because it's not being manufactured as much anymore. Even at the time of King of Kong, there were few Donkey Kong cabinets that were original. As long as it's the original game, with no mods to the game itself whatsoever, then why worry? Also, if they are so concerned about it, they could authorize their own consoles to be used in record-breaking scores.

Just my thoughts; probably means nothing now. What's done is done, so... whatever.

Agree.
The amount of people taking this "issue" seriously is scary. No wonder why nowadays any idiot can get famous.

 

[Darth Meteos]

As long as it's the original game, with no mods to the game itself whatsoever, then why worry?

Because you can modify MAME in ways that are undetectable. Remember, Steve Wiebe's first-ever million was taken from him because they were suspicious of the seller, no proof other than that. Mitchell then used an imperfect emulation software that can easily be tampered with in undetectable ways on a non-standard machine without video of him performing the gameplay, and that's okay, because it was arbitrated by Todd fkn Rogers.

The whole situation stinks of the fix being in, fuck Billy Mitchell and the old guard at Twin Galaxies

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Lots of gaslighting, virtue signalling and all different kinds of fallacies on both sides, more so on Karl Jobst side than anyone else.

Which is why I look at the data rather than opinions before making my mind up.

 

[SylverReZ]

Which is why I look at the data rather than opinions before making my mind up.

There's always people who jump to their own conclusions rather than the facts.