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Ex-Donkey Kong world record holder Billy Mitchell to sue Twin Galaxies for stripping his record

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The once-high-score record holder for Donkey Kong, Billy Mitchell, is fighting back, after having been stripped of his accolades over cheating accusations. In 2018, Twin Galaxies--a leaderboard for arcade games--investigated Mitchell's world records, coming to the conclusion that he didn't earn those high-scores by playing on official hardware, and thus removed him from their leaderboards. Following that decision, Mitchell claimed he would take legal action against Twin Galaxies, unless they re-awarded him with his records once more. Now, it's been revealed that Mitchell has come through on his claim, filing a defamation lawsuit against the company in April 2019, where it was then officially served to Twin Galaxies in February of this year. News outlet Ars Technica obtained the court documents, which contain the original suit, alongside an amended and updated complaint as of March 12, 2020.

In the legal papers, Mitchell states that Twin Galaxies acted with "oppression, fraud, or malice", causing damage to both his reputation and his business, and did not justify or prove the decision behind removing the world records. In a demand of trial by jury, Mitchell will seek monetary relief from the defendant. Twin Galaxies revoked Mitchell's record over the score being, according to their testing and research, impossible to replicate on official hardware. Though it was never stated as such by Twin Galaxies, many took it as an implication that Mitchell achieved the scores by playing an emulated version of the game, or possibly even cheated. Both parties will present their case to a judge on July 6th.

21. That the statement expressly accused Mitchell of cheating is further evidenced by 6 the news commentary that followed. Variety, for instance, pulled no punches in describing Twin 7 Galaxies' decision as follows (with emphasis added): 8 9 10 11 12 13 Famed high-score gamer Billy Mitchell, best known for his role in "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters" documentary, was officially stripped of his "Donkey Kong" and other video game high scores and banned from submitting scores to the world's largest tracker of video game world records following a decision that he cheated, Twin Galaxies announced today. 14 See https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/king-of-kong-stripped-of-title-1202751358. 15 22. In short, the statement accused a professional video game player of not achieving 16 his records through fair means, removing his undisputed records from other games from the 1 7 scoreboard, and banning him for life. 18 23. But in fact the April 12, 2018 statement was made with knowledge of its falsity or 19 with reckless disregard for its truth. The most cursory, unbiased investigation would have revealed 20 beyond doubt that the record-breaking Donkey Kong scores were not played on emulation 21 software in private places, but were actually played on certified arcade boards in front of hundreds 22 of people. To date, more than 25 of these witnesses have signed sworn affidavits testifying to their 23 observation of Mitchell achieving his scores on arcade software. 24 24. But the investigation was not unbiased; it was pre-ordained. During its 25 "investigation" into Mitchell's scores, Twin Galaxies under its new ownership did not act as an 26 impartial arbiter, but rather as a biased observer intent on generating publicity and internet "clicks" 27 by accusing Mitchell, the most visible of all video gamers, of cheating. Twin Galaxies performed a 28 deliberately one-sided, biased investigation, with the sole goal of convicting Mitchell through its: 4817-3070-6615.1 6 FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT 1 1) failing to contact key witnesses; 2) intentional disregarding evidence in favor of Mitchell; 3) 2 deliberately burying evidence in favor of Mitchell; 4) selecting an openly-biased third-party 3 investigator; 5) refusing to provide equal evidentiary access to Mitchell, 6) failing to fact check 4 information; and 7) failing to retract its defamatory statements. 5 25. In Twin Galaxies' investigation, new owner Jace Hall advised Mitchell that only 6 "scientific" evidence would be considered, rejecting all witness testimony out of hand, no matter 7 how credible. Specifically, Hall stated to Mitchell, "I don't care what anybody says." Even after 8 Mitchell's retraction demand, which provided dozens of sworn witness affidavits, Hall ignored 9 them.
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:arrow: Source: Ars Technica
 
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x65943 said:
He wants a jury trial because he knows they won't know the facts and are easier to persuade than a judge
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I'd bet good money, that this is just done for exactly the headlines this news is producing.

So the next time you search his name, you'd also get that he sued which would clean up his name a little.

This should get thrown out of courts within five minutes. ("You want to sue to get back on a videogame arcade companies leaderboards?")

And actually, why not. :)

In europe we have a 'right to be forgotten' for cases such as this, that would allow you to ask google and other search engines, to remove your name from surfacing search results on an 'event' you'd want the world to forget. :) (As long as it is not in the public interest to know, in which case you cant pull 'right to be forgotten'-)
 
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notimp said:
I'd bet good money, that this is just done for exactly the headlines this news is producing.

So the next time you search his name, you'd also get that he sued which would clean up his name a little.

This should get thrown out of courts within five minutes. ("You want to sue to get back on a videogame arcade companies leaderboards?")

And actually, why not. :)

In europe we have a 'right to be forgotten' for cases such as this, that would allow you to ask google and other search engines, to remove your name from surfacing search results on an 'event' you'd want the world to forget. :) (As long as it is not in the public interest to know, in which case you cant pull 'right to be forgotten'-)
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Can I exercise my right to forget I ever heard of him in the first place? I honestly never heard of him before this, and I still don't.
 
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Pipistrele

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Isn't it the same Twin Galaxies that prioritized his runs in a biased manner, going easy on researching his tapes while overruling some legitimate records of other people for superficial reasons? Going in court against the same organization that supported your own fraudulent acts for years is a ballsy move indeed.
 
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Isnt' this guy a Joke or something?

Last thing I heard about him is that his record is completely fake.

Oh, I see... the article states exactly what I knew about him... hey... talk about Rage Quitting.


One thing I can't comprehend is why this is a front page article? LOL?
 
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Can someone who actually knows the law tell me if this even makes sense? Twin Galaxies is a private business which just keeps track of records. For a lawsuit to take place, there needs to be damage, and in a defamation case like this, there would need to be some kind of ill intent. Otherwise you could just sue random award agencies for thinking they made a mistake in their judgement of a competition.
 
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JuanMena said:
Last thing I heard about him is that his record is completely fake.
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According to the popular documentary, he was an actual runner and record holder, that resorted to cheating to regain his number one place.

Probably in a marketing ploy in relation with Twin Galaxies in the first place. (This 'record hunt' was used as PR for them to drum up business.). Allegedly. Everything about this outfit seemed shady. ;)

But then GDQ also hawks streamer smiles for 50 buck donations, and does 'bonus goals' donation countdowns, so... Seems to come with the territory. ;) (A little background: https://old.reddit.com/r/speedrun/comments/7pvykp/is_100_of_the_money_going_to_the_charity/ )

I still watch GDQs... ;)
 
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AbyssalMonkey said:
For a lawsuit to take place, there needs to be damage, and in a defamation case like this, there would need to be some kind of ill intent.
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Not a lawyer and not a US citizen, but according to the gbatemp writeup its a libel/slander suit. In those cases you can always sue, normally to get takedown notices, published corrections, or even damages if you can prove you were financially impacted by the reputation damage.

The court then has to look into if there is sufficient proof/damage caused to warrant a case. But you can always file the papers.
 
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DarthDub said:
I don't think emulating a 30+ arcade game should be considered cheating, as long as you're upfront and honest about it of course.
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yeah. But he denied it, and the only thing he needed to do to prove that he didn't use MAME is prove that that frame (you know the one) could appear in real hardware.
 
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DarthDub said:
I don't think emulating a 30+ arcade game should be considered cheating, as long as you're upfront and honest about it of course.
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The thing is, how an emulator works can have drastic changes on a subtle level. It might not be readily apparent, but they can cause less input lag (able to react cleaner to sudden events), increase the gamespeed, slow the game speed (making it easier with lesser input lags), etc etc.

I cannot understate exactly how disasterous it is to have an emulator for Speedrun/Point Record purposes. The slightest 0.1 second advantage in any fashion can be the difference between victory and defeat. There's speedruns that come even on the normal hardware to specific frame-perfect shots and camera movements both to optimalize vs lag to gain that small advantage, now imagine the advantages changing the hardware altogether could have.
 
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