It’s in the game…
Twitch has rules prohibiting live-streaming television programming — particularly pay-per-view sports events — and for good reason. They don’t want trouble from the rights holders. Doing it can get a streamer punished for copyright violation. But one guy found a novel means of getting away with it.
Lester_Gaming, which was A. J. Lester’s heretofore unknown channel on Twitch, streamed UFC 218 on Saturday night by pretending he was playing a UFC video game. The fact EA Sports’ UFC 3 is currently in an open beta no doubt helped with his disguise.
But, come on, the game does not feature this level of realism. See for yourself:
How has he pretended to play a ufc fight on stream to avoid getting copyrighted LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL pic.twitter.com/I4ykqwqrTA
If this was real, that commentary engine, and the crowd noise (“sweeteners,” they’re sometimes called) would be some next-level breakthroughs in sports video game presentation. Lester ducks and flicks and mutters like he’s actually playing — in this case the bout between José Aldo and Max Holloway, the featherweight champion. (Their bout opened the PPV; Holloway won.)
Lester followed up the PPV stream with one where he played Fortnite, but discussed his viral fame. He appeared unconcerned with any punishment coming from Twitch, which he says has not attempted to contact him, but he still deleted the archived video of the fight.
We’ve reached out to a Twitch representative to ask for comment on the shenanigans. We’ve also checked in with an EA Sports representative, in case they have anything to say, but they probably won’t want to peeve a licensing partner.
Still, it’s a safe bet they’d be happy with this kind of publicity, as well as the notion a PPV event can pass for their video game.
