"Hello you absolute Legends" Karl Jobst loses lawsuit against Billy Mitchell

[Skeetos]

Silly Bitchell strikes again. Honestly I didn't think Karl was gonna win this, especially with the whole Apollo Legend thing. Oh well, hopefully Billy Mitchell fades back into obscurity and Karl can pay his fees without E-begging. Man should've just kept making videos about speedruns in peace.

 

[Clippy]

Can't say I followed the whole debacle too closely but I thought it was about Billy suing Karl over the Donkey Kong cheating allegations. Seemed like it would be a slam dunk for Karl given all the evidence that was out there. Now I learn that the lawsuit was about something completely unrelated and that Karl fucked up big time. Not only did he hand Billy a massive win that I'm sure the man will parade to no end but he destroyed his reputation in the process. Talk about a fallout that didn't need to happen.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

2025 is fucking unreal istg

 

[RageBurner]

Absurdity is a timeless human trait. You can trust any year to be nuts.

 

[Oni_Games]

Karl may have lost the lawsuit but Milly Bitchell is the real loser here

I and some friends call him Silly Bitchell.

 

[Sir Auriel of Lionel]

You know I don't remember Karl telling what was defamatory statements for the lawsuit and never looked into the document if he did post a link in his video. I never donated so I shouldn't feel upset about this lost but I am disappointed that he might have lead his audience on with how he reported on Billy's behavior and moral character which do look to be petty and bullish tactics but this looked to be an open shut case when speaking about Apollo Legend. The fact he's doing damage control with that tweet makes me feel like I'm not the only one that feels mislead.

 

[Anim8rDude]

Extended Clippy meme: "Oh no! Anyway, it's been a while since the last Summoning Salt video."

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Am i bad if i was with team Billy on this?

 

[RageBurner]

Am i bad if i was with team Billy on this?

Nah, balanced discussions have differing viewpoints. Besides, you are great.

 

[snes9x]

"Justice? You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law." – William Gaddis


On a serious note, I get the ruling in the context of dragging Apollo Legend's suicide into the mix but $500,000 is pretty wild. Like that's an entire family you're jeopardizing man.

As an aside I stopped following Karl once he started positioning himself as the speedrunning police and became another tool in the youtuber drama mill. And I was already weary of him shilling for the typical Youtube sponsors (spyware, precooked meals, The Hot New Mobile Game Breaking The Internet, etc).

 

[fake-kun]

Karl, you idiot.

 

[Spike's iconSpike]

Maybe I wasn't the person who followed this case the most carefully, but I literally thought the defamation was about whether he cheated or not.

Many many people did.
I struggle to find any moment where he stated that, and if he did was glossed over near the end.

 

[diapered]

Am i bad if i was with team Billy on this?

Not at all. And as you can see, it looks like Karl WAS in the wrong here. I wasn't really on either side, myself. To be honest, Karl isn't really my favorite person, but I do like a fair amount of his content. I wouldn't say I have a positive view of billy either, he seems mean to people, but I really only know about him from Karl's videos. I just find legal stories like this interesting and the gaming history and mechanics of arcade machines/electronics ^_^

Like I said before, I am sad for Karl though. I don't disagree with the decision after listening to it, but I don't think he deserved to get blown out that bad... iirc billy had some trouble demonstrating how he was damaged by Karl's videos? like he already was seeing a drop in invites to events and such? That said, I only know about this narrative from Karl's side, so I guess that was incorrect because the judge very much did not see it that way...

 

[ciro64]

I was keeping up with the Perfect Pacman articles so the fact that the defamation subject played a big role in this lawsuit didn't come as a surprise to me, but now that I look back on how Karl presented things to us it is a little weird.

 

[Yousef]

Am i bad if i was with team Billy on this?

You’re perfectly fine, you’re a great person like my buddy @RageBurner has said.

 

[leikeylosh]

Billy is still a piece of garbage but he 100% deserved to win against Karl.
Turns out the case had nothing to do with cheating in Donkey Kong. Karl stated in a video that Billy was directly responsible for Youtuber ApolloLegend's suicide so Billy sued for defamation. Karl was told by many to remove the video or apologize which he never did. Allegedly at the time Billy contacted Karl and asked for 50K dollars to settle but Karl refused. The video was removed six months after the original upload.
In all his videos about the topic, Karl made look like the lawsuit was about the cheating thus misleading viewers. His Kickstarter campaign to cover the costs doesn't even mention the real reason for the lawsuit and his supporters feel they were lied to.
The amount ruled by the judge was a bit too much in my opinion (more than half a million dollars) but Karl absolutely deserved to lose.

 

[Spike's iconSpike]

Karl's defense was bonkers.
"if I can prove he cheated in video games and that he had no reputation to begin with then i didn't defamed him".
and:
"I also said other 5 things about him that were true and 1 that was false so in balance is ok".
Both logics are super flawed.
1) if Billy cheated or not in games is 100% irrelevant to the suit.
2) The fact that you said other irrelevant things about him that were true doesn't make the one thing you are being sued for not matter, in fact it's the only thing that matters.

It's bonkers his lawyer didn't advice him better. He had no case, and to settle right away.
It takes 5 minutes to anyone half rational to realize this.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Karl's defense was bonkers.
"if I can prove he cheated in video games and that he had no reputation to begin with then i didn't defamed him".
and:
"I also said other 5 things about him that were true and 1 that was false so in balance is ok".
Both logics are super flawed.
1) if Billy cheated or not in games is 100% irrelevant to the suit.
2) The fact that you said other irrelevant things about him that were true doesn't make the one thing you are being sued for not matter, in fact it's the only thing that matters.

It's bonkers his lawyer didn't advice him better. He had no case, and to settle right away.
It takes 5 minutes to anyone half rational to realize this.

My favorite part is when the judge say he agreed that Billy cheated. I love it

 

[snes9x]

Call him Karl Westbrook the way he fucked up this easy layup.