Streamer illegally broadcast a pay-per-view fight by pretending to play UFC 3

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UFC 218 took place on Saturday, with feaherweight fighters Max Holloway and Jose Aldo headlining the event's main card. By pretending live footage of the fight was in-game footage of  the latest EA Sports UFC videogame (UFC 3), popular streamer Aj Lester broadcast the otherwise pay-per-view event to the world. 

 

To make his charade more believable, Lester even accompanied his 'gameplay' with sound effects. At one point he even calls himself out for not blocking an attack. 

 

Since his tweet he was featured in went viral, Lester has deleted the VOD of the fight. But in a follow-up stream, he claimed he hadn't heard from Twitch, UFC, or any other authority on the matter. Lester has, however, found some success from his endeavours; his follower count which has been stuck at 2,000 for years, has more than doubled since saturday night, and has now reached nearly 5,000.

Despite breaking the law, Aj Lester's commitment to the ruse is admirable. His grunts and sharp glances to the stream's text chat do make it seem like he's in control of the fight.

 

Replies • 40
Modest

That's kind of funny. But if he's 14, EA should definitely sue him.


Interstellar

It's a bit better than the guy who tried to cover up the Mayweather fight by saying he was playing a Barbie game.


dknash said:

That's kind of funny. But if he's 14, EA should definitely sue him.

Pretty sure he is older than that.




Here I am, ready to play. Gaming enthusiast without free time to actually play video games but eager to learn anything

People will always find imaginative ways of doing illegal things and skip controls, this is a good hilarious example.



Interstellar

Good idea, law is law. If you don't have the rights to stream copyrighted content don't do it. You can get in serious trouble. Nobody want to go to court just because you are making fun of a game publisher.