Counter-Strike: GO To Jail

Another month, another internet controversy. This seems to be the pattern that we, as denizens of the internet, must put up with now. However, this time, the internet controversy was not over something trivial like whether a dress is blue or gold, or some other similar load of rubbish. Instead, it was focused upon something far more serious, and far more nefarious at that.
For those who are unaware of this latest uproar (and I do envy those of you who are), YouTubers Trevor Martin (TmarTn) and Tom Cassel (ProSyndicate) were uncovered as the owners of an online lottery site for Counter Strike skins that they had been advertising via their videos. The pair had previously published content on their channels showing that they had ‘just discovered’ a new lottery site, and that, by using it, had managed to win thousands of dollars worth of skins. Naturally, they failed to disclose the fact that they owned the damn site the whole time.

The offenders in question. Image Credit: Kilquid T.V./Youtube

There are so many scummy aspects to this that one article would not suffice to cover them all. So, rather than spending the next few hundred words saying how encouraging young children to gamble is wrong (because of course it bloody is), I will instead try to clarify what this means for YouTubers moving forward:

The blatant lack of disclosure displayed by the likes of TmarTn and Pro Syndicate has destroyed the faith that many had in these people.

For years now, traditional games media has been portrayed as being both seedy and untrustworthy. For years small pockets of the internet have maintained an ardent belief that companies such as IGN and Kotaku are in the pocket of big games companies and, as such, cannot not be trusted. This was juxtaposed with the new and emerging games media; that of the YouTube channels, and the general consensus here has been that we can trust them.

Many content creators try to show how they are just like you; that they are one of the fans and therefore we can trust them. They play on their supposed passion for gaming to garner a fanbase, all the time maintaining that we can absolutely trust them. And for the most part, we have trusted them. It’s almost hard not to at times. But the problem is, as the CSGO lotto scandal has shown, we cannot entirely trust them, and maybe we shouldn’t trust them at all.
The blatant lack of disclosure displayed by the likes of TmarTn and Pro Syndicate has destroyed the faith that many had in these people. These two have taken advantage of their trusting fanbase, most of whom are quite young, in order to make a few quick bucks. They assumed that nobody would find out, that the fans would trust that they were being sincere, and off the back of this tried to do some really quite shady shit.

Naturally, they failed to disclose the fact that they owned the damn site the whole time

How can we trust people like this? Despite watching these people’s videos, we know little about them. We have no basis to trust many YouTubers as there’s so little accountability, and this is further exacerbated by the fanbase these Youtubers have cultivated; fans who have been trained to blindly trust them. Even now, there are those out there defending TmarTn and ProSyndicate, acting like they have done nothing wrong, which is just awful.
What’s even more disturbing is the fact that the two of them don’t seem to be particularly apologetic about the whole affair, further damaging their aura of trust. ProSyndicate has been smart and largely stayed quiet, save for a few choice words. TmarTn however, has been firing off comments wildly since this started. In his first attempt to resolve the issue, he decided to claim that the accusations were false, and even went so far as to attempt to discredit the original channel that made the claims, whilst simultaneously showing off his bloody big house, in a video more gauche than I previously thought was humanly possible. Then, he went on to release several new videos, eventually admitting that he owned the site, but that he had never hidden it, and that everybody should have gone deep into the paperwork for the site to find out, which was a totally reasonable request, whilst also using his dog to try and garner some sympathy.

“This $1,000 knife skin must be pretty cool…oh.” Image Credit: VideoGrames/Youtube

These laughable attempts by Martin to clear up the issue just shows how opaque some YouTube content creators are prepared to be regarding disclosure. In particular, the attempt to disavow these claims by attacking a smaller YouTube channel and attempting to discredit them shows just how callous these people are.
Of course, not all can be labeled in such a way, but there is really no way of knowing. This case shows us just how easy it is to fall into the trap; to believe that these individuals hold our best interests at heart, and aren’t just looking to make a quick buck.

The issue just shows how opaque some YouTube content creators are prepared to be regarding disclosure

This whole CSGO lotto scandal has served to expose a great lie behind much of YouTube and its gaming channels. For years, many of these so-called professionals have hidden behind a façade of being passionate about gaming and of being trustworthy, when, in reality, this was as far from the truth as is possible. People like TmarTn and ProSyndicate should not be trusted. These two are clearly in it for the money, not for the love or for the fans. We don’t know these YouTubers. We have no idea what they are truly like as people. We only see them in the small snippets they present to us. It’s with this in mind that I offer you this advice: Don’t trust YouTubers. You can like their videos and value their opinion, but you cannot feasibly trust them. Stop trusting YouTubers, and unsubscribe from TmarTn and ProSyndicate, because they don’t deserve anything more from you.

On a unrelated note, you should definitely check out joeclarkelotto.com. It’s a brand new lottery site that I just found and amazingly, as soon as I clicked on it, I won £10 billion.
Honest.
It’s totally legitimate.
And I don’t own it.
Seriously.
Stop doubting me.
You can trust me…