King Of Kong's Billy Mitchell Scores Massive Payday In Defamation Lawsuit
The ruling was predicated on a lawsuit following a video in which Karl Jobst, a Youtuber focused on speed running and competitive games made in 2021, titled “The Biggest Conmen in Video Game History Strike Again!" The video appeared to be a subtle dig at Billy Micthell and his involvement with Benjamin Smith also known as Apollo Legend.
If you recall, Micthell was stripped of his titles after he was removed from the Twin Galaxies’s leaderboard and the Guinness Book of Records following accusations of cheating, which many believed propelled him to the top in games like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong Jr. ( His records have since been reinstated in the Guinness Book of Records and more recently on Twin Galaxies.)
This incident led to a series of legal battles, which Mitchell instituted in an effort to clear his name, including one with another Youtuber, Benjamin Smith who made many videos that referred to Mitchell as a cheat. Eventually, some sort of settlement was reached between them that ended the lawsuit in 2020.
However, after the settlement, Jobst posted the video in 2021 which Micthell claimed was defamatory. Mitchell alleged that the video implied that he had a settlement with Smith, which involved a huge amount of money, and that it contributed to Smith’s committing suicide. He also alleged that the video suggested that he was happy at the thought that Smith committed suicide.
For his part, Jobst denied that the allegations Mitchell made were applied to his video and also claimed that Mitchell's previous cheating allegations call his integrity into question.
In the ruling, Judge Ken Barrow found that Jobst's video, which had over 500,000 views, was not accurate and had damaged Mitchell's reputation. Barrow also expressed displeasure at Jobst's attitude as he described it as a “self-aggrandising and perhaps self-protective tendency not to admit error and not to back down once he has taken a stance."
In response to the ruling, Jobst made a post on X (formerly called Twitter) stating that “the judge found Billy to be a credible witness and believed his entire testimony.”
Having found Jobst guilty of defamation, the Australian court awarded the sum of AU$300,000 for damages for non-economic loss and AU$50,000 for aggravated damages, as well as AU$34,668.50 as interest against him.
