In light of recent events, I've decided to state my opinion on the situation that erupted when FrankieOnPCin1080p posted a clip of bhopping in CS:GO. Another YouTuber who is known for bhopping used the clip in a video to show that Frankie might have been scripting. This video was very quickly flagged for copyright by Frankie's circle and removed from YouTube. This caused a huge eruption of rumors and conspiracy against Frankie. He [Frankie] has come out with multiple statements about the alleged scripting and the copyright fiasco. If you would like to see the video Frankie posted about this situation (and the accusations of hacking since 2013) you can see it here: https://youtu.be/4T5pRplnFng
I first stumbled across Frankie's account at the tail end of 2013 when I first started playing DayZ. I was instantly in love with his content. High in quality and very entertaining, his DayZ videos taught me a lot about the game. It was November 2014 before I saw the first big accusation of Frankie hacking. At first, I was pretty angry, but I decided to do more research before feeding the comment trolls. Many of the videos that were linked to me as evidence were removed for copyright. (by Frankie) After finding a video that had been re-uploaded multiple times, I saw the "evidence" that Frankie was cheating. However, after my time playing DayZ, most of the "evidence" was things I have encountered before in DayZ, though I have never used any type of hack/cheat in DayZ. I wrote a respectful and detailed comment on the video about why I didn't think this video was very accurate, and people seemed to agree with me. That whole situation, however, did make me watch his videos more carefully.
In the past two weeks, rumors and accusations have once again flared up about Frankie. Frankie posted this video: https://youtu.be/eSP_q6TzSzA?t=30s showcasing his new bhopping abilities. It all started when popular bhopper, LAUNDERS CSTRIKE, posted a video showcasing the clip of Frankie bhopping and stating that it is possible Frankie was scripting to bhop without any effort. You can see that video here: https://youtu.be/U9cbUJ2TfZQ
Soon after this video was posted, it was taken down for copyright infringement by Frankie's account. Not many people were worried about the bhopping clip as Frankie was playing by himself in a private server, but the copyright claim sparked a new wave of hate towards Frankie. He [Frankie] has come out and said that his partners took the video down as the footage was used without permission. He then came out and said that a channel moderator who helps him sort trough comment trolls and nonconstructive comments, flagged the video for the same reason. In his most recent video (Tired of BS) he stated that he understands that it is still his responsibility that this situation occurred. He also showed the email he sent to the YouTube team asking for the video to be put back up. LAUNDER's video has since been re-uploaded to YouTube. However, LAUNDERS has made another video talking about the copyright claim and the alleged "lies" Frankie has been telling his audience. You can see that video here: https://youtu.be/eiLnimSzghg
TotalBiscuit has also stated his opinion of the situation here: https://soundcloud.com/totalbiscuit/cs-lies-and-videotape-frankieonpc-censors-csboxr-with-a-false-copyright-claim
My thoughts on what has happened so far:
1. Both parties (Pro-Frankie and Anti-Frankie) have handled the situation terribly. The Frankie "fan boys" have done little more than call people stupid and offer no evidence. The Anti-Frankie commenters have done little more than call people stupid and offer no solid evidence other than the opinion of TotalBiscuit. (An opinion can't be evidence)
2. This entire situation has caused a lot of stress and anger that could have been avoided had the initial claims not have been made. That being said, hats off to LAUNDERS for putting his neck on the line and standing up against possible cheating.
3. I personally feel like TotalBiscuit has taken this way too personally and in calling Frankie a "bully" has shown himself to be a "bully" as well. I've never really watched TotalBiscuit, but his tone in this podcast makes him sound a little malicious against Frankie. He even calls Frankie a "coward" for not owning up to this mistake. (Frankie has since owned up to the fact that this situation is his responsibility, but is still stating that it was a moderator and not himself, who filed the copyright claim.)
4. Though the story has changed quite a lot, I don't believe everything Frankie is telling us is a lie. It is possible that his moderator didn't tell him that he flagged the video, so Frankie assumed Machinima flagged the video. Then after that statement came out, Frankie's moderator told him that he had filed the claim. This is a possibility.
A few stereotypical things I would like to convince people to stop saying during this situation:
1. "You're just jealous that Frankie is better than you." Although this is true in some cases, not everyone is jealous of Frankie because he has more subscribers or gets more kills. Some people just truly hate cheaters and don't want to see a hacker make such a big profit off of cheating.
2. "You should kill yourself." In NO situation should you say this to a person. Not only because telling someone to kill themselves literally does nothing to help find out the truth, but because you don't know what that person is going through. Maybe they struggle with suicidal thoughts.
3. "You can't trust Frankie at all. He's been lying to his audience for years." We don't (and probably will never know) if this is true. Until solid evidence comes forward that Frankie is cheating, my opinion won't change.
4. "Frankie's fan base is just a bunch of little kids." This is just not true. A lot of his fans are mature adults, we just don't feed the trolls in the comments.
5. "LAUNDERS does this as a job, so this copyright claim effected him more than Frankie." If the video had stayed down permanently, one video for a YouTuber who posts almost every day and streams every day will not have a huge impact on his salary. Now that the video is up again, it is raking in views. If anything, this situation had a positive impact on LAUNDERS salary. As for Frankie, if this situation had gotten out of control, Frankie could have lost his sponsors, a lot of subscribers, and therefore a lot of money. That being said, he has a full time job as a paralegal (soon to be a solicitor according to his video) so it wouldn't hurt him that much, but it would still effect him.
In conclusion, I felt the need to write this because of the general ignorance of a vast majority of the people picking sides. Before forming an opinion on the matter, I highly encourage you to watch all of the videos I linked above, and think about everything. I personally will continue to keep a close eye on Frankie's videos, but I will also continue to enjoy the amazing content he publishes.
Should any of the three YouTubers mentioned in this article stumble upon this:
I hope that you can accept the outcome of this situation, whatever it may be, and continue to make content on your channels. I wish you all the best of luck in pursuing your career on YouTube.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to reply if you have any questions or want to talk about any of this.
-Aunora
