![]() HonorTheCall’s “ Tmartn, ProSyndicate and JoshOG CS GO Scandal Part 8 (Skype Logs)“ He persuaded himself to publish his Call of Duty news videos. Comprehensible and clear English, his third language, would prove to be a challenge, but he noticed that many other YouTubers had accents. For $US400 ($532), he purchased a green screen, which, now that he’s in the anonymous accountability business, he says he will never use. His work laptop could handle a decent video editor. For $US50 ($67), he bought himself a microphone. Like many YouTubers, HonorTheCall scrutinised the technical aspects of his favourite videos and decided that, hell, he knew enough about Call of Duty to make his own channel. YouTube hosts infinite channels dedicated to Call of Duty, which HonorTheCall devoured after his day job developing software. In 2012, HonorTheCall found a new video game obsession: Call of Duty. ![]() From then on, it was his go-to site for gaming walkthroughs, tips and news. That’s when HonorTheCall first went on YouTube. Once, when he and his cousin were playing, they encountered a boss they couldn’t defeat on their own, no matter how many hours they sunk into strategising. He even considered growing his hair to mimic the protagonist’s hairstyle. The action-adventure game Prince of Persia became his obsession. When HonorTheCall moved to Canada for university, his cousin introduced him to the PlayStation. The thing that ticks me off is these guys have a huge responsibility running these channels, and sometimes, they shamelessly rip off their viewers - either by lying to them or selling them something that isn’t there, false hope, promise.” “I don’t hate anyone,” HonorTheCall told me. What makes HonorTheCall’s videos reminiscent of what many call “traditional journalism” is his professed obsession with public interest over views or money, even though his methods don’t deviate much from other YouTube reporters’. Also, a lot of trust is placed on superficial Googling, balanced by limited fact-checking. Unabashed value judgements, comparisons to Ebola and accusations of autism are common. Everyone yells curse words into the microphone. Essentially, a YouTuber’s place on it is all a matter of packaging: Nearly nobody calls sources for comment. But HonorTheCall wants to be on the other end of the invisible, and frankly cosmetic scale of YouTube newsworthiness more of a spectrum than a scale. Anything from insipid “She said what?” gossip to unearthed online pyramid schemes fuels the movement that, many say, is the fungal stratosphere of YouTube metacommentary. If not, the bigger fish are probably aggregating you. If you’re Scarce or Keemstar, these videos can attract millions of views. ![]() Like reporters, but ignorant or irreverent of the reporting method, these YouTubers post regular news videos about YouTube gaming celebrities. HonorTheCall’s “ Tmartn, ProSyndicate and JoshOG CS GO Scandal Part 1“Īlongside YouTube’s inflated personalities and the cults bolstering their empires is a growing industry of novice YouTube journalists. “If there’s any under-the-table stuff going on, I want to warn them of potential scams or misleading information.” “I want to help fellow YouTubers,” HonorTheCall explained to me over the phone. Just last week, he went digging again, and saw his channel briefly wiped from the internet for his efforts. Now, he’s turned his humble channel into a full-blown accountability project for the YouTube gaming community and its adoring, though credulous fans. Ever since, Forbes, The Daily Dot, PC Gamer and IBTimes have pursued the leads HonorTheCall published on his Call of Duty YouTube channel. Upending a $US2.3 billion ($3 billion) underground gambling industry around online video game skins, the amateur watchdog unearthed evidence that a CS:GO gambling site’s biggest promoters did not disclose their ownership of that same site. In June, HonorTheCall‘s video on shady Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gambling practices blew the lid off of a betting scandal implicating several top YouTube personalities. ![]() Over Call of Duty footage, HonorTheCall pronounced updates and opportunities exclusive to the COD community, facelessly and with a strong accent. HonorTheCall, an anonymous internet presence, is a full-time software developer whose YouTube image, up until June, was built on small-fry Call of Duty news. One of 2016’s most explosive pieces of gaming journalism was broken by a news-obsessed Indian IT guy with a relatively unknown YouTube channel.
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