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YouTuber Admits Participting In, Lying About Rigged CS:GO Skin Auctions
With news today that two popular YouTubers have been allegedly deceiving viewers about their ownership in a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gambling site, another is feeling the pressure. Lewis Stewart, known as PsiSyndicate (not to be confused with Tom Cassell also known as ProSyndicate implicated in owning a CS:GO skin gambling site), has admitted two popular videos featuring weapon skin auctions were entirely faked.
The two auctions in question were executed and filmed in conjunction with a website called Steamloto. In his video (viewable here), Stewart both speaks and uses supertitles to explain some of the details. The two rigged videos have views totaling over 1.5 million. Both are monetized.
"The idea was brought to me by Steamloto, they proposes (sic) rigging, in return for a Dragon Lore, I just fell right into it," Stewart says via supertitle. "The total takings was $3200 in skins, Dragon Lore/Ruby, $1200 ($4000 really, $2800 of my own skins) of which I gave away. So in the end I gained nothing but views XD, and lost some skins, but it's lying that is important here."
Throughout the video, Stewart tries to justify his actions and explain that he actually took actions to balance out his wrongdoings. "There's no doubt that admitting this does take some kind of balls and some kind of regret, which is why I even gave away $4,000 worth of skins," he says.
Stewart goes on to suggest that he isn't as bad as others because he only lied and it was just two videos. He suggests he might give away his other high-value skin, valued at over $1,000.
We've contacted SteamLoto for comment. We'll update should we receive a response.
For more on today's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skin gambling news, you can read our previous story about two other YouTubers who have been outed as owning a site they promoted without proper disclosure.
[Source: PsiSyndicate on YouTube via Polygon]
Our Take
The idea that Stewart believes he deserves a pat on the back for coming clean frankly makes me ill. I don't care if he gave away skins because he felt bad about it. That doesn't balance the scales.
He didn't just lie. He duped people by showing winnings that were entirely falsified. He didn't just gain views, he earned money from those monetized videos.
"Maybe this is a wake up call for some, rigging and non disclosed sponsorships happen," a supertitle in the video says. "Do not trust everything you see on YouTube."
You don't get to angelically deliver that wake-up call. You're the villain here, not some innocent bystander telling his story in hopes of protecting others.
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