Summary
YouTuberKarl Jobst has broken his silence afterlosing a defamation lawsuitbrought on bycontroversial professional gamer Billy Mitchell. In a new video, Jobst outlines his version of events throughout the lawsuit and hits back against some of the criticism made against him since the loss.
Jobst also expresses his interest in appealing the court’s decision, after it was ruled that he had to pay $300,000 AUD in damages, plus additional fees. In his statement, Jobst describes the ruling as “shocking” and says that he “disagrees with the judge’s decision”.
Karl Jobst Releases A New Video After The Billy Mitchell Trial
This lawsuit was in relation to comments made by Jobst in May 2021, in which Jobst brought up a separate lawsuit between Mitchell and another YouTuber, Apollo Legend. Here, Jobst claimed that Apollo Legend settled with Mitchell and “paid him a large sum of money”. He said that these costs required Apollo Legend to find additional work, but this, alongside health issues, “was all too much of a burden”, and the YouTuber then died by suicide.
Jobst later learned that these comments were factually inaccurate, as Apollo Legend did not come to a cash settlement with Mitchell. He took this part of the video down and made a retraction, but this retraction was at the end of a video aboutDark Souls, which the judge ruled to be insufficient.
Throughout the trial, many believed that the lawsuit was in relation toJobst accusing Mitchell of cheatingto get his high scores inDonkey Kong. When the ruling was released and it was widely reported that it was actually over the implication that Mitchell contributed to Apollo Legend’s suicide, many people online turned on Jobst, which he addresses in the video.
“Many people are upset and angry with me as they believe I have misled them and lied to them about the nature of the lawsuit. Some even go as far as saying that I intentionally lied to the public to scam people out of their money through my GoFundMe,” says Jobst. “The backlash has been pretty brutal, and it’s not something I’d like to happen again. So, I think it’s very important for me to be as honest and transparent as I possibly can.”
Jobst explains that he only mentioned the cheating claims because they were relevant to the defamation lawsuit. This is because Mitchell still maintains that he did not cheat to secure his world records, and these cheating claims were mentioned in the same video as the Apollo Legends case. Jobst also says that he did not mention the Apollo Legends comments to his fans when discussing the trial because repeating them could have spread them even further, leading to more people blaming Mitchell for Apollo Legends' death, and therefore helping Mitchell argue that Jobst’s words damaged his reputation.
Jobst does admit that he made a mistake in speaking about the lawsuit and the cheating claims so frequently, since this may have given the impression that this was all the lawsuit was about. However, he says he did not seek to mislead anyone.
“There are so many lies being spread right now that it’s insane,” Jobst rounds off. “I can totally understand people making fun of me because I lost and because of how cocky I was. And I can understand if people are upset because I wasn’t transparent enough and they had the wrong idea about the lawsuit, and I can appreciate people are angry because I lost.
“I made a ton of mistakes and I am a great example of what not to do when you’re being sued, and ultimately, I am the one that will also need to pay the biggest price. In certain areas, I’m just an idiot, and I have a habit of saying things that rub people the wrong way. Of course, if I could go back and do things differently, I would.”
It remains to be seen if Jobst is able to successfully appeal the verdict.
