It may not have been lawful, but it sure was clever.
Twitch streamer A.J. Lester hatched a brilliant plan on Saturday: He (illegally) streamed the pay-per-view broadcast of UFC 218, and he got away with it by pretending to play it, controller in hand, as a video game.
SEE ALSO:PlayerUnknown reveals his favorite 'PUBG' streamerIt worked. Although the full stream has since been deleted from Lester's Twitch channel, clips of his performance went viral (h/t Bloody Elbow), because of course they did.
The "pretending to play a video game" thing is cute, and it's almost certainly the reason this is making the rounds on social media. But if you look at the "clips" section of Lester's Twitch channel -- which still contains portions of the longer UFC stream -- he didn't fully commit to "playing" a live UFC event for the entire time.
Lester isn't holding a controller at all in many of the clips. He's just watching and reacting to UFC 218. If you watched his body language in certain clips that have also since been removed, you can see as he remembers he's putting on a show for his viewers and gets back to the charade.
Timing likely played a role in Lester successfully pulling off this stream. EA Sports ran a beta over the weekend for its upcoming game UFC 3, which is out in early 2018. Even a quick search of Twitch turns up plenty of UFC 3beta results.
It doesn't look like Lester tagged his original video as UFC 3gameplay, but it's easy to imagine this one stream from a -- by Lester's own admission, in a follow-up video -- relatively unknown streamer slipping through the cracks.
We reached out to Twitch for comment but haven't heard back yet.
TopicsEsportsGaming
(责任编辑：時尚)
The U.S. will no longer have the final say on internet domain names'House of the Dragon' episode 8: Viserys' last words to Alicent, explained
‘Armageddon Time’ review: James Gray's white guilt manifesto
NFL+ streaming service review: Worth the cost or stick to TV?More than half of women in advertising have faced sexual harassment, report saysYou can now play 'Solitaire' and 'Tic
Google just added two new fun Easter eggs to its search results.。You can now play 。 Solitaire 。and 。 Ti
...[详细]Wordle today: Here's the answer, hints for October 8
Can't get enough of Wordle? Try Mashable's free version nowIt's been a major week of watching fat be
...[详细]Sauron reveals himself in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' finale
Rings of Powerfans, it's time. Sound the alarms, light the beacons, and get your fan theories ready,
...[详细]Hearing aids can now be sold over the counter in the U.S.
Hearing aids can finally be sold over the counter from Monday, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administ
...[详细]The Weeknd teases new music in Instagram post
The Weeknd is approaching.。 The Grammy award-winning singer looks to be in full third-studio-album m
...[详细]Stephen King reveals what the text messages in 'Mr. Harrigan's Phone' really mean
Messages from the dead aren't always easy to decipher, and apparently that goes double when they com
...[详细]'The Midnight Club's Christopher Pike Easter eggs explained
Netflix’s The Midnight Clubis a cornucopia of all things Mike Flanagan specializes in: grief,
...[详细]1993's 'Super Mario Bros.' is the only Mario movie we need
It’s time to drop the notion that movie adaptations have to be accurate to be good.When the hu
...[详细]Olympic security asks female Iranian fan to drop protest sign
Olympic security personnel questioned a female Iranian volleyball fan Saturday when she showed up fo
...[详细]'House of the Dragon' episode 8: Viserys' last words to Alicent, explained
Poor, old Viserys.Against all odds, the (very ill, rapidly rotting) King managed to drag himself out
...[详细]Old lady swatting at a cat ends up in Photoshop battle
Stephen King reveals what the text messages in 'Mr. Harrigan's Phone' really mean