Competitive Pokémon's Greatest Cheating Scandal: The Mazar Story

Mazar, 2017
Like the video for Double Kick Terrakion, the most iconic moment of Pokemon Showdown (besides Luigi's Dog)
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[@James-vc1kc]

One of the TWO biggest cheating scandals in Pokémon showdown history? I smell a part 2 to this series?

[@sienrid]

I'd love a part 2

[@sushantmanandhar1387]

Bluuuuu Soulja boy tellem

[@olkerlatorre2778]

I thought exactly the same. One of TWO? You have balls to leave me with this cliffhanger. 😡

[@SouthParkFan1998]

@@sushantmanandhar1387 *Bloo, but yes @James, look up "Bloo smogon" if you want a sneak peak at what's probably coming next

[@yeet8036]

The bloo incident was really something

[@chiga3388]

“If a person with an iq above 65 had had this bot we woulda never caught it”

[@retrop569]

💀

[@jamesruth100]

Like, they're probably right though. Mazar was building teams by putting his whole damn hand on the scales in order to compensate for his skill to the maximum potential, but if he was smarter (and thus likely a better player) he would have known that just tilting the scales a little bit is all he would've needed. 6-0 with always flawless teams is suspicious, but 5-1, 4-2, or even still 6-0 with simply really good teams just looks normal. Add on to that him tilting the scales for his entire team with his "advice" and he probably would've still made finals.

[@Cameruption]

But he only got caught because of a leaked DM with a cheater, which wasnt supposed to be madd public in the first place? Theres some information that im missing here.

[@aguyontheinternet8436]

@@Cameruption He is talking about the guy who first got caught

[@soriso717]

@@Cameruption I assume he didn’t dm this dude being like “I love cheating in Pokémon smog on with this cool bot”, he probably said some suspicious things that were further investigated due to his previously suspicious one-sided victories in the tournament.

[@owenmurphy924]

I had no idea that the "don't allow spectators" option was because of this, that's actually really cool

[@maskofthedragon]

If a rule or function seems oddly specific, it's usually because something ridiculous happened

[@IndexInvestingWithCole]

@@maskofthedragon but there’s nothing specific about not wanting spectators

[@airam1721]

So the dude was watching the others to see the movesets?

[@MrZer093]

@@airam1721 if you watched the video you would know that before the option was implemented, you and your opponent would have to disallow spectators after the match had begun but he made a bot that would secretly spectate before they could prevent spectators and he would automatically save their replays

[@airam1721]

@@MrZer093 ohhhh that's so cool

[@TheDunsparceGames]

the fact that mazar only got caught because someone else decided to come clean scares me because we could have gotten multiple smogon premiere league ubers shut down

[@cocoduck7745]

yeah, I hope he didn't see the custom moveset my Chancy named Diabetes.

[@josephtpg7329]

@@cocoduck7745 he would have noticed that you were running Big Mac instead of soft-boiled.

[@alimirza4608]

and the bot didnt get caught even tho it was in the hands of an idiot

[@Karzakus]

I love that bit at the end from the director, "if that guy had an iq above 65 we never would of caught it" cause honestly its so true. This dumbass picked literally only the most obscure hard of hard counters for each of his matches, when he easily could of just picked wide coverage options with a good deal amount of room for reasonable doubt, but instead went nuclear like a moron

[@scalpingsnake]

There is no arguing how dumb they were, but they got caught because the other hacker gave them their discord right? With the DM's. So they would have got caught either way right?

[@lpfan4491]

@@scalpingsnake Well, kinda no. If there was no crossreference material, then there would have been no case. "Someone must have hacked my account!"-type of stuff.

[@kuwandak]

would've*

[@AdminAbuse]

Ironic to call someone a dumbass while writing "would of"

[@9manny99]

Lazy cheating happens because everyone gets lazy

[@Croutonking65]

When they said Mazar was an idiot for being so blatant with the cheating, that sent a chill through my gamer spine. It’s not the blatant cheaters that are scary, but the subtle ones

[@dnkfcr]

Like dream

[@DevelonLP]

@@dnkfcr dream was also blatant

[@grumpyface2553]

@@DevelonLP luckily mazar didn't have an army of screaming 14 year olds at hand to deny it

[@NathanSimonGottemer]

@@grumpyface2553 oh boy I wanna hear this story now. I’m not that familiar with the history of the competitive Pokémon scene so I don’t know all there stories

[@hazelcalderbank1556]

@@NathanSimonGottemer This is unrelated to pokemon; Dream is a minecraft content creator and speedrunner who used mods to make his rng impossibly good and denied it for months, even hiring someone to prove his luck was reasonable

[@broce8126]

I accidentally won some games in the tcg as an elementary schooler. In my defense, I didn’t know you were supposed to shuffle decks. I thought you just put it in whatever order you want.

[@renakunisaki]

Nice. I've seen a few speedrunners have to quit partway through a run because they realized they accidentally left a cheat turned on. Even worse in some of the GTA games, where the cheats are a sequence of button presses with extremely lenient timing. Every now and then, someone accidentally activates a cheat just because they happened to press that button sequence trying to control their character, and has to restart. 💀

[@actualatom]

Yeah I used to do this 💀💀💀

[@raized943]

​@@renakunisaki Joshimuz, the pioneer of cheating by entire accident.

[@AK70FORYOU]

@@renakunisaki What activity exists in GTA where you could turn on a cheat by accident?? I cant even....

[@tripleaaabattery8480]

@@AK70FORYOU in gta games like san andreas, inputting certain button combinations at any point in gameplay can activate a cheat. Sometimes you're just trying to move in a specific way, dont do it perfectly, and the button combinations you did manage to activate a cheat. i've seen it happen a few times watching older gta game speedrun attempts

[@psytcg]

I clicked on this just out of curiosity but then I realized: I *know* this guy. I played a few team tournaments with him back in Gen 6. Once with him as coach. I didn't know him at all before and at first he seemed very competent and hands on, as he ghosted literally every game our team would play. The first time I was in call during a game though, he pulled something similar. On XY there was a bug (this was a WiFi tour) where if you turned the WiFi off at the right moment when starting up a WiFi Battle, the game would be ended before team preview on your opponents end, but you would go into team preview somehow. So, we'd know our opponents team and bring a team accordingly. I was like wtf and felt kind of uneasy about Mazar from then. I played my games and no more. The community was mad for him though, he had many good friends and fans(?) you could almost say? He was liked mostly, but admins etc. seemed like they were a little annoyed by him a lot. I always thought it was because he used to pop off a lot. Defend shitty behavior from his team mates or friends until the end, even if they had stopped caring about it themselves. He also often was a bad loser and bad winner to his opponents faces. I can honestly say sportsmanship in any sense of the word is foreign to this guy. Never knew the extent of his cheating though, goddamn..

[@chuyuen441]

lol this post stinks of someone who desperately wants to pretend like he knew a mass murderer

[@voltagebox1584]

@@chuyuen441that’s fair but this is would be such a weird thing to lie about I honestly believe him

[@venomgoldenreaper3834]

@@voltagebox1584i mean dude is talking about a pokemon cheater as if he committed war crimes so yeah I feel like in his mind creating a story about that is amazing so he defo lied

[@LDAR]

@@chuyuen441 Idk. Too specific with the glitch shit

[@canineatnight6026]

A poor player and a poor sportmanship. What a double shitbag

[@Darostelijaa]

Damn I feel bad for Gunner Rohan. Playing against cheaters in a game like Pokémon must be so frustrating.

[@DavidBelgrod]

Gunner Rohan got what he deserved

[@MasterArchfiend]

I’ve been paranoid of this stuff since Wi-Fi battles became a feature thanks to a lot of sci-fi stuff growing up, but to hear it having actually happened just makes me glad I stick to the in game Battle Facilities for my competitive fun if I feel like it.

[@silverrey7379]

@@MasterArchfiend I guess you never heard of people hacking in Wonder Guard Spiritomb to gen 4 wifi battles...

[@sunayoru]

@@MasterArchfiend cheating is a pretty universal occurrence in any sport, what does scifi stuff have to do with it?

[@renakunisaki]

Wasn't there an exploit when gen 6 first came out, where the team data was exchanged unencrypted, so people would sniff the packets with another device to see the opponent's team? I wonder how they prevent cheating at official tournaments. I assume they copy your team onto their own hardware and validate it?

[@LoDart210]

the moment freezai said this guy brought an Ingrain Xerneas, I suspected he must have had access to people's teams somehow. I don't play ubers but I can't imagine ingrain xerneas is a common set. It just has that feel of a specialized set built after witnessing someone else play.

[@vla1ne]

it's viable if you suspect your opponent has phasing moves, but the balls it takes to make the call and pop it *_upfront_* like mazar did, especially when your opponent might throw out a mon that would then get 2 free turns of (potentially supereffective) setup/damage off on you in the tier of *_UBERS_* no less... yeah, it's not something you do lightly.

[@xynix1549]

zgeo ingrain xern was not unheard of in gen 7 ag but i dont know enough about ubers to make any confident statements about it

[@mikejunt]

I thought it was clear almost immediately that he had the access, but I was surprised it was as benign as data scraping - I expected it would be a hacking thing or, like, a compromised administrator account that had visibility or something like that, as opposed to what is essentially a Pokemon Showdown development oversight being cleverly taken advantage of to destroy the integrity of the tournament.

[@renakunisaki]

I don't even know much about competitive Pokemon but as soon as they said his team choices were suspiciously good, my first thought was he had hacked the server to see everyone's teams.

[@leftistdegeneratejs]

It’s not that uncommon tbh

[@Lucifer_Summons]

I'd be gutted if I was one of the competitors after hearing this, especially the guy that he got matched up with that had the Smeargle, like could you imagine DOUBLE KICK on any mon nvm Terrakion? Thinking "how did he predict that?? Was he cheating or is he really good? Am I just bad?" For months and then finding out he really did cheat. I'd be beyond pissed.

[@QuokkaWaka]

In fairness sash smeargle isn't exactly a novel idea, so if I was super confident that my opponent would bring something like that I'd totally use a meme counter like double kick terrakion So I feel like if I got hit with that I'd just be like "Damn I got read hard 😔"

[@Maximus7th]

Learned this from BKC, but there was sweet revenge: Gunnar Rohan beat the crap out of Mazar in the following World Cup (before he got banned later that year) in a singles OU match and then called him out, saying he couldn't win when he couldn't cheat. Serves him right. Dude was also caught cheating before but not with said bot, so people should have seen it coming that he would do anything possible to win.

[@lucillefrancois150]

This is why the best cheaters (in terms of getting away with it) aren’t the ones that win the most. A good cheater will use their unfair advantage to perfectly throw basically just as often as they do to stomp, and they’ll try to do kinda normal things which can be reasonably explained

[@princesscrystal6410]

The best way to cheat is to make mistakes that only an idiot can make, slip up in loses you can afford to take

[@9volt65]

This is why chess cheaters go undetected for years at a time if they’re smart about it. I forgot who said it, but to paraphrase: “At the highest level, you only need one crucial move to win the game.”

[@srfrancium9728]

@@9volt65 ok but how the hell do you cheat in chess, you can do that? what

[@posity9215]

@@srfrancium9728 by having an AI (or a better player) telling you optimal or at least pretty good moves. As long as you're not stupid enough to use this on every single game and get an absurd win-loss ratio and competent enough to not look suspiciously bad when you can't cheat, it's really hard to get caught.

[@dim4757]

Right, like geomancy ingrain Xerneas? Its very odd, but it can be and was reasonably explained given the meta. Obscure things pop up a lot in high end tournaments (no one questions that one Pachirisu after all). But Double Kick Terrakion? Unless your opponent blatantly told you they were bringing Smeargle, there's no reason to run that set. Even then, there has to be less weird ways to check Smeargle.

[@iangulline]

The recent leap in effort and quality is absolutely commendable and wonderful to see

[@awiseman93]

And still only 4% of us are subscribed wow

[@borismuller86]

@@awiseman93 is that info legit though?

[@theschnozzler]

​@@borismuller86 it is but it counts the percentage of subs to total channel views which means that the number is usually small

[@andy4an]

i'm so glad it wasn't a backend cheat that threw everything into chaos. and i'm glad they were able to patch the problem

[@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917]

I've heard rumors for years that there's actually a lot of cheating going on in those types of tournaments. Apparently the Discord servers they chat on can get pretty shady. Like, there's players there that have been playing Pokemon in tournaments for nearly two decades that rarely ever get wins or much appreciation from the community. When you've been trying to succeed, or at least get a bit of validation from the community you love, for more than a decade, things can get pretty dark. You know the saying, "A child that is rejected by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth." Why do you think Showdown players start KZbin channels? They get to a point where they don't feel supported or appreciated in the community so they try to get the validation they crave on KZbin.

[@RJCommunity]

@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917 tell me you never played smogon tours without telling me you never played smogon tours

[@jimjimson6208]

@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917 This is literally the most unhinged psycho analysis of why someone would make a youtube channel I have ever heard. Did it occur to you that maybe the actual reason is because it's something they enjoy and want to share with people? Lmao I also want to say that I play sd all the time and the old heads and well known players are way less toxic than some random guy at 1300

[@totalphantasm]

I wonder how this story would’ve gone differently if he had spoke up immediately afterwards and tried to play from a “I didn’t cheat, I played within the constraints of the website” angle, instead of just aiming for a cover up job.

[@capricorn6412]

It's like saying I didn't cheat, I just installed mics in the other teams dugout which is in the constraints of reality

[@aleksandergrzybowski8899]

I agree, have an upvote, but technically, every single hack/attack/exploit on any software is working "within the constraints". It's like saying it's ok to break into your house, because the lock you have is weak and you deserved it. Maybe that's too extreme, if so, consider whether a human could watch Showdown in-progress games and join every single one - probably not :)

[@totalphantasm]

@@aleksandergrzybowski8899 I think I would consider it closer to something much more dubious but also much more legal like… “you bought a product of ours that has a microphone built in and we use that microphone to gather data to sell you products better” I’m not saying it’s not cheating but the cheater definitely could’ve made a convincing argument.

[@MrZer093]

You have a fair point but also any admin worth their salt would have been “what you did was interesting for sure but also you’re a cheating cheater and getting a ban anyways”

[@aleksandergrzybowski8899]

It's IMO the same issue as online auction bots, pretty popular a long time ago in Poland, where you could use a bot to offer the highest price for an auction like 2-3 seconds before it ended, effectively granting you win every time, if you were the only person using that "cheating" bot service. Is it possible for a human to make auction offer 2 seconds before the end of it - of course yes. Doing it automatically, and perfectly, and for multiple auctions with programmable rules when to bump and when to pass to minimize the price and risk - well that starts to blur the line. :)

[@Silulaya]

To be fair to the other team, they all knew he was cheating the whole time. They just couldn't do anything about it because they never had proof of it. I mean the guy brought the most heinous sets of all times in ubers where pokemon have max 2 viable sets lmao

[@A1K300]

free mazar

[@as3609]

@@A1K300 no

[@justinweber4977]

That last bit about "If he hadn't used it to create some of the most lopsided match ups in competition history." or something like that, reminded me of a similar remark from "The Expert at the Card Table" "A skilled card handler can take ordinary chances in 19 hands out of 20 and still come out on top."

[@honestshao6160]

Actually I am using scarf Terrakion with double kick in the gen 6 ubers ladder right now and the idea comes from this story… In gen 6 this move has another lead target: sash Greninja. On the other side, scarf Terrakion is a common E-killer check in gen 5 ubers, so I think it also works in gen 6.

[@meticakolli1237]

You used that move only used on jolteon in gen 1 And it probably worked that is jusr the sheer power of terrakion

[@henrybear2293]

E-killer? Can you please explain what that means? I'm not familiar with the competitive scene slang...

[@johgekpunkt9516]

@@henrybear2293 arceus normal with swords dance + extreme speed +plus 2 moves of your choosing. It is one of the most threatening sets ever

[@henrybear2293]

@@johgekpunkt9516 I can imagine that and I guess if you don't have a ghost, steel or rock type to deal with it then the game is already lost.

[@johgekpunkt9516]

@@henrybear2293 pretty much and keep in mind you got 2 attacks left that you could use for more coverage

[@LuckyTux]

This is my favorite smogon story. I’m glad you’re covering it

[@panchiko_deathmetalgrrl]

eject button tangela into magnezone against that corviknight has to be the hottest shit ive seen this week

[@bradyritter2193]

Freezai your content lately has been insane. Like top tier Pokémon content. Keep it up man

[@thebravesirrobin.]

Freezai is using a bot to predict the perfect type matchups against the algorithm and our dopamine-starved brains.

[@IanChristopher]

"One of the TWO biggest cheating scandals in Pokemon showdown history" You don't end a video like that, tell us!!😤

[@ui8087]

Imagine blind all inning on a 2 6 of hearts if poker. That’s the equivalent of taking double kick Terrakion. When you act surprised when you get a straight flush people are going to raise eyebrows. Truly double digit IQ moment.

[@Weareonenation303]

I think this is more interesting than some of the other Smogon drama I'm familar with like the player named Somalia who baby rage quit and started banning people after he lost to Energy Ball Jellicent or the mod name hunter who was banned for allegedly grooming minors.

[@TheDunsparceGames]

or the smogon mod who went on an alt account in a tournament and used her friends dms as a way to get information about their teams and win a la mazar

[@iss2075]

The underage story is what Smogon is most known for outside of Pokemon fans. The only times I've seen Smogon talked about in non-Pokemon circles it is always someone mentioning that. Apparently it wasn't just one person either... or at least other people knew it was going on but didn't do anything.

[@catandfishfc]

I still see Somalia listed in tournament draws sometimes, if I ever run into him I'm definitely teching Energy Ball on something

[@Pacmanfan-po9rn]

I need a,vid on that energy ball

[@shis1988]

​@@iss2075 if s*xual misconduct is involved without higher-up pushback, it almost certainly involves more people than the perp.

[@Spenstaple]

The actual method of cheating is really smart, and dare I say, impressive. Which is terrifying. Obviously what he did was 100% wrong. But at least it led to Showdown increasing the security of its system. And I agree with the final statement that Mazar has an IQ of a lukewarm potato. If he had just an ounce of common sense, and that other person had not cracked under scrutiny, he would have gotten away with this scheme for a lot longer. And Gunner Rohan is absolutely right. It takes a truly morally corrupt person to cheat at such a high level.

[@user-fe8gx3ie5v]

I wouldn't say it's cheating. It's more of an exploit. There's nothing wrong with him accessing publicly-available games, even if they are only briefly public.

[@nanflo1441]

mazar was using it for a malicious purpose though

[@user-fe8gx3ie5v]

@@nanflo1441 I wouldn't call getting a competitive advantage "malicious," per se.

[@yeet8036]

@@user-fe8gx3ie5v using steroids is not cheating, you just gain advantage.

[@user-fe8gx3ie5v]

@@yeet8036 Unless explicitly banned, something is not considered cheating. In sports, PEDs are banned. In Smogon, exploiting how public games can be made private and using a bot to make it easier to gather information about replays was not.

[@Julia-be3um]

i remember this happening in real time. the chaos in every server, even side tiers that had nothing to do with SPL, was huge. EVERYONE was talking about it. fantastic video. love the story and drama lmao

[@about7grams]

this is insane. please keep shit like this coming, i love smogon drama. even if its just someone stalling a game for 8 hours LOL

[@dracocrash1]

makes you wonder how many people cheated and actually got away with it

[@PedroHenrique-vs3mf]

Thinking about that

[@dustinjackson2383]

In nascar every driver cheats. The best cheater wins. Rusty Wallace once said "I know they are cheating because we are cheating and we can't catch them". Cheating in everything is way more prevalent than we think

[@Roguchii]

I enjoy watching drama about stuff I never followed in real time lol. These vids are great

[@darrenlang1111]

great video, and i love the subtle reference to the other cheating scandal which i find interesting that no one rly talks abt that one

[@corundumkrabble5035]

Which one?

[@anna_medeia]

@@corundumkrabble5035 Bloo/Style OST cheating scandal, that shit was huge back then, especially because the person was known as one of the best players (if not the best) on the site and too good at the game to need to cheat like that unlike Mazar.

[@miguelaguilar5115]

The editing on this was reaaally good. I like how far Freezai came after all these months

[@weaselcheez9990]

That was genuinely really interesting and well produced, content like this is really good

[@siredgen4917]

I've never played a single competitive game in my entire life. But even for me a pokemon with double kick vs legendary teams is a super obvious red flag

[@meticakolli1237]

You should play if you havent yet. If you have are you liking it?

[@jb3in8]

Never seen this channel before but the quality is amazing and the content is perfectly presented, great stuff!

[@PlasticWalrus]

Had to close my eyes when the "bot" started joining games and showing some Gen 9 pokemon! I need to keep playing haha. Good video!

[@jaschabull2365]

Ha ha, same.

[@spamtong.spamton8416]

As scummy as cheating like that is, I will admit that it's incredibly clever.

[@vanesslifeygo]

This is an amazing video. Imagine how much work you have to do to make the servers for Pokemon Showdown work correctly only to find that you have been accommodating bots.

[@Wasted_AF]

2 things: 1. Had no idea that the “Don’t allow spectators” button was because of this, so that’s cool to know. 2. Double Kick Terrakion should’ve made everyone suspicious of both the player with it and the team INSTANTLY. Unless you’re preparing for the insanely exact matchup of focus sash Smeargle in Ubers, there isn’t a single reason to bring that

[@cocomunga]

I know in this case it was proven, but perhaps a player would be very salty after losing to a smeargle and run the set all the time?

[@QuokkaWaka]

@@cocomunga Or the opponent used sash smeargle often, since it's not exactly a super rare mon. If you had an extra move-slot and suspected sash smeargle, going for a funny double kick counter isn't _that_ outlandish. Though I also don't play ubers or tournaments so I don't know how rare smeargle is to see in those

[@infinitedepression4508]

While it is kinda weird, I wouldn’t call it far fetched as sticky web smeargle with spore and sash lead isn’t unheard of.

[@nathanielbass771]

@@QuokkaWaka Smeargle is pretty rare in ubers. Some of the mons carry taunt or a lum berry, even defog. It's not unseen, but Smeargle does not function as well in ubers because every mon is a threat. Taunt cripples it and gives a free turn

[@Codeblueninja]

If possible, I would really love if you can cover some of the unusual mechanics behind some moves like Assist. It is hard to find any information about a lot of these moves on KZbin and it would make a good miniseries.

[@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917]

Not Assist. That one has been covered quite a bit.

[@XiaoPan1987]

This sounds like a oversight by Smogon site itself that probably should have been implemented way before this could happen. Other competitive games with private matches is purely private for a reason. Imagine if anyone could just join a LoL private scrimmage for a LPL team.

[@lulu82o]

You put so much work into this video and it shows. I hope it'll succeed

[@dark9gaming20]

If he gave himself good match-ups but not unwinnable match-ups he could've gotten away with it

[@dunderguys]

one of the most interesting videos ive come across, thank you for this

[@_Majunior]

Your content is only getting better. Love to see the channel grow

[@wadethemusician2099]

Dude I'm loving these smogon History videos. Pumped for part 2

[@MmmDanish]

I like all your videos but this one feels like you put extra effort / work into it and it was super pleasant to watch 💯

[@vladimirvladimirovicmajako1221]

This guy was really dumb. The first rule of cheating is making it look plausible, you gotta make mistakes on purpose sometimes or it's not realistic. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

[@tanall5959]

The problem is that, when they have a cheat that cannot be proven, they think 'that is that' and that they wont get caught, so damn the subtlety. They dont imagine that an unprovable cheat will bring out white-hats and part-time analysts to start banging their heads on a wall until that wall cracks.

[@ComplexOri]

It’s funny that you say that, in another game I get accused of cheating because I’m usually doing so well, but not perfect lol. Although it’s always from less experienced players, so all the extremely dedicated players know better.

[@renakunisaki]

@@ComplexOri there will always be salty people who assume anyone doing really well is cheating

[@donthevalen]

That last part 🫡

[@PedroHenrique-vs3mf]

I mean, the dumbest thing he did was not talking to that guy trough something other than Discord lol

[@kaylenvee8150]

I have carried this line from my primary school teacher all throughout my life: "If you're going to do something bad, at least do it good." In other words, if you're committed to doing something wrong like stealing or cheating, at least make sure you do it well and not get caught. There are ALWAYS going to be cheaters, especially in a huge community like Pokemon Showdown. Mazar was an idiot because he didn't cheat WELL. He was too arrogant and believed that nobody would catch onto his schemes despite it being so obvious that if you continue to consistently have perfect teams that dominate your opponent completely, people will get suspicious. In a huge community like Pokemon Showdown where there's strict management and official tournaments? That's BEGGING to be caught.

[@jesusmen6308]

To be fair only reason he got Caught was Because someone else chickened out and spilled the Beans,otherwise no one Had Proof to Pin on him.

[@kittypie2012]

@@jesusmen6308he calls mal an idiot while every idiot accused him with 0 evidence and got extremely lucky they caught someone else lmao

[@aayushgupta9773]

Dude I love how ominous the video looks, that combined with the music gives me chills

[@midend]

bkc covered this but it's nice to see a coverage on a different player

[@midend]

from*

[@AmbiambiSinistrous]

My 😱 face when you revealed that they got the Discord login for the other guy - this is juicy as hell! I love that you are documenting the culture of competitive Pokemon, not just the metagame itself!

[@Espik_23]

This is your best edited video to date

[@UraniumChef]

This is the BEST showdown channel, love your work man :) let’s keep this game alive!

[@Createanewhandle.]

yo freezai i just want to say that you should really do more of these types of videos. these videos are super interesting and would LOVE more of these scandal or documentary videos. keep up the good work!

[@core_motivation1]

Incase anyones wondering what happend to mazar after this. Well he just dissapeared, friend of mine (id say like this cause hes a nice guy) xray hasnt heard of him since, as far as i know

[@amirhaayers2736]

Pokemon Showdown is a blessing. It's a wonderful place where people who might not have the time or resources to make teams can quickly and easily do so and makes them able to battle their friends too. I'm so grateful Pokemon Showdown exists.

[@kittycat344]

i just discovered your channel and i really love that you don’t go into a ridiculously long intro and out to every time !!!

[@SasakiKiyotaka]

Wonderful work as always!

[@johnszymanski247]

“Mazar will be banned from Smogon Fourms permanently. The Circus Maximum Tigers will have their trophy removed. SPL 8’s result is Nullified” - Smogon University

[@codonbyte]

Can't wait for Part 2!

[@imamoronand9199]

cheating video + pokemon? how did I know that this channel would have the most normal, pleasant-listening voice of all time?

[@athunderfan]

The video is amazing, keep making pokemon event history vids like this

[@777paito]

This video was so interesting! I am a new subscriber but Ive been loving all of your content so just keep doing you Freezai

[@Ocarinist_Drew]

Imagine caring enough about a game that you want to consistently win, but not caring enough that you want to win with your own skill. I'll never understand cheaters.

[@crazylogic7015]

Insane quality video. Nice editing and script.

[@clownshapiro5119]

damn this editing is clean, great video man

[@ItsNep]

It's kinda crazy showdown is still around. I remember when the site was in its infancy during Gen 5, I would show it to people in middle school and a lot of people wound up getting in trouble for playing it lol.

[@Skullhawk13]

Honestly it is. It’s not covered under Fair use what they’re doing as several don’t even play the real games. I’m shocked it hasn’t gotten a cease and desist yet.

[@Chriscraft-ug3sz]

@@Skullhawk13 I’m pretty sure they have permission

[@Skullhawk13]

@@Chriscraft-ug3sz …got a single shred of proof? “I’m pretty sure” is insufficient.

[@Chriscraft-ug3sz]

@@Skullhawk13 Well, they may or may not. I have no real proof or clue. The real reason is because PS doesn’t profit off of this and Pokemon itself doesn’t lose money off of this.

[@Skullhawk13]

@@Chriscraft-ug3sz Pokémon does lose money, like I said several showdown players don’t buy the actual games

[@pokedexholderorange8868]

One of two scandals you say…..

[@FlyingAce427]

Excellent video here, Freezai, keep it up.

[@FerreTrip]

I came for the content. I stayed for the awesome KZbinr narrating _with a lisp_ and still rocking on. AND being verified. Bit of my faith in humanity has been restored. Keep rocking on, Freezai!

[@Maryeet]

With that ending, I just knowww Bloo/Stylegate is going to be covered next.

[@meschuggemil]

I know Mazar personally (also met him many times) and it‘s so bizzare because just from knowing him like that you wouldn‘t think he‘d be such a b**tard but lmao

[@croma2068]

Eh, there are worse things one can do. I actually think this was a really creative way to cheat, and cheating at Pokemon really doesn't make you a bad person.

[@gabrielmotta2463]

@@croma2068 cheating in any game doesn't make anybody a bad person, unless it is used in a TOURNAMENT, where people are following rules

[@spookyscarylamppost3431]

@@croma2068 Partially disagree. If you're cheating in Singleplayer games, sure, that's just you having fun. But if you're cheating in any multiplayer matches or worse, TOURNAMENTS, that's not just having fun, that's you being a cunt and ruining others fun. In cases of tournaments, you're just ruining the competitive scene and game as a whole just for a couple hours of an underserved ego trip, or the prize pool from useless virtual trophies to irl money rewards.

[@andreescalona8902]

@@croma2068 my man was basically stealing prize money from people who dedicated their time and effort to win honorably

[@demicantthink8401]

@@croma2068 It does if you’re cheating in a tournament tho. The rule of ”cheating is okay if you dont bother anyone" doesnt apply here.

[@sativa4401]

I don't know your channel, but first of all I liked your video, second thing I can hear you might had a lisp problem earlier, you managed it well and that's not easy (have the same problem...). So, well huge respect for you keep doing this great work

[@ManofGold24]

A++++++ content Freezai. Keep it up!

[@11pk1111]

the new tilting zoom actually super distracting. just use it like once per video for special emphasis, but if you spam it it gets irritating real fast

[@michaelcarlton1484]

To be fair, clearly he was still a good player if he was able to build teams to counter any and every strategy.

[@JustPlainAwfulStreams]

for real. and he still had to play every match and win them all legitimately. not to mention the idea and programming of the bot itself, dude's a genius honestly but nobody wants to admit it out loud

[@nicholasbrozowski3558]

He mentions in the video that Mazar didn't make the bot. He got it from someone else.

[@prestofungus8588]

Very informative and good summary of showdown Fantastic, wish i saw it sooner

[@marsh5953]

11.5 minutes of pure entertainment. Good shit freez

[@NataliaNeeSama]

I heard someone from another competitive game say "Pros don't cheat because they think they're bad, Pros cheat to get results FASTER" and I kinda agree. Isn't like they need to cheat, they're already good at the game, so the other reason is simply to get consistent results.

[@nicolaistuhlmuller8718]

I'd honestly think this wasn't the case here. Not only did mazary perform kinda bad before, but the hoops he went through to counter the opponent's team were extremely suspicious. He's a pro player for sure, but he completely overdid it with the movesets and turned matchups completely unwinnable instead of merely tipping the scales to his favor. Something that's often a target of cheating is speedrunning, something where also both pro players and newcomers cheat. However pro players will usually just barely tip the scales to their favor with minimal and unnoticeable edits while newcomers tend to cheat extremely obvious (also because they need a lot more cheats to make up for the skill difference), and well mazarys cheating was definitely the second. Everybody knew he cheated, just not how.

[@Victini0510]

I love the BKC vid on this.

[@myoimofan2352]

love your videos!

[@kangketokmagic]

FREZAI WE need part 2 ASAP

[@theholy1191]

On that last bit, that was like my first thoughts through the video. If he had taken a couple of losses and didn't make his teams so hard countery, he would've gotten away with it lol.

[@WoffoAndLammy]

I'm not sure if you're of indian descent or not. But I love that you use the correct pronunciation of "Rohan"

[@archimedesfromteamfortress2]

He might be

[@FranziskaNagel445]

Since he played on the indian national team it is plausible.

[@yeet8036]

He's indian

[@archimedesfromteamfortress2]

@@yeet8036 i knew i heard a little bit of indian in his voice!

[@ForeverLaxx]

@@archimedesfromteamfortress2 You could pick up an accent through the heavy lisp and valley girl upspeak? Impressive.

[@MateusSFigueiredo]

Great video. Nice length. Needs some pokemon knowledge (like knowing focus sash) but yeah, pretty good!

[@hyboirds1536]

Awesome video, the quality of content coming from this channel has been amazing lately!

[@jaxonman7771]

The new editing's really cool! only thing i don't really like is the camera tilt, it throws me off a little. Still, really nice vid!

[@xp0da]

I love the opening line here; "you've gotta understand, that these people would actually spend hours of their REAL life!" like if you could choose to freeze time and space, to not waste your real time 👌

[@illseeyaonthedarksideofthemoon]

Or you could, you know, not waste time...

[@xp0da]

@@illseeyaonthedarksideofthemoon Hard to define what a waste of time is. They could maybe do something else with their time, but calling time wasted is very hard to justify. I've spent 1000s of hours watching movies or playing games, wich I love doing and would not call wasted time. To someone else, it would be a huge waste.

[@illseeyaonthedarksideofthemoon]

@@xp0da Good lord, at least keep that shit to yourself man...

[@napoleonbuonaparte8975]

You know something isn't right when someone uses a Arceus-ground to counter your strategy.

[@bainbonic]

We all know how his opponent would feel, but if I was one of his teammates who didn't know about the bot but took some advice on what Pokemon to bring, I'd be livid. It's one thing having a win stolen, but discovering that your win that you genuinely fought for has turned out potentially illegitimate must sting.

[@deathpunch2169]

Great video!

[@TWLSpark]

"if a person with an iq above 65 had had this bot, we would've never caught it." Fortunately, people with an IQ above 65 are doing better things with their lives than cheating on a Pokemon simulator for clout and cash money.

[@Nobody-su9km]

They are doing it in chess, football, baseball, soccer, basketball and many other platforms.

[@TWLSpark]

@@Nobody-su9km Still technically better than cheating for clout on Showdown.

[@Nobody-su9km]

@@TWLSpark cheating in online chess is literally the same thing and people are defending the cheater this very momment. Cheaters are never dum.b, people who defend then is where the 65iq lies.

[@TWLSpark]

@@Nobody-su9km I thought you mean real life chess, like world tournaments and the like, not online. Yes, I agree, that's just as braindead. Also, cheaters who cheat for just clout are definitely not smart, like, _at all._

[@Nobody-su9km]

@@TWLSpark it is still real life chess, with real life money and prizes

[@Terrakinetic]

So he never would have gotten caught if they didn't find his Discord logs from the other guy. Neat. I wonder how many other people are successfully cheating their way to the top.

[@moralessanchezoscarelias6412]

He probably got increasingly more confident when he saw that he was running away with it

[@BrettRKS]

Great vid Freezai

[@depressedkermit5337]

I didn't think someone would be crazy enough to cheat in this game.

[@GruzzyOG]

This was probably the most nerdy thing I've watched in a while. But I love pokemon, and I love scandals, so I ain't complaining lol

[@ProjectAlphaPrimetime]

I mean, that's just next level. Honestly impressive loophole. Loophole was available and it was taken advantage of. Part of life.

[@nickdaboss03]

Your recent vids have been absolute 🔥!!! Keep it up bro, new sub!!!