Zlaner and BBB, it seems like a never-ending saga, some will say (and often do) that the reason for this is because BBB “needs to pay the rent”, but is there more to it? BBB’s latest video certainly seems to suggest so.
“My aim lock, my aimbot, my frickin aim assist”
Zlaner was the first streamer who had what most would consider a large following or presence that BBB first made a video about. Over the span of 3 videos, he showed a lot of clips that he considered suspicious. These videos gained a lot of traction, both from followers of BBB and Zlaner, and from other creators or news outlets within the gaming community. The “hackusations” as they are often called gained a lot of momentum and could perhaps be considered the catalyst for others to start posting similar videos.
As the momentum of BBBs videos grew, the number of creators or “pros” having suspicious clips increased, and the pressure on Zlaner to respond to BBB clearly became too much.
On Feb 17, 2021, Zlaner posted the first video of a 2-part response titled, ‘Coming clean... (Addressing The Hackusations Part 1). In this video Zlaner explained that he was going to be addressing the accusations of cheating he had been facing by posting a 2-part response with the first iteration being centred around him posting what he considered proof that he was able to “fry” without cheats, showing (in his opinion) that he doesn't cheat.
During the gameplay he had a monitor cam showing only his gameplay monitor (a crucial point we will come back to), a hand cam showing his controller and his usual face cam.
The second part of Zlaner’s response to BBB was titled ‘Addressing The Hackusations Part 2’. In contrast to his first part, this video focused on BadBoyBeaman and what Zlaner deemed to be “clip manipulation”, and what he claimed was proof that BBB’s “lack of game knowledge” was leading him to make false accusations.
Zlaner took a handful of clips that BBB had included in his 3 videos about him and addressed them, giving his audience an explanation of how he knew where certain players were, why he was not using aimbot or wallhacks in certain situations and drawing attention to how the quality of what he sees when playing can differ from what is available on YouTube because of compression during rendering, lower FPS rates and other issues that mean quality degrades through editing and compression.
This 54-minute video was certainly well planned and well executed, but the real kicker was the clip Zlaner used first in the video. He showed what he considers proof that BadBoyBeaman manipulated a clip to make it appear that aimbot was in use.
The clip shows Zlaner fighting 2 players in a small room. One player is already downed when the clip begins and Zlaner begins shooting the enemy who is still standing. The focus of the video as BadBoyBeaman explains is in the way the crosshairs transition from the enemy standing to the downed enemy once Zlaner kills the first opponent. Zlaner (with a little bit of exaggeration and sarcasm) acts as if he agrees that this is a suspicious moment and BBB may be onto something before delivering his blow.
He uses the alert overlays from his stream that are showing in the video to prove how there are several skips or pauses in the video. This fact is undeniable, and BBB himself has also said that there are moments in this clip that have issues with frames missing or holding where they shouldn’t.
BadBoyBeaman has claimed that this was caused during rendering, a fact that is supported by his posting of the original clip to a google drive for people to check themselves.
This single clip with the error included paved the way for people to create doubt about BBB and his methods of exposing cheaters in Warzone. It was covered by news outlets such as Dexerto, ModernWarzone, Esports talk and many others. It was spread everywhere by Zlaner and his sympathizers, and it became the central focus of what became a back and forth between Zlaner and BadBoyBeaman.
Since this video, BBB has been often referred to as a “clip manipulator” by his detractors, using this mistake as a direct reply to any suspicion he has raised. In short it has become a narrative. This was evident when he posted a Zlaner Part 4 video questioning why Zlaner looks to his left monitor at times when most players would be focused on the game (during gunfights, when hunting enemies or when pushing into fights). This was an important point as it had been shown that at this point it was possible to have wallhacks enabled on a secondary monitor to hide them from being visible on the players live stream.
Zlaner once again responded to this video by showing his setup including all his monitors, but a lot of people considered the response inadequate. Zlaner explained that when he is appearing to hard look to his left, he is looking to his minimap in game as opposed to another monitor. He explained that because of the angle of his face camera and the fact that he sits so close to his monitor that it gives the appearance that he is looking father to the left than he is.
This explanation by Zlaner was widely accepted among his peers, and though there was certainly an undertone of disbelief from the “hacker hunter” community, it had become evident at this point that through the “clip manipulation” doubt cast by Zlaner, a line had been drawn in the sand and you were either with Zlaner and the other “hackused” pros or you were “delusional”. Creators such as Jgod, Mutex, Symfunny, Aydan and many more started to reiterate this stance by referring to people who think that any Warzone pro is cheating as conspiracy theorists.
I asked BadBoyBeaman, you have said that the "Clip manipulation" accusation from Zlaner was born because of a rendering issue that you didn't notice before posting the video and has been used to discredit you since it happened. How do you feel it has been used in this way, is it just people brushing your content off because you are a "clip manipulator" or does it run deeper?
In an interesting response that touches on issues raised in his latest video BBB replied:
“I feel that Zlaner was fortunate enough to find the small rendering issue, because it paved the way for him to use that moment as a tool to lie to his audience by actually manipulating clips himself throughout his response videos. Due to the rendering issue in my video, zlaner was able to successfully gain his viewers trust before completely lying throughout the rest of his video.
This response once again raises a few questions, and BadBoyBeaman’s latest upload asks them all in a very direct way!
Throughout this video BBB explains how the rendering issue he experienced (and has accepted and apologized for), Zlaner was able to pave the way to manipulate a number of clips himself, with the purpose of telling lies to his community and discrediting the clips BBB had previously posted of his gameplay without ever having to address them directly.
The first example of manipulation that we are shown is how Zlaner chooses to address clips of other streamers that BBB had covered, where Zlaner thought BBB had made mistakes, rather than addressing the multitude of clips of his own gameplay, to once again attempt to discredit BBB rather than address the actual suspicion raised against his own gameplay.
The real blow from BBB in this video comes in 2 parts, however. First, BBB shows how Zlaner (or his editor) actually, and openly (as Zlaner explains that this had been done) manipulated one of the clips by zooming it in and making it black and white to better show how the player that Zlaner shot at was visible. Surely if you want to show a player was visible in the gas during a clip you must show that he was visible without altering the clip. To prove he was visible you must show him visible under the same conditions you saw him at the time. This is 100% manipulation of a clip and is admitted to by Zlaner in his own video...
The second and most deceptive thing that BBB claims Zlaner did throughout his video is addressing things that were never actually mentioned or even hinted at by BBB originally. In a clip posted by BBB, Zlaner sees a player glitch through the ceiling of a building as he is climbing the stairs, he aims at the player and there is an apparent snap of his aim to the location of the player. This is something that BadBoyBeaman suggests could potentially be an aimbot lock. In the actual clip Zlaner himself even states that he gets “aim assist lock” onto the player (something that doesn’t exist). Following this clip during the same game, Zlaner has a moment where he calls out “My aim lock, my aimbot, my frickin aim assist”.
The issue BBB raises is about how Zlaner covers this clip in his response video. Firstly, he does not address the “aim assist lock” at all, instead he delves into an explanation of how he knew the guy was there because he saw him glitch through the ceiling and that it isn’t because he has wallhacks. BBB doesn’t mention Zlaner using wallhacks at all in this clip, in fact he says that Zlaner knows the enemy is there because he can see him through the ceiling, and he is not calling him out for wallhacking. It certainly seems to be a very strange approach for Zlaner to take with this clip, and what is more, Zlaner removes the part from the clip where BBB states that he is not accusing him of wallhacking. This would suggest the clip has been manipulated to fit around what Zlaner wants to say.
As I stated earlier, this clip then runs on to a moment where Zlaner has what many believe to be a slip of the tongue when he says, “My aim lock, my aimbot, my frickin aim assist” and that too is left out (or cut out) of Zlaners response video.
If you are going to accuse someone of manipulating clips to push their own narrative as Zlaner has with regards to BadBoyBeaman, then it should follow that you yourself uphold the same standards you are championing, and the fact that Zlaner so obviously hasn’t held to his own rules surely does add weight to the argument that he has piggybacked on the one clip that BBB has posted with a rendering issue as a vehicle to allow him to manipulate clips with the intent of pushing a narrative.
Wherever you stand on the BBB vs Zlaner debate, one thing is certain and irrefutable at this point, Zlaner selectively cut clips in a way that made them more fitting to what he wanted to say. The evidence is in his own videos when comparing them to BBBs.
I would be extremely interested in what Zlaner has to say on the matter, after all there are 2 sides to every story. BBB has offered to have Zlaner on his podcast, perhaps that would be the best way to air all these issues and put them to bed finally.
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