Twitch streamer broadcasts pay-per-view fight by pretending it’s UFC 3

By James Billcliffe

The graphics in UFC 3 are pretty awesome – wait, what?

Twitch Streamer Lester_Gaming has dodged Twitch’s content filters to broadcast the UFC 218 pay-per-view in full by pretending to play EA’s UFC 3.

Lester has since deleted the VOD of the stream, but tweets showing him playing along as Max Holloway retained the UFC featherweight title against Jose Aldo have gone viral on Twitter, having been favourited nearly 150,000 times.

Coming off the back of a 90-day ban for streaming NBA games through his YouTube channel, Lester avoided Twitch moderators by pressing buttons and adding his own running commentary as the action unfolded – even raging at the screen when “[he] blocked that”.

Nonplussed about his new-found fame, Lester said: “If I go live again tomorrow, I won’t even have a hundred people in here.”

How has he pretended to play a ufc fight on stream to avoid getting copyrighted LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL pic.twitter.com/I4ykqwqrTA

— Aaron (@TheRealSMA) December 3, 2017

The viral video more than doubled the streamer’s follow count, flooding his inbox with notifications from Twitch.

“Follows went through the roof,” he said in a follow-up stream. “That shit was out of control.”

The exposure doesn’t seem to have to deterred Lester from his streaming schedule either. The next UFC 219 pay-per-view event is on December 30, and when asked whether “UFC 2(k)19” will make an appearance on his channel, he said:

“I stream all the UFCs, so I’m not worried about that. You better follow me on LiveRaise, if I don’t stream on Twitch, I’m always streaming on LiveRaise.

“Is UFC 2(k)19 out on Dec 30? Yes it will be. I’ll be testing that out.”