Twitch Requests Court Involve Joris Duhau in Phantoml0rd Trial

In the ongoing lawsuit between Twitch and former streamer James “Phantoml0rd” Varga, Twitch is petitioning the court to dismiss the case citing multiple reasons to do so, and has also requested that a European resident, Joris Duhau, is questioned should the requests for dismissal be denied by the court, according to Dexerto.

The request filed with the court , according to the report, says the following:

“Defendant Twitch Interactive, Inc. (“Twitch”) hereby respectfully requests that this Court issue a letter of request under the Hague Convention on the Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil or Commercial Matters (“Letter of Request”). Specifically, Twitch requests that the Court issue the Letter of Request to facilitate testimonial and documentary evidence of Mr. Joris Duhau.

As explained further below, Mr. Duhau will be able to provide critical, first-hand evidence about Plaintiff James Varga’s (“Varga”) affiliation with CSGOShuffle, which goes to the heart of this case. Mr. Duhau is believed to be the operator of CSGOShuffle, and Varga’s former business partner. But Mr. Duhau is located in France, beyond the jurisdiction of this or any United States Court.”

Twitch believes that deposing Duhau will be critically important to their case, should it actually head to court, as they state that he is relevant to the justification of the ban, as well as their push to pursue damages against Varga.

“In or around September 2015, during his live Twitch broadcasts, Varga started promoting a website known as CSGOShuffle. CSGOShuffle permitted individuals of any age to gamble CS:GO skins. Skins are cosmetic features that can be superimposed upon elements of the CS:GO game. A secondary-market place has developed where these skins can be cashed out on third-party websites. Valve, the publisher of CS:GO does not, under its terms, permit the secondary-market place for skin gambling and cash-outs with real-world value…

Varga’s promotions included a CS:GO skins “giveaway” in June 2016, whereby he gave away at least $100,000 worth of CS:GO skins to subscribers of his Twitch channel by referring those subscribers to CSGOShuffle. During the giveaway, Plaintiff broadcasted videos of himself playing and “winning” jackpots on CSGOShuffle. As a result, Twitch users were enticed to participate in lotteries on CSGOShuffle. As set forth below, however,

Varga and Duhau secretly conspired to rig these lotteries to their own financial benefit, a scheme which was reported by the industry press and subsequently became one of the main reasons for Varga’s termination.”

Continuing…

“As part of Twitch’s fraud claim, Twitch alleges Varga misrepresented and misleadingly omitted material information about his use of and ownership interest in CSGOShuffle. Twitch also alleges that Varga failed to disclose the fact that through his ownership interest in CSGOShuffle, he was rigging jackpots and otherwise manipulating gambling results and using his ill-gotten skins to further promote CSGOShuffle on Twitch. Id. The evidence sought seeks to demonstrate this ownership interest and manipulation.

Varga also asserts in his complaint that Twitch “arbitrarily” suspended him. Twitch denies this and intends to demonstrate that its decision to suspend Varga was not arbitrary. The specifics behind Varga’s financial interest in CSGOShuffle and his manipulation of gambling on the site are highly relevant to providing this justification.”

h/t Dexerto for the transcript.