Arc Raiders streamer Symfuhny keeps facing cheating allegations

Mason “Symfuhny” Lanier is a Twitch streamer and content creator who, at the moment, plays Arc Raiders almost exclusively. He’s been around for a while, though: He started out playing Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone, and also dabbled in other shooters, often in competitive environments. He’s garnered a reputation for being one of the most skilled FPS streamers, to the point where moments from his stream have been shared with allegations of cheating.

The Feb. 18 Reddit post embedded above is the latest example. In the clip, Symfuhny is playing duos on Arc Raiders’ Stella Montis map. He fires off a few Venator shots at a turret before his aim immediately snaps to the left, as if it locked onto an enemy behind a wall. He then jumps to take a look and sees an enemy running away.

Another example, from Jan. 29, can be seen in the post above. This time, Symfuhny is in a trio, again on Stella Montis. He takes a couple of shots at an enemy across the lobby before his aim does an almost 180-degree spin at breakneck speed, and he starts shooting at a closed door. Again, as he gets a better angle, it reveals an enemy is right where he aimed.

In the comments, the consensus is divided to an almost impressive degree. On one side, you have folks who are convinced he’s cheating. “There’s no way you can explain that snap aim to the door, defo looks like aimbot,” reads one. “Most blatant cheater on Twitch,” claims another. “I don’t know how people were denying that he was cheating from the last clip,” reads a third. “This one has to be indefensible.”

Then there are his staunch defenders. “He does it so people will clip it and talk about him, it’s great for engagement and clearly works,” claims one. “Reddit in a nutshell, people are so gullible,” is another. “He’s been doing this for years in Call of Duty and Fortnite,” explains a third. “It’s a gimmick to get views, and it works apparently, since he’s on the front page of Reddit.”

That last comment makes a valid point: Symfuhny has had eyes on him for a long time. The organization he used to represent, NRG Esports, published a sarcastic “get gud kid” response when he was accused of aimbotting in June 2020. (The statement has since been lost to the passage of time, but is viewable via the Wayback Machine.) This is a suspicious clip of him flicking between two enemies he can’t see due to smoke in Warzone. Here’s another of some wildly quick flicks with pinpoint precision back on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Is Symfuhny cheating? Who knows. Symfuhny did not respond to Polygon’s request for comment.

There is no denying that the clips that get a lot of attention often look suspicious, and in isolation, it’s easy to assume he’s using an aimbot. However, after scrubbing through a few of his recent broadcasts, paying close attention to whenever he’s in combat, those questionable moments are sporadic. There are many more moments where he’ll miss a few shots, not be aware an enemy is nearby, or simply lose a firefight — not stuff you’d expect to happen with frequency if he were cheating.

Of course, there’s always the chance he only enables his cheats occasionally. Or perhaps he doesn’t cheat at all and, as a lot of users claim, he simply plays in that manner sometimes to increase the chances of his clips being shared. There’s no such thing as bad publicity after all, right?