A live lie detector test designed to determine the fate of the accused cheater in Call of Duty: Warzone ended abruptly this week after doubts emerged about the authenticity of the polygraph and the person who performed the procedure.
As mentioned by Dexerto (Opens in a new tab)the April 5 event was the brainchild of esports commentator Jake Lucky and Grady Rains of Full Squad Gaming, who invited accused cheater ShiftyTV (Opens in a new tab) to a Los Angeles studio to prove his innocence (or guilt). The itinerary planned to stream with Shifty will begin playing Warzone on a “clean” PC setup to test its performance on your home PC. The stream will end with polygraph test results conducted by John Grogan, a hired polygraph examiner who has done similar tests for Dr. Phil and Vanity Fair and The Late Show with James Corden.
Just moments before Grogan shares his audition results with viewers, Rains steps in to call for a break. He said, “Wait, let’s take a break. Let’s take a really quick break. Let’s take a break.” “Can we put up a banner and take a really quick breather?” Then the broadcast moved to a waiting screen before it finally ended.
Video credit: flaw (Opens in a new tab)
It’s hard to know for sure, because the event archive was quickly deleted by Full Squad Gaming, but it’s possible that Rains ended the broadcast to address the growing number of viewers in the chat indicating Grogan’s reputation in the polygraph community. In 2008, retired FBI Special Agent Jack Trimarco (another polygraph operator who regularly appeared on Dr. Phil prior to his death in 2018) publicly declared Grosjean “a polygraph parasite.” (Opens in a new tab)He was allegedly convicted of “26 counts of fraud.” Grogan denied the allegations, and later filed a defamation lawsuit against Trimarco that was settled out of court in 2009.
After the broadcast, Lucky apologized to viewers and hinted at the reason behind the abrupt end to the broadcast. “At the end of the day, I didn’t feel comfortable sharing these results and I think that was the right call,” he said.
At the end of the day, I didn’t feel comfortable sharing these results and I think that was the right call. A big thank you to all of you who got out because far from this blunder has been so much fun for me. More important updates coming tomorrow.April 6 2022
The allegations were clearly enough to erode Lucky’s confidence in Grogan, but they haven’t stopped Grogan in the past. In recent years, he has become the favorite man in Hollywood (Opens in a new tab) When you need someone to look into a polygraph test and say with confidence whether or not someone is lying. He’s experienced deception on celebrities big and small including Hailey Baldwin, Machine Gun Kelly, the Jonas Brothers, Guys Experience, and Pete Davidson. He’d obviously test anyone with $145 to burn (with a date).
Aside from doubts about Grosjean, another good reason to stop taking a polygraph test is, of course, because polygraphs don’t work. (Opens in a new tab). This is a fact made clear to Lucky and co. Many times on Twitter before and after the April 5 broadcast, but it hasn’t been addressed by anyone involved. This fact is also regularly ignored by all the other YouTube channels and TV shows that hire people like Grogan to “detector lies”. You could argue that a polygraph is a fun activity to do that makes a great video. You could also argue that portraying polygraphs as trustworthy is misleading and deceptive.
Meanwhile, Shifty, who was considered neither a cheater nor innocent by the end of the broadcast (although his gameplay definitely sounds fishy to me!), seems to be perfectly fine with how it all went.
“Making history today, I just hit him,” he tweeted after the polygraph stream was thwarted.