In a document and video released on February 9, 2026, Rodney Smith, who launched the YouTube channel "Watch It Played" in 2011, has accused YouTube channel "Game Night Picks" — which is run by Chaz Marler — of using YouTube's "YouTube Advertising" feature to boost the viewer count on videos released in November and December 2025.
The viewer count matters because, to quote Smith, "Early in 2025, the owner of Game Night Picks adopted a 'per view' fee structure for ads sold on their channel. This meant that the cost to a publisher for running an ad was based on how many views the video received over a fixed period."
Smith continues: "While a video with more views would in theory also result in more people seeing the publisher’s ad, the videos Game Night Picks released using 'YouTube Advertising' resulted in ~90% of the total viewers leaving the video within its first minute — well before the publisher's ad could be shown to them." In short, Smith claims that Game Night Picks is paying to boost its viewer count in order to earn more from publishers advertising on Game Night Picks without those publishers' ads actually being seen by more viewers.
Marler joined Watch It Played in May 2020, but Smith states that the practices he's accusing Marler of using on Game Night Picks, which debuted in August 2013 under the name "Pair Of Dice Paradise", have never been used on Watch It Played:
While the individual running Game Night Picks created videos on Watch It Played and sold ads to publisher[s] there, they did not use the "YouTube Advertising" feature on Watch It Played. The "YouTube Advertising" feature has never been used to inflate the views or subscriptions of Watch It Played.
Smith notes that as of February 9, 2026 all of Marler's contractual obligations with publishers have been fulfilled and Marler is no longer working for Watch It Played.
What's more, Smith has decided to stop working with others on Watch It Played — with the other recent, regular contributors being Paula Deming, Matthew Jude, and Monique and Naveen of the YouTube channel "Before You Play" — not because of any doubt about their integrity, but because, as he stated in the video, "I'm just not comfortable having my channel and my reputation entangled in the decisions that other people might decide to make".
I reached out to Chaz Marler four hours prior to publication to respond to these statements, but have not heard from him. I'll update this post with a response should I receive one. UPDATE, Feb. 10, 2026: Chaz Marler has posted an official statement on Game Night Picks in response to Smith's accusations. It reads in part:
During a limited period spanning late 2025 and early 2026, the Game Night Picks YouTube channel experimented with YouTube's built-in Promotions tools to expand the reach of selected videos. These tools are offered directly by YouTube and distribute videos to broader audiences within its platform, with resulting views counted and reported by YouTube.
Because this approach produced view counts significantly higher than the channel's historical norms, steps were taken at the time to provide sponsors with context. In late November, sponsors were notified of the surge in viewership numbers. Subsequent communications outlined how sponsorship billing would be evaluated when engagement patterns differed from typical performance, and the channel's "Video Services" documentation was updated to restate those policies. Sponsorships have always been reviewed on a case-by-case basis using the full range of available metrics, and that approach was applied consistently during this period.
After evaluating the results, it became clear that YouTube Promotions did not produce the level of sustained viewer engagement or long-term value that Game Night Picks aims to deliver for sponsors and viewers. As a result, these promotion tools are no longer being used on the channel.
Marler noted to me that he initially responded to questions from BoardGameWire before composing the statement linked to above. END of UPDATE
I'll note in passing that Marler runs Tabletop Media Makers, a website that tries to match YouTube creators with industry sponsors that will advertise on those channels. In Marler's words: "This is a place for board game YouTubers to sell ad spots in their videos, and for advertisers to find and purchase those ads. In a nutshell, it's a match-making platform for us in the online board game community."
Prior to Board Game Beat launching, in early November 2025 I had reached out to Marler to see whether the service might be usable for banner ads instead of videos. Marler said that he had been planning to expand Tabletop Media Makers along these lines since he had a website that could use such ads — GameNightPicks.com, which aims to help hosts and attendees organize game sessions — but after I presented an overview of plans for the Beat, I didn't hear back from him until I had launched, with my wife and I using a spreadsheet system of our own.
And I feel this is an appropriate place to share my video (with transcript) about federated social media, repeating that one of the reasons I wanted to avoid places like YouTube is its focus on growth and numbers, no matter the cost. To quote myself: "I'm happy to have slow, steady growth with people ideally enjoying what I'm doing, being glad to support it, sharing it in whatever way they feel is appropriate."
