Image: Konami
In a week full of fantastic live speeds at Summer Games Done Quick 2022, a one-hour play of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance still turned upside down. Even more notable was the encore, unlocked through community donations: a frantic race through the game’s Blade Wolf DLC campaign that ended up setting a new world record. Or at least he would have done it, if it had been real. Instead, a few days later, the speedrunner behind him confessed to forging it using a pre-recorded video that collected his best times from previous runs.
The culture of speedrunning is incredibly online, with players exchanging strategies on the forums, broadcasting their world-record workouts and attempts live from around the world, and later uploading the best moments to record-keeping sites like Speedrun.com. One of the things that makes annual events like SGDQ is that some of the most talented players behind all sorts of different games get together in person and show off their craft live to both fans and casual spectators. In this context breaking records is rare, and therefore more special. On the other hand, replacing pre-recorded footage with live attempts is a sacrilege. But that’s exactly what a speed racer passing through Mekarazium admitted last week.
“The incentive to run the Blade Wolf DLC that people paid for is a previously recorded segmented race,” the speedrunner told an SGDQ representative at Discord over the weekend. “I did not mention it anywhere, neither during the submission process nor the e-mail I sent to the commission. It was supposed to be a real-time execution, but I changed my mind at the last second after changing the stops. “
Mekarazium, which broadcast remotely for the event on June 30, noted some of the differences between its NG + Hard play, which was live, and the bonus roll that jointly edited multiple perfect partial executions. of the DLC. For one thing, the Blade Wolf campaign game had no keyboard and mouse sound. The checkpoints were not fully aligned either, and as PCGamesN reported, some viewers also noticed after the game’s camera was still moving at some point even after Mekarazium had withdrawn his hand. right mouse.
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“I did something wrong and I shouldn’t have done that at the event,” he told GDQ.
But why he did it is much harder to figure out. His SGDQ career ended with a rambling speech condemning the leaderboards for over-monopolizing the state and attention of speedrunning communities. He also seemed to want to argue that more players should focus on exploring and creating unique approaches to speedrunning rather than just pursuing new world records.
“I feel empty and upset, denied one last epiphany and taken off stage,” Mekarazium said at the end of his appearance on SGDQ, quoting “This Godless Endeavor” from the 90s heavy metal band Nevermore.
As a result of the acrobatics, GDQ has removed Mekarazium’s career from his YouTube channel and told Kotaku that he was banned from performing at the event in the future.
“This is absolutely unacceptable and attempts to undermine the integrity of the speedrunning community we love and support,” a GDQ spokesman wrote in an email. “The exact result they wanted was not clear in the document, but it is clear that they believed we would not be willing to talk about their behavior. However, we believe it is in the best interest of the community to know why GDQ removed this test.”
In his original message to GDQ, and in a follow-up response to Kotaku, Mekarazium said he made the decision to switch to a previously recorded segmented race in part because his base game’s NG + speed had gone so well and he wanted to do -ho. finish it off with an even more impressive showstopper. “The next run had to be even higher in quality, which would become a grand finale,” he said of Discord.
To unlock the execution of the Blade Wolf DLC, SGDQ viewers had to collectively give $ 25,000 to Doctors Without Borders during the quick execution of the base game, and they did so, with hundreds of contributions. What they got in return was impressive in theory: the race came at 6: 55.7, a whopping 25 seconds below the previous world record set by Mekarazium, but it was not the live performance for which they had paid, without anyone knowing. public at that time. They cheered. Mekarazium feigned surprise, saying “shit” when his time was announced.
“The truth is that this was a creepy thing,” Mekarazium now says on the subject of deceiving the people who had given. But it doesn’t seem to feel the same way with the rest of the acrobatics, but rather states that its deeper meaning is a kind of “puzzle to solve”.
“This is a joke,” Mekarazium told Kotaku. “[A] it makes fun of every person who sees speedrunning events and hasn’t asked any questions. He criticized content makers for benefiting from the work of speedrunners in exchange for free advertising, and GDC for putting their “branding needs” ahead of the “passion” of the community, saying the event “will get a great success in his image “to eliminate. one of the most highly rated races that was well received by all.”
“People will focus on the fact” he cheated, ”and not on the sheer amount of preparations made to ensure [the] the race will go well and the segmented race will go unnoticed “.
Mekarazium’s explanation only became more cryptic from here. “If you want to see some things change, there are always some [a] price to pay, ”he said. “I am paying with my reputation as a marathon runner, speed runner, commentator and very passionate person to make others think about the things you are ready to do in the name of this passion. So that others can change their minds about speedrunning as a whole. He refused to go any further.
The speed racer admitted that he was also sleep deprived at the time of his performance, due to delays in programming. Whatever his true motivations, he seemed to know that his journeys would eventually come to light and be banned again when the credits came out last week. “We won’t meet again, I think, some people just want to see how this world burns,” Mekarazium said at the end of his appearance at SGDQ. “Good night, there will be more nights without God.”