The pleasure of Summer Games Done Quick elevating $3.01 million for Doctors Without Borders has been marred with a little bit of controversy. During the charity marathon, Mekarazium, a Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance runner, faked his run of the Revengeance Blade Wolf DLC, enjoying a spliced video as a substitute of operating the sport dwell. The faux run was found when Mekarazium himself confessed to dishonest, prompting Games Done Quick organizers to take away the VOD of the run and ban Mekarazium from future occasions. Mekarazium was in a position to pull off the deception as, though this was the primary dwell GDQ since AGDQ 2020, he participated remotely, broadcasting from his residence.
On Thursday, June thirtieth, Mekarazium ran Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance on new sport plus onerous issue, ending with a time of 57:45 that was, as famous in his confession, “way better than what we’ve practiced.” After that run, he accomplished the Blade Wolf DLC, posting a time of 6:55 that, in line with the leaderboards, beat the present world record (that Mekarazium himself holds) by 25 seconds. Mekarazium ended the run with a rambling speech that appeared to concentrate on wanting the speedrunning neighborhood to raised help the individuals who contribute to world data — like individuals who discover glitches and the very best routes — as a substitute of the world record holders themselves. He concluded his speech by quoting lyrics from the heavy metallic tune “This Godless Endeavor” by Nevermore:
I really feel empty and deranged
Denied one final epiphany and ushered from the stage
He then mentioned “we won’t be meeting again, I think,” seemingly alluding to the truth that he can be found.
It isn’t recognized why Mekarazium selected to reveal his dishonest, however members of the speedrunning subreddit r/speedrun posited it may be as a result of he was probably about to be outed for the deception. An in depth viewing of the Blade Wolf run reveals that there have been no keyboard sounds within the audio when there have been throughout his Revengeance run. There’s additionally a second the place he strikes his proper hand into his digital camera’s view whereas the character he’s controlling on display screen is transferring the sport digital camera. Mekarazium explains away the discrepancy by stating he was “moving the mouse with his left hand.”
Mekarazium apologized in his confession, stating that he wished the “world record” Blade Wolf run to “top off” his Revengeance run. He additionally said that he hoped his actions wouldn’t affect future distant runs throughout dwell marathons. While speedrunning marathons aren’t completely US-based (actually, the European Speedrunner Assembly will host its personal marathon later this month), GDQ is the largest and hottest. Permitting distant runs in dwell marathons appears to be one of the accessible methods to let abroad runners and others, who for varied causes are unable to journey, take part.
GDQ issued a press release on the ban saying, “This is absolutely unacceptable and attempts to undermine the integrity of the speedrunning community that we love and support.”
