The Minecraft Speedrun Drama Explained

2020 proved to be quite the year for Dream, the 21-year-old YouTuber who is known for gaining more than 10 million subscribers in just over a year. His YouTube channel has amassed over 14 million subscribers in total. For the most part, Dream rose to popularity by streaming Minecraft playthroughs, though he was one of many streamers to pick up Among Us in 2020 and contribute to the social deception game's popularity. However, he does still frequently share Minecraft videos. 

Although Minecraft is a sandbox open-world game with freedom to create and explore, it has become a popular speedrunning choice for Twitch streamers. In 2020, Dream performed his own speedrun, where he reached the end in 19 minutes and 24 seconds. However, the legitimacy of his speedrun is up for debate, and it has caused a bit of a scandal. It's time to break down all the drama surrounding Dream and his Minecraft speedrun.

In order to successfully reach the end of Minecraft, players need to get two items that can be crafted into a tool to reach the final portal. One item can be obtained by bartering with the unpredictable Piglins, but there's only a small chance that they will give what is needed. The second item is obtained by killing Blazes, which does give a greater chance of dropping the item, but still not guaranteed.

On December 11, Geosquare, a member of the Speedrun.com verification team, shared a video that analyzed Dream's speedrun alongside a 29-page report and rejected Dream's record. According to the report, Dream successfully bartered for the first key item 42 out of 262 times, and 211 kills resulted in the second item. The verification team noted that the likelihood of doing this is very low — a 1 in 177 billion chance — and deemed the speedrun "too unlikely to verify."

Dream immediately denied all of the cheating allegations via tweets in which he called the rejection "total BS." Dream accused Geosquare of using his speedrun as clickbait, and later took to Reddit to elaborate on his reaction. "Obviously, I didn't cheat in any way and I plan on making a video to address these things," Dream wrote, adding that his dispute video will take some time to put together. Dream did admit, however, that he understands why the numbers may look suspicious. "They are not numbers you would ever expect to see during a non-glitched series of speedruns," he wrote.

Dream also noted in the post that he will likely be "hiring multiple well renowned statisticians to look at the numbers" and "talking with Minecraft developers and other prominent figures" about the speedrun. In the meantime, Dream shared his playthrough file, which was said to be uploaded less 10 minutes after the stream, to prove that there were no custom mods loaded for the speedrun.

In the midst of the Minecraft speedrun scandal, Dream got into hot water for a comment he made during a stream with fellow creator Captain Sparklez. When discussing Minecraft players who found loopholes in MCC's Ace Race, Dream said, "I say that they are a bunch of cheaters and we lynch them." Twitter user @PINKFROSTT shared the clip and explained why "lynch" was a harmful choice of word.

"I understand the lighthearted tone but the word lynching is not the right word to use ... this word carries a lot of weight in the black community," the @PINKFROSTT wrote. In a lengthy thread, she went on to explain the history of the word dating back to the civil rights movement and why it has a "heavy" meaning. PINKFROSTT concluded by stating that she did not want to "cancel" Dream, but instead she wanted to hold him and other content creators accountable, as well as educate readers.

After being tagged in the thread by @PINKFROSTT, Dream added a response where he apologized for his word choice. "I realized after I had said it that it wasn't at all the right word for me to use and regretted it instantly. I was thinking of the popular game Town of Salem when I said it. Definitely not okay though, and I apologize for that. Out of my vocabulary," Dream wrote. The apology seemed to be mostly met with acceptance from fans, who thanked Dream for addressing his comment.

On the subject of apologies, that same day, Dream tweeted out a statement about the comments he previously made about the Minecraft speedrun cheating scandal. "I want to apologize to the mod team for some harsh things I've said since the video came out. Although I have reason to be upset, I have no reason to act like a baby. I tend to act before I think when I receive intense criticism," Dream wrote.