This Metal Gear Speedrun Is Causing An Uproar

Cheating in online games has more often than not annoyed, frustrated, and alienated legitimate players. Cheating within the speedrunning community, however, can hurt on a different level. Speedrunning has blossomed into a highly competitive industry featuring some of the most talented gamers around. For these legitimate contenders, going up against cheaters can undermine countless days and weeks of practice in order to break records. Since more gamers cheat than anyone realized, the speedrunning community has also caught its share of cheaters. This week, that list expanded to include a world record holder for "Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance." One of the more popular speedrunning charities, Games Done Quick, addressed its community following a Russian speedrunner's confession to cheating.

Mekarazium supposedly set a new record for the "Rising: Revengeance" Blade Wolf DLC during this year's Summer Games Done Quick charity event, beating out their previous record, which also held the number one spot (per Speedrun.com). This record of 6 minutes and 55 seconds to complete the DLC turned out to be fake. Speedrun.com has since deleted it after Mekarazium admitted to using pre-recorded videos cut to look seamless and presenting it as an uninterrupted speedrun. Unsurprisingly, his confession sparked disappointment and frustration from Games Done Quick and the speedrunning community at large.

"This is absolutely unacceptable and attempts to undermine the integrity of the speed-running community that we love and support," Games Done Quick said in an official Reddit statement. Mekarazium listed the discrepancies in their Metal Gear DLC run, detailed on Reddit via a purported screenshot of the confession. They made zero mistakes, and onlookers heard no keyboard noises as the speedrunner played.

While Mekarazium apologized for their deception, not everyone replied with forgiveness. Several gamers on the Speedrunning Reddit page, r/speedrun, criticized Mekarazium's decision and their apology.

"If he planned this for over a month, it's hard to believe his apology is sincere," Oranos2115 said. Some, like axeil55, addressed Mekarazium themselves and methods they perceived as foolish: cutting disparate clips together to present during Summer GDQ. User WorfSucks simply posted, "Dang, that is pretty pathetic."

Many more Redditors expressed sympathy for the commentators during Mekarazium's speedrun, reporting they thoroughly enjoyed the commentary. One of the properted commentators also chimed in. "Bummed out about the potential ramifications against remote runners and the MGSR community, as well as the Vod most likely not returning," Millhouse96 said.

Games Done Quick struck Mekarazium's "Metal Gear" content from its YouTube channel in the aftermath of the confession, as it described in the Reddit statement. The nonprofit also banned the Russian speedrunner from future participation. Mekarazium has joined an infamous list of speedrunners who admitted to cheating, including Minecraft speedrunner Dream. Their reputation has probably tanked, though Mekarazium breaking the news may have lessened the blow.