Games Done Quick bans Metal Gear speedrunner for faking world record

theverge.com:

The joy of Summer Games Done Quick raising $3.01 million for Doctors Without Borders has been marred with a bit of controversy. During the charity marathon, Mekarazium, a Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance runner, faked his run of the Revengeance Blade Wolf DLC, playing a spliced video instead of running the game live. The fake run was discovered when Mekarazium himself confessed to cheating, prompting Games Done Quick organizers to remove the VOD of the run and ban Mekarazium from future events. Mekarazium was able to pull off the deception as, even though this was the first live GDQ since AGDQ 2020, he participated remotely, broadcasting from his home.

On Thursday, June 30th, Mekarazium ran Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance on new game plus hard difficulty, finishing with a time of 57:45 that was, as noted in his confession, “way better than what we’ve practiced.” After that run, he completed the Blade Wolf DLC, posting a time of 6:55 that, according to the leaderboards, beat the current world record (that Mekarazium himself holds) by 25 seconds. Mekarazium ended the run with a rambling speech that seemed to focus on wanting the speedrunning community to better support the people who contribute to world records — like people who find glitches and the best routes — instead of the world record holders themselves. He concluded his speech by quoting lyrics from the heavy metal song “This Godless Endeavor” by Nevermore:

I feel empty and derangedDenied one last epiphany and ushered from the stage

He then said “we won’t be meeting again, I think,” seemingly alluding to the fact that he would be discovered.

It is not known why Mekarazium chose to disclose his cheating, but members of the speedrunning subreddit r/speedrun posited it