Legendary MMO speedrunner "can finally play the game again" after a 1,758-hour record for one of Old School RuneScape's most brutal challenges

gamesradar.com:

Polishing off of one of the most demanding video game speedruns you could possibly come up with, Old School RuneScape player he box jonge recently maxed out one of the MMO's Ultimate Ironman accounts in a mere 1,758 hours and 45 minutes. 

You may know he box jonge as the holder of the 771-hour speedrun record for maxing out a normal, unrestricted OSRS account. The goal in both cases is relatively simple: get all 23 in-game skills to their max level of 99 and obtain the coveted Max Cape. Jonge's normal record was set last March, beating runner-up JCW by just 20 hours. As you might have guessed given the sheer time investment and game knowledge required, getting a Max Cape in OSRS isn't a terribly popular speedrun category, so these records are two of just three on Speedrun.com. 

The third record, the only current entry for maxing an Ultimate Ironman, comes from p_the_menace. The recorded time here seems to be capped by the website at 999 hours, but in an expanded post p_the_menace explains that it actually took 2,945 hours, meaning Jonge's 1,758-hour run represents a massive time save over one of the only known UIM Max records. 

UIM SPEEDRUN IN 1758h 45min!!!Thank you guys for all the support <3 Can finally play the game again.. pic.twitter.com/dRCofJx1AnJuly 13, 2024

The kicker here is that Ultimate Ironman accounts face severe restrictions that dramatically slow training progress. Like normal and hardcore Ironman players, they can't trade with other players in any way, meaning they have to acquire all of their equipment and resources the old-fashioned way. This isn't a super big deal for some skills, like Woodcutting or Fishing, which are conventionally trained by gathering specific resources anyway. But for skills like Construction and Herblore which require massive stockpiles of specific items, it can lead to huge preparatory grinds compared to just buying whatever you need.  

Then we get to the Ultimate part, which is the real killer. As an Ultimate Ironman, you