A small amount of controversy has overshadowed the delight of Summer Games Done Quick generating $3.01 million for Doctors Without Borders. Mekarazium, a Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance runner, falsified his run of the Revengeance Blade Wolf DLC during the charity marathon by playing a spliced video rather than playing the game live. Mekarazium admitted to cheating, which led to the discovery of the phony run and the subsequent removal of the VOD and Mekarazium’s future participation from Games Done Quick competitions. Despite the fact that this was the first live GDQ since AGDQ 2020, Mekarazium was able to carry off the ruse since he participated virtually and aired from his house.
Mekarazium completed a run of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance on Thursday, June 30th, in 57:45, which he highlighted in his confession as being “far better than anything we’ve trained.” Following that run, he finished the Blade Wolf DLC in a time of 6:55, breaking the previous world record (which Mekarazium himself now owns) by 25 seconds. Mekarazium gave a meandering statement at the end of the run, expressing his desire for the speedrunning community to better encourage those who identify flaws and the best routes rather than the world record holders themselves.
Mekarazium’s decision to admit to cheating is unknown, however contributors to the speedrunning forum r/speedrun speculated that it may have been because he was going to be exposed for it. Close examination of the Blade Wolf run indicates that, in contrast to his Revengeance run, there were no keyboard noises audible. Another instance is when he moves his right hand into the field of vision of his camera while the on-screen figure he is directing moves the game camera. Mekarazium claims he was “moving the mouse with his left hand” in order to account for the disparity.
Mekarazium expressed regret in his admission and said that he intended the Blade Wolf run to “top off” his Revengeance run. Aside from that, he expressed his wish that his actions wouldn’t have an adverse effect on upcoming distant marathon runs. Even while there are speedrunning marathons held across the world (the European Speedrunner Assembly will even hold one later this month), GDQ is the biggest and most well-known. One of the most accessible methods to allow international runners and anyone who, for a variety of reasons, are unable to travel, to participate appears to be through allowing remote runs in live marathons.
“This is extremely unacceptable and seeks to damage the integrity of the speedrunning community that we love and support,” GDQ said in a statement on the ban.