For many years, Guinness World Records exclusively partnered with Twin Galaxies as its authority on video gaming achievements. For all its flaws, at one time TG was the sole major scorekeeping organization. In 2017, Guinness broadened their scorekeeping affiliations, adding material from speedrunning hub Speedrun.com to their annual “Gamer’s Edition” of the Guinness World Records book. More recently, Speedrun.com started a new collaboration with Guinness, offering official Guinness world records to anyone who could complete specific challenges in Super Mario Odyssey, God of War, and Minecraft. As Guinness put it, “[W]e’re now taking our partnership with Speedrun.com to the next level by working directly with moderators from their community to create some totally new and unique GWR speedrun challenges.”
But an issue has come up recently, one that I think deserves a good long look. Everyone heard this bit of news last week, but not everyone is aware of all the underlying ramifications, which when spelled out are actually quite appalling. I think it’s worth reevaluating whether this relationship between SRC and Guinness is actually worth maintaining, either from the perspective of the speedrunning community at large, or from the perspective of Speedrun.com administration themselves.
BILLY MITCHELL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2x6ZrWUkWo
I would love to say I had a long list of reasons for this post. I mean, we could throw in last month’s brouhaha over Guinness falsely copyright striking several speedrunners’ videos, or we could talk about Guinness’ affinity for oppressive autocratic regimes, if it really makes a difference. But truthfully, I’m here today to talk about Guinness’ recent decision to restore illegitimately claimed world records by longtime video game cheater, Billy Mitchell. But don’t think for a moment this is just one minor grievance.
As you’ll see, this post is about a lot more than just “Billy Mitchell is a cheater,” but let’s start there. For the last two years, even after the conclusion of the score dispute, I’ve been researching the Billy Mitchell case. I could talk all day about the mountain of evidence proving Billy Mitchell cheated. (No, no. Literally, all day.) But for right now, if anyone wants, we’ll do a short recap.
In February 2018, Jeremy Young, a moderator at Donkey Kong Forum, published the result of an investigation into three historical Billy Mitchell performances, which were claimed to be “direct feeds” from Donkey Kong arcade cabinets. It turns out, when drawing game boards to the screen, MAME produces image frames which are noticeably different from what genuine arcade produces. And guess what! Billy’s tapes didn’t match arcade, and were an exact match for MAME. (MAME is legal of course, but at Twin Galaxies is listed separately, with special verification to prohibit cheating.) The circumstances around Billy’s scores had always been fishy (and remain so), but this MAME evidence was the smoking gun. These “MAME signatures” weren’t incidental differences, but rather byproducts of the fact that MAME draws images to the screen in a fundamentally different manner. Rigorous testing by a number of parties at Twin Galaxies and elsewhere concluded Billy’s tapes could not have originated from authentic arcade hardware as claimed. To this day, neither Billy nor anyone else has been able to explain why three different tapes of Billy’s, allegedly produced on three different Donkey Kong machines with different capture setups several years apart, all show dozens upon dozens of MAME signatures, and exactly zero arcade signatures, nor has anyone been able to replicate the phenomenon, nor has anyone been able to show why this phenomenon apparently happened to only Billy Mitchell and not literally anyone else ever.
For over a year after the dispute closed, Billy promised his exonerating evidence was on its way. In September 2019, this evidence was finally delivered, along with an explicit legal threat to Twin Galaxies and to Guinness, threatening legal action if they did not reinstate his scores (which Twin Galaxies, under the ownership of Jace Hall, has refused to do). Billy’s evidence packet was an exercise in throwing as much at the wall as possible, and while some passersby were convinced by Billy’s smoke-and-mirrors approach, for those of us who followed the dispute and understood the core evidence, this evidence packet was a massive flop. “Hey look, I used to own a real Donkey Kong circuit board! I have shipping receipts for it!” Billy claimed the tapes weren’t his while simultaneously going to great lengths to prove it was his legit game play on those tapes after all. Billy continued to rely on a wacky long-debunked theory that a guy named Dwayne Richard snuck into peoples’ homes, took Billy’s real tapes, and either swapped them all with perfect MAME forgeries, or used some sort of magic tool to draw MAME signatures all over Billy’s VHS tapes. (Dwayne would have needed a time machine to pull off this preposterous caper, and even then, there’s no way he could have affected a third tape in 2010, which also showed MAME signatures, and which stayed strictly in Billy’s possession as he presented it, which Billy seems to conveniently forget about.) But don’t worry. Billy did have several friends of his sign witness statements testifying that he’s a really good guy and that he totally did get these scores and didn’t cheat.
HOW GUINNESS FAILED
On Thursday, June 18, Guinness released a video (seen above) and a written statement, announcing they had reversed their previous decision to strike Billy Mitchell from their record books. Guinness cited “compelling new evidence”, including “a re-examination of the records in question and the emergence of key eyewitness and expert testimonials”. Craig Glenday, in the video announcement, said this decision involved “reviewing both the existing evidence, and newly sourced eyewitness testimony, plus some new expert game play analyses and hardware verification”. (I’ll get more into this in a moment, but they’re referring to Billy’s September 2019 evidence packet – the one that had this cover sheet. There is no “new” evidence at play, simply “newer” material than was presented during the original score dispute in 2018.) Glenday finally added, “In cases such as this, where there is debate, we would typically defer to the original, contemporaneous adjudication, and this is the case here.”
The first thing one should notice is that no particular piece of evidence is presented or emphasized. What exactly was the most compelling piece of new evidence? Whose eyewitness statements were instrumental in this decision? In the Twin Galaxies dispute thread, everything was made public and transparent. We knew what the evidence was, and what was being discussed and considered. Things were openly tested and verified. If you did claim to find a way to produce MAME signatures with arcade, you had to explain how you did it, and the process had to be replicable. With Guinness, we are given only a final decision.
Speaking of witness statements, how exactly did Guinness resolve glaring discrepancies in Billy’s and his friends’ stories? In 2018, Billy’s technician, Rob Childs, boasted of his direct feed setup, and how it would prove Billy’s innocence. So confident was he that he offered to donate $5000 to charity on behalf of anyone who could come into his shop and prove him wrong. Of course, when it came time for witness statements the following year, Mr. Childs suddenly had almost nothing to do with the direct feed setup (page 43 here), and of course the people who did create the setup, who would have the answers to these questions, have all vanished into the ether. And then of course, there’s literally Todd Rogers. How did Guinness reconcile Todd being the referee to verify Billy’s scores with him also having been thoroughly discredited, with even Guinness themselves no longer recognizing his old scores? How did they reconcile new witness statements claiming the 2010 score was arranged ahead of time with Todd’s account that he just happened to be in the area that day?
Guinness mentions “hardware verification”. Make no mistake, this didn’t involve Guinness doing actual hardware tests of their own, but rather looking at Billy’s shipping receipts for a DK board and saying “Yup, those do indeed look like shipping receipts.” How did Guinness resolve these receipts and witness statements with the fact that the tapes that were produced and submitted could not have originated from an authentic Donkey Kong arcade cabinet as claimed? Did they ever find any explanation for the MAME signatures, seen across three different claimed performances allegedly done on three different machines years apart? Did they make any attempt at all to resolve this?
Also, there’s this whole fake equivalence thing. “Gosh, the cheater hasn’t confessed. As long as there’s ‘debate’, I guess we can’t do anything until both parties agree.” Billy Mitchell will take his lies to his grave. He will always have some new round of evidence and witness statements to sucker people with. Heck, Todd Rogers still maintains his innocence. Maybe Guinness should send Todd a new certificate for that 5.51 on Dragster? It was, after all, verified by a major game publisher using the “contemporaneous adjudication” standards at the time. Is that really going to be Guinness’ standard?
I could go on, but I do want to make one last point about how ridiculous Guinness’ decision was. This is what makes this so utterly preposterous to me. Guinness re-awarded Billy Mitchell the world record for “First gamer to score one million points on Donkey Kong” for his bogus 1.047m score, basing their decision on the September 2019 evidence packet where, it just so happens, both Billy Mitchell and Walter Day testify (page 17 here and page 5 here) that the 1.047m score was for “entertainment purposes only” and was never intended as an official submission. (Yes, that score you saw in King of Kong, with Walter and Billy on the phone? Billy now says Robert Mruczek stole the tape shown at Funspot – a claim we can prove was a lie – and entered the score against poor Billy’s wishes. And somehow, Billy never found the time to object to this “entertainment purposes only” score being on the scoreboard – understandably I guess as he was too busy promoting it as a verified world record.) Never mind, for the moment, that we have previous statements from both of them stating the exact opposite. But no, this is what they’re now claiming, in their submission to Guinness. The 1.047m didn’t count.
The 1.047m tape was submitted in 2005. (Billy claims he “achieved” it in 2004, but who knows?) Billy’s next one million point submission (also fake) was in 2007. Problem is, Steve Wiebe had a fully verified one million point submission in 2006. So if Billy’s 2004/5 score doesn’t count……….. how on earth does he have the first million?
I described this perplexing proposal back in dispute thread, mockingly playing the part of Walter Day giving his new-at-the-time testimony:
“Billy totally didn’t submit the tape, and I only entered it as a stunt, but he still had the first million on DK, because I did enter it, but I didn’t, because it wasn’t submitted, but you should reinstate first million on DK anyway, because it was verified, and it could only be verified because he submitted it, but he didn’t submit it, and I didn’t enter it, even though I did, but I really didn’t, but still, nobody else out there got the first million, because Billy got it first, because we verified it, even though he didn’t submit it, because he only does his world records live and in person, but it really was the world record, because we did enter it, even though we also didn’t, so he still should get credit, and not the other guy.”
Guinness apparently didn’t resolve any of this, and just looked the other way. “Sure, first one million, whatever you say.”
Oh, and on top of that, Guinness got the date wrong.
NO, BUT REALLY, IT GETS WORSE
This is fun and all, jumping back on the “Fuck Billy Mitchell” train for another sweet ride. But that by itself isn’t worth writing this post. Here’s where we get a bit serious. The implications laid out below are what deserve some frank consideration.
First, Guinness’ statement was coordinated with a simultaneous statement from Billy Mitchell himself, on Twitter. Billy proclaimed, “After its own fair and unbiased investigation, Guinness World Records has announced the reinstatement of my Pac-Man and Donkey Kong records, effective immediately.”
In this announcement, what may have gone unnoticed was an additional video, posted to Billy Mitchell’s own YouTube channel (a channel which he has renamed “King of Kong”). This video, filmed in the same arcade setting as his portion of the Guinness video and featuring an opening card reading “Billy Mitchell Official Statement”, lasted four minutes and 35 seconds, with the vast majority of that time featuring Billy speaking to the camera. This video was accessible here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLqPZkzKYDA
However, realizing he may have said too much, Billy soon set the video to private. Obviously I can’t reupload his proprietary video, but I have transcribed the relevant uninterrupted portion as follows:
I’ve waited a long time for this announcement. Today, June 18, 2020, Guinness World Records has announced the unanimous decision to reinstate all of my world record scores, from 1982 to present day. This is not a decision they came to quickly. It was a long investigation, substantial due diligence, and it’s that that I’d like to talk to you about here today.
My first communication on this with Guinness World Records was September, 2019. They were very alarmed at the situation. Guinness World Records, as the most respected world record keeping authority in the world, decided it needed to take its own look into the situation, conduct its own due diligence, and reach its own conclusion.
Over the next few months, the lines of communication remained open and active. In December, 2019, we received an email with their conclusions – to reinstate all of my world records, from 1982 to present day.
There’s a lot to unpack in this revelation, so let’s take it piece-by-piece.
First of all, he says his first communication with Guinness was September, 2019, well over a year after the dispute conclusion. The evidence packet was sent to both Twin Galaxies and Guinness on September 9, 2019, which as said before, came with a legal threat letter making their terms very clear:
Each corporation has a 14-day deadline to review the information and issue the retraction, or we will resort to legal recourse, our final option.
Unless we are to believe there was some prior communication between Sept. 1-8, which quickly escalated to legal threats days later, that means Billy’s threat was his first communication with Guinness. He didn’t present evidence and ask that it be weighed fairly – which he could have done in the actual TG score dispute at any time. He opened with the threat. So how seriously are we to take Guinness’ investigation when it’s done under an explicit legal threat? And how exactly does this make them “unbiased”?
*points gun at bystander* “Tell them I didn’t do it!”
“Uhhh…. I guess he didn’t do it?”
“As you can see, this fair and impartial witness did their own thorough investigation, and has concluded that I am innocent of all charges.”
In his Sept. 2019 evidence packet, Billy labels anyone critical of him (based on either evidence or experience) as biased or of having some kind of personal vendetta against him. So it’s not really a surprise that Billy is going to alternatively tout the investigative abilities of anyone who agrees with him, even if their “investigation” consisted only of “Okay, fine, please don’t sue us.” Unlike Twin Galaxies and various other participants in the 2018 score dispute, Guinness’ “investigation” probably didn’t involve coming within a mile of an actual Donkey Kong cabinet.
But this “long investigation”? This “substantial due diligence”? Interesting thing about that: I’ve asked around, and I have yet to find anyone who would advocate the “Billy is guilty” position who was sought for input into this “investigation” by Guinness. I’ve asked Jeremy Young, moderator at Donkey Kong Forum and initial publisher of the MAME evidence (and recent lawsuit target of Billy Mitchell). Guinness did not contact him for input into their “investigation”. I’ve asked J.C. Harrist, administrator at DKF (and another recent Billy lawsuit target). Guinness did not contact him. Tanner Fokkens, a.k.a. “expandedidea”, who rehosted the bogus tapes for examination and who contributed significantly to the body of evidence. Guinness did not contact him. For my part, while I’m not particularly important in my own right, I have written extensively on the topic, and have already addressed each element of Billy’s evidence submission worth discussing. Guinness did not reach out to me for input into their investigation – even though Jace Hall and Twin Galaxies did. It certainly doesn’t seem Guinness took what I or many others have written into consideration. Given that I care about the integrity of competitive video gaming and its history, I would’ve been happy to answer any of Guinness’ questions to the best of my ability at no charge.
This “investigation” is already lacking enough, especially for an organization which has in the past openly acknowledged the need to farm out video game adjudication to the experts. But it gets even more troubling when you take into consideration Billy’s other remark:
Over the next few months, the lines of communication remained open and active.
So Guinness didn’t reach out to the people who published the damning evidence, and who could elaborate on its context and address any concerns. But they did keep constant contact with Billy and his people, exclusively?
I wonder whose idea that was.
NOPE, STILL WORSE
There was obviously a lot of collaboration between Guinness and Billy leading up to their announcement. They produced a video together. They had their statements prepared and ready to go. One might ask, exactly how far did this collaboration go?
Look back to Billy’s quotes above. According to him, he was notified of Guinness’ decision in December.
Sooooooo why are we hearing about this now? When Twin Galaxies ruled on the Dragster dispute, Todd’s scores were gone by the next day. When Twin Galaxies ruled on this score dispute in April 2018, Billy’s scores were gone by the next day. But this time, they wait six months? What on earth possessed them to do that?
I suppose we can’t say for sure, but I’ll tell you one thing: The next hearing in the Billy Mitchell v. Twin Galaxies case is July 6. The hearing is to rule on Twin Galaxies’ anti-SLAPP motion. This is in reference to a law that allows defendants (such as Jace Hall) to get frivolous lawsuits which are only intended to stifle free speech (such as Billy Mitchell’s meritless lawsuit against TG) dismissed before trial. But to do that, you basically have to show the suit has no merit. Right now is the home stretch for filings for that hearing, where this poor judge, whose closest experience to video games is probably watching their grandkids play Fortnite, is going to have to review the facts and decide if these video game nerds have a case against each other. Given the already superficial approach of Billy’s defense to date, do you really think “Guinness did their own investigation and they reinstated my records” isn’t going to factor heavily into Billy’s filings against the anti-SLAPP motion? Or, for that matter, his public relations campaign?
Exactly what possessed Guinness to withhold their announcement for months, blindsiding everyone right as court proceedings are about to start?
I guess it’s time to stop beating around the bush on this: Is Guinness World Records intentionally assisting a proven cheater in his lawsuit against another video gaming recordkeeper?
If so, the implications are horrifying, and would merit some serious reconsideration of collaboration, for Speedrun.com, for Twin Galaxies, or any other competitive gaming adjudicator.
Now, I’m willing to believe, perhaps, that Guinness isn’t consciously approaching this situation in that fashion (although at this point, that’s not even a given). They might not be thinking “Yeah, let’s fuck Twin Galaxies up! Let’s do it for Billy!” I’m willing to believe, perhaps, that Guinness simply got sweet-talked by Billy, then suckered into only listening to him and his friends, then duped into thinking anyone who doesn’t fall for Billy’s fairy-tale evidence is some conspiracy wacko, and then finally tricked into announcing their decision whenever Billy felt it appropriate. It would be pretty derelict of them, but Billy is charismatic and forceful, so I could maybe see that.
But can we seriously rule out the alternative? Can we truly say Guinness didn’t know damn well what they were doing? That maybe they decided Billy Mitchell would be their better friend?
Even if you want to give Guinness the benefit of the doubt on this one, there’s still no getting around the fact that Guinness was quite well aware of this lawsuit in progress against their longtime partner, Twin Galaxies. They could have issued a quiet, boilerplate retraction, or they could have withheld announcement altogether until this current civil action is resolved. But no, instead, as another scorekeeper is being sued, they chose to make a big show out of backing the litigant. They did a video with the guy, giving him this major platform and celebrating him with favorable “evidence” and favorable media. All over their big “investigation”, which for all we know may have consisted of nothing more than Billy Mitchell handing them a wad of cash.
LOL GUINNESS
Look, I don’t think it’s really a secret that Guinness is a joke when it comes to video gaming adjudication. First, it doesn’t seem Guinness ever really understood these score disputes in the first place, simply taking Twin Galaxies’ conclusions (or whatever Guinness understood the conclusions to be) as gospel. In their printed 2019 Gamer’s Edition (released summer 2018), when they chose to explain what happened with the Todd and Billy score disputes, they printed the following statement, suggesting that it was Billy’s Pac-Man records (rather than his multiple Donkey Kong scores) which were accused of being fraudulent:
That’s not all. They’re now claiming the first million point game of Donkey Kong was “achieved by Billy Mitchell (USA), on 4 June 2005.” They can put whatever date they want I guess, but for the record, that’s the day Billy had his tape played at Funspot (as seen in King of Kong). Even if you believed the score was real, it was obviously “achieved” earlier than that.
It doesn’t end there. Remember that current collaboration between Speedrun.com and Guinness? That special ongoing Minecraft challenge they selected? Turns out that challenge is likely not even possible at all. (But hey, maybe that one’s SRC’s fault?) Say, remember Rodrigo Lopes? Rodrigo was a massive speedrun liar going back to the Speed Demos Archive days, typically posting videos of only the final portions of his runs as proof. Last year, Twin Galaxies tossed Rodrigo on his cheating butt for taunting everyone with his spliced Zelda tapes. Well, he may not be recognized by TG anymore, but he’s still recognized with a Guinness World Record!
One could certainly understand if Guinness simply threw their hands in the air and said “We don’t know. We can’t decide this stuff. You gamers figure it out.” Guinness’ representatives themselves have said many times that they don’t have the expertise in competitive video gaming to authoritatively make these determinations themselves, and that they rely on experts in the field to make these sorts of findings for them. But that doesn’t excuse this. It’s one thing for Guinness to be sort of half-assed in this one field (a field for which they have a yearly publication exclusively dedicated to), as long as they take seriously the recommendations of the experts in that field. But when they decide to go directly and boldly against the determinations of those experts – in this case, against both the true DK experts at Donkey Kong Forum and the open-evidence based dispute process at Twin Galaxies – then that really calls to question why these scoreboards would stamp their tacit endorsement on Guinness’ decisions at all.
THE RAMIFICATIONS
It would be easy to say that nothing “needs to be done” about Guinness and their foolishness. Truthfully, if they really want, Guinness can have their own laughingstock scoreboard, with Billy Mitchell, Todd Rogers, Rodrigo Lopes, Michael Damiani, Kevin Durden, Henning Blom, Rosie Ruiz, Mike Postle, Alex Bertoncini, and whoever else they feel like “honoring” for their “achievements”. It’s not the job of the video gaming community to prevent Guinness from embarrassing themselves. But, even assuming the best of intentions on their part, if Guinness is inclined to be swindled by some huckster in a suit with a flashy bag of tricks, if they’re not willing to accept the evidence-based findings of the competitive video gaming community, or at the very least seek out that community for input into their deliberations, then frankly, why should they either expect or receive the endorsement of that community?
It’s one thing for a scorekeeper to associate with Guinness when they’re merely dysfunctional, when their blunders are simply a matter of correcting typos and updating them on which players have been outed as cheaters. But Guinness really screwed up this time. They didn’t just let a cheater get by. They armed him. They knowingly assisted in his lawsuit against another scoreboard. They actively reinforced a culture of cheating held over from the old Twin Galaxies days, and in the process, hung a lot of people doing a lot of hard work out to dry. This can have a very chilling effect on scoreboard integrity efforts beyond Twin Galaxies or arcade high score chasing. I can already tell that, until and unless this is remedied, any time I explain the evidence against Billy Mitchell, I’ll have to deal with answers of “wElL gUiNnEsS rEiNsTaTeD hIm aNd i tHiNk gUiNnEsS kNoWs mOrE aBoUt wOrLd rEcOrDs tHaN yOu dO.”
Busting cheaters, while satisfying to watch and in some ways satisfying to do, can be dangerous work. You have to find clear evidence to make your case (while at the same time being careful not to inadvertently publish instruction manuals on how to get better at cheating). You have to dedicate a lot of time and headspace to the effort. (I would be playing Final Fantasy 5 right now if I wasn’t writing this.) As in the case of Phantasy Star cheater Kevin Durden last year (who accused the moderators of fabricating evidence to frame him), you may also have to dedicate a lot of time and effort just to address the avalanche of lies and recriminations coming back your way. You may face copyright strikes for rehosting the evidence the cheater is trying to suppress. And of course, there’s always the danger one of these cheaters takes the case to actual grown-up court, and tries to exact real world consequences as the price of your integrity. Yet all of this, the effort and the risk, is necessary to keep this sport clean.
I get it. No one wants to get sued. Certainly Guinness didn’t want to get sued by Billy Mitchell, either for removing his scores or for their poorly reviewed printed statement about Pac-Man. But I can tell you one thing for sure: Billy Mitchell won’t be the last cheater to take a scoreboard to court to try and force them to recognize his fraudulent achievements. If Billy Mitchell is able to browbeat Guinness World Records into recognizing his bogus scores, what hope is there if someone of equal access and resources decides to go after Speedrun.com in the same fashion?
On that note, what would Guinness do in that event? Would Guinness appease the cheater right in the middle of a lawsuit against SRC? Would Guinness release a statement declaring “We looked into it, and we don’t think Speedrun.com got this right, but we won’t tell you why”? Would Guinness do a high-five video with the cheater and root them on in their litigation?
But let’s not kid ourselves. Guinness has lawyers. They certainly do have the resources to withstand petty legal action. They didn’t just choose to roll over; they chose to roll over in epic fashion, right on top of the next defendant down the line. They gave a cheater his license. They revoked a world record from its rightful holder (Steve Wiebe). And they chose to make life more difficult for competitive gaming scorekeepers everywhere.
Now, we should be clear about something: Guinness World Records is a household name, far more than either Speedrun.com or Twin Galaxies. Everyone has heard of Guinness World Records. SRC certainly gains public prestige from the arrangement. And I totally get that. But Guinness does gain from the arrangement as well. They are provided scores, and the associations with dedicated scoreboards give them legitimacy. Unless they want to hire their own video game adjudication division, or unless they decide they really don’t care how little credibility their annual Gamer’s Edition has, then they need this relationship, too. How serious would their video game records be if every score adjudicator was known to openly disassociate from them? It’s not as if world record speedruns won’t still be achieved. It’s not as if people will stop speedrunning altogether. And it’s not as if individual players couldn’t still submit directly to Guinness if for whatever reason they did want their names alongside Billy Mitchell and Rodrigo Lopes. Guinness is not a benefactor here. With these actions, they may have shown that the dangers of associating with them outweigh the rewards.
CONCLUSION
In drafting up this post, I started with a more inquisitive headline: “Should Speedrun.com disassociate themselves from Guinness World Records?” I didn’t feel it was my place to make such a bold directive. I’m not a speedrun competitor. I once briefly held a few WRs on an old Atari 2600 game (a few of which were on uncontested tracks), and that’s it. But in laying out the facts of the case, and fully absorbing the implications, the answer to my question became obvious to me. Sure, I may be a mere enthusiast, but it still matters to me that the achievements I watch and celebrate are legitimate, and not the forgeries of some fragile narcissist consumed with jealousy. I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. From high score chasers to speedrunners, the reaction in the gaming community to last week’s announcement was quite negative. I won’t name names, but one well-known competitive gamer requested all their videos be taken down from Guinness’ YouTube channel. Another well-known competitive gamer publicly removed “Guinness world record holder” from their bio. (I’ll let them speak for themselves if they wish.)
I’m not looking to start a big angry crusade against Speedrun.com in particular, nor am I suggesting anyone else do so. I am definitely NOT saying Speedrun.com should be “cancelled” if they go about business as usual. I’m sure the good folks at SRC aren’t suckered by Billy’s “Gosh, I have no idea how this happened” act, and that there are probably many factors at play for them in whatever decision they make. I also get that this Billy Mitchell / Twin Galaxies stuff is not particularly even their fight, since Billy isn’t a speedrunner. (Although, funny side story, Billy Mitchell did once aspire to be a speedrunner, before losing and deciding speedrunning was stupid and that being “first” was more important than being “fast”.)
I’m not saying SRC must listen to little old me. I’m simply saying this is a thing they ought to do, that they would be smart to do – not for my sake, not necessarily for Donkey Kong Forum’s or Twin Galaxies’ sake, and not even necessarily for the sake of the speedrun community at large. Ultimately, the only reason they need is to do it is for their own sake. Because SRC has to deal with cheaters, too. And one day, they’ll find themselves the target of a zealous litigating lunatic, who will seek to employ the power of the courts to force them to celebrate lies as facts, and to humiliate themselves and alienate all their subscribers in the process. And as they and their lawyers prepare their legal defense for court, they could turn to social media to discover a statement from Guinness, declaring “Well, we spoke at length with Mr. Cheater, and we looked at his special evidence, and we won’t tell you exactly what it was, but we assure you it was very compelling, and since we definitely know what we’re talking about better than these speedrun sites do, we have now chosen to award Mr. Cheater several more Guinness world records and to name him Video Game Champion of the Millennium.” And on that day, the staff at Speedrun.com should be prepared to say “Guinness has no idea what they’re doing with video games, which was precisely why we cut ties with them years ago.”
TL;DR:
- Billy Mitchell is a cheater.
- Billy’s “new” evidence from September 2019 was a bunch of hot air.
- It sure fooled Guinness, though!
- It sure as hell looks like Guinness is actively, perhaps even intentionally, assisting Billy Mitchell in his lawsuit against scorekeeper Twin Galaxies.
- Guinness’ decision has pretty terrible ramifications on future attempts to combat cheating in competitive gaming.
- While SRC is not responsible for what Guinness does, continuing to affiliate with an organization which assists cheaters suing gaming adjudicators is a poor move morally, and a massive liability.
(The day after this was originally posted to Reddit, Jace Hall published an updated retraction demand Twin Galaxies received from Billy, as well as a trove of legal filings related to their still ongoing court case in California. These documents confirmed much of the concerns discussed in this write-up, featuring Guinness’ reinstatement decision heavily in Billy’s arguments. In fact, the retraction demand was sent the exact same day as Guinness’ announcement, further suggesting collaboration, witting or otherwise, by Guinness in Billy’s lawsuits against TG and others. Notably, about two months after this was first posted, speedrun.com did indeed follow through and discontinue their relationship with Guinness, although without specifying exactly why. As a result of all this, Guinness has since quietly discontinued their “Gamer’s Edition” series. I suppose that’s what happens when you alienate all your legitimate and responsible adjudication partners in favor of a con-artist whose only interest is self-promotion.)