Ive been trying to spark this discussion on several boards, but I feel like it might be something for the entire speedrunning community in general. Recently I've been seeing several boards where there are runners, without any form of evidence, can submit times. This concept stretches even to the point of world record claims. I feel like this is wrong.

On one of the leaderboards it even states in the rules that no evidence is required for 6th and under. I have been fighting this issue on boards that I do have a times on, but this being a game from a big franchise I feel its wrong since too many people cheat their way onto these leaderboards (and even getting World Records) without proof. I think not requiring proof means people that work hard for their times get sh¤¤ on by people who hope to get credit through faking runs.

To take the matter at hand I tried exactly that. I submitted a run for 6th place on a time exactly 1 second less then the previous 6th spot with the comment "This is to show how important video evidence is". 3 hours later I look on the board to see that it actually got accepted. A run that I can confirm has never been done. I never even played the game (and had only seen a few runs of before).

This little story is not meant in any way to mock the community. However I do hope to show with this how easy it is to cheat myself onto a 6th spot of the leaderboard of a big franchise. Like mine, there are 10 more runs on that board that have just as little proof. Usually either with a comment of "my recording got messed up" or something along those lines, or no comment at all.

My time on this board has been removed by now by the exact runner that has several world records without video evidence and doesnt have any evidence on any of his runs.

To make a long story short, I feel like its time that the entire speedrunning community started to get together to adress this problem for all games. Video evidence does not require a lot of extra money or effort and should be easily doable for any runner. We as a community should start getting rid of cheating players by demanding video evidence on every submitted run.

Long story short, I stumbled by chance on the leaderboard of this game and I noticed how it said that no proof is required for 6th and under. Recently I've been fighting this very issue on several boards (boards that I do have a time on) as I feel its wrong since too many people cheat their way onto leaderboards (and even getting World Records) without proof. I think not requiring proof means people that work hard for their times get sh¤¤ on by people who hope to get credit through faking runs.

To take the matter at hand I tried exactly that. I submitted a run for 6th place on a time exactly 1 second less then the previous 6th spot with the comment "This is to show how important video evidence is". 3 hours later I look on the board to see that it actually got accepted. A run that I can confirm has never been done. I never even played the game (and only seen 2 runs of).

This little story is not meant in any way to mock the community. However I do hope to show with this how easy it is to cheat myself onto a 6th spot of the leaderboard of a big franchise. Like mine, there are 10 more runs on the board that have just as little proof. Usually either with a comment of "my recording got messed up" or something along those lines, or no comment at all.

I will remove my time in a few days, hopefully in that time I will have been able to have started this discussion anew. Speedrun leaderboards should always need some form of actual proof that isnt easy to fake. This counts especially for major franchises like super mario.

The topic for me was brought up by one of the other runners, and I do agree with him. At this point in time, everybody can verify his/her time by himself. No video or proof required. I feel like that is wrong.

Though this is only a very small game and though for most its probably more of a meme then anything else, it does bring up an interesting question. Personally I think proof should be required, so that the effort put in by anyone is actually what its worth. There are several runs on the board without any proof that it actually happened.

Earlier I posted the following message in responds to dark's (the game mod's) run: Dark, since I couldnt find any other way to contact you this seems like an appropriate place. Im noticing some runs on the leaderboard that imo (and Slylobsterr seems to agree with me) that are very suspectible to cheating (i.e. the run has never actually been done). Because of that I was wondering if it was possible to have to put runs through a mod before putting it on the leaderboard (which is done for most games). I'd be happy to help you in the modding process if that would be needed. I feel like runs should always be as legit as possible, which some of the runs dont seem to be right now.

The decision in the end is up to the community, but this is my opinion on the topic