About Bluely's 5:35 run
3 years ago
United States

The run:

I believe that this run used a keyboard macro program (ex. AutoHotKey) or something similar, which would technically make it tool assisted. There are a lot of details, small and large, that seem to point to this. This post isn't enough to reject the run right away, since I'm far from an expert on how exactly it would have been pulled off, but hopefully this is enough to prove it should be looked into further.

My argument comes mainly from the symbol spamming in different forms, which is used almost everywhere and in every level. Almost none of it shows any real strategy, with one exception being the level 1 boss. Most of the time it is cycling through one of every move in a pattern, taking 3-5 frames for each, with some minor variations for special moves like lightning. Going frame by frame on these, especially the boss mashing on level 3, shows that the mouse is alternating between a few set points instead of moving naturally. My argument isn’t too specific and has at least some bias, since I believed this run was sus from the start and had a run in 4th place prior to it getting accepted, but I still believe there's little to no chance Bluely’s run wasn't done without the use of an outside tool.

Utah, USA

We'll have to look more into this. Bluely has also submitted a 5:29 run

and posted videos of other runs in the Google Speedrunning Discord #halloween-doodles channel. I believe spamming symbols is a legit strategy because they can be buffered (unlike in the 2016 game), but the movement does seem automated at times.

Edited by the author 3 years ago
wrongway likes this
Victoria, Australia

I have seen macros that look exactly like this, kinda sus ngl

Alaska, USA

Spamming symbols is a legit strategy so i could get a better time, also, I spent over than 5 hours to get sub 5:30, i worked so hard to get that. https://splits.io/6uqy

Alaska, USA

Also that swipe left and right mashing has also the same technique as my mouse skills technique. My Run is 100% Legit as it's 100% Different than that:

https://www!youtube.com/watch?v=I9_-hmoB3GQ

If you posted that just to don't understand my mouse skills that I have than you're just ignorant, I have seen top runners of other point-and-click games that has same skills that I have.

Edited by the author 3 years ago
Utah, USA

I've started doing a deep dive of all of Bluely's posted runs, where I'll try finding evidence both in favor of and against Bluely's run(s) being legit. I'll post my findings here (hopefully by the end of this week), give Bluely a chance to respond, and then we as a mod team will reach a verdict.

Edited by the author 3 years ago
Starlight likes this
Utah, USA

Cytruss and I have been looking through the evidence Bluely has submitted and we've concluded the runs use some kind of script or macro to aid in spamming symbols and we've removed the 5:35 run from the leaderboard. Runners that get under 6 minutes generally use "U" and "∩" instead of "V" and "^" while quickly spamming symbols, while Bluely does the exact opposite: the symbol spamming is well-defined and travels to 3 set points, often so fast that the game is lagging behind cursor, which doesn't seem humanly possible. Even if they symbol isn't well-defined, the mouse still travels to 3 set points (e.g. timestamp 2:24 in the 5:35 run).

Bluely's defense is that his mouse skills are very good, but so far he's failed to provide evidence that his mouse skills are really that good. The video that he does provide just shows the taskbar, while programs or macros can easily be hidden from the taskbar. Cytruss also noticed the loading icon appears on the mouse at 0:31, indicating that a program is running, which is pretty sus. Thus, all evidence indicates the run is cheated and we've removed it from the leaderboard.

Edited by the author 3 years ago
Funado and wrongway like this
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