How do you verify a run?
Deleted
6 years ago
North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Watch the run and check if it is following the rules of the game. If it is, there should be 3 dots at the upper right corner of the run. Click that and it will give you these options:

Edit run Verify run Reject run

If the rules aren't followed, click Reject run and it will want you to write a reason for the rejection. Write the reason and press OK.

If the run is timed wrong, retime it yourself by clicking Edit run.

If you are still confused, feel free to ask :)

NoobyGotHit and 607 like this
Utrecht, Netherlands

When I started a couple of months ago, [I asked the same question]("https://www.speedrun.com/Speedrunning/thread/x7csf" I asked the same question), and got a really helpful reply from Simon. :) [quote=SimonN]"Verifying" merely means accepting the run to the leaderboard.

Look at the run, be sure that the category's goals were met, be reasonably confident that it's not cheated, and that the submitted time is accurate. Then you accept the run by verifying (click the three dots in upper-right corner of a run's page, select verify). The site can't check how closely you looked at the run before verifying the run. Instead, the runners trust the moderators to do a reasonable job.

You can't rule out cheating 100 % from a video recording. Some trust is required. :-)

If you're suspicious about a run, ask community members. If nobody finds solid proof, I'd verify the run. Most submissions are not cheated, that's the important base case. In a pinch, moderators can remove a run after it got verified.

You'll develop intuition for what is good human play, and what is probably TAS. In some 3D games with analog directional input, you can distinguish good TASing from human input from character movement. In old 2D platformers, that's much more difficult. :-) Humans nail frame-perfect presses and can button-mash faster than 10 Hz with good rhythm.

"Cheating in Speedrunning - How easy is it? A brief history and assessment" talks about game modding, TASing, and splicing (stitching videos together), along with examples how each got debunked: https://www.reddit.com/r/speedrun/comments/6ci50v/

-- Simon[/quote]

Edited by the author 6 years ago
furry_oreo, blueYOSHI and 2 others like this
United States

How I verify:

If a run isn't a WR claim, make sure the video exists of the actual run, and press verify.

If it's a WR claim, then here's my process:

  1. Download the run
  2. Watch the run to make sure it follows the rules and does nothing shady
  3. Load the video in avidemux to time it
  4. Correct the time and press verify
Edited by the author 6 years ago
United States

Yes, use a tool such as youtube-dl or streamlink in order to download the video

California, USA

If it's a Twitch VOD you can also use Twitch Leecher to download the run.

England

@PresJPolk: You don't even check to make sure the timing and run date are correct??

coolestto, blueYOSHI and 5 others like this
North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

I totally agree with Drakodan, here. Every run should be checked!

HowDenKing, blueYOSHI and 2 others like this
United States

Drakodan, not for #45 on the board. It's not important.

And spidersponge, if you can do that without slowing things down, more power to you. Stuff like that is why people burn out and then runs pile up on the board.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
European Union

ffzThinkingUMU imo it IS important to treat all runs with the same respect, so checking them the same as if they were #1 is the appropriate way to handle them.

/edit cuz you also edited: before burning out, a second person should be consulted to speed things up.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
coolestto, blueYOSHI and 2 others like this
United States

Yeah, no, I reject your claim that it's disrespectful. In my experience, from what actual runners actually tell me in the course of moderation, people are glad to get their runs on the board, and ¤don't¤ want to put moderators to the trouble of having to spend hours on them.

If you make a federal case out of every PB, then folks start getting reluctant to put their random PBs on the board, because they don't want to be a bother.

So that may be your theory, but there's no actual evidence that it's disrespectful.

607 and KomradeKontroll like this
England

It's not a "bother" to make sure the player hasn't split late, it literally takes a few seconds. There may be many games that use ingame timing for which it's possible to time to the frame, but honestly players should be doing that themselves before submitting. If not, it's the mod's responsibility to correct it without making a fuss. That's just part of the role.

Georgia, USA

Honestly, I'd rather the mod take the time to make sure I did things correctly. So that maybe when I do improve enough to be in the top 5 or something, my run isn't rejected because there was a rule that I didn't realize I wasn't following because they didn't check before.

But then again, I have the patience to wait for the mod to have enough time to do a proper verification. :3 And Im still really new to this so maybe I'm just being naively idealistic.

blueYOSHI, coolestto, and 607 like this
England

Nothing like that should happen, realistically. If you're going for a top time like that in a game, you'll no doubt know the rules by then so you'll know what counts for a legit run. If you happen to get details wrong in the submission such as the wrong time, run date, etc, that is not ground for rejection.

United States

What I do to ensure people are doing it correctly:

  1. I have detailed rules up for everything.

  2. I promptly answer questions. Everyone knows I'm available for and promptly answer questions here, on Twitter, and on Discord. I build whole websites for these games.

  3. I do offer retimes if people ¤ask¤ for them, such as when there's a tie on the board.

I ended up teaching all the top Kung Fu runners, back when that game was hotly competitive, how to retime their own runs. That way I wasn't a single point of failure for the community. A moderator doing the job well becomes a resource for the runners of that game, without mechanically spending 30 minutes downloading, 45 minutes watching at 2x speed, and 5 minutes timing every random PB. That's not where the value add is.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Georgia, USA

In the case of something like that though, wouldn't you detect the skip while watching it when you review it, and bring it up with the runner? I see why it would be nearly impossible to know the correct timing if there wasn't a timer on the screen but it could happen to anyone.

United States

Well, you can't actually verify, let alone accurately time, a run that doesn't have a working video, as that's indistinguishable from a splice.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
United States

Badly encoded to the point where you can't accurately frame count is the same as not working, in my view. Badly encoded video would be an easy way to try to pass of a splice, or even would be the RESULT of a splice.

blueYOSHI, 607, and JayJane4 like this
Utrecht, Netherlands

And this is how a thread about a simple question that has been anwered, can manage to turn into a discussion. :P

blueYOSHI, Mitsunee, and HowDenKing like this
United States

FurryWulfz,

You raise a good point. This is where knowing the game and watching the run come in. It's not perfect though. Nothing's perfect. What you ideally need is the combination of live witnesses (which live streaming serves to substitute for) and a good recording.

Liv likes this
Mexico

You can add categories as a regular mod

Tigame likes this