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.
In my opinion only runs that have evidence should be allowed on the leaderboards. If people don't have the means to record they should just be happy with the time, but not be placed on official leaderboards. This should spark people like that to get recording equipment, if they don't have it and don't have money on it and really want to be on the leaderboards they should get the means neccessary to at least record (get a job or save money). You need a subpar computer/laptop for most games or to emulate and local record at the same time if your internet is too bad to stream. For some people this might be too much and not to sound harsh, but then they should just be happy with their time not being on the leaderboards. Speedrunners have the right to have consistent leaderboards, meaning leaderboards where all runs have video evidence (archive runs through twitch or local record).
Speedrunning is a hobby, you do it for yourself. The leaderboards are for the people that want to compete, which means showing evidence of the run, meaning you need to put a bit of money into your hobby to be able to compete.
And what Klashik said above me is in my opinion not the solution. You don't accept good times but you do accept bad times cause they prolly didn't cheat. We need to stay consistent and showing evidence of your run if youn wanna be on the leaderboards should be a requirement.
Another thing to note as well that may be of use if no actual video proof is available or to solidify the submission to a leaderboards would be to have some credible people that have seen the run and can vouch for it and also possible supply proof for it themselves? If no solid video proof that is credible then a run should not be posted to a leaderboard, having others vouch for runs to be submitted would mostly only apply to runs that were done with 2 or more people and if they can produce proof themselves.
Mostly just my thoughts, but it generally something I've seen allot of talk about.
Just want to point out there's a "show videos only" option on each leaderboards, that lets you filter out runs without video and solve all your problems. Maybe the site could have it ticked by default.
Also, runs could be verified legit without video. What if the run was done live on a marathon like GDQ or ESA, witnessed by many people? What if the video has been removed since the run was done but many people confirmed it was legit? What if the runner recorded their run on VHS tape, and snailmailed that to the leaderboards moderator?
I'm fine with low ranking runs not having video. Noone would watch it anyway. If the person who is 78th on the leaderboard somehow becomes suspicious of cheating but there's no video, just remove it.