Diablo Speedrun Fraud Exposed: 13-Year-Old Record Broken
A team of Diablo speedrun enthusiasts has uncovered a shocking truth: a 2009 world record for an "any%" run has been fabricated. After years of skepticism, reverse-engineering of Diablo's map generation system has revealed that the purported three-minute run was statistically impossible.
The suspect speedrun, uploaded by Maciej "groobo" Maselewski, showcased an extraordinarily fortunate sorcerer run with a finishing time of 3:12. While segmented, the run allowed for certain exploits and save manipulation to optimize segments.
However, the newly developed Diablo mapgen tool, credited primarily to Matthew Petroff, has dismantled groobo's claims. The tool revealed that the highly advantageous map layout was only achievable through manipulating the game beyond allowed boundaries, outside a range of 2.2 billion possible legitimate seeds.
Despite groobo's defense that the run was "spliced," the tool exposed other irregularities, including effortless defeat of Diablo and mismatched details suggesting splicing. A detailed analysis by TASbot further debunked the run.
As a result, Speed Demos Archive has removed groobo's 3:12 run. However, the Guinness Book of World Records maintains it as the "fastest completion of an RPG videogame," despite the mapgen team and Ars Technica's attempts to contact them.
The scandal has left a lasting impact on Diablo speedrunning, stifling interest before it could gain widespread popularity. However, the mapgen tool has inspired a new category of "seeded" runs, where players select auspicious layouts from the 2.2 billion legitimate seeds.