Speedrun Investigation

A group of dedicated Diablo speedrun enthusiasts has conclusively shown that a long-standing world record is fraudulent. The speedrun record in question was a 3 minute any% run that has existed since 2009 and was uncovered through rigorous examination of the game’s map generation processes, which have a staggering 2.2 billion possible outcomes.

The original speedrun, recorded by Maciej “groobo” Maselewski, was notable for its seemingly improbable luck during gameplay, a feat that raised the suspicions of the speedrunning community. Allan “dwangoAC” Cecil, a speedrun expert, commented, “It seemed very unusual that we would have so many levels with the upstairs and downstairs right next to each other. We wanted to find some way of replicating this.”

Subsequent investigations leveraged a tool developed by Matthew Petroff that can reverse-engineer Diablo’s dungeon layout. This tool demonstrates that certain favorable conditions encountered by groobo fall outside of the valid range of the game’s mechanics.

Despite defending his accomplishment as a segmented run permissible within the known rules, the evidence against groobo has gathered strength. Numerous inconsistencies were identified, including implausible timings in defeating major game entities like Diablo himself.

The infamous 3:12 record has now been officially removed from the Speed Demos Archive, yet it remains listed as the fastest completion in the Guinness World Records. The implications of this finding might have long-lasting effects on the speedrunning landscape, as highlighted by dwangoAC: “Groobo’s alleged cheating in 2009 completely stopped interest in speedrunning this category.”

As a silver lining, the Diablo map generation tool is fostering a resurgence in legitimate speedrunning efforts by players who intentionally select their game seeds from the valid range, promising fair competition in the future.