12 Year Old Kid Destroys Minesweeper's Oldest World Record!

hello you absolute legends good old minesweeper you don't hear about it much anymore now that it no longer comes installed with windows but minesweeper is still one of the most played and iconic computer games of all time it's hard to put into words the feeling of nostalgia i get when i think about this absolute masterpiece for me personally it is a direct link to pc gaming in the 90s as a kid whenever i found myself in front of a foreign unfamiliar computer there was always one place i knew i could go to cue on my boredom at least for a few minutes start programs accessories games minesweeper it's more than just a game it's a symbol of the earliest versions of windows and i can't think of one without immediately thinking of the other most people today probably consider minesweeper to be a relic of the past after all it was released over 30 years ago but at the top level competitive minesweeper continues to thrive and when it comes to time trials or speedrunning or whatever you want to call it minesweeper is insanely active on minesweeper online the largest rankings there are over a million players who have registered a time and this doesn't even track the players who use offline software to play despite the immense number of players the world record for the expert difficulty minesweeper's most prestigious record had stood for over 10 years a time of 31.13 seconds set in 2010 by camille moranski this record seemed untouchable but in september of 2020 the unlikeliest of challengers did the unthinkable a 12 year old kid by the name of xian zhu obliterated camille's record by almost two seconds zien otherwise known as jze had become so good and was so young that people flat out didn't believe it was possible the predictable accusations of cheating came flooding in and it wasn't until only recently that jze was finally able to put most of the doubters to rest by performing live on camera in today's video we will take a look at competitive minesweeper and this new player that has absolutely decimated the competition sparking a massive controversy i will also be launching a minesweeper competition with cash prizes for those who think they can beat my personal time so stick around to the end of the video for the details i really hope you enjoy [Music] now you're probably noticing i'm looking particularly smart today and it's not because of a new haircut if you look closely you'll see that i'm actually wearing glasses if you're anything like me you probably spend a ton of time in front of a computer whether that be from working or just playing games the problem with this is that monitors and devices emit a ton of blue light which can cause eye strain produce headaches and disrupt your ability to fall asleep i am a notoriously bad sleeper so i need to minimize blue light in the evenings as much as possible and that's where these bad boys come in gmg performance glasses act as a shield against blue light greatly minimizing the negative side effects i've been using them at night and have definitely noticed my eyes are more relaxed when i'm in bed and it's much easier to fall asleep i don't even wear glasses normally but these are still very comfortable and it really didn't take long for me to get used to wearing them i have on the gmg oronos but they also come in several different styles and colors gmg glasses are really affordable and if you use my link in the description you'll get a full 40 percent off however you must be quick because this will only last for 48 hours just click the link in the description minesweeper is one of those games that is both incredibly simple to learn and complex enough to facilitate a rich history of serious competition you can learn the rules and start playing in around 30 seconds you'll be slow but if you take your time and think about each action you'll be clearing even the most challenging of boards the goal of the game is to clear the board of every square that isn't a mine each number represents the amount of mines that are on any adjacent squares so if a square shows the number three this means that there are three minds somewhere in the eight squares directly surrounding it if you think you know where a mine is you can right click on the square to place a flag placing flags isn't actually a requirement of the game though and there is even a separate competition for playing the game without placing any flags at all it's called no flag and this style of play requires some serious visualization skills the number on the top left shows the amount of flags you have remaining and the number on the top right is the timer there's three different difficulties beginner intermediate and expert but the most hardcore competition is performed on expert with a grid of 16 by 30 containing 99 minds when it comes to mechanics the options are rather limited left clicking uncovers a square and right clicking places a flag if a square with a number has a matching amount of flags adjacent to it you can press both mouse buttons at the same time to uncover every remaining square around it this is called chording in order to chord more efficiently you can keep the right mouse button held after placing a flag so that when you move to the number next to it you only need to click the left mouse button this more efficient technique is called 1.5 click and that's it as far as playing the game goes there isn't any more to it beyond this point it comes down to speed precision pattern recognition and decision making you begin by learning the simplest of patterns a one in a corner a three on an edge there are a ton of easy to remember combinations that you need to know you can then use more complex patterns and logic to decipher the more difficult problems but it's not just knowing where the minds are that will make you a good mindsweeper player you also have to be able to correctly identify the best way to deal with each situation you might think that there'd be one specific optimal way of playing the game whether it be placing flags and courting or simply ignoring flags altogether but the fastest way to play is a combination of both and being able to realize which is best at any moment is the thing that separates the top players from the rest that being said there is some element of luck involved not every board generated is the same and the amount of clicks that it might take to clear a board can differ greatly the minimum amount of clicks required to clear any particular board without the use of flags is called bektor's board benchmark value or 3bv named after stefan bechtel the lower the 3bv the lower the theoretical time it can take to clear a board it isn't always the case and the formation of the mines themselves is also important but generally a lower 3bv is beneficial a very low 3bv can be such an advantage in fact that the official rankings have limits on what they will accept if the 3bv is lower than 2 on beginner 30 on intermediate and 100 on expert a time is disqualified from being ranked current software used to play the game and websites like minesweeper online take this into account and only generate boards above these values given the discrepancy between boards there are two different ways times can be ranked the first and most obvious is just taking the final time but another metric is to take the 3bv and divide it by the number of seconds played this gives a score where the higher the number the quicker you were relative to the 3bv personally i'm not a great minesweeper player by any means i don't use 1.5 click and i haven't yet learned all of the patterns but i can still tell there is a certain unconscious connection one makes with the game after a certain amount of play time when i was practicing for this video i found myself needing to think less and less the more i played and noticed myself starting to take actions before i even realized what i was doing this connection explains the type of insane speeds we see in world class players and this brings us of course to the 12 year old that has shocked the minesweeper world destroying the oldest and most respected record in the game [Music] competitive minesweeper has a really long history with the first recognized rankings being created in 1996. this early website reminds me of the first doom demo hosting websites and it allowed people to submit their expert times since 1995 the expert world record had been in a steady decline the earliest known record was a time of 64 seconds set by ruben spahns between 2000 and 2002 the record dropped significantly down to 41 seconds this incredible drop was almost entirely spearheaded by the danish player lester neuholm by the time 2010 came it had been lowered another 10 seconds with camille morensky setting an astonishing time of 31.13 seconds on the 3rd of july the video for this record has since amassed 1.4 million views on youtube and i highly suggest you go and watch it at this pace there is almost no chance that anyone watching would have any idea what is happening it is far quicker than most of our brains can even comprehend yet even at this speed you can see a clear mix of both chording and no flag this record was a monster in the following 10 years the closest anyone got was a 31.9 by zelda in 2018 which was a pretty big deal when it happened with times this low we begin to start pushing against the genetic limit of human potential there are multiple factors that need to come together to produce a record this low of course we need insanely fast pattern recognition and decision making but on the flip side there is also a crazy amount of mechanical precision required as well mouse precision is critical with each miss click costing valuable tenths minesweeper is just as physically demanding as any other video game perhaps even more so this requirement of both brain power and surgical accuracy makes it exceedingly rare to find players capable of challenging the world record which is probably why this expert time of 31.13 sat unmatched for over a decade but then came the chinese prodigy jze who joined the minesweeper ranks in 2018 at the age of 10. minesweeper does seem like a pretty obscure game especially for a 10 year old to be playing but jze is a machine when it comes to puzzle games in april of 2019 he began taking minesweepers seriously within a two and a half month period lowering his expert time from just over two minutes which is around where i currently sit down to below 50 seconds which is incredibly quick this rate of progress had never been seen before but he was only just getting started by the time another year had passed at the age of 12 he achieved the second quickest time ever with a 31.53 in august of 2020 it seemed inevitable given his progress that he would eventually dethrone camille's record but no one would have predicted just how devastating a player jze would become only a month later on the 12th of september 2020 jze achieved a time of 29.43 seconds not only beating the longest lasting minesweeper record in history by 1.7 seconds but also attaining the very first sub 30 on expert it would be impossible to overstate just how amazing this time is but what's even more amazing is the fact that jay-z has since beaten his own record multiple times in december of 2020 he achieved a time of 28.84 seconds and just last month on the 1st of september he lowered that again to 28.7 it really appears as though jze truly is built different in 30 years not a single player had gone below 31 seconds on expert jze alone has achieved a time lower than 30 seconds at least six times and has beaten 29 seconds at least twice and all of this before even hitting puberty minesweeper isn't exactly a dead game either still to this day competition is extremely fierce especially in china on speedrun.com even the most popular games would be lucky to total a few thousand speedrunners on minesweeper online which is just one rankings there are over 600 000 registered players for expert i'm by no means an advanced player but i'm certainly not terrible i've practiced here and there over the years still my not too shabby time of two minutes on expert only ranks around 50 000 and i'm struggling to do much better for a single person to be so dominant and so far ahead of everyone else even with so much activity can only mean one thing jze is a genetic freak with the perfect blend of brain power and fine motor control he reminds me a lot of rayan ezran who is undoubtedly the most talented golden eye and perfect dark speedrunner of all time he also joined the ranks at the age of 10 and it was immediately obvious he was gifted naturally being so good and so young raised a lot of suspicions and ryan was immediately met with heavy skepticism he ultimately quelled any doubt however when he recorded a live video of himself playing the game jze has also had to deal with the same kind of skepticism albeit not as drastic given that he had been a part of the rankings for over two years before achieving the world record still claims of cheating certainly were made perhaps the biggest skeptic of all was none other than the previous world record holder camille maranski it's somewhat understandable having held the world record for so long he probably felt as though he could never be beaten certainly not by a child and by such a huge margin camille conducted his own analysis of jze's play drafting a word document outlining his findings according to him jay-z's decision-making didn't make sense and seemed to indicate that jze could see things that he otherwise shouldn't his conclusion is that jay ze was using upk and a bot upk stands for unfair prior knowledge which basically means he had played the board before and knew where the minds were other experts did not agree with camille's conclusion however and acknowledged that while jce's style of play was definitely aggressive and potentially risky at times it's not indicative of cheating the simple reality is that in order to get times this fast some risks need to be taken and while risky play may not always pay off as long as you keep playing it eventually will this is a philosophy that most speed runners will be familiar with at the top level being so young it's obviously more difficult for jze to take the kinds of steps an adult could in order to prove his legitimacy but he has been providing ample evidence he has shown his play in live streams he's recorded himself playing and recently he's even met with another player where he demonstrated not only his mindsweeper's skill but also his domination of a ton of other puzzle games the reality is that jay-zee is not only certainly legit but he is likely one of the most gifted gamers there has ever been and he hasn't even reached his peak it will be interesting to see if he continues to improve his mind sweep at times and if there will ever be anyone born with enough genetic potential to give him any kind of challenge only time will tell minesweeper is a truly timeless game that will surprise you with its depth in preparation for this video i spent around 10 hours practicing and sharpening my skills and even in that limited time the learning curve was extremely satisfying i definitely think you should dip your toes into some minesweeper time trials and in order to give you some encouragement i am launching my own competition for the month of october i am giving away 5 cash prizes of 50 to anyone who can beat expert in 200 seconds or less winners will be drawn at random and if you beat my own personal best of 119 seconds you will get double the chances of winning prizes will be drawn on the 1st of november submit your entries via my discord and you can find a link to all of the rules in the description or pinned comment as always thank you so much for watching you legends i hope you are having a fantastic day and i will see you in the next video

Channel: Karl Jobst

Views: 1,048,623

Keywords: artificial, programming, minesweeper, minesweeper world record, minesweeper cheater, minesweeper cheat, minesweeper speedrun, speedrunning, windows minesweeper, microsoft minesweeper

Id: V2kWCfzJVVU

Length: 16min 52sec (1012 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 08 2021