I've held world records speedrunning the
Ratchet and Clank games since 2015. I run for the thrill of competition, but last year
I set out to do something I've never done before: Take someone else's world record
out of sheer spite. You might ask how me, Xem92, an otherwise almost
normal person could reach such a dark place. But I can promise you, it’s all well-deserved. So there’s this guy, and out of respect for
his identity, we're not gonna use his real name. So let’s just call him… Joe. Joe and I both have the same goal: to be acknowledged as
the best Ratchet runner in the world. However, with 16 games in the series,
we’ve actually never run the same game in all the years we’ve been running. It was only a matter of time before we collided. We finally crossed paths last year while running
a game called (and I’m not joking), “Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty,” a pirate-themed sequel to
the PS3 game “Tools of Destruction”. (You get it, because pirates, booty...
You get the joke.) Now normally, Booty is like
the Age of Ultron of Ratchet games: It’s 2.5 hours long, leaves no
real impact on the series at all, and leaves everyone wondering
why it was made in the first place. The speedrun, however, cuts that down
to a cool twenty minutes with some shortcuts and luck-based tricks. Joe had been the world record holder in
Quest for Booty for a long time. And I was looking to challenge that. I hit the ground running hard.
I would run the game on stream a few hours a day, then study and grind some more offline
in voice calls with friends. Weeks rolled by, and the game was harder than I thought,
more annoying than I thought, and greener than I thought. It’s weirdly green. For like, half the game. Eventually, I beat Joe’s record of 19:11
with a time of 19:05- marking my first ever Quest for Booty record. "Oh my f***ing god, I DID IT YES" After that, I put the game aside - I was content
with my achievement and frankly getting sick of the game. Among other issues, the final boss
only gives you the right move 1 in 3 times, and I was tired of playing perfectly for 20 minutes
just to lose one round of rock paper scissors. We're fast forwarding now 5 months to November
2021. Out of nowhere, Joe drops a bomb in the Ratchet
[speedrunning] discord after almost half a year of silence - a brand new Quest for Booty trick. In Quest for Booty, the final boss fight
takes you back to the first level of the game. So if you manage to move
way out of bounds at the start of the game, for complicated computer programming reasons,
the game gets confused, poops its pants, and sends you directly to the final boss,
cutting the run down from twenty minutes to five. This completely changed the Booty landscape by
splitting the Quest for Booty run into two different categories: Any%, which uses the new trick, and Any% No Debug Trigger,
which is the category I got my 19:05 in. While this was an amazing discovery, the kicker
came at the very end of his message: "also this"
[image of Joe getting 18:55 in Any% No Debug Trigger] Frankly, I was floored. He tried to make the accomplishment seem so unimportant,
like it was just an afterthought. Now, in speedrunning, world records get beaten
all the time, that’s not really a big deal. But, he eventually told us he had gotten the
record all the way back in May, nearly a month before I got my 19:05. He got world record and kept it secret
from me for half a year. On one side, he created a new category
only he knew how to run. On the other, he baited me into thinking
I had the record so I’d stop running the category, and then killed the game with a new strat. Now, even I can admit this is kind of a chad move. However, I also took it personally. What Joe did is bad, and it's even considered
unethical in the world of speedrunning. To explain why, let’s take a look at the world
of regular running - you know, outside. One of the greatest, most impossible feats
in running is the sub-two-hour marathon. For decades, the international community of
elite distance runners made it their goal to break this two-hour barrier. In 2019, runner Eliud Kipchoge ran a
1:59:40 marathon on a special course in Vienna with dozens of other runners who helped him
as pacemakers and supporters. Now let’s be real here: speedrunning is
not as cool as marathon running. But, to succeed at speedrunning,
you need a community too. Everyone helps each other improve and it's only by
working together that we can push the limits of the game. By definition, speedrunning requires public knowledge,
since there are no “eyewitnesses'' on the internet. By hiding strategies and records, you hold
the game back. Sure, you get a temporary advantage, but that doesn’t mean anything because
the instant you post the run, everyone else can see what
you did. What Joe did was, in short,
scummy for the community and very clearly designed to make
me in particular look like a big idiot. I couldn’t let this stand. The next day, I combed through his speedruns
to find his best, most impressive world record. I landed on Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus, a game that Joe had poured his heart and soul into for many years. Joe had made me look dumb, and I was going
to make him feel like a tiny, little baby man. I was going to break his record. Nexus, as a speedgame, is pretty straightforward. What you see is usually what you get. You can go out of bounds using this device,
the Nightmare Box. You can charge around with the charge boots
for a couple of planets. You can… long jump… We use the Black Hole Glove, the Warmonger,
and the Ryno to blow things up, and that’s kind of it. The game isn’t hard to learn, but it’s
hard to master because there’s a lot of precise movements you have to
hit perfectly to go fast. After my first week running Nexus, I was already
within a minute and a half of Joe’s record of 20:27 - but in order to close that gap, I knew
I needed to push the game even harder. An old school runner named Skritler helped me out by teaching me an advanced technique called Nightmare Launching. When using the Nightmare Box, you can jump
into the box just as the monster inside pops out, launching yourself forward across
normally impassable gaps. It’s also really fun to pretend Ratchet goes
BOYOYOING. With my new boyoyoing method secured,
I was ready to take down Joe. December 1st, 2021. The run starts out strong, and I get my best
split ever on the first planet. "Holy s***. Oh my god, dude,
I'm finally getting good at this split. Let's go!" And then I do it again on the 2nd split. "Oh my god!" And the 3rd. "Holy s***! What the f***, man? Bro, this is nuts." I annihilated 5 out of 6 of
my best splits and still did decently on the one split I didn’t get a best time on. I slammed the split bar at the end and saw
my final time. 20:21. The best run in the world. Or at least, it would have been. Nearly 6 hours beforehand, Joe himself
came out of the shadows with a 20:15, also done offline. He was clearly trying to
scare me off, just like last time. But with my confidence at an all time high,
I pressed on. A few days later, I had another good run. I once again got my fastest ever Nebulox 7. "Ah, I understand now." I was playing well - but some sloppy Nightmare Launches
here on Sylox lost me some time. By the time I finished Thram, the 2nd to last planet,
I had missed a few tricks, and my best possible time was 20:09, meaning I only had five measly seconds of time
I could afford to lose on the last planet. I then proceeded to play out of my mind, "Oh my god, I almost didn't make it." "I think that's it." 20:10, a full 5 seconds faster than Joe’s record. "GG, baby. G motherf***ing G." Even though this was a great moment for me,
I had something else on my mind. Joe could still be hiding another run
that was even better than the 20:15, just like he hid his precious Booty from me. I decided to get a run so good, there was no way
Joe could have a better one in his pocket. Four days later, I got my Christmas wish -
closing out a 19:58, the world’s first sub-20 in Into the Nexus. and I beat Joe to a milestone
that he himself had been unable to achieve. What more, I ended up really loving Nexus.
It’s not the best or fastest Ratchet game, but it’s really fun - and games are meant to be fun! Now, you may be wondering what
Joe’s reaction was to all of this. You may be a bit disappointed to know that
Joe was radio silent for months. But in a wonderful turn of events, Joe recently
reached out to resolve our differences. Joe was going through a rough period in his life
and took his frustrations out on me in a moment of competitive intensity. No one is perfect, and I’m not blameless here either: I could have been a better community member to Joe
and made him feel more welcomed. Regardless, we’re starting to see eye to eye. (Hopefully, this video doesn’t ruin that.) With all this said,
PLEASE don’t be mean to Joe. I’m fully aware that it’s not gonna be hard
to find out who he is. However, even if you do find out,
treat him with the respect he’s earned through being one of
the greatest Ratchet runners of all time. 19:58 is where the record stands today. I wanna lower that someday, but right now
I’m streaming all sorts of other Playstation classics (and even the occasional Cookie Clicker speedrun). If you enjoyed this video, please consider subscribing. I would like to hit 100k subscribers before the year is over, but I can only do that with your help. Also, drop a comment and let me know
about your favorite tale of petty revenge. Have a wonderful rest of your day,
and thank you for watching.
