The Problem with Perikles

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pegboy
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by pegboy »

A lot of his stuff is world of longplays worthy.
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Pearl
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by Pearl »

dude that fucking bakraid run i cant

14:52 the lads biggest journey to recover the medal.

truly.

edusword moment
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blossom
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by blossom »

I will agree Battle Bakraid is more compelling evidence, not just for the max rank but also why change defaults and then claim you're playing on defaults? Not that this is definitive proof he cheated, but lying about non-defaults is kinda weird.
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M.Knight
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by M.Knight »

When checking the few games I know about and/or care about the most, there are multiple signs that show edusword isn't as familiar with the game's mechanics, weapons, tricks, etc. as would a regular player who got to the point where they could 1CC it. Not saying this means cheat, but it strongly points to a first-run playthrough, and I don't know if there are many players in the history of shmups who actually cleared so many games first try.

Shikigami no Shiro 2 : In Stage 3-1, he uses the bullets fired by the enemies to graze and keep up a x8 multiplier, seemingly unaware that the walls can give him the same result much more easily. The section at 10m15s also has him move near the right edge of the screen and then come back to the middle at the last second, as if he had no idea the opening in the walls will occur on the left side. That one could just be for show or for fun though, making goofy things in shmups when there is nothing urgent on screen is entertaining after all.
And against the stage 4 midboss, he never shoots at the side balls to move the walls away from him and give him more breathing room to dodge patterns. While this is not an impossible configuration to dodge the boss' attacks, it's quite harder and you could wonder why a player doesn't use this trick to make his life easier if the objective is a 1CC. He even loses a life there actually, demonstrating the risks of that way of taking on the midboss.

Graze Counter : The stage 2 has pseudo laser-wheels you can get inside by using the hyper's invincibility, and by doing this you can have to dodge much less bullets while still being able to graze the wheels to recharge the next hyper and leave said wheel's insides for the next one. Instead he stays outside the wheels and puts himself in much more danger. 7:10 features a dodge right through a wall of bullets that could be a very lucky dodge (which happens to every one of us) but also looks like a surprisingly risky strategy for someone who should be skilled enough to clear games left and right.
During the stage 4 boss fight at 14m, he also seems unaware of the boss' laser attack, as if that was his first time playing the game. (the replay list shows it's at least his second time actually, unless saves have been wiped out beforehand or something)

To be fair, this game isn't very tough in its default difficulty and with the extend shield sub item so it's not far-fetched to clear it rather quickly. That stage 2 strategy still surprises me.

Dangun Feveron : Just playing the game a few times should be more than enough to make you pick any subweapon that's not Lock-On. Still, that was his weapon of choice. This subweapon is not only pretty useless aside from killing popcorn enemies and only when you have type A, but it's also much weaker than the B shot that he went with. And sure, it's fine to use a suboptimal loadout and I am sure plenty of us do that in games where they just enjoy using weaker weapons/characters because they feel more fun. But it seems like he isn't really aware of the actual strengths and uses of this weapon which kinda clashes with the objective of going for a 1CC on a game that's very very difficult. There are multiple occasions where he uses the lock-on shot to kill potentially dangerous medium sized enemies instead of defeating them with the B-shot which is more than enough and more powerful.

The boss 3 fight also shows signs that this could have been his very first playthrough. When facing the extended versions of the green disc attacks that start at 10m10s, he repeatedly bombs them as if he didn't know when the stream of disc would end, if they ever. This pattern is actually one of the easiest this boss has since it's just basic streaming and someone who has faced it more than once and has the skill level he should have would pick up on that fact IMO.

(Okay, I actually also care about Zanac Neo but I haven't checked the run in-depth lmao)

So yeah, it's all very suspicious for me. Most of my observations don't mean he cheated, but a player who has the skill to clear games very quickly should also know what are the best strats' to make his life easier, what are the best weapons/characters, etc. and even if he was a dodging god, I am not sure why he wouldn't look up for some basic intel about the games he wants to clear.

One last thing though : edusword is on this forum as well, you can talk to him, ask him questions in private, etc. just like it was done when trying to clear up things with Perikles before starting a thread. Regardless of whether he cheated or not, I think it's very poor form to start the investigation by using very badly-made and goofy video compilations where only one dodge out of multiples is actually suspicious-looking. If the person uploading those videos is so bad at shmups he is completely unable to see what is a suspicious dodge and what is a regular normal dodge, then why rely on their bonkers intuition to decide who is suspect and who isn't? Maybe one day, your own perfectly normal dodges could be used in a similar compilation video and rumors about you being a cheater could pop up out of nowhere like that. It's just weird. I mean, anybody could just put clips of GUS' Fultra runs in a similar fashion and pretend he cheats, even though we all know that this is absolutely not the case and he has proven it repeatedely.

EDIT : Oh wait, I completely forgot about Neptunia Shooter damn lmao.
The segment at 6:32 shows that he is trying the newly acquired Vert's charged shot for a little while but then disregards it as if he didn't understand its purpose. And when enemies spawn that require said charge shot to defeat safely, he refuses to do so and uses much more unsafe strats with other weapons such as the balloon shot instead. And this occurs during the rest of the run whenever enemies that should be defeated with the charge shot appear.

And against the last boss's last pattern at 10m45s, he tries to get underneath the boss to balloon shoot it even though it makes absolutely no sense. He quicky realizes this when the boss actually starts the pattern. Why would a clear-oriented player put himself at such incredible risk blindly and pointlessly even though the boss' movement pattern clearly telegraphed that he should stay back and use the standard shot instead?
Last edited by M.Knight on Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Vludi
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by Vludi »

Plasmo wrote:Furthermore, he explicitly states in the video description that he would be playing on default settings whereas he has set the extend settings to Garegga-style (no extend items) instead of the default Batrider-style (extend items). This makes the game significantly easier as you can also gain extra lives during boss fights.
He's playing a western revision, that one gives you garegga extends on default, same as western rev of Batrider .
Now in regard to piling up items, it's strange that he doesn't know basic stuff like avoiding items, I've seen people clearing Normal mode picking up items like that, but in advanced you usually need a bit more knowledge and experience to succeed. Many spanish players always talk about the shenanigans in Yagawa games, so it's kind of common knowledge.
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by trap15 »

My favorite part of that Bakraid replay is that he never presses C a single time.
Last edited by trap15 on Wed Apr 29, 2020 6:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by Satis »

Here's a 5 minute guide on how to solve this deeply disturbing incident.

Mr. Edusword has a video of a game on Steam, Crimzon Clover.
This means he has a steam profile where you could potentially find out what's going on behind the scenes and maybe it's even public. Edit: Not anymore
Image
To save you from going through his 2,903 games on Steam I linked the specific game tab we're looking for.
Now look at the timestamp of each achievement, you receive all the achievements that were 'gained' during the run as you finish the credit, though this is never shown but it's obvious since this behavior is consistent across all Steam profiles of this game.

Simply by looking at these cheevos you can learn Mr. Edusword first beat the Stage 1 boss on 6th of April 2020 and you get this achievement regardless if you used a continue or not. This is about everything that happens this day along with some misc. achievements like finding out you can use the Break mechanic twice.

And the very next day, April 7, Mr. Edusword gets the achievements for clearing the game and defeating every other Stage boss including the TLB which is locked behind being on a single credit.

In the same run.

In case it isn't obvious Mr. Edusword 1cc'd Arcade Original on his first attempt out of Stage 1. And if you've ever played this game before, the replay really shows he has no idea of what to expect in the next five seconds.
Last edited by Satis on Wed Apr 29, 2020 10:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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InFireX
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by InFireX »

I watched edusword's CCWI video and it's blatantly obvious that he cheated. There is so much wrong in it that I can't be bothered to write it all. In the nutshell:
- why does he not use Break modes when you should be (example: stage 4 boss's final phase),
- he doesn't rapidly use his lock-on attack most of the time to do more damage, especially when fighting bosses,
- not being aggresive and pointblanking enemies whenever possible...

There's also... this:
Image

EDIT: Oh, and 32:54 is the most absurd moment in the entire video because no one would intentionally be in that tiny space, flail and survive in an actual run without bombing or entering Break mode. You'd want to be under the orbs rather than above.
Last edited by InFireX on Wed Apr 29, 2020 9:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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EmperorIng
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by EmperorIng »

I haven't seen a framerate like that since R-Type Final's Battleship stage!
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Jaimers
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by Jaimers »

Satis wrote:Here's a 5 minute guide on how to solve this deeply disturbing incident.

Mr. Edusword has a video of a game on Steam, Crimzon Clover.
This means he has a steam profile where you could potentially find out what's going on behind the scenes and maybe it's even public. Edit: Not anymore
Image
To save you from going through his 2,903 games on Steam I linked the specific game tab we're looking for.
Now look at the timestamp of each achievement, you receive all the achievements that were 'gained' during the run as you finish the credit, though this is never shown but it's obvious since this behavior is consistent across all Steam profiles of this game.

Simply by looking at these cheevos you can learn Mr. Edusword first beat the Stage 1 boss on 6th of April 2020 and you get this achievement regardless if you used a continue or not. This is about everything that happens this day along with some misc. achievements like finding out you can use the Break mechanic twice.

And the very next day, April 7, Mr. Edusword gets the achievements for clearing the game and defeating every other Stage boss including the TLB which is locked behind being on a single credit.

In the same run.

In case it isn't obvious Mr. Edusword 1cc'd Arcade Original on his first attempt out of Stage 1. And if you've ever played this game before, the replay really shows he has no idea of what to expect in the next five seconds.
Going to call attention to this post as Edusword tried to hide the evidence after being called out on it by making his Steam profile page private.

Screenshot of the evidence is now included in the original post.
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pegboy
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by pegboy »

Pretty much every replay I've watched of "Edusword" looks highly suspicious if not flat out fake. Just picking one game I know really well, his "Gradius V no miss" is a complete joke.

Plays like a first timer with no strategy to speak of and no-misses the entire game? There are multiple points it's clear in this that it's the first time he's seen the boss or a situation, and magically gets through it no problem.

Observations:

-Plays using stock Type 1 and never uses double the entire game, despite it being by far the best weapon during almost every stage and probably 80-90% of the game. Type 1 laser is terrible except for using against bosses, but true pros like him don't need those sort of advantages
-Never uses any speedups beyond a few at the beginning, he doesn't even get max speed for the high speed section of level 7, something that should get you killed but he's too pro for that shit. Max speed in this game is very manageable, and is damn near required for certain parts, especially in stage 7.

Here's a few select moments of idiocy I found while watching:

#1: Stage 3 boss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4Frajeb1Yg&t=1606s
-Clearly has no idea what is going to happen, good thing he has a shield at that point so he doesn't need to reload his save state. It's almost like this is the first time he's ever seen that attack.

#2: Stage 6 boss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4Frajeb1Yg&t=3076s
-This fight is a disaster, there is absolutely no reason to fly inside the boss and try to destroy it like he does. Yes, there are some quick kill strategies that involve flying inside like that, but you need spread bomb for it to actual work. Using type 1, it's absolutely pointless and stupid to do it and not only prolongs the fight longer. What, is he "showing off"?

#3: Stage 7 Boss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4Frajeb1Yg&t=3885s
-Once again, he takes the dumbest and most dangerous "route" through the legs and maneuvers around them in a very unnatural way, that would very likely get you killed if not for his magical abilities. It's like he's never even played this section before and is "reacting" in real time to the awkward movement of this boss, except in the dumbest possible way. A way in which someone who didn't have any sort of strategy or route to speak of. Of course he survives no problem.

I could probably spend all night finding more problems but this was already enough of a waste of time. This guy's entire channel is full of cheated and fake videos, is he actually trying to pass these off as real or just not saying they are "tool assisted"?
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Pearl
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by Pearl »

Image

Image

noauto dad moment
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by ZPScissors »

Read through the edusword part of this thread. Why does this forum think accusing someone with a mountain of evidence against them of cheating is more damaging to the community's reputation than never discussing the possibility?
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by ZPScissors »

Anyway I watched his Bakraid Advanced 1cc, and yeah, this is probably the most obviously cheated run I've ever seen. He never changes his option formation, he tries to collect every single item (which jacks up the rank to the point of making the game basically unplayable), even most beginners know what's wrong with these. He's not just making some unusual decisions, he's playing like he's never played a Yagawa game before. He's missing out on the most basic survival strats. This has 6.4k views, and we're just now discussing whether or not he cheated?
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by BIL »

ZPScissors wrote:Read through the edusword part of this thread. Why does this forum think accusing someone with a mountain of evidence against them of cheating is more damaging to the community's reputation than never discussing the possibility?
Can't speak for anyone else, but from reading those same posts I think the dissenters are in the minority on this one.
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by nii-san »

Hello everyone. It is interesting. I have been reading from the beginning, and I see that there is talk of edusword.
I am a classic player. and I have been playing since I was 14 years old (45 years old currently) I have an arcade machine at home, and I always play recording inp, with wolfmame 106.
My scores are discreet, but it is true that if I have any significant achievement for myself, I pride myself and want it to be seen.



I know edusword in person, I do like to meet people, I only saw him once in Madrid. We play classic games.

So I ask edusword to upload my games to DDP, V-V, strikes 1945 and Star force (my favorite game) to youtube
Those games in particular are mine, not edusword.
I'm a MARP user, and I upload all my games there with wolfmame

I very much follow the progress of many players here. Jaimers, erppo, etc.
I know that Jaimers has recently been to Spain in a new MIKADO, I have seen videos of him playing DDP, spectacular.
I like to see that it is possible to finish games that I can only dream of.
If the world situation changes, I hope I can meet good players.

I have contacted edusword so that you have knowledge of this discussion and can speak for yourself.

Greetings to all.

I hope that you are well.
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by CyberAngel »

ZPScissors wrote:Read through the edusword part of this thread. Why does this forum think accusing someone with a mountain of evidence against them of cheating is more damaging to the community's reputation than never discussing the possibility?
Okay, I sincerely apologize for my kneejerk reaction, but that initial video was just such a horrible way to present the suspicions. People pointing out problems with other runs helped make the case MUCH more solid and obvious. (And as little as I know about some of those games, even I can see more than enough "what the eff" moments in them.)

Cheating is a serious matter and should be handled appropriately. Acting like a total assclown about it isn't gonna do a good job convincing anyone who's not already in the know.
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blossom
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by blossom »

Read through the edusword part of this thread. Why does this forum think accusing someone with a mountain of evidence against them of cheating is more damaging to the community's reputation than never discussing the possibility?
I have never been against the possibility of someone cheating, the problem is how quickly people will latch on to someone being a cheater as a certainty. Gus expected us to take that embarrassing clip reel at face value, "aha! another cheater!" The way Satis dug into edusword's Steam achievements is a lot more damning, in my opinion, than all this armchair expertise.
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by Plasmo »

A small update on this as some actions have already been taken.

The user "edusword" has been removed from The STG Hall of Records as well as from the Highest scoring replays available topic.

It would be nice to also see his scores removed from the individual highscore topics (particularly those not verified on marp). A few users have already acted and erased his scores. The ones that are still up are the following:

Despatche
Raiden III
Raiden IV
Truxton II

CHI
Batsugun

Battletoad
Supercharged Robot Vulkaiser

The Coop
Thunder Force IV

The highscore topics on this forum traditionally don't follow a unified verification standard. The responsibility and decision-making are ultimately carried by the topic maintainer each. Nonetheless, it would be nice if we can keep this place as clean from cheated scores as possible.

As for edusword himself, he has been contacted by mutliple people and does not reply. He is aware of this very topic and the general discussion questioning his legitimacy.
Last edited by Plasmo on Sat May 09, 2020 10:48 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Mero
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by Mero »

Is his Fighting Hawk run definitely dodgy? I've no problem axing his score if it is. Any removal might take a while due to the lockdown, I usually use the computer at my parents house to update threads.
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by Plasmo »

We don't know whether it's fake or not. I'm not familiar enough with the game and couldn't tell myself. I also don't know of anyone who is. Maybe you can try to look into it yourself?

What we do know is that edusword has a long history of submitting high scores and was very active over at marp during the early 2010s. During this time he probably didn't cheat at all due to the strict proof policies over there. Fast forward a few years and we have a good number of very badly cheated replays on his youtube channel. Is Fighting Hawk one of them? I don't know but I personally don't trust him anymore. This doesn't matter at all for your decision to keep that score or to remove it.

Ideally, edusword would come out and tell us which of his scores are fake and which ones are not. But this is not very realistic to happen.
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by Mero »

Ok, when I've next got a day off work (not sure when yet) I will cast my eye over it.
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by trap15 »

It looks like that run was submitted to MARP so probably not fake.
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by Plasmo »

Why haven't I thought of this before! I double checked his score submissions here on the forum and on marp and have removed those scores from my previous post that are verified over at marp.

This leaves only a very small number of scores. It appears that the majority of his cheated runs was fortunately never submitted on this forum.
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by Mero »

Ok, it can stay where it is then. To be fair, Fighting Hawk is an easy game, I doubt anyone would need to cheat.
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by Smraedis »

Thanks for giving me a reason to play the best shmup ever, again :mrgreen:
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by Battletoad »

Plasmo wrote:It would be nice to also see his scores removed from the individual highscore topics (particularly those not verified on marp). A few users have already acted and erased his scores. The ones that are still up are the following:

(...)

Battletoad
Supercharged Robot Vulkaiser
Alright, I deleted his score. Thanks for the heads up.
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by Gus »

I don't think a dude trying to hide his cheating should be given the luxury of trying to figure out which runs may/may not be faked.
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by Emuser »

I've said it in servers before, but once an issue like this comes up, it starts to become a serious PITA to police every video someone does and consulting other players familiar with said games to have to watch replays and decide if there's any foul play involved or not. It quickly approaches the point of unfeasible and once this happens it's just much more reasonable to just completely wipe the slate of everything that had been done up to that point and not accept any future scores without some kind of live stream footage. If someone seriously cared about a particular game to show they weren't making anything up before, they can prove themselves on stream. It's not completely foolproof but certain steps that can be followed in a live stream that should prove complete legitimacy is the one main solution to remove any possible doubt.
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Re: The Problem with Perikles

Post by Gus »

I'd also add that MARP is not foolproof, as they've had their share of cheaters and it was also found during the Perikles thing to be very hard, if not impossible, to prove usage of external slowdown tools while recording inps. There's also the fact that edusword has gone out of his way to hide evidence of cheating by making his Steam profile private. Why are we giving him the benefit of the doubt at this point?
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