Karl Jobst

Karl Jobst (born 7 February 1986)[2] is an Australian GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark speedrunner, YouTuber, and investigative journalist whose work has focused on exposing cheating and fraud in the gaming community. He also covers other speedrunning and challenge-related feats, such as world record histories. As of March 2022, he has more than 687,000 subscribers on YouTube.[3]

Karl Jobst
Personal information
BornKarl Jobst
(1986-02-07) 7 February 1986
Australia
Occupation
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2010–present
Genre
Subscribers687,000[1]
Total views106.75 million[1]
100,000 subscribers

Speedrunning career

Jobst set the speedrunning world record for the first level of Goldeneye 007 on 2 December 2017, completing the run in 52 seconds on the Agent difficulty, beating a 53-second record set by former Perfect Dark world champion Bryan Bosshardt on 27 September 2002. This feat was described by Owen S. Good of gaming magazine Polygon as "akin to the sub-four[-]minute mile, multiplied by breaking the sound barrier."[4] He is ranked third by number of Goldeneye 007 world records by the game's speedrunning authority.[5] Jobst was recognised as the "Perfect Dark Champion" (meaning he was statistically deemed the number-one player in the world at the game, according to the community's rankings) from 10 November 2002 – 24 December 2003; 26 July 2016 – 30 July 2016; 31 July 2016 – 19 March 2020; and 21 March 2020 – 25 March 2020 (tied).[6] As of 11 March 2022, Jobst had set 199 world individual level records throughout his career, of which 9 remain (albeit all subsequently tied by other players).[7]

In late 2021, Jobst started a speedrunning podcast called The Legends Postcast. In September 2021, Jobst was accused of racism and supporting white supremacy after a message by him was found on a leaked image from a Discord server known for discriminatory posts. Legends co-host Tomatoanus responded by cancelling future episodes and having previous episodes taken down. In a video, Jobst denied the allegations, stating that messages had been taken out of context.[8]

Investigative work

Heritage Auctions and Wata Games allegations

On 23 August 2021, Jobst released a YouTube documentary alleging fraud and conflict of interest between Heritage Auctions, a company selling retro video games for record-breaking prices (including a copy of Super Mario Bros. for over US$2 million), Wata Games, an agency that grades rare games, and video game collectors with the intention of manufacturing a bubble of retro games.[9] Jobst alleged that Wata CEO Deniz Kahn and Heritage Auctions co-founder Jim Halperin of manipulating the market through press releases and television appearances on Pawn Stars while limiting the availability of information by purchasing and shutting down retro gaming site NintendoAge.[10][11] Wata Games denied the claims immediately after Jobst published the video.[10] In a statement made to Video Games Chronicle, Heritage Auctions responded to Jobst's video by saying they had not engaged in any illegal activity.[11]

Badabun allegations

In December 2017, Mexican media network Badabun uploaded a video purportedly showing network member Tavo Betancourt speedrunning Super Mario Bros. in record time. Jobst uploaded a video in January 2020 revealing that the Badabun video had been faked, showing various inconsistencies and irregularities found within the alleged speedrun footage and demonstrating that the footage came from stolen and spliced runs from actual world record holders in the game.[12]

Billy Mitchell allegations

American gamer Billy Mitchell was accused by Jobst of cheating to obtain his records in the arcade games Donkey Kong and Pac-Man, allegations that had already been made for years.[8][13] Mitchell sued Jobst for defamation, seeking damages of $450,000, having also sued YouTuber Benjamin Smith, known as Apollo Legend, and speedrunning site Twin Galaxies for similar grievances.[8][13] Jobst's allegations against Mitchell also included claims that Mitchell's lawsuit against Smith contributed to his poor mental health and suicide.[13]

Guitar Hero speedrun cheating

In January 2022, Jobst alleged in a video that a well-known Guitar Hero speedrunner and world-record holder called Schmooey had cheated to obtain his records, faking video with prerecorded segments and footage splicing.[14] Jobst's video went viral, and Schmooey responded by confirming his video records were entirely falsified.[15]

Other investigations

Jobst has covered other cheating scandals in the gaming community, including an incident of cheating by the biggest Minecraft speedrunner Dream, which resulted in his records being struck from the leaderboard.[16]

In August 2019, Jobst reported on the world record of E1M1, the first level of Doom, that had recently been broken by 4shockblast. The record had stood for over 20 years.[17][18]

References
  1. "About karljobst". YouTube.
  2. "Karl Jobst (@karljobstgaming) / Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  3. "Karl Jobst - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  4. Good, Owen S. (3 December 2017). "GoldenEye 007's most untouchable speedrun record falls after 15 years". Polygon. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  5. "The GoldenEye World Record Leaders - The Elite Rankings". The Elite Rankings. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  6. "Karl Jobst - The Elite Rankings". The Elite Rankings. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  7. "The Goldeneye and Perfect Dark World Record Database". wrs.the-elite.net. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  8. Irorita, Franz Christian (23 September 2021). "Karl Jobst cancelled by speedrunning community, sued by Billy Mitchell". ClutchPoints. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  9. Gach, Ethan (25 August 2021). "YouTuber Accuses Million-Dollar Retro Game Sales Of Being Scams". Kotaku. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  10. Epps, DeAngelo (25 August 2021). "The $2 Million Mario Bros. Auction May Have Been Rigged". Digital Trends. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  11. Scullion, Chris (25 August 2021). "Report alleges auction and grading 'fraud' is behind recent surge in retro game prices". Video Games Chronicle. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  12. Pixel, Martin (14 January 2020). "Badabun, el canal de YouTube mexicano es acusado de mentir en un SpeedRun de 'Mario Bros', utilizando clips de otros jugadores". Xataka México (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  13. Bevan, Rhiannon (18 September 2022). "YouTuber Karl Jobst Sued By Billy Mitchell". TheGamer. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  14. Plunkett, Luke (2 February 2022). "The World's Best Guitar Hero Player Was A Cheat". Kotaku. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  15. Leston, Ryan (4 February 2022). "Top Guitar Hero Player Reveals How He Cheated For Years". IGN. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  16. Watts, Rachel (7 January 2021). "A brief summary of the cheating scandal surrounding YouTube's biggest Minecraft speedrunner". PC Gamer. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  17. Walker, Alex (8 April 2019). "Insanely Difficult DOOM Record Beaten After 20 Years". Kotaku Australia. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  18. Strunk, Ph D. (15 November 2021). Story Mode: Video Games and the Interplay between Consoles and Culture. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 28–29. ISBN 978-1-63388-681-0. Retrieved 9 October 2021.

Karl Jobst's channel on YouTube

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