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 October 2023, he has more than 890,000 subscribers on YouTube.[1]

Karl Jobst
Personal information
Born (1986-02-07) 7 February 1986
Queensland, Australia
Occupations
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2010–present
Genres
Subscribers890 thousand[1]
Total views167 million[1]
100,000 subscribers
Last updated: 9 October 2023

Early life

Jobst began playing video games at age two and a half; his first gaming experience was with the PC game Ultima V, and his first console was a Nintendo 64 he received in 1997. He briefly studied IT and psychology at university, and spent time working at a chicken factory, a mobile phone shop, and a call center.[3]

Speedrunning career

Jobst began speedrunning in 1999 when competing for fast times in GoldenEye 007 with a friend before moving on to Perfect Dark.[3] He eventually 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 fifth 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 Podcast. In September 2021, Legends co-host Tomatoanus announced the cancellation of future episodes and the taking down of previous episodes, after Jobst was accused of racism. 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] In a June 2022 follow-up video Jobst detailed a class action lawsuit filed against Wata Games and its owner Collectors Universe in May 2022 for market manipulation and other alleged financial impropriety.[12]

Badabun allegations

In December 2017, Mexican media network Badabun uploaded a video purportedly showing network member Tavo Betancourt speedrunning Super Mario Bros.; in January 2020, Jobst uploaded a video revealing that the Badabun video had been faked, showing various inconsistencies and irregularities found within the alleged speedrun footage and demonstrating that the footage was spliced from videos by several actual world record holders in the game, as well as from a tool-assisted speedrun.[13]

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][14] 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][14] Jobst's allegations against Mitchell also included claims that Mitchell's lawsuit against Smith contributed to his poor mental health and suicide,[14] but he has since clarified that this was far less likely than he originally thought . Ultimately, Jobst was sued three times,[15] having already spent about $180,000 on legal fees, and he had estimated a further $100,000 in legal costs to defend himself.[15] Jobst set up a legal defence fund on GoFundMe to mitigate the financial damage to his family due to the lawsuit. As of August 2023, it has raised $143,176 AUD.[16]

In January 2023, Jobst made a video that showcased evidence in the form of an old photograph that clearly demonstrated that Mitchell did not play his claimed world record runs on original hardware despite claiming so for many years. In addition, the 8-direction joystick (as opposed the original 4-direction joystick) would have made the game much easier to play.[17][18][19] The lawsuits against Jobst and others have been considered by presiding judges and media commentators to be frivolous, if not downright vexatious.[20][21][22]

Other investigations

Jobst has covered other cheating scandals in the gaming community, including an incident of cheating by the most popular Minecraft speedrunner Dream, which resulted in his records being struck from the leaderboard.[23]

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.[24][25]

References
  1. "About karljobst". YouTube.
  2. "Karl Jobst (@karljobstgaming) / Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  3. Rogers, Ian M. (23 May 2022). "Speedrunning Legend: An Interview with Karl Jobst". ...But I Also Have a Day Job. Retrieved 23 August 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. Wata Games SUED For Market Manipulation!, retrieved 1 July 2022
  13. 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.
  14. Bevan, Rhiannon (18 September 2022). "YouTuber Karl Jobst Sued By Billy Mitchell". TheGamer. Archived from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  15. Bevan, Rhiannon (6 November 2022). "Billy Mitchell Is Suing YouTuber Karl Jobst Again". TheGamer. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  16. Billy Mitchell Accuses Me Of Fraud During Insane Rant!, retrieved 20 August 2023
  17. Cheater Billy Mitchell Just Got DESTROYED By New Evidence!, retrieved 21 February 2023
  18. Benfell, Grace (2 February 2023). "Former Donkey Kong Record Holder Billy Mitchell Accused Of Cheating Yet Again". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 4 February 2023. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  19. Bevan, Rhiannon (4 February 2023). "Billy Mitchell Photograph Renews Allegations Of Donkey Kong Cheating". TheGamer. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  20. "May Day update: Billy Mitchell versus Twin Galaxies". 2 May 2022. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  21. Vanderbilt, Mike (24 November 2015). "Billy Mitchell loses Regular Show lawsuit, doesn't care as long as he's trending". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on 21 February 2023. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  22. Sanders, Mike (6 November 2022). "Billy Mitchell Launches 2 New Lawsuits Against YouTuber – Karl Jobst Needs Our Help!". eTeknix. Archived from the original on 21 February 2023. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  23. Watts, Rachel (7 January 2021). "A brief summary of the cheating scandal surrounding YouTube's biggest Minecraft speedrunner". PC Gamer. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  24. Walker, Alex (8 April 2019). "Insanely Difficult DOOM Record Beaten After 20 Years". Kotaku Australia. Archived from the original on 9 October 2021. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  25. 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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