has banned a speedrunner from future events after they admitted to cheating during last week’s marathon. Russian player Mekarazium appeared to complete a Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance expansion in a world record time. Instead of live gameplay, though, Mekarazium showed a pre-recorded video that was pieced together using parts of separate runs. They reacted to the footage in real-time to sell the ruse.
While Summer Games Done Quick took place as an in-person event for the first time , some speedrunners participated remotely. Mekazarium was one of those, which allowed them to cheat, as reports. The player initially sped through the main campaign of MGR: Revengeance in a seemingly legitimate run, before taking on the Blade Wolf DLC after a charity donation goal was met.
However, viewers noticed discrepancies in the Blade Wolf playthrough. Some noted there were barely any audible instances of Mekarazium pressing keys on the keyboard (which could be heard as he played the main game). , Mekarazium lifts their right hand up while their character was looking around, though they claimed they controlled the mouse with their other hand.
Mekarazium also downplayed the record-breaking aspect of their run after the fact. You’d think a speedrunner would be delighted to beat their own world-best time by 25 seconds.
“The Blade Wolf DLC run incentive people paid for is a pre-recorded, segmented run,” Mekarazium told the GDQ enforcement team in a message obtained by PCGamesN. “It was supposed to be a real-time run, but I’ve changed my mind at the last second after switching the saves.”
Mekarazium said they wanted to show off the potential of the Blade Wolf run. However, they apologized and acknowledged they did “an actual bad thing.” They worried about the impact on other speedrunners too. “I acted selfishly and I haven’t put more time thinking about others,” they added.
“Yesterday, we were made aware that Mekazarium played a segmented video for his DLC run at Summer Games Done Quick 2022,” GDQ told Engadget in a statement. “Mekazarium has since admitted to this, both to some members of the community as well as directly to GDQ staff. He contacted our staff with a document detailing that he had planned this for over a month, demonstrating this was planned and intentional.
“This is absolutely unacceptable and attempts to undermine the integrity of the speedrunning community that we love and support,” GDQ added. “The exact result they desired was unclear from the document, but it is clear that they believed we would not be willing to speak out about their behavior. However, we believe it is in the community’s best interests to know why this run was removed by GDQ. We have removed Mekazarium’s runs from our YouTube archive, and will not permit him to run in the future.”
The incident puts an unfortunate stain on another largely successful GDQ event. Speedrunners and viewers for Doctors Without Borders. There were some other hiccups, however. Some runs went longer than expected, which led to organizers from the schedule. However, they found room to add an extra Pokémon game on the final day in a bid to .
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Airbnb has permanently banned parties and events at homes listed on its website worldwide.
The US-based accommodation-sharing company said the decision follows a temporary ban introduced in August 2020 when some people took “partying behaviour to rented homes” due to bars and nightclubs being closed or restricted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It has recorded a 44% year-on-year drop in complaints about parties since then, and received “positive feedback from community leaders and elected officials”.
A home in the affluent Dorset neighbourhood of Sandbanks estimated to be worth £2 million was trashed in March last year when it was used for a party attended by around 60 people after being booked on Airbnb by a couple for a two-night break.
Two months later residents in Bearsted, near Maidstone, Kent, described how “at least 100 people” descended on a four-bedroom home for a raucous gathering with “thumping music all night long” after it was rented through the site.
Airbnb said there are “serious consequences” for guests who breach the party ban, varying from the suspension of their account to being permanently removed from the platform.
Around 6,600 people’s accounts were suspended last year for “attempting to violate our party ban”.
A 16-person occupancy cap for Airbnb listings introduced as part of the August 2020 ban has been lifted to allow listings for accommodation that can “comfortably” hold more than that number of people.
The company said in a statement: “From castles in Europe, to vineyards in the US, to large beachfront villas in the Caribbean, amazing properties like these thrive on hosting multi-generational family trips and larger groups, and removing this cap is meant to allow those hosts to responsibly utilise the space in their homes while still complying with our ban on disruptive parties.”
In late 2019, the firm prohibited parties advertised on social media as well as “chronic party houses” that had developed into “neighbourhood nuisances”.
It has also implemented rules to reduce disruption at certain times of year, such as banning customers in several countries including the UK from making one-night bookings for entire homes on New Year’s Eve unless they have a history of positive reviews.
Airbnb said: “This new and long-term policy was enacted to help encourage and support community safety.
“We look forward to sharing updates in the coming weeks and months on our efforts to complement our community policies on parties.”
New York: Airbnb has permanently banned parties and events at homes on its platform, after a temporary measure during the pandemic proved popular with hosts.
The firm says the rule has become “much more than a public health measure” since it was introduced in August 2020.
“It developed into a bedrock community policy to support our hosts and their neighbours,” the San Francisco-headquartered firm said.
However, it also removed a limit on how many people can stay at homes.
Airbnb said in a statement that the number of complaints about parties dropped by 44% since the measure was first introduced.
Exceptions to the global ban may be made for “speciality and traditional hospitality venues” in the future, it added.
It previously imposed a 16 person limit to occupants because of concerns over the spread of Covid-19.
The firm said “several types of larger homes are capable of comfortably and safely housing more than 16 people – from castles in Europe to vineyards in the US to large beachfront villas in the Caribbean”.
Fina, swimming’s world governing body, has voted to stop transgender athletes from competing in women’s elite races if they have gone through any part of the process of male puberty.
The new policy requires transgender competitors to have completed their transition by the age of 12 in order to be able to compete in women’s competitions.
Fina will also aim to establish an ‘open’ category at competitions for swimmers whose gender identity is different than their birth sex.
The new policy, which was passed with 71% of the vote from 152 Fina members, was described as “only a first step towards full inclusion” for transgender athletes.
The decision was made during an extraordinary general congress at the ongoing World Championships in Budapest.
Earlier Fina members heard a report from a transgender task force made up of leading figures from the world of medicine, law and sport.
“Fina’s approach in drafting this policy was comprehensive, science-based and inclusive, and, importantly, Fina’s approach emphasised competitive fairness,” said Brent Nowicki, the governing body’s executive director.
Fina president Husain Al-Musallam said the organisation was trying to “protect the rights of our athletes to compete” but also “protect competitive fairness”.
He said: “Fina will always welcome every athlete. The creation of an open category will mean that everybody has the opportunity to compete at an elite level. This has not been done before, so Fina will need to lead the way. I want all athletes to feel included in being able to develop ideas during this process.”
Former Great Britain swimmer Sharron Davies, who has argued against transgender participation in women’s elite swimming, said she was “proud” of her sport and Fina.
She thanked Fina “for doing the science, asking the athletes/coaches and standing up for fair sport for females”. She added: “Swimming will always welcome everyone no matter how you identify but fairness is the cornerstone of sport.”
However, ‘Athlete Ally’ – an LGBT advocacy group which organised a letter of support for transgender American swimmer Lia Thomas in February, called the new policy “discriminatory, harmful, unscientific and not in line with the 2021 IOC principles”.
“If we truly want to protect women’s sports, we must include all women,”the group’s tweet said.
Swimming follows cycling in rule change
Fina’s decision follows a move on Thursday by the UCI, cycling’s governing body, to double the period of time before a rider transitioning from male to female can compete in women’s races.
The issue in swimming has been catapulted into the spotlight by the experiences of American Thomas.
In March, Thomas became the first known transgender swimmer to win the highest US national college title with victory in the women’s 500-yard freestyle.
Thomas swam for the Pennsylvanian men’s team for three seasons before starting hormone replacement therapy in spring 2019.
She has since broken records for her university swimming team.
More than 300 college, Team USA and Olympic swimmers signed an open letter in support of Thomas and all transgender and non-binary swimmers, but other athletes and organisations have raised concerns about trans inclusion.
Some of Thomas’ team-mates and their parents wrote anonymous letters supporting her right to transition, but added it was unfair for her to compete as a woman.
USA Swimming updated its policy for elite swimmers in February to allow transgender athletes to swim in elite events, alongside criteria that aim to reduce any unfair advantage, including testosterone tests for 36 months before competitions.
Last year, weightlifter Laurel Hubbard from New Zealand became the the first openly transgender athlete to compete at an Olympics in a different sex category to that in which they were born.
What did the panel of experts say?
Dr Michael Joyner, a physiologist and leading expert in human performance
“Testosterone in male puberty alters the physiological determinants of human performance and explains the sex-based differences in human performance, considered clearly evident by age 12.
“Even if testosterone is suppressed, its performance enhancing effects will be retained.”
Dr Adrian Jjuuko, an activist, researcher and lawyer
“The policy emphasises that no athlete is excluded from Fina competition or setting Fina records based on their legal gender, gender identity or gender expression.
“[The proposed open category] should not become a category that adds to the already existing levels of discrimination and marginalisation against these groups.
“I see this policy as only the first step towards full inclusion and support for the participation of transgender and gender-diverse athletes in aquatic sports, and there is a lot more to be done.”
Dr Sandra Hunter, an exercise physiologist specialising in sex and age differences in athletic performance
“By 14 years or older, the difference between boys and girls is substantial. That’s due to the advantages experienced due to the physiological adaptations in testosterone and the possession of the Y chromosome.
“Some of these physical advantages are structural in origin such as height, limb length, heart size, lung size and they will be retained, even with the suppression or reduction of testosterone that occurs in the transition from male to female.”
Summer Sanders, former Olympic and world champion in swimming
“This is not easy. There must be categories – women’s, men’s and of course a category for trans women and trans men.
“Fair competition is a stronghold and staple of our community – this approach safeguards the integrity of the existing sports process in which millions of girls and women participate annually.”
One of sport’s biggest debates
The conversation around the inclusion of transgender women in women’s sport has divided opinion both inside and outside the sporting sphere.
Many argue transgender women should not compete in women’s sport because of any advantages they may retain – but others argue sport should be more inclusive.
World Athletics president Lord Coe has said the “integrity” and “future” of women’s sport would be “very fragile” if sporting organisations get regulations for transgender athletes wrong.
The heart of the debate on whether transgender women athletes should compete in women’s sport involves the complex balance of inclusion, sporting fairness and safety – essentially, whether trans women can compete in female categories without giving them an unfair advantage or presenting a threat of injury to competitors.
Trans women have to adhere to a number of rules to compete in specific sports, including in many cases lowering their testosterone levels to a certain amount, for a set period of time, before competing.
There are concerns, however, as highlighted in Fina’s decision, that athletes retain an advantage from going through male puberty that is not addressed by lowering testosterone.
The International Skating Union (ISU) said on Monday that Russia and Belarus would not be allowed to host international skating events and stripped Russia of figure skating’s Rostelecom Cup.
The ISU had earlier banned skaters from Russia and Belarus from international competition over Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine. Belarus is a key staging area for the invasion, which Russia calls a “special military operation.”
The ISU said in a statement that it was looking for a replacement host for the Rostelecom Cup, which is scheduled to take place in late November.
“Until further notice no international competitions shall be held in Russia and Belarus. Consequently, the Rostelecom Cup 2022 in figure skating will not be included in the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series of the season 2022/23,” the ISU said.
The ISU also banned members from Russia and Belarus from attending the 2022 ISU Congress and said candidates from the two countries would not be allowed to stand for election to any position. (Reporting by Tommy Lund in Gdansk Editing by Christian Radnedge)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in Tripura has issued an order banning political parties from using school resources, including playgrounds, to hold political events or rallies.
In an order issued on Saturday, director of school education Chandni Chandran notified guidelines for using school buildings, classrooms, school premises, school playgrounds, conference halls and auditoriums saying, “…. no school resources including playground shall be used by any political party/organizer to conduct political functions/rallies etc..”.
The order also said that a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the director of secondary or elementary education directorate or the concerned district education officer may be obtained for conducting other programmes, that too only on holidays or after school hours.
The order also mentioned that a few headmasters or teachers-in-charge of schools were found to have approved the use of school grounds for political gatherings during school hours. It added that the department would hold such actions “completely unacceptable” as they pose “serious threat to teaching-learning activities” and violate the norms of the department, especially since the schools have now reopened after long breaks owing to Covid-19.
Action will be taken against headmasters or teachers-in-charge for violations already committed, said the order and warned against violations in the future.
The order stated that headmasters or teachers-in-charges would be held responsible to inform the inspector of schools or district education officers if any event is planned. It would be immediately taken up with local administration and police authorities, asking for cancelling the concerned programme, said the order.
