Mario Kart 64 Legend Just Retired Because He Got Betrayed

Matthias Rustemeyer is one of the all-time greats at Mario Kart 64. Maybe even the best. He’s certainly the most famous, having dominated the top-tier of its competitive scene for the greater part of a decade. And now he’s retiring.

“I completely lost the key value to go on: fun,” he wrote in a post announcing the decision. A fraught rivalry with the game’s new champion is a big reason why.

Most people outside of Mario Kart 64 speedrunning had never heard of Rustemeyer until YouTuber SummoningSalt posted a video last year documenting the German player’s recent quest to top the leaderboard in all of the game’s no-shortcut world record categories. The video went on to garner more than 2 million views and turned Rustemeyer into a mini-legend among even casual Mario Kart 64 players and general speedrunning enthusiasts. When SummoningSalt announced earlier this week that someone finally managed to secure all 32 world records, many assumed he was talking about Rustemeyer. But he wasn’t. That unprecedented honor instead went to Rustemeyer’s longtime rival, Daniel Burbank.

Tense competition is at the heart of any speedrunning scene. It helps spur great players to continually discover better strategies and break new records. For a long time, that’s how Rustemeyer and Burbank’s rivalry appeared to function. During his 2018 bid for the coveted 32/32 world record achievement, Rustemeyer came close, winning various records off Burbank only for the latter to work hard clawing them back. Other top-tier Mario Kart 64 players did the same, keeping the elusive goal just out of reach even as Rustemyer remained the clear overall champion.

Then everything changed last summer. While Rustemyer appeared, on paper, to still be the clear champion, in actuality, Burbank was hoarding world record times he had recorded but never officially posted. On June 11 he infamously “unhoarded” all of these times, claiming a number of new world records and shattering Rustemyer’s long reign in the process.

Read the full article on Kotaku