Guitar Hero YouTube Champ Admits He’s A Fake
A Guitar Hero cheat finally faces the music.
This article is more than 2 years old
The long-forgotten Guitar Hero franchise, initially released for PlayStation 2 consoles, has remained dormant for over 12 years now, but the dedicated community of die-hard fans still keeps the series alive by releasing new songs for the game and competing for the best high-scores with other members of their community. Admittedly, some of the stuff these people play on their plastic guitar controllers borders on super-human ability. However, one Guitar Hero player called Schmooey was the proverbial king of the hill, the best of the best, and according to the Guitar Hero community members, a Rock God. But Schmooey is also a fake, as pointed out by the following YouTube video:
According to PC Gamer, Schmooey, previously believed to be the world’s best when it comes to the gaming world’s forgotten franchise, has admitted he’s a fake and that most of his achievements are unauthentic. Since 2018, the 20-year old gamer garnered the status of legend within the Guitar Hero community for his mastery of the plastic guitar controller on which he managed to play, note-for-keystroke, some of the hardest songs ever made for the game. What made Schmooey even more legendary was the fact that he played some of these songs at faster speeds, with perfect scores. So, what happened; how does one go from Guitar Hero to Guitar Zero?
Let’s start by saying that Schmooey was incredibly good at playing Guitar Hero, so good, in fact, that he made a few thousand bucks over the course of his “career,” claiming bounties that the community had placed on clearing advanced in-game songs with perfect scores. Schmooey would record his guitar sessions, the game would record all keystrokes as perfect, and the legend lived on. Admittedly, some oddities were noticed along the way, a video lag here and there, some dark footage, etc., but none of these offered any conclusive proof that would question Schmooey’s skill and legitimacy. Until December 2021, when Schmooey uploaded his run of the song 9 Patterns Of Eternal Pain.
His take on the song was impressive, and he hit every single note, leading to another perfect score. Given the song’s complexity and speed, especially in the later segments, congratulations and praises ensued until a single comment pointed out several inconsistencies with the run. The fact that his fingers weren’t hitting the notes displayed on the screen in some segments of the song, and a small glimpse of the WMP overlay, prompted several community members to go through Schmooey’s work, frame-by-frame and note-by-note.
What they discovered was that Schmooey absolutely sucked at Guitar Hero, but his video editing skills were on point. Apparently, the former Guitar-Hero-gone-Zero used Cheat Engine to slow down songs in Clone Hero, a faithful PC port of Guitar Hero, and play them at an easier difficulty. He would then speed the recording back up in editing and splice it together with his webcam footage and viola, the world’s best. For better or for worse, and in this case, it’s always for the better; cheaters always get caught unless you’re playing some Korean MMORPG — they’re oddly okay with people cheating in video games.
With everything said and done, Schmooey issued a public apology on his YouTube channel, deleted most of his videos, and promised to return a couple thousands dollars he unjustly earned through his cheating and deceptive videogame ways. Unfortunately, Schmooey isn’t an isolated incident. Gaming streamers are caught cheating left and right, which only makes us wonder just how great are the world’s greats?
