Recently, I went down a rabbit hole of Mario Kart speedrunning lore, which brought me back to one of the first stories I had learned about this topic several years ago.
In case you don’t know what speedrunning is, it is the idea of a player attempting to complete a video game as fast as possible. Speedrunning can involve a player completing a game in its entirety, or just a specific section of the game. Naturally, this can lead to an abundance of competition between players online, with everyone trying to outdo one another to prove that they can clear a game the fastest.
During the early days of the internet, speedrunning in video games was starting to get big. Players would share their best times online, and due to the limited capabilities of video recording with your cameras, site moderators did not require participants to send video proof of their times. Back then, people on the internet were quite trusting of one another, relying almost entirely on the honor system to ensure that record-keeping was accurate and that people were not being dishonest about their achievements.
Around this time, Mario Kart 64 experienced a surge in popularity amongst speedrunners on the internet. Players from all over the world would grind out the Time Trials mode and submit their best times on each of the game’s 16 tracks—there were opportunities for records on a full three-lap race on every track, as well as your fastest lap on said tracks (also known as f-lap records). If you were skilled enough, you could also use shortcuts to set records on these tracks, which would be displayed in a separate table on the fan-made Mario Kart World Records website.
Back in the early 2000s, Dutch player Michael Jongerius (also known as MJ) emerged as one of the best MK64 players of all-time. MJ was no stranger to the competitive Mario Kart scene, having played Super Mario Kart competitively as well. In 2003, MJ dethroned Sami Cetin as the champion of MK64, submitting an abundance of dominant times across all 16 of the game’s tracks over the course of just three months. Given how quickly MJ had surpassed Sami, it seemed as though MJ was unbeatable—that was, until a player named Habrich showed up.
Habrich began submitting times to the website in 2002, about a year before MJ overtook Sami for the title of world champion. Though Habrich did take a few records from MJ in late 2003, he would not come close to threatening for the crown until 2004. However, Habrich continued to climb, shattering Sami’s previous records on Wario Stadium. By Aug. 2004, Habrich had claimed the throne as champion of MK64, ending MJ’s reign after one year.
He did not stay on top for long, though, as MJ reclaimed the top spot just one month later. Though Habrich did gain some new records, he was unable to surpass MJ for first place. As the calendar turned to 2005, MJ was still champion, despite the few records that Habrich had claimed during this time. Initially, this seemed like normal competition, with an underdog briefly taking the spotlight from one of the all-time greats. In the summer of 2005, though, the MK64 speedrunning community would be flipped on its head.
As it turned out, Habrich was not just one person, but three. The Habrich persona was assumed by three friends from Nebraska—Eric Habrich (the identity’s namesake), Troy Ullman, and Luke Barnard. The trio posted a confession video online, revealing themselves as three players submitting times as though they were just one person.
Although the Habrich alias was named after Eric, he was actually the worst of the three, only holding two of the group’s records. Nevertheless, the trio succeeded in fooling the MK64 community up until this time, making it appear as though they were one of the best Mario Kart players ever.
Why would they want to do this?
Since MJ was from the Netherlands, he used a Phase Alternating Line (PAL) version of the game; meanwhile, the Habrich trio, being from the United States, had the National Television System Committee (NTSC) variant. This may not sound significant, but the PAL version gave players a slight advantage over NTSC players due to its lower frame rate. The PAL release ran at 25 frames per second (FPS), five frames slower than the NTSC version, which meant that race times were 1.2 times shorter than that of the NTSC variant.
This fueled the Habrich trio to want to join forces to try and take down MJ, feeling that they would not be able to do so individually. Once they revealed the truth about their run, though, it would have lasting effects on not just the MK64 community, but speedrunning as a whole.
In response, the moderators on the MK64 speedrunning site opted to separate the group’s times from the collective Habrich identity, creating individual pages for Troy’s and Luke’s times on the site. To prevent a situation like this from happening again, the mods made video proof of these records a requirement for all players going forward. By this point, YouTube was beginning to take off, and while the quality of the video footage wasn’t the greatest, it was better than having no proof of the records at all.
This ultimately erased Habrich’s one-month reign as world champion, leaving MJ’s run as champion uninterrupted from 2003 into 2005 and beyond. MJ stayed on top until 2013, when German player Matthias Rustemeyer claimed the title. Though MJ jumped back in front a few weeks later, Matthias took the lead for good later that same day. Over the last several years, Matthias has gone back and forth with American player Daniel Burbank for the crown; as I am writing this, Matthias is currently in first place, reclaiming the top spot in Aug. 2024.
Though Habrich’s time as champion had been nullified, both Troy and Luke had two of the longest-lasting world records in MK64 history. Troy’s Royal Raceway record lasted from Sep. 2004—around the peak of the Habrich dominance—until Dec. 2012, while Luke’s Mario Raceway f-lap record stood from Mar. 2008 to Jan. 2015. Cheating or not, the longevity of those runs are impressive either way.
Their legacy may have been tainted by the Habrich saga, but the actual runs themselves were not falsified. In 2021, Eric detailed his account of the group’s runs in a YouTube comment: “the times were legit. We would sit around for HOURS watching each other play. Troy was the best of us followed closely by Luke. The funny part is I was actually the worst.” This may be the most impressive display of cheating by not cheating in human history, especially for the time.
The Habrich trio may have stopped playing MK64 competitively nearly two decades ago, but they made a significant impact on speedrunning in video games. Despite submitting times under one persona, it was clear that all three were each very skilled Mario Kart players in their own rights. While it would have been interesting to see someone like Troy or Luke go solo and try and surpass MJ for the title, the idea of three close friends who were near-equals in skill level posing as one person is at least mildly entertaining. At the end of the day, it’s all about having fun, right?
Featured image by Patrick Hood on Canva.
