Minecraft YouTuber Dream Admits to Using Mod in Speedrun Record

In a new post to Pastebin, Minecraft YouTuber Dream has admitted that his impressive speedrun numbers for version 1.16 of the game were the result of a mod. Submitted in October 2020, Dream’s “Any% Random Seed Glitchless” run was finished in just 19 minutes. However, immediately after posting the time, many began to suspect that there was something wrong with the record. The speedrun.com team found many suspicious elements in his posted videos, including drop rates that would be almost impossible. Despite this, Dream insisted that he did not cheat, and things quickly escalated online. The streamer now claims that he was unaware that a mod he uses for streaming had an impact.

“In our challenge videos, before 1.16 we always increased the enderman spawn rates and pearl drop rates out of convenience and we’ve mentioned that openly before. It makes the videos better because we don’t spend hours looking for pearls or spend so much time farming blaze rods (a totally RNG thing, mostly pearls). When 1.16 came out, it was more complicated to increase piglin trades then it is to do enderman pearl drops. A server side plugin was made for our videos that slightly increases the rates,” wrote Dream.

This would account for the strange drop rates that the speedrunner.com team noticed. Dream went on to write that he brushed off the possibility that this might have had an impact on his time, but it eventually became evident that the mod played a part in his record. The YouTuber went on to say that he felt a terrible guilt upon this realization, particularly given some of his comments towards the speedrun.com mods prior to discovering his time was illegitimate.

Speedruns have become an incredibly popular part of the competitive gaming community, and many take them very seriously. Beating a game in a record amount of time is an impressive feat, and one that many players strive for. As a result, many gamers on social media have taken Dream to task over his conduct following the accusations of cheating. The speedrun.com mods saw a lot of hate directed their way as a result of Dream’s insistence that he didn’t cheat. While Dream might have come clean about the situation, nothing changes that fact.

Dream has an incredibly large following on YouTube and his social channels, and many have taken him at his word that he was unaware that the mod would have an impact on his speedrun times. It seems that the incident won’t have much of an impact on the streamer moving forward, but some fans can’t be blamed for being unhappy with his actions during the controversy.

What do you think of Dream’s Minecraft cheating scandal? Does it make you think less of the streamer? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk about all things gaming!

[H/T: Vice]