I know it's a cliché with speedrunners at this point, but I just stumbled upon a nest of them, and I feel the need to share.
https://www.mariokart64.com/mkdd/womenaf.php
Top rated "women" in Mario Kart: Double Dash
1 Mattilde Feuillas (originally Mattis) Trans
2 Rebecca Chaneski (https://www.twitch.tv/ideas_xo/clip/DeliciousProudChimpanzeePartyTime-1hrDM1p81f1Tz4AP) you decide, but those hands are a lot bigger than mine and I'm a guy.
3 Mia McMullen (originally Matt) Trans
4 Ivy Rose Aslinger (originally Caleb) Trans
Its like the southpark strong woman competition where the podium is full of dudes with long hair.
Also Concerning is
8 Charlotte Crego (originally Cameron) Trans and 13-14 years old
All of this information is relatively easily accessible on the forums.
But seeing as almost all of the active "Female" players are...
It makes me suspicious that there's some "recruiting" going on behind the scenes.
When will they end this stupidity of children transitioning.
That's what pushed me over the edge from being suspicious to concerned enough to post this. It's an open secret at this point that Speedrunners have disproportionately high numbers of trans, but can we really let kids who go on the internet to talk about video games get sucked into this. The tendrils seem to be overtaking everything.
Yeah, that really is the rough part. I couldn't give the slightest shit about speedruns, the speedrunning community, etc. but I've got young nephews and cousins that could easily get sucked into that and are young and malleable. Who knows what I'd have been like if my nerdy internet communities of the late mid 90s were like that. Hell, they might have been the internet was a lot different, but I was just as much of a stubborn little turd back then as I am now.
I was into speedruns way back during the first year of AGDQ, where you could make off-color "edgy" jokes and speedrunning was just mostly being comfy and watching normal MEN (well I guess they're not normal considering how autistic you have to be to speedrun) do this stuff.
I watched a Mike Tyson's Punchout speedrunner named Sinister1 who wrote his own damn book about the history of the game and seemed like a very well-adjusted fellow. Went to the gym, had a normal life, etc. But this was way back in like, 2012.
I got into speed runs way before AGDQ because in a lot of ways they let me see all these weird old games that no one had ever heard about before too many people were doing let's plays and all that of them.
Then AGDQ happened and it was actually pretty cool. I mean heck remember when it was just a room that could fit about 15 people at most at a time? The dudes then were way more awesome.
Then it got WEEEEEIRDDDDD a few years later.... Actually, and while this is different I think there is some overlap with the trans thing here.... what ruined it for me before the trans thing became too intolerable was it was no longer about speed running it seems. It basically became a bunch of people trying WAY too hard to be funny so people would watch their twitch or youtube channel and people who are WAYYY to desperate for attention and almost nothing about the game speedrun anymore. Gosh I remember one time this one runner started yelling at the crowd or something because they were having too much fun and making a few waluigi noises. Man that was awkward watching that live and is kinda where the whole thing started to go downhill to me.
Heck half the time [and I give this a pass if it was a donation incentive, but often isn't] they will just intentionally lose massive amounts of time to "show off" tricks in the game. Look, I get they probably were not going to get a new record but at least make it look like you are trying to or why am I even watching you half-ass a speed run.
I think this is one of the areas it became a big attraction to the trans people too. It became a big attentionwhore fest potential, but pretty crappy, youtubers and twitchers. Sometimes you still get someone in there who seems to actually be the old style speed runner but pretty rare.