Guitar Hero Pro Schmooey Outed for Cheating, Goes Dark

Guitar Hero might not be the powerhouse it once was. But even now, its prominent enough to not only have an active competitive community, but to have all the controversy that comes with it. In this case, the best Guitar Hero player in the world has been outed for cheating.

The story, brought to our attention by Kotaku, is referring to Schmooey, an online Guitar Hero player that, for the last few years, was considered to be the best player there was. He could complete songs that most others couldnt, even doing so at higher speeds than others. He had made some decent money from this skill, too, claiming bounties within the community for clearing the most difficult tracks.

But his endeavors came with suspicion. And that suspicion built until just recently, when YouTube content creator Karl Jobst uploaded a video, breaking down the various issues noticed with Schmooeys content. This brought enough light to the topic to lead to further investigations, which would eventually lead to all of the players records being disregarded.



For a long while, Schmooeys content was rough, but never bad enough to claim fake. That is, until last December, when he uploaded a clip of him playing 9 Patterns of Eternal Pain. Closer examination revealed that the notes on screen and the finger pressings on the controller did not match up quite right. It was also noticed that the Windows Media Player overlay appeared for a brief moment. This led to Schmooey being accused of playing pre-recorded footage over a livestream.

When pressured, Schmooey resisted, but eventually admitted to having faked a few of his videos. They claimed that the rest were legitimate, however. Once people knew what to expect, examination of other videos took place, where around 100 different clips were now under accusation of being faked.

After it all was brought out, Schmooey posted an apology video on January 15. He then deleted all of his video uploads, locked is social media, and went dark. In a final act, he also paid back the bonties he had received over the years.

This kind of community is the closest a rhythm game will get to a speedrunning community. In such circles, things like creating falsified content are considered one of the most unforgivable things you can do. Admittedly, its a little surprising it took years for it to be noticed.

Its not our place to pass judgement. But we do want to express an appreciation that Schmooey returned the bounty money. While were sure there was plenty of social pressure to do so, weve seen plenty of folks simply turn and run when confronted about money.