OpenTube

Are Stardew Valley Challenge Runs Being Faked?

Shark3143

161,853 views

11/2/2025 EDIT: GamerGar has taken down his video due to receiving abusive and threatening comments. I'm very disappointed that people went too far. Leave him alone.

11/1/2025 EDIT: GamerGar has come clean in a community post on his channel, admitting to using mods to fake fishing RNG and save time. This video remains, but let's be kind and give him a fair shot if he's willing to be held accountable and hopefully be responsible going forward. Cheers, y'all.

I don't condone harassment, so don't see this video as a call to action.

0:00 Intro
0:52 Part 1: Introduction to the Legend II
4:46 Part 2: The Binomial Distribution
8:39 Part 3: The Fishing Test
11:34 Part 4: EXP Watergate
21:08 Part 5: The Honest Man

Soundtrack is entirely from Stardew Valley.
Fall (Ghost Synth)
Frozen Pizza And Eggs (Shane's Theme)
Mines (Cloth)
Mines (Visitor To The Unknown)
Submarine Theme
JunimoKart (The Gem Sea Giant)
JunimoKart (Glowshroom Grotto)
Mines (The Lava Dwellers)
Exploring Our Vibrant World (Movie Theme)
Music Box Song
A Sad Song (Alex's Theme)

20 Comments

@Shark3143 Creator 11 months ago Pinned

GamerGar has made a post admitting fault and accepting responsibility for faking the run in response to my video, then took down his own video in turn.

I'm very disappointed to hear that he received abusive and threatening comments as a result of this video. I made this video to have an honest conversation and push for people to do better, not to go to war and fling insults or abuse. What's done is done, and we should let things settle and move on. Thanks.

@canaryvillage 11 months ago

Faking a challenge run for Stardew Valley of all things is so odd to me, especially when there's a huge community of min maxers who will not hesitate to call bullshit.

@Q_z_ 11 months ago

> Cheating allegations
> Looks inside
> Binomial distribution
> Hell yeah

well done on the investigation

@fami5893 11 months ago

"You Really Think Someone Would Do That? Just Go On the Internet and Tell Lies?"

@kyla2990 11 months ago (edited)

Also interesting to note: he's using UI info suite 2 for his exp bar. It normally shows exactly how much exp an action gives you, but he apparently turned that feature off. There are a lot of toggles for features in info suite, but it is interesting he turned that exact one off while keeping the exp bars

@BlaDeSDV 11 months ago

Good job on how you presented this. I will have a closer look at the specifics on the original video myself. It appears he is going for what is technically possible to do, but at this point it becomes infeasible to execute.

One thing I want to point out, regular quality fish don't get bumped up in quality on a perfect. So those regular quality fish in the inventory could have been perfect catches too.

The only quality you can't get with a perfect catch is silver.

@orionstokesweiss2344 11 months ago

Man, it finally makes sense how he somehow ends up higher fishing level than me all the time when I play with a mod that skips the minigame and gives me perfect catches...

@Skillfullfilms89 11 months ago (edited)

see, being honest is the best way to go about it. he could have very well used mods, while telling his viewers, to achieve the necessary results simply to state the statistical likelihood the way you have. even if it wasnt possible, the video could have transitioned partway into a "so x isnt possible, but for fun, what does it take to do x?" video.

edit: I want to mention i'm impressed and really appreciate your attitude about all this. 'vaguely disappointed' is, to me, what seems reasonable to feel. theres no need for torches and pitchforks, just an honest conversation.

@TheRandomGamer567 11 months ago

I noticed this too during that video, and I also noticed he had the luck icon for UI info suite turned off which was also suspicious imo

@hentter 9 months ago (edited)

and he ALWAYS get the Neptune’s Glaive before entering the mines. On every single video. And he never shows catching it, just appears on the invetory like magic

@iceflake6179 11 months ago

Really sucks seeing someone who started with good intentions get blinded by the algorithm.

@ngwoo 11 months ago

Even without any actual leaderboards or competitions involved this kind of thing is so unhealthy for a game community. It basically forces everyone else to also cheat just to have a chance at capturing attention. It's just a roundabout way of taking food off the table of other creators.

@MikePSU 11 months ago (edited)

Another note regarding EXP matters, for a comparisons' sake. BlaDe's "Now I am the Legend" catching the Legend on day 3 challenge. He entered day 3 already at Fishing Level 6 (using seed manipulation to maximize day 2 bubbles). And at best only hit level 8 by midnight. Assuming best case scenario blade got 3300 experience in 16 in game hours (7-AM to noon, 1 to midnight), . Even if GamerGar had somehow managed to fish for the maximum 20 full hours, that's still only 4125 experience. BlaDe is probably the most dedicated, knowledgeable and skilled person when it comes to doing these things for a challenge. The amount of EXP is just simply not possible without manipulation. To outdo BlaDe by 16% total experience gained per hour (best case scenario) should be further proof.

@Radar_of_the_Stars 11 months ago

he just has a good gamer chair

@0verv0ltage 11 months ago

Stardew Valley has had its dream moment.

@megfromhercules 11 months ago

I appreciate the respectful way you went about this. It’s not accusing or click-bait-ey, just informative.

@OblivionKnife 11 months ago

Youtube algorithm has probably turned challenge runs into a constant one upping the prior one mess which turns them into something akin to a spectacle that's fabricated for entertainment purposes over one that's statistically probable. "As long as it's entertaining" then it's okay if it's not genuine? Probably not, but yeah. Sadly the current state of things. Challenge runs that enter such mathematical improbabilities either necessitate live streams alongside it or uploaded raw footage of the successful clear/attempt to showcase validity.

@whimsylicsm 4 months ago

You know the expose video is good when they pull out binomial distribution.

@SkellyHell 11 months ago

You said at one point you can't know for sure how much bait he made which has me surprised that these sort of runs are done without a full unedited video of the challenge run itself, not just an edited version. The format opens itself to cheating in many ways

@BigDerfGaming 11 months ago

Having read the comments before watching the video because of the description, I was curious why you were so defensive of him, but after watching the whole video I get it, but like, sometimes 'meeting your heroes' doesnt work out. The videos will never feel real again to you no matter what now, and that sucks, but it's in no way what happened your fault. You didn't cheat, and inevitably when someone noticed the backlash because its the internet was gonna happen. You did a good job here.