shoka's 27:08

(note: shoka's 27:08 is no longer the record so this isn't really relevant anymore)

It was discovered recently that shoka's 27:08 Rockman 2 run uses 10 Hz autofire in some spots. 10 Hz autofire means that you can hold a button and automatically fire every 6 frames (compared to standard 30 Hz turbo, with which you fire every other frame). I first became suspicious of something like this when I restreamed his run shortly after he achieved it - I noticed that during the first vertical zip in Wily 1, his mashing sounded perfectly even, impossibly so for a human.

I personally do not think turbo should ever be used in any speedruns aimed to be considered legitimate in any circumstance, and the English-speaking Mega Man community (as well as the English-speaking speedrun community on the whole, for that matter, from what I've seen) agrees. However, this is a tough situation because 10 Hz mashing is slower than human mashing in many cases, and does not really provide any substantive advantage for Rockman 2. The difficulty of the game lies in the platforming. The only one spot that I can think of that would really benefit from consistent, automated mashing is the Wily 1 zip previously mentioned, where you want to jump a specific number of times in order to appear on the correct Y-coordinate when you transition to the above screen. It may also reduce the difficulty/risk of the final alien fight, though a skilled human masher could probably outperform 10 Hz mashing on that fight with ease.

I am choosing to treat shoka's run in the same way Kaede's Yoshi's Island 100% run is currently being treated. It is currently "virtually the WR," but by generally agreed-upon Western speedrunning rules it is not a legitimate speedrun in the most complete sense. I wholeheartedly think it is a better run than my 27:17 (yes, I retimed it, it's a very high 27:17) - it is much cleaner, despite using slightly worse strats. I by no means want shoka to be seen as a cheater or anything else of the sort by the community, as his run is definitely a realtime run that does not use TAS tools of any kind beyond the 10 Hz mashing. However, I believe the community deserves to know that the current Rockman 2 WR does have autofire in it. I'm choosing to still view it as the WR, and it will remain on joka's Mega Man leaderboard with a footnote of some kind, but you are free to form your own opinion given the information at hand.