Breaking A World Record – The Liveblog

Chris Cook is going to break a world record this week. In order to raise funds for gaming charity Special Effect (you can donate here), he’s attempting to set a new time for the Longest videogame marathon on a sports game by playing FIFA 15 on Xbox One. The current record is held by Jordan Bloemen and Scott Francis Winder who played FIFA 12 for 48 hours and 5 minutes.

Four of us are here as witness – independent observers with nothing to gain from Cook’s success. My job is to ensure that he follows the official Guinness World Record endurance rules, as well as the video game-specific ones. A quick summary:

• Chris needs to be playing the game at all times. Training and practice modes don’t count but loading screens and multiplayer lobbies do.
• If a prompt appears on-screen, Chris must respond to it within 20 seconds.
• He can accrue 10 minutes of rest every hour and stack these up to take longer breaks. Rest times does not count towards his record and he can’t use claim all at the end to extend his marathon time.
• Two witnesses must be on the premises at all times to ensure that he is adhering to the rules. Witnesses must work in shifts of no longer than 4 hours.
• One steward must be present at all times to check in witnesses and record activity times and rest breaks in the log book.

Cook has been going for over 13 hours now, excluding breaks, with at least another 365 to go. We witnesses have been sleeping in shifts but sharing a basement with a man who screams every time someone scores a goal in FIFA doesn’t get you the best of sleep. Here’s a liveblog, partly to tell you what’s been going on but mostly to keep me awake.