Eric Habrich

The Hab Trio (Left to Right: Eric, Luke, Troy)

Eric Habrich is a major part of MK64 history. He's also considered a very controversial person by various people in the MK64 community.

"Eric" joined the MK64 site in 2003. Within one year he made history by becoming the #1 non-shortcut player in the world, in NTSC and also in NTSC and PAL combined (although PAL player Michael Jongerius took away that title from him after some battles). "Eric" provided many videos of his records. He even bought a server to host all his videos, so everyone could download them. This was appreciated a lot by the community.

In 2005 Eric suddenly announced that he's been lying to us all the time. Not about the times, those were real times. He told us he had been lying about his identity. In a video Eric and two friends of him announced that the times by "Eric Habrich" were in fact driven by three different players and not only by Eric. Those three players were: Eric Habrich, Troy Ullman and Luke Barnard.

According to that video: Eric Habrich only drove the WRs on Moo Moo Farm 3lap and flap. Troy Ullman drove the records on ... different tracks (including a very dominating CM 3lap WR). Luke Barnard drove the records on ... different tracks (including a historical 23"11 on MR flap). They announced their retirement in that video and said they created this confession video because they wanted us to know the truth about them before they retired.

This confession video caused a major shock to the MK64 community. After the initial shock people wondered if the confession was true. People also wondered if the MK64 updating team would allow those 3 players and their times to stay on the site.

In the end the MK64 staff decided that Eric, Troy and Luke would not be allowed on the site. The times were left up and frozen. The name "Eric Habrich" was removed and replaced by the name "Former Member". The MK64 staff made that decision, because there was still too much uncertainty about the truth behind Eric's identity. Some people believed the story in the confession video was true. Some other people believed that the confession video was simply a hoax that Eric made up as a (disrespectful) publicity stunt before leaving the site. Regardless of which option is more likely to be true, the staff felt that Eric, Troy and Luke can't be allowed back on the site, as long as there's still uncertainty about their true identities. So, unless Kevin Booth can meet up with them, to validate them in person, it's unlikely that they'll be allowed back. This situation is not a great solution for the site, but it's the best thing the MK64 staff could do.