Was Elon Musk playing a video game during Donald Trump's inauguration?

INTERNATIONAL – Elon Musk wears many hats, but does not yet have the gift of ubiquity. This is what Internet users managed to prove, piqued by curiosity when they saw the powerful billionaire boss attend Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony, while playing a video game at the same time. Path of Exile 2 (PoE) Monday January 20.

Far from the discussions provoked by his controversial gesture, the boss of X, Tesla or SpaceX has been under scrutiny for months by gamers around the world, especially since he boasted (wrongly) of having broken a record on Diablo IV. Bluffed or circumspect, the gamers began to observe his every move to detect the slightest cheating from the businessman. Or a possible sharing of Elon Musk's account with another player to improve his character and gain experience without needing to play regularly.

This is what New Zealand streamer Quin69, well known on Twitch for his talent on Path of Exile 2. During the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States, he was particularly surprised to see Elon Musk's account in action, while the latter was filmed live at the Capitol in Washington.

Live on Twitch at the same time, the expert Path of Exile 2 therefore took the liberty of highlighting this inconsistency, knowing that Elon Musk has always refused to inflate his level thanks to a third party. Earlier this month, the streamer had already taken the liberty of accusing the billionaire of calling on another player to “ manage your account », as the British media specializing in video games Dexerto reminds us.

If he recognized an admittedly high level, he noted in the games shared by Elon Musk details worthy of a much less experienced player. It was based in particular on a game broadcast by Twitch on January 7, where the billionaire's talent left something to be desired according to real fans of the game.

« I think he asks someone to completely pilot the account, then he logs in and plays occasionallys,” he said. “ During each stream, he sits there with a lot of background noise, talks about AI, Dogecoin, and then disconnects. I really think he was playing D4 (Diablo IV), he was addicted to that game, but now he clearly has no idea (what he's doing).”also released Quin69, quickly followed by other players confirming his accusations on Reddit.

Elon Musk admits he cheats… half

After several days of frenzied discussions, fueled by Elon Musk, other streamers and content creators around video games took up the subject and managed to confirm Quin69's theories. On January 15, Elon Musk even played the humor card by ironizing about his “ Chinese alter ego » supposed to play in his place.

Now pinned by streamers much more popular than Quin69 and presented with a fait accompli with the episode of Donald Trump's inauguration, Elon Musk ended up spilling the beans… indirectly. He in fact authorized the videographer known as NikoWrex to broadcast a video revealing private messages exchanged with him to confirm the deception.

In an article published Monday, the magazine Forbes retraced part of these exchanges: “ Have you already leveled up and/or purchased gear/resources for PoE2 and Diablo IV? “. Response from the interested party? “ It's impossible to beat players in Asia if you don't ».

Then asked about taking all the glory for the level of his characters, Elon Musk replied that he did not “ never claimed that », before adding that “Best accounts in Diablo or PoE require multiple people playing on the same account to win an upgrade race “. Finally, the YouTuber asked him if he planned to apologize to the community of Path of Exile 2 for this behavior that is rarely popular in the video game world. He simply replied: “What should I apologize for? ». True to himself.

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