They have been racing for a month

It's been one month since the sound of engines began. The hardest track ever created in Trackmania was published by a team of mappers on May 4th, bringing an intimidating 16-floor tower called Deep Dip 2 into the racing game. It became a magnet for competitive drivers after a prize pool of over $30,000 was offered to the first three players to conquer its hellish heights. The prize has yet to be claimed. Even today, determined racers continue to bang their heads against the brutally designed course, featuring icy surfaces, curving rails, and perilous loop-the-loops that hang kilometres about the ground. Some players have parked their hopes and given up. But others persevere. The top three players have reached the final floor and currently stand shoulder to shoulder, eyes focused on the prize.

At the time of writing, the remaining competitors are warring it out at a particular spot on floor 16, tantalisingly close to the finish line. To proceed, they have to perform a nigh-impossible trick that involves crawling along a vertical surface on two wheels. It is disgusting. The three players currently in the running are "Larstm", "Hazardu", and "BrenTM" - whose personal bests now all stand within a couple of metres of each other.

One racer who has bowed out of the contest is Øyvind "Wirtual" Iversen, a prominent Trackmania speedster who got as far as floor 14, a hefty achievement in itself.

"It sorta gets to the point where the way we're playing the map now, we just have to drive for half an hour," says Iversen in a video where he explains the reasons he is throwing in the towel. "Half an hour of perfect driving without falling just to explore the hardest floor. And it feels very unrewarding in that sense.

"The map I think is too difficult. The difficult floors should be earlier in the map because this way of exploring is so taxing... This is the type of map that you need the determination and iron will of, like, a god. Seriously."

He also admits that, as a YouTuber, he can't do the same thing over and over again and expect viewers to keep tuning in. That, and normal life must go on. "If I keep playing Deep Dip now," he says, "it'll be destructive to the rest of my life."

But Iversen also encourages people to support the remaining drivers.

"I am so incredibly impressed with their progress," said Iversen, "and you only get such a huge respect for this the more you play the map... It's completely bewildering to me."

Iversen once beat Trackmania blindfolded. When someone like that nopes out of a challenge, you know it's a tortuously difficult task. Yet the end is in sight and, barring some Sisyphean nightmare trap metres before the finish line, one of the remaining contestants is sure to take the prize money any day.