Editing Sonic Wave (section)

==History==
===Creation and debates of legitimacy===
Sonic Wave was first created when Cyclic released a preview for a new Nine Circles level with a light blue colour scheme back in mid-Update 1.9<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SN98PJj0Cw</ref> (this version is now considered as Old Sonic Wave). The level was made to rival [[Poltergeist]] as the hardest [[Nine Circles Levels|Nine Circles level]]. The level was verified and published on 21 June 2015, shortly after being previewed; however, it was not rated since Cyclic's verification video was publicly cut after he claimed to have verified it without recording. A few players tried it, but none made much progress beyond the first ship. In July, Cyclic decided to delete the unrated level and created a buffed version with a dark blue colour scheme, based on a poll posted on Korean forums in which he asked users to choose among five colour schemes: black, dark blue, navy blue, yellow/green, or orange. This newly buffed version was published on 20 July 2015. This update made it far harder than [[Bloodbath]], and this time, Cyclic had a whole video without any cuts, so the level got featured for a little over two weeks.

The community debated whether this level had been hacked, since it was far too difficult for most players at the time. Most people accused Cyclic of hacking the level. Before Update 2.0, the level was replaced with a Back On Track remake, known commonly as Cyclic On Track. The level was eventually unrated through convoluted methods following negative reception on 7 August 2015.<ref group="Notes">Shortly after Sonic Wave was unrated and removed from the servers, unnerfed [[Fexty]] became the hardest rated level for a brief moment because, at that time, Bloodbath was still under its verification process. However, the actual hardest level beaten legitimately (harder than Bloodbath and Fexty) was coincidentally another blue-themed Nine Circles level, Windfall, which was [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh7FwrT0z1k verified] by a mobile player who believed it was [[Fairydust]] difficulty.</ref> In March 2016, Cyclic confessed to hacking both versions of Sonic Wave, verify-hacking the original and speed-hacking the buff-date. Shortly after, he admitted to hacking every other Demon he ever beat and quit [[Geometry Dash]], deleting his YouTube channel that housed both verification videos.

===Race to verify and remakes===
After Cyclic confessed to hack-verifying most of his achievements, Riot, Mefewe (both had been attempting the level since the buff-date's unveiling), and several other players tried to be the first to beat the level legitimately.

Mefewe has been making progress since before Cyclic's confession. His first progress came on 11 October 2015, when he reached 24%. Ten days later, he got 64-100%. Mefewe would make good progress on Sonic Wave for a month, even adding buffs to the level. He would get 72% on this version on 8 November 2015.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IUbKWmNVEc</ref> However, Mefewe buffing Sonic Wave would soon become a fatal mistake.

Riot was getting bored with Sonic Wave and asked [[Viprin]] to make a special remake for him: [[Sonic Wave Infinity]]. The name likely comes from XYZ Step Infinity, a buffed remake of XYZ Step. This remake made the level slightly darker and used Update 2.0 decorations and effects. While Sonic Wave Infinity was in development, Mefewe achieved a new best of 98% on his own buffed version of Sonic Wave live on Twitch on 25 March 2016, often considered the worst fail in Geometry Dash history, arguably even today.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7FzR4KdWeQ</ref> Ultimately, Mefewe eventually stopped being active. Despite that, the devastating fail made him more popular, and he later asked [[FunnyGame]] and [[Serponge]] to create another Sonic Wave remake: Alter Sonic Wave (later renamed [[Sonic Wave Rebirth]]). This level gave Sonic Wave a fresh design while keeping the gameplay the same. Two other players, [[Surv]] and Sunix (then known as Deam), also practised and made good progress.

Afterwards, [[Manix648]] and [[LazerBlitz]] created the third Sonic Wave remake: [[Auditory Breaker]].<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHQfR_PTK5g</ref> With high-quality designs and incredibly realistic decorations, many people considered it the best-decorated Sonic Wave remake. However, it lost its categorisation as a Nine Circles level. Manix648 chose Surv as the level's verifier. However, Surv eventually turned down Auditory Breaker mainly because he was chosen as the verifier of [[Yatagarasu]]. Riot also made further progress on Sonic Wave, reaching a 96% record,<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn3r0sjL7Ss&t=66s</ref> while Sunix achieved 88%.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJwFFDJspHM</ref> But soon after that, Sunix agreed to let Riot verify Sonic Wave first. However, six days after Sunix's 88% fail, Sunix finally verified Sonic Wave on 25 November 2016,<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpXTwPgweAk&t=5s</ref> effectively breaking his promise to Riot.

Later, Sunix apologised to Riot and said the level verification was unintentional. After removing the start position, Sunix only wanted to see how far he could get during one of his streams. However, that did not stop other players like Aurorus from getting angry with him. A few days later, Aurorus made a video claiming Sunix used macros and auto-clicking hacks to verify Sonic Wave. Eventually, the accusations were disproved. After Aurorus withdrew his claims, Sunix became recognised as the first official player to beat Sonic Wave, which significantly boosted his popularity.

When RobTop rated the level, he accidentally rated the copy of Sonic Wave on Cyrillic's account instead of Sunix's. It was quickly fixed.