SCP-1733

Item #: SCP-1733

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: The DVR containing SCP-1733 is to be kept in a secure video archive at Site-██. Playback of SCP-1733 is strictly forbidden unless required for research. Personnel must contact Dr. Geller for permission to study SCP-1733.

Description: SCP-1733 is a digital recording of the 2010-2011 NBA season opening game played at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts on 10/26/2010 between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat. Agents monitoring social networking sites were alerted to SCP-1733 when Boston native █████ ██████ complained in a Facebook thread on 10/27 about a technical foul in the third quarter involving players Ray Allen and Chris Bosh that never occurred in the original broadcast. When confronted, █████ ██████ uploaded the relevant segment much to the confusion of his derogators. Foundation agents embedded in Facebook's moderator team deleted the thread and procured the IP addresses of all individuals present at the chat at this time to locate and administer Class-A amnestics. The Motorola brand DVR containing SCP-1733 was recovered for study.

Study of the footage has since revealed the nature of the recording's anomalous properties. Although initially diverging from the original broadcast only negligibly, such as quarter point totals and occurrences of fouls, SCP-1733 has begun to markedly digress from the content of its earlier playbacks. Recorded entities have been observed to retain memory of previous playings, and as such have developed a burgeoning awareness of their existence. It is hypothesized that playbacks impart an unquantifiable measure of cognizance to the entities inhabiting SCP-1733, with consecutive playings greatly expanding recall of previous events. This effect is cumulative and extends to all persons in the arena. Quality of awareness has progressed from reported feelings of intense déjà vu by commentator personalities Mike & Tommy to a near-eidetic memory of preceding playbacks. However, to note, no entities inside SCP-1733 have ever addressed the viewer directly, or shown awareness that they reside in a digital recording.

The individuals in the recording are virtually indistinguishable from their real life counterparts in talent, behavior, and mannerisms on court. Fans in the crowd also appear to be real human beings in all respects, and Foundation inquiries into the current status of these persons has found nothing of note. For all intents and purposes, recorded entities appear to be the actual individuals but somehow abiding in a digital medium. TD Garden records have put the number of people in attendance on 10/26/2010 at ██████.

It was initially thought the purpose of SCP-1733 was to depict an infinite number of game outcomes, since players were able to modify offensive and defensive strategies during every playback. By playback 034, players and coaches became so keenly adapted to the opposing team's playbook that the score remained 0-0 until 3:34 in the first quarter. As quality of recall was still weak in early stage iterations, memory of preceding playbacks likely manifested as a vague intuition felt by players, fans, and team personnel alike, interfering with their ability to grasp the full scope of their situation.

By playback 045, however, comprehension of their predicament had reached such a point that players declined to play altogether and assembled with the rest of those in attendance to formulate possible escape plans. It is the conclusion of Foundation researchers that the inhabitants of SCP-1733 are imprisoned in the setting of the recording, as they have been unable to exit by any means. Doors leading out of the arena have not yielded to an estimated force in excess of █████ N. The assembly has also been unable to exit from locker rooms, player facilities, and skyboxes. Waiting for patrons arriving in at scripted points prior to the start of the first quarter has also been unsuccessful: individuals leave by where patrons entered and are then unable to navigate an escape from the adjacent corridors that girdle the main arena. Escape attempts have since grown more desperate, and have included failed attempts at constructing makeshift explosives, all-out rioting, the fracturing of the assembly into three opposing factions, and by playback ███ the ritualistic murder and disembowelment of players in the hopes of appeasing whatever it is that confines them (see Timeline Document 001 for details). However, upon the beginning of a new playback, all persons are returned to their pre-game status unharmed.

Researchers have been unable to duplicate the effects of SCP-1733 with other recordings made by the DVR, confirming the device is not the source of SCP-1733's aberrant properties. Due to the distress visited upon inhabitants of SCP-1733, testing has been suspended indefinitely.