[The schedule for Summer Games Done Quick 2021 is live](https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule) and, as always, the week-long speedrunning marathon is packed with exciting runs to raise money for [Doctors Without Borders](https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/). SGDQ will take place from July 4-11, 2021.



With such a packed schedule, you truly cannot go wrong watching any part of SGDQ. That said, here are just some of the runs to look out for this year.



---



## [Mega Man X - 100% -- SNES (Race)](https://www.speedrun.com/mmx) by Tiki, Darrenville, Luiz Miguel, and Clipper

### *Sunday, July 4 - 12:36 P.M. PT / 3:36 P.M. ET*

Mega Man X is a GDQ staple but that does not mean we have seen it all. This race will showcase a new route, Chameleon 3rd which the runners say is, “an exciting route which maximizes strat execution and minimizes RNG.” The race will be a fun time for all.



---



## [Kirby Super Star - Any% -- SNES](https://www.speedrun.com/kss#Any) by Nippo

### *Sunday, July 4 - 2:25 P.M. PT / 5:25 P.M. ET*

Everyone’s favorite pink hero from the planet Popstar will be making several appearances throughout SGDQ including this run which features some amusing shenanigans including one-hit KO mini-bosses and wall-clipping. Nippo and Kirby are sure to be entertaining.



---



## [Sundered - Resist% -- PC](https://www.speedrun.com/sundered#Resist) by JeviLevee

### *Monday, July 5 - 10:48 A.M. PT / 1:48 P.M. ET*

Taking advantage of the game’s layered movement and combat mechanics, second-place runner JeviLevee will show off Sundered’s interesting interplay between Metroidvania and Roguelite mechanics while defying the will of an eldritch being. In this game, knowing the destination isn’t enough. Sundered runners need the quick thinking required to adapt to changing pathways.



---



## Castlevania Block (plus Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night)

### *Tuesday, July 6 - 5:18 A.M. PT / 8:18 A.M. ET*

### [Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - Miriam Any% MG --PC](https://www.speedrun.com/bsrotn) by Bane (5:18 A.M. PT / 8:18 A.M. ET)

### [Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - Soma All Bosses -- DS](https://www.speedrun.com/cvdos#Soma) by Diagon (5:53 A.M. PT / 8:53 A.M. ET)

### [Castlevania 64 - Reinhardt vs. Carrie bidwar — N64](https://www.speedrun.com/cv64) by Ty2358 (6:49 A.M. PT / 9:49 A.M. ET)

### [Castlevania: Bloodlines - any% Eric Normal — Genesis](https://www.speedrun.com/castlevania_bloodlines#Any_Eric) by Mannix86 (7:46 A.M. PT / 10:46 A.M. ET)

### [Castlevania: Rondo of Blood - Any% — Wii VC](https://www.speedrun.com/rondo) by AgentWyvern (8:31 A.M. PT / 11:31 A.M. ET)

### [Castlevania - Any% Race — NES](https://www.speedrun.com/cv1) by 2snek, Freeland, and Shockra_tease (9:16 A.M. PT / 12:16 P.M. ET)

The Castlevania series (and its spiritual successor Bloodstained) are speedrunning favorites, and this block of incredible top-ranking runners playing titles from throughout the series is going to be a treat. Definitely a must-see.



---



## [Untitled Goose Game - 100% Co-op -- PC](https://www.speedrun.com/goose#Any) by Tasselfoot and Thundar001

### *Tuesday, July 6 - 9:39 P.M. PT / Wednesday, July 7 12:39 A.M. ET*

Co-operative speedrunning takes a ridiculous amount of coordination and together these runners hold first place in this two-player category. Make sure to catch their chaotic romp through an English village as they terrorize NPCs and exploit glitches to give us a show.



---



## [Coca-Cola Kid - Any% — Game Gear (Race)](https://www.speedrun.com/cck) by Sharif and Grumpmeister

### *Wednesday, July 7 - 3:27 A.M. PT / 6:27 A.M. ET *

Coca-Cola kid is one of those weird license games that is already interesting for its oddness alone and the speedruns of this game are a treat to watch with the titular Coca-Cola Kid jumping and rushing through levels. Just two years ago the run was more than 40 minutes long, but Sharif and Grumpmeister have sub-12-minute times on the board. Do not miss this fast-paced race!



---



## [Ristar - Any% Race - Genesis](https://www.speedrun.com/ristar) by Chronoon, Lizstar, ShimeGabriel, and Haram_Scaram

### *Thursday, July 8 - 7:10 A.M. PT / 10:10 A.M. ET*

Four top runners will face off to rush through this Genesis gem with plenty of fun tricks, tech, and skips throughout. It’s been two years since Ristar’s last appearance on the GDQ stage and this is a great chance to see how the run has evolved since then!



---

## Sonic Block

### *Thursday, July 8 - 8:37 A.M. PT / 11:37 A.M. ET*

### [Sonic Colors (DS) - All Red Rings — DS](https://www.speedrun.com/sonic_colors_ds#All_Red_Rings) by Speedbreaker55 (8:37 A.M. PT / 11:37 A.M. ET.)

### [Sonic 3D Blast - Beat the Game 2 Players 1 Controller with TGH — Sega Genesis (Wii VC)](https://www.speedrun.com/sonic3dblast) by TGH and AmberCyprian (9:37 A.M. PT / 12:37 P.M. ET)

### [Sonic CD 1993 - Beat The Game — Sega CD](https://www.speedrun.com/scd) by JoeyBaby69 (10:32 A.M. PT / 1:32 P.M. ET)

### [Sonic Adventure 2: Battle - Hero Story vs Dark Story Bidwar — PC](https://www.speedrun.com/sa2b) by Dage4 (11:07 A.M. PT / 2:07 P.M. ET)

Who could forget this past January when Sonic speedrunnners made history with GDQ’s first ever back-to-back record break. I guess we should expect it from runners of a franchise that’s already about going fast. The Sonic speedrun community is queued up for four runs on Thursday with a Sonic Heroes TAS showcase happening later on Friday.



---



## [Pokemon Black/White - Any% Black vs. White Race — Nintendo DS](https://www.speedrun.com/pkmnbw1) by PulseEffects and Swiftalu

### *Thursday, July 8 - 4:44 P.M. PT / 7:44 P.M. ET*

It’s always fun to compare the different Pokemon versions in a generation and now is a chance to compare the fifth gen games side-by-side as PulseEffect plays Pokemon Black and Swiftalu plays Pokemon White. Which version will prevail this time?



---



## [Celeste Custom Maps - Glyph All A-Sides --PC](https://www.speedrun.com/glyph_pack#All_A-Sides) by Frozenflygone

### *Friday, July 9 12:49 P.M. PT / 3:49 P.M. ET*

Celeste runs are always full of visual spectacle, exciting movement tech, and tense gameplay. And the modding community is just as impressive with all kinds of cool custom maps. Frozenflygone is first on the leaderboard for this run so you know there is going to be some serious skill on display. 



---

## [Spongebob’s Truth or Square - Any% -- Xbox 360 (Race)](https://www.speedrun.com/sbtos) by Jaxler and BubbleBass

### *Friday, July 9 10:07 P.M. PT / Saturday, July 10 1:07 A.M. ET*

Developed by the same studio behind the speedrunning icon, Battle for Bikini Bottom, this race will pit two top runners against one another as they skip entire levels and take the game’s physics to new heights (with spin boosts that give Spongebob a big vertical boost).



---



## [Storks and Apes and Crocodiles - 100% -- SNES](https://www.speedrun.com/storks) by Superben

### *Friday, July 9 10:47 P.M. PT / Saturday, July 10 1:47 A.M. ET*

There are plenty of cool Mario speedruns scheduled throughout SGDQ but don’t miss this Kaizo ROM hack of Super Mario World. Kaizo ROM hacks are notoriously difficult and often require near-perfect inputs, so the tensions will be high throughout the run!



---



## [Pokemon Emerald - any% Glitchless — Gamecube](https://www.speedrun.com/pkmnemerald#Any_Glitchless) by AmoebaUK

### *Saturday, July 10 - 5:56 A.M. PT / 8:56 A.M. ET*

In addition to the vast array of knowledge and adaptability that any Pokemon speedrun requires, Pokemon Emerald features the mach bike which allows for quick but dangerously tight movement through the overworld. Also, as AmoebaUK’s run submission notes, “It also uses Mudkip. People love Mudkip.” I couldn’t agree more.





With a packed schedule, SGDQ is coming to our screens July 4-10. We've picked a few highlights, but you cannot go wrong watching any of these awesome speedruns.

SGDQ 2021's schedule has a speedrun for everyone

With the [schedule for GamesDoneQuick (GDQ)’s summer event](https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule) being published this week alongside [the European Speedrunner Assembly (ESA) opening their summer games submissions](https://oengus.io/marathon/ESA-Sum21), I felt it the perfect time to share some advice on what the games selection crews will be looking for. 



I’ve been working on numerous games selection teams around the world for almost four years now and evaluating thousands of submissions each year gives me a lot of insight into what works and what doesn’t. Let’s take a dive into the world of speedrun marathons, and see what exactly I’m looking for when somebody submits to ESA.



## Where To Look?

Speedrunning marathons appear very daunting at first. I remember physically shaking due to nerves before my first run at a live event, knowing that I had to prove myself to thousands of onlookers. Many casual fans of speedrunning believe that the marathon titans such as ESA & GDQ are the only places you can go to showcase your skills. This isn’t true, and as I am writing this article there are dozens of smaller marathons waiting for runners to show what they can do. The easiest place to look is on [Oengus’ main page](https://oengus.io/) which will show all public marathons currently accepting submissions. Here you can also view a description of the marathon, their goals and what they wish to showcase whether it be dedicated to a specific genre or category of speedruns. 



You might ask yourself what the point is of submitting to smaller marathons when all the fame and glory is elsewhere. The simple answer is experience. Smaller marathons can be a great stepping stone in order to dip your feet into the notion of performing in front of a crowd. There is a lot of pressure to do well in the larger marathons, as the standards are usually much higher. Gaining experience by assisting other events can give you both a unique perspective of testing the waters for yourself and also allow a games selector to see that you’ve done a showcase before in a pressuring environment and thrived in the process. Don’t rule out a marathon because of the location, as currently, most events are solely online so this is a perfect time to expand your horizons beyond your continent and perform all around the world!



## What To Submit?

You should always put your best foot forward when it comes to events, that much is obvious. What isn’t obvious however is the specifics on what a games selection team will be looking for. It of course varies depending on the event, but most rules will apply to most marathons you will see around:



**Run Length:** If you submit a five-hour run, that is five or more other runners who won’t be able to showcase their shorter speedruns. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t submit longer titles, but you need to evaluate whether you can carry that whole five hours and make every minute worth sitting down for. If you submit an extremely long game, you might also need to be more flexible with potentially playing at a less popular hour due to the fact that prime time for Europe and North America will usually not showcase longer runs.



**Runner Skill:** In order to pull off a solid marathon run, you need to be confident in your abilities to perform well without the usual factor of being able to reset should things go south. This is what separates most players, as the best marathon runners will have a backup plan for absolutely everything and be prepared for the worst.



**Entertainment Value:** A huge misconception is that a marathon run is at all similar to a personal best attempt on your own stream. This is absolutely not the case, and while skill is definitely still a factor, how entertaining you are is far more important. Some of the best marathon runs of all time have been a complete trainwreck in terms of execution, that’s what makes them entertaining to watch. You don’t need to have the world record in your game, what’s important is that you can keep the crowd entertained regardless of what is happening on screen. **Note:  Event organizers will love you if you record a dedicated run with marathon-like commentary, rather than submitting your personal best time!**



**Commentary Quality:** This trickles down from entertainment value, but commentary is specifically important. You will need to be talking actively during your showcase, as 99% of people watching will have never seen this speedrun before. You will need to explain how the glitches work, why you’re doing certain things, the reasoning behind the decisions you are making. Dedicated commentators are also great as it is extremely difficult to play at a high level while also explaining everything under the pressure of the environment. It doesn’t matter who is doing it, but someone needs to keep the conversation going. **If your submission has no commentary, your chances of getting accepted are astronomically lower than if you submit a commentated run!**



## Rules & Regulations

It’s important to check the guidelines for any marathon you plan to submit to and make sure your submission matches their standards to the best of your ability. As before, it varies but if you follow these steps it is hard to go far wrong:



**Stream Quality:** As we are experiencing events going solely online, you will be streaming using your own equipment from home. This means you will need to output a certain quality video feed that can be broadcasted to the masses. ESA requires a minimum stream bitrate of 2.5Mbit (2500), but each marathon will likely have their own number to follow depending on the game’s resolution and aspect ratio. If you’re unsure, just ask!



**Facecam:** Some marathons might require you to use a facecam for the entirety of your run. If you don’t own one, there are easy ways to turn your mobile phone into a facecam that will save you needing to spend a lot of money on a good quality one that you don’t plan on using again.



**Races:** If you are submitting a race, it is best practice to bring along a dedicated commentator for the ride. This is because runner commentary can be quite fragmented when they are competing against another player, and the audience would prefer to hear both sides of what’s going on. A dedicated commentator also means that the runners can concentrate on their run without the bonus stress of being entertaining. You should also check if there is a maximum number of participants allowed to race, as some events will not allow more than two participants to compete at any one time.



## The Submission Process

There’s a lot of information to go over during the submission process, as the games selectors need to know some background information about yourself and your submission. Remember that the selectors might have never played nor seen your game, so do your best to use Layman’s terms where possible:



**Availability:** Here you can specify exactly when you will be available to run. In general, you should include the times you’re available to start and finish, rather than just the times you can start your run. For example, if you get home from school at 4 p.m. and have football practice at 8 p.m., write your availability as something like 4:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.. **Do not submit your availability as a wishlist of popular time slots! We need to know when you are available, and shortening those hours will just decrease the chances of you being accepted.**



**Your Links:** Here you can fill in your personal information (Discord/Twitch/Twitter/etc.) as well as site links to your speedrun.com profile and the leaderboards for the games you are submitting. Don’t worry if your game doesn’t have an official leaderboard on speedrun.com, you can submit other websites or even a spreadsheet if that’s what your community uses. 



**Donation Incentives / Bid Wars:** These are a way for you to include a little spice in your submission, and are usually used to raise funds for charities. An incentive is something you can do once a certain goal is met. For example, you could complete a bonus level, or show off a cool glitch. A bid war is slightly different, as it is a list of options viewers can choose at home to influence your run. A great example is the language choice of the game or an outfit for your character that somebody could donate for (remember to include all the options in the field)!



**Estimate:** This is an estimate of how long you expect the run to take, start to finish. This should be a time that you can complete your run while accommodating for any potential failures you’d expect in a no reset attempt. There’s no right or wrong answer here, but a good general guideline is a 10-minute buffer for every hour of gameplay involved. The only true way to see what would work for you is to do some practice runs and see what times you get. Also please remember that you are not racing to beat your estimate, you are supposed to match it. Do not submit an extremely lenient estimate just so you can look good in front of the crowd, and on the other side of the coin don’t feel like you’ve failed if you go over your estimate. It is much better to go two minutes over than ten minutes under!



**Game & Category Descriptions:** This is your chance to tell the game selectors why your submission is worth showing to the world. Include a brief summary of the game, what it’s about and why it’s interesting to you. Also include some specifics about the category you’ve submitted, be sure to write about cool glitches and mechanics you use in the run! To reiterate, the people evaluating your submission may know nothing about the game so it is very important to justify your submission while keeping it concise and to the point. 



## The Waiting Game

The reality is that unfortunately most runs submitted to marathons are rejected. However, this doesn’t mean you should give up and never submit again. It’s similar to a job-hunting process, game selectors get hundreds if not thousands of submissions and usually have to cut at least 90% of the content they receive. I cannot speak for every scheduler out there, but if someone were to ask for feedback surrounding their submission I would happily give them some pointers if they missed the mark somewhere, or simply let them know that we had to cut the run due to time constraints. It is very rare that a submission is automatically declined without being evaluated, so it is best to not take it personally and instead use that as motivation to succeed the next time!



Submitting to a run to a speedrunning marathon can be an intimidating process. We've got some advice to make the most of your application!

Submitting to Speedrunning Marathons

For this month’s community spotlight, we spoke to Coldeggman, an Animal Crossing speedrunner who recently completed a month-long Animal Crossing: New Leaf 100% run.



## THE LONGEST SPEEDRUN



Hypothetically, a runner could intentionally stretch out a run of almost any game and call it the longest speedrun, but this is a real-time, first-place speedrun that is incredibly long because it has to be that way.



Previously, this record was held by [Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean 100% with a world record runtime of 338:43:26 (a bit more than 14 days)](https://www.speedrun.com/baten_kaitos_eternal_wings_and_the_lost_ocean#100), so how did Coldeggman beat that?



Animal Crossing: New Leaf introduced a badge system that rewards players for certain achievements including the “Villager of Honor” badge which is awarded for 500 hours of playtime.



Because of this badge, nobody has completed a 100% speedrun of New Leaf since it was released. No one, that is, until Coldeggman.



For as much as 12 hours a day throughout most of April, he played New Leaf, working to collect the various other badges while he let the 500-hour clock tick by 24/7.



In the end, his run clocked in at 638:27:29 (almost 27 days).



“It's still weird to me that I was able to pull that off. I was always telling myself that I wouldn't make it past like the first week,” said Coldeggman.



This run was in a league of its own even for someone like Coldeggman who has experience competing in 20+ hour categories.



## THE RUNNER



Coldeggman has played Animal Crossing games since childhood and since 2017 he’s collected world records in titles throughout the franchise.



Starting with the original Animal Crossing for the Gamecube, Coldeggman learned and practiced the shorter runs like “All Debts” and “Golden Net.” From there, he put together the building blocks of the 100% run.



He became interested when he saw a clip of the at-the-time World Record holder, P4ntz, entering some “Tom Nook Codes” to acquire specific items for the run. Coldeggman timed himself entering the same codes and found that his untrained inputs were as much as 20 seconds faster than P4ntz’s had been.



P4ntz had set the record at 38:00:37, but Coldeggman was able to bring that time down to 27:02:17 and from there, he has improved the Animal Crossing 100% run to 19:25:35.



It can be tough to imagine a single stream of 20+ hours and Coldeggman says it takes practice to focus for such a long time. 



“I used to do like a 24-hour stream every month which is bad for your health so I try not to do that much now,” he said.



For a lot of speedruns, the common wisdom is to grind a run in full to make progress but with runs that long it is not realistic or healthy so prepping for runs involves practicing different segments, menu navigation (aka ‘menuing’), and movement.



Coldeggman said that movement doesn’t seem like it would be that important in Animal Crossing games, but tighter control can add up in a competitive setting.



While he has run other Animal Crossing games, the Gamecube original is his favorite. “I would say Gamecube and New Leaf are very, very close but I think I would put Gamecube just slightly ahead just because I’ve played it ever since I was way younger,” he said.



But again, even 27 hours is nothing compared to 27 days.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/d3ekd5zx.jpg)## 600+ HOURS



The idea came to him during a walk on the very first day of this year. “I just thought to myself ‘wait a minute, since there's a 500-hour badge in New Leaf, I wonder if you could do a 100% speedrun of it.’ I just laughed it off at first but quickly got to work on it.”



For most other runs, Coldeggman tries to jump into them pretty quickly, but for this one, he needed some time for more planning and mental preparation. He practiced and frequently modified the route.



“I had already decided on doing two streams a day, with an hour-long break in between to take a mental break which really, really helped in the end and I think without that I wouldn't have been able to do it for sure,” he said.



But even with all his preparation, as Coldeggman worked on acquiring every badge, he found something which had slipped through the cracks.



Some of the items he needed could only be purchased through Club Tortimer, an online function which Coldeggman already banned from the run due to the risk of encountering hackers or other issues that would disrupt the record.



The only alternative was to hope for an incredibly unlikely RNG-dependent interaction. After some tense consideration, the decision was made to ignore those items for this run.



“It was really stressful having to deal with that in the middle of the run not knowing about it beforehand,” he said.



Despite setbacks, Coldeggman eventually achieved the 500-hour “Villager of Honor” badge and from there he just had to tie up some loose ends to reach 100%.



After 27 days, he completed the longest real-time first-place speedrun. “It was a very emotional moment for sure,” he said. “Would I ever do it again? Probably not...It was a very stressful experience a lot of the time. Still fun, but man it was rough a lot of the time.”



As far as advice for anyone considering a run this long, Coldeggman doesn’t think it’s for everyone. “Unless you were super motivated...I wouldn’t recommend doing a run like this. You have to be very good at playing for long periods of time...but despite that, I’d say just make sure you take breaks often and eat/drink properly to keep your health in check.”



Overall, just take care of yourself. This is a cool achievement but you should always make sure to take care of your health first and foremost!



## WHAT IS NEXT



Even right after that huge undertaking, Coldeggman has some future runs in mind. He’s considering jumping back into some other Animal Crossing titles and might further improve that Animal Crossing 100% run with some new discoveries and strategies.



To anyone considering running Animal Crossing, he said, “I definitely recommend it. If you’re talking about the Gamecube one, start with ‘All Debts’ or ‘Golden Net.’ It’s actually a very fun speed-game. It’s very chill. It’s not too complicated and it's pretty easy to learn. It’s not just RNG there’s a lot of skill involved too.”  



*Check out Coldeggman on Twitch [here](https://www.twitch.tv/Coldeggman/about).*



What's the longest speedrun you've ever done? This month's Spotlight focuses on Coldeggman who recently completed a speedrun that took more than 26 days. That's dedication, folks!

Spotlight: Coldeggman and Animal Crossing

It’s always an exciting time when the new game in a series you enjoy comes out - but what does this mean for speedrunners? Different speedrunning communities that run a game or games within a series may act differently if a new game is coming to the series. There are many different factors that take part in a community or individual's decision to run the next game in the series. Even still,  it’s pretty safe to say that most people who’ve dumped potentially dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of hours into the series will at least give the new game a chance — so what happens after that?



## Change — for better or worse



A determining factor for whether a new game will attract runners from previous games in the series is how different the new game is. Usually one of the first things a runner will do when they start routing the new game is to try glitches, exploits, and other strats that worked in previous games. The process of learning how a game works and routing it to play as fast as possible is always an exciting one - but when you get to apply previous knowledge to that process the anticipation and then resulting excitement (or potentially disappointment) is *way* higher.





### Some Examples



It’s interesting to see the different decisions runners have made within a series. For instance, the greater Mario community seems to be split into smaller communities primarily by console generation. The top 20 runners of [Super Mario Bros](https://www.speedrun.com/smb1) almost exclusively run Mario games on the NES or Famicom (FDS). This wasn’t just the case with the NES Mario runners either, the same concept applied when I checked the top 20 runners of Super Mario 64 (N64), Super Mario Sunshine (Gamecube/Wii), *and* Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo Switch).

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/2yzrmme4.jpg)

*[Source](https://veryverygaming.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/super-mario-bros-through-the-ages-1-e1476273399706.jpg?w=640)*



This is interesting because presumably each generation of Mario games changed a fair bit, and runners seem to like sticking to the games they’re familiar with. I can’t imagine there’s much that can be applied from a 2D side scroller to a 3D third-person platformer. It also seems to be this reason that the communities for the mainline Mario games differ from those within the Mario Kart community and other Mario games.



Another interesting case is the Pokémon series community, who seem to enjoy running pretty much every mainline Pokémon games, only diverging when it comes to Pokémon games in other genres like [New Pokémon Snap](https://www.speedrun.com/new_pokemon_snap) and the [Mystery Dungeon games](https://www.speedrun.com/pmddx). I assume this is likely for the same reason as the Mario series, the only difference being that the mainline Pokémon games haven’t had *quite* as much variance comparatively.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/v5nggknq.jpg)*[Source](https://www.gamingscan.com/pokemon-games-in-order/)*



## New DOOM Releases



My personal experience with transitioning speedgames in a series was with the 2016 reboot of [DOOM](https://www.speedrun.com/d2016) and the release of [DOOM Eternal](https://www.speedrun.com/doom_eternal). DOOM 2016 Any% speedruns rely very heavily on 3 different tricks; [Railboosting](https://youtu.be/rr9V0PQNMhY) (which flies you in a certain direction at lightning speed), [Glory Kill Clipping](https://youtu.be/pZji9Asa4Tc), and [Gauss Boosting](https://youtu.be/Lon5EIrn9ZY?t=270). Leading up to the launch of DOOM Eternal, the DOOM community was pretty sure that all of these things were going to be removed, considering Eternal was being made on a brand new iteration of the IDTech Engine. 

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/9qzppwz3.jpg)*[Source](https://youtu.be/4dzCLAPL4wk)*



On the day of launch, everyone was eager to test these tricks out and see what else could be found. As it turns out; Railboosting had been not entirely removed, but limited due to the change in level design/geometry, Glory Kill Clipping was also technically not removed but happened far less often (and with less enemies), and Gauss Boosting was technically gone since the Gauss Cannon was replaced with the Ballista, but it had the same recoil effect that let you boost around the level — so we just called it Ballista Boosting. 



While some of the tricks we had used before were either removed or limited, it was not even 5 minutes into the game before [Seeker__](https://www.speedrun.com/user/seeker_) discovered that if you spammed jump inputs fast enough on a sloped surface, they would stack and send you flying into the air. Needless to say, this trick essentially replaced railboosting — almost becoming *MORE* powerful. Especially with the more open level design of Eternal compared to 2016. That wasn’t the only new trick either. New tech dubbed “zipping” was found, which could “zip” you forward allowing you to skip triggers and death barriers, among other uses. Even other general gameplay mechanics like the combat and movement were vastly different, allowing you to traverse through levels incredibly quickly.



Shortly after release, previous DOOM 2016 runners mostly decided that they preferred just running the old game. However, the release of Eternal exploded the DOOM Speedrunning Discord, and there was a massive influx of all kinds of runners who were interested in DOOM Eternal. There were runners who were interested in the super skip heavy Any%, runners who wanted to run the combat-focused 100%, and also runners who were interested in the No Major Glitches category that focused primarily on a wide variety of smaller tricks rather than just a few very strong ones.



Now that Eternal has been out for over a year and two DLCs have been released, the “new” runners who started with DOOM Eternal are still around and enjoying it like they always have -  but also interestingly enough, the updates and DLC to the game have managed to attract a few of the DOOM 2016 runners.



What can we take away from this? Well, it seems to be fairly common whether its Mario, Pokemon, or DOOM, that speedrunners tend to stick to the games they’re familiar with. And yet, new games in the series bring in new runners who can benefit from experiences from previous runners and bring renewed energy to the series — maybe even bringing the previous runners around to the new game.



## Conclusion



It’s really interesting taking a look into speedruns of games within a series, because it’s interesting to see how the individual runners with different likes and dislikes react to each installment having their own features - some similar across the series and some very different. I enjoy seeing the runs of these games, in particular, take shape on release, just because of the previous history and potential future, it’s a really unique experience to witness.



Anywho, I’ve talked your ear off enough about my thoughts and experiences with series runs, go drink some water, and don’t forget to save those frames.



When a new game is released in a series, what can speedrunners take away from speedruns of earlier titles? 

Speedrunning games in a series

Within 24 hours, top Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (WWHD) runner [mralberto23](https://www.speedrun.com/user/mralberto23) has broken not just one, but ***three*** barriers in WWHD speedrunning. On May 2, he finished WWHD 100% in *under 5 hours for the first time ever*, clocking in at a blazing [4:59:20](https://youtu.be/-InOwuE-8XA) — breaking the first hour barrier since June 2017 when gymnast86 got his [5:59:48.](https://www.speedrun.com/twwhd/run/yl9k48ky)



The following day, mralberto returned to his original category of choice — Any%. Although there were obstacles to overcome and resets to be had, he managed to clutch out a [sub-50-minute Any% Unrestricted](https://youtu.be/hT0FfX-Rr68) and [sub-1:10 Any% No MSS](https://youtu.be/3lOgcWI6iec) — a sweep of the Any% category.



## New Discoveries & Developments



2020 and 2021 brought some amazing discoveries for the WWHD community. Some left only a small impact, but others were absolutely game-changing.



## 2020



In 2020, a consistent setup was discovered by [BowserIsBored](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5APAX3dZxB8yav2RbuAiaA) where if you die on the *same frame* you trigger the loading zone for the second Forsaken Fortress cutscene, you can re-enter later on without the game crashing where it normally would have. This allows you to return later when you normally wouldn't be able to, skipping an entire trip to Hyrule — chopping off a hefty 4 minutes from the run. (Keep this in mind for later!



2020 also brought along the decision to use a [community-developed RNG calculator](https://youtu.be/1hs451PfFzQ) that allows runners to consistently do the battlesquid minigame, which was a big run killer before caused only by randomness. Finally, the big kicker in 2020 was the absolutely bonkers [Puppet Ganon Skip.](https://youtu.be/9s93pFJcjzQ?t=244) discovered by [Joaish](https://www.twitch.tv/joaish) (PG Skip for short).

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/0dz48ke6.jpg)[Image source](https://youtu.be/aUo4HZI4-Iw)



As a twist of fate, 100% is the only category where PG skip is possible (out of the 3 records mentioned) since it requires the hookshot. It *also* happens to be the **longest**, and this incredibly scary trick happens within the *last 5 minutes of the 5-hour run.* Why is it so scary? Well, you need to: hookshot up high, fall down on top of the entrance doorway where you roll clip out of bounds (while Puppet Ganon attacks you), and shoot fire arrows up to the top of the room where the extended hitbox of the fire arrows can (hopefully) hit 2 Morths, which will then have a 38% chance to jump onto the pot lid and burn it, allowing you to teleport up to the top — skipping the fight. Essentially, there’s a 62% chance you fail it and lose a minute and a half for every time you need to retry.



![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/0wzxxdzr.jpg)[Image source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdNfeMDrN7Q)



Oh, and by the way, mralberto did this trick on the *first try* in his 4:59 run.



## 2021



The main theme around discoveries in 2021 seems to be strategies to skip cutscenes — a speedrunner's worst enemy. 



In March, WWHD speedrunner/glitch hunter [LegendofLinkk](https://www.speedrun.com/user/LegendofLinkk) discovered a new glitch called [Pause Storage](https://youtu.be/5XjrAddta9A) and then a day later, the [very first of many](https://youtu.be/aicwR8y4gf8) cutscene skips with the method. Pause Storage lets you enter a cutscene while still being able to menu during it. This means that for cutscenes where the flag to mark it as complete is set at the beginning of it, you can save and quit, continuing as normal afterward without needing to watch the whole thing. 



Cutscenes aren’t the only thing that Pause Storage affected, however. As it also allows you to duplicate a Wallet upgrade, and basically “steal” items from the auction section, Removing even more RNG from the route!



These new Pause Storage strats, as well as other (smaller) discoveries from 2021 including [Medli Skip](https://youtu.be/vKkO9YFzzcI), a [1-cycle Molgera](https://youtu.be/g0-r-alHoPY), the [Bomb Island Magtail Skip](https://youtu.be/kDmle_qHTn0?t=14411), and the implementation of strats previously thought too difficult like [Tree Cutscene Skip](https://youtu.be/DvIbUMD1wc8) and [Cliff Plateau Oddshot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgvbHTNS4EE) allowed [Linkus7](https://www.speedrun.com/user/Linkus7) to lower the record a solid *fifteen minutes*, down from a [5:24:39](https://www.speedrun.com/twwhd/run/z5jqx7jm) to [5:09:29](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/978866217).



The unfortunate thing about Pause Storage is that it requires the use of the Pro Controller. Mralberto ordered a controller when Pause Storage was discovered, but it didn’t arrive for a week and a half. When he finally got it, he began working on relearning segments with the new controller to avoid swapping controllers as much as possible. Mralberto prides himself on optimizing segments and going for very difficult time saves, even the small ones that add up over the course of a run. It’s likely this commitment to optimization that allowed him to take these new strats and grind down the 100% time a further *ten minutes*, bringing us to the first-ever sub 5-hour run achieved just earlier this week.



![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/qrz2vln0.jpg)

## What’s next? 



Mralberto says his next goal is to get a full sweep of not just the main WWHD leaderboard, but its category extensions as well. As for the future of 100%,  which seems to be the category with the most attention right now, previous world record holder Linkus7 is already back on the grind for his own sub 5-hour run. You can watch him grind for that [on his Twitch stream](https://www.twitch.tv/linkus7). There’s also rumors that [Gymnast86](https://www.speedrun.com/user/gymnast86) (who has also held the world record many times before) could potentially be coming back to WWHD.



There’s no doubt that this is an incredibly exciting time for the WWHD speedrunning community. Throughout this process, I’ve garnered a lot of respect for the WWHD runners because, damn, if these aren’t some of the most complex tricks I’ve ever seen. It’s amazing to me that the game that had the [holy grail skip of all holy grail skips](https://youtu.be/-hUIp3eUyKI) keeps on giving with new cool tech and starts. 



If there’s one thing you can expect from a Zelda game, it’s that its speedrunners will find the coolest looking tricks. (Twilight Princess, I’m looking at you. It’s your turn now.)

In a flurry of broken records, mralberto23 has put his mark on the Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD leaderboards.

mralberto23 broke three Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD barriers

This past weekend Break the Record Live (BTRL) put seven top Minecraft speedrunners head to head over a 30,000 dollar prize pool. It had everything you could want from a speedrunning competition: high stakes, tense competition, and a fun group of rotating commentators. For more details about the event, [check out our pre-BTRL coverage](https://www.speedrun.com/news/699-2021-4-28-btrl-returns-with-minecraft).

The event unfolded over three days, so let’s revisit some highlights.

## Day One

The first day was packed with action. Early on, Couriway nearly took the first $4,000 Dream bounty, but some bad luck with the dragon pushed his time to 16:13, not quite eligible for the sub-15 reward.

It would not be too long, however, until Reignex successfully took the first Dream bounty with an incredible run of 12:38. The run brought Reignex to the top of the event leaderboard and marked a new personal best for the runner.

Throughout the day, the leaderboard continued to shift as competitors performed run after run.

Later on, Sizzler took the second bounty and jumped into second place with a run of 14:42. But that would not hold for long because Ninjabrain took back second place with a 13:31 run which also claimed the third bounty.

Not to be outdone, Sizzler managed another sub-15 run before the end of the day making him the only runner in the event to take home two Dream bounties.

## Day Two

With just one Dream bounty left, the tension was higher than ever. So high, in fact, that Feinberg was the only runner who completed a full run that day.

## Day Three

Early on the third day, Illumina improved his event PB and nearly took the last Dream bounty with a 15:13 run. Undeterred, he went on to snatch up the final bounty less than two hours later with a run of 14:19.

clips.twitch.tv/OpenSpicyBibimbapBudBlast-uDifO5c6cJPo3M-H

This was the first BTRL that did not have a new leaderboard record set for the featured category, but Feinberg provides because on that last day he broke the record for Minecraft 1.16 Any% All Logs Random Seed Glitchless with a run of 4:38.

clips.twitch.tv/AmorphousStylishSeahorseLitFam-mu7clPIzRVMyumjW

---

Overall, the event was a blast. With plenty of charismatic commentators and incredible moments, this BTRL was a success. Check out clips, highlights, and more from the event [here](https://www.twitch.tv/esamarathon).

*Note: an earlier version erroneously identified the event as "Beat the Record Live" rather than the correct "Break the Record Live."*

This past weekend, Break the Record Live gave us hours of Minecraft speedrunning with serious prize money on the line. Let's review some of the event's highlights!

Break the Record Live highlights

Break the Record Live (BTRL) will return at the end of April with a three-day battle for the Minecraft Any% 1.16+ World Record and the largest bounty in speedrunning history.



The event format, hosted by the European Speedrun Assembly (ESA), began in February 2020 at a small conference hotel. Although it was intended to remain a primarily in-person event with a friendly atmosphere, the event was forced online due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in a little more than a year, BTRL has become an incredible spectacle of competition and excitement.



## The Event



The premise is simple: seven top Minecraft speedrunners compete for one weekend and while nobody will go home empty-handed, only the runner with the best run time will take home the $3,000 first-place prize.



“We think it’s an amazing celebration of excellence to give games a stage for a longer period of time than they usually get during a marathon,” said ESA founder, Fredrik Lidholt.



And this time there is another bounty in the mix. Youtuber Dream has added an additional challenge with a contribution of $4,000 to the first five runners to perform sub-15 minute runs regardless of their overall ranking in the competition. That’s as much as $20,000 at 

stake!



“This changes the entire dynamic of the event. Sure you want to get the fastest time but I now imagine that the first day or the first two days are going to be very reset heavy because there’s as much money in winning the event as completing the run in under 15 minutes,” said Lidholt.



The BTRL roster is stacked with seven of the top runners in Minecraft:  **Illuminahd, Couriway, Sizzler, Ninjabrain, Feinberg, Reignex, and Dylqn.** It’s anyone’s guess who will come out on top!



## The Legacy



This marks the sixth BTRL event and so far each one has fulfilled the promise of a new world record, and Lidholt is hopeful that this streak will continue.



Perhaps more important than the records themselves is the way ESA keeps community involvement at the core of the format. “What’s been really good about all these events is that the community surrounding the games have really been involved in the process of creating the events,” said Lidholt.



This collaborative nature allows BTRL to really highlight the particular interests and wants of any given community.



And since its inception, the BTRL format has popped up in smaller community events.

“I’m actually really glad the event format is spreading and it's being taken by others. I completely believe in this format for speedrunning competition,” said Lidholt. So even while his ambitions are high for the future of BTRL, the structure can continue to benefit any interested community.



## The Future



Although BTRL is currently conducted virtually, Lidholt hopes to return to in-person events once it is safe to do so. He said, “I think we have just started to scratch the surface on what we can do. Watch this space for when we can go back to live events. They’re going to be spectacular.”



## When and Where to Watch



**Catch BTRL from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. CEST this Friday, April 30 through Sunday, May 2** at https://www.twitch.tv/esamarathon. Learn more about the event [on the official site.](https://esamarathon.com/ettevent/break-the-record-online-minecraft/) 



*Note: an earlier version misspelled Mr. Lidholt's last name and erroneously identified the event as "Beat the Record" instead of the correct "Break the Record."*



From April 30-May 2, ESA will run Break the Record Live featuring the Minecraft Any% 1.16+ World Record and a significant bounty.

BTRL returns with Minecraft

For this month's spotlight, we spent some time with the Prince of Persia (PoP) speedrun community. It is impossible to cover every fascinating detail about this community, but we hope this article can give a glimpse to the rest of the speedrunning world. Let’s get into it.



## Zipping



Nearly every person I spoke to in the PoP community has fond childhood memories with the original game, which was already being speedrun as early as 2000. But for a while, the community was more focused on the Sands of Time Trilogy released between 2003 and 2005.



It is impossible to talk about the history of PoP speedrunning without ‘zipping.’ Originally discovered in late-2014/early-2015, zipping takes advantage of the physics engine in the Sands trilogy to launch the player in different directions and clip through the environment.



“The depth and scope of zips was crazy so throughout the entirety of 2015 it was amazing working on this trick,” said Joee, a runner who used to go by “Heneko_”.



When the glitch was discovered, the potential seemed almost limitless. Pretty much anyone who tried could find new ways to use zipping, and this led to incredible time saves throughout the games.



In the second game of the Sands Trilogy, Warrior Within, zipping vertically can even be used to move between the game’s separate time periods. It’s not actually useful in runs, but it speaks to the breadth of possibilities the glitch provides.



At Summer Games Done Quick (SGDQ) 2015, Joee represented the PoP community with a run that, infamously, [did not go as planned.](https://www.polygon.com/2015/7/30/9073717/prince-of-persia-sands-of-time-sgdq-speedrun-henneko)



Clocking in at 16 minutes past the estimated time, pretty much everything that could go wrong did. However, while the run time was dead on arrival, the run itself was not a complete flop. 



In fact, Joee’s positive attitude through his missteps led to an increase in donations for SGDQ and showed the speedrunning world just how carefree and positive the PoP community could be.



Of course, there is more to the Sands trilogy than zipping, even if zipping gets most of the attention.



There’s the ‘first-person glitch’ discovered by epicdudeguy that allows players to teleport backward and once again clip through the environment.



“At first we found it by accident and we didn’t really know what to do with it but then we discovered later all the things you can do with it and that was really cool,” said epicdudeguy.



In 2019, when runner Jaka was still new and learning the game, he accidentally discovered a new, easy strategy in The Two Thrones that replaced a previous overly-precise run-killer.



He didn’t even realize he’d done anything important until 7eraser7, another PoP runner who was watching the stream, got really excited about the discovery.



A clip of this accidental discovery is available [here](https://www.twitch.tv/jakvrh1/clip/CredulousMistyTapirHeyGirl?filter=clips&range=all&sort=time) and while the chat messages are no longer visible with the clip, Jaka’s reaction to the revelations in chat give a strong impression of the moment.



---



## PoPRuns



2016 was the first PoPRuns event, a yearly Prince of Persia marathon where the community showcases different runs and generally has a good time. In the words of 7eraser7, “the only purpose is to have fun together.”



For the past couple of PoPRuns, runner Samabam has hosted Prince of Persia-themed Dungeons and Dragons games to go along with the event. “It gives us an interesting way to interact with each other that we normally don’t since we’re usually focused on the video games,” he said.



While the event has mostly been held online, in 2019, ten community members crammed into 7eraser7’s home for a hybrid-live/online event.



“Even people who were not running the game anymore...still came,” said 7eraser7, who also thanked his girlfriend for being ok with hosting so many people at once.



“That was pretty special. I hope we can do that again sometime,” said epicdudeguy.



They are hoping to hold another partially in-person PoPRuns once the COVID-19 pandemic ends.



---



## The DOS Boom



After the earliest known PoP speedrun in 2000, world records for Prince of Persia (DOS) progressed inconsistently with some segmented records here and there.



It wasn’t until June of 2015 when a runner called Cap’nClever performed the first continuous PoP DOS Any% 

record and uploaded it to Speedrun.com. He improved on the record in January of 2016, but from then on his 14:44 run remained unbeaten for more than three years.



In 2019, Prince of Persia (DOS) experienced a bump in popularity and some new runners challenged CapnClever’s World Record.



Eventually, a runner named Karlgamer took first place and that year, the creator of Prince of Persia, Jordan Mechner, included a screenshot of Karlgamer’s record in his self-published book on the making of the game.



Throughout 2020, Karlgamer continued to improve his run as new runners and glitch hunters entered the scene.

The history of the Prince of Persia (DOS Any%) was [recently detailed in a documentary by Youtuber The Otter’s Pocket](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6E07UR6vDY), but even in the few months since the video went up, the run has gotten progressed even further.



In mid-2020, a new runner called Higlak joined the community and quickly rose to the top of the DOS Any% and Any% Glitchless leaderboards.



“The second that I joined in, everyone was very helpful with any question regarding the game mechanics,” said Higlak, for whom Prince of Persia was his first speedrunning game.



It’s a testament to how much impact a new member can have on a run as well as how much well-maintained community resources and a welcoming attitude can really make a game accessible to new players.



---



## The Vibe



The most common word used to describe the PoP community has been ‘welcoming.’ With resources available for nearly every game in the Prince of Persia series and an inviting vibe, the community is always happy when newcomers show an interest.



“I’m not the type of person who usually joins an online community and makes friends, but just being there and being around them it was kind of inevitable. It’s full of a lot of helpful, polite people and they’re very passionate about the hobby,” said Samabam.



Another runner, WinterThunder said, “The guys are quirky and have a big sense of humor, and are quite helpful - if you have a problem with a trick, or setting up something - ask on Discord, and the answer will come in less than 5 minutes most of the time.”



The community also has something that pretty much any good speedrun community needs, rivalry and teamwork existing side by side.



“We are against each other on the leaderboard but in reality we are against the game. So we always try to help each other,” said 7eraser7.



New glitches, strategies, and exploits are readily shared so that everyone can compete on equal footing and work together to bring the game to new heights.



“I think most of the members are concerned more about pushing the games to the limits rather than getting themselves a personal record. We just love to see the records get lower because of new strats or just by improved movement regardless of who accomplishes it,” said GMP.



“The one trick that always was my Achilles' heel was jumping the guards...Almost every guard in the game can be skipped that way, and I couldn't do the trick reliably for the longest time - until Karlgamer, who seemed to pick up the technique more readily - explained to me that the set-up is more complicated and sometimes you need to jump twice before you're in the correct position,” said WinterThunder.



Because it’s existed over several years, some community members have become less active as speedrunners while still remaining part of the community.



Originally, Joee ran the community discord server before passing ownership to another runner, toca_1. Still, Joee maintains his connection to PoP. He said, “they are just my friends now.”



---



## Technology and PoP



Throughout the PoP community’s history, there has been an undercurrent of community members using technical tools to push the games to new levels.



For the Sands Trilogy, this included user Sphere writing a script to visualize game code in Blender, a popular 3D graphics software, so community members could identify potential flags and triggers for runners to take advantage of.



![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/2qnyp3np.jpg)For DOS, things get even more futuristic. In January of this year, glitch hunter Crem developed an artificially intelligent bot to optimize the best routes at the time.



Eien86, another glitch hunter in the community, initially found glitches with more common methods like brute force as well as tools like CheatEngine to get inside the game’s code and find ways to take advantage of it.



With those standard approaches, eien86 was able to find skips for the 7th and 8th levels of the game which were then optimized by crem’s bot.



About applying skips to the 8th level, he said, “I didn’t have too much evidence that it would be possible but I felt like I could do it and that it could be done. And I couldn’t sleep the day before...and I worked the full day thinking about -- I need to try this. As soon as I was over with work I threw myself to it and it was such a huge rush. It’s a single frame window opportunity.”



Then in March, eien86 and crem teamed up to push crem’s bot into new frontiers. The new, collaborative version of the bot, codenamed Jaffar, is widening the scope of applications, and eien86 has plans to run the bot in a supercomputer.	



What is also incredible is how Higlak and other runners were quickly able to implement the AI-discovered strategies and optimizations into runs that have been shaved down by more than half a minute



This is both a feat of computers and a feat of humans that brings new perspective to the idea of “man vs machine.” Here the computers and the glitch hunters who programmed them are just another part of the rival-teamwork dynamic, always pushing the game to see what is possible.



---



Thank you to the PoP community for being open and excited to share their stories with us.



*Header image of community members at an in-person Prince of Persia event in 2019, used with permission from the community.*

This month, we put a spotlight on the delightful Prince of Persia community. Let's learn about the history of these speedrunners.

Spotlight: Prince of Persia Community

The main reason most people get started with speedrunning is that it’s a fun thing to do - plain and simple. *With that said*, it **is** a competition at its core, even if you’re just competing with the timer on your screen. Sometimes situations will arise where some fun is sacrificed for the sake of competition, whether it be through the discovery of new strategies or otherwise. Depending on how drastic the trade-off is, this has the potential to be damaging to not just the runners of the game, but also to the audience who can be vital to the success of the community.

## What if fast isn’t fun? 

Obviously, the goal of a speedrun is to complete the game as fast as possible, but sometimes in this endeavor there are strategies found that don’t appeal to the majority of the community because of randomness, difficulty, or just flat out not being very fun.

In these scenarios, a community must decide what they want to put forward for the rest of the world to see: preserving the “purity” of the run or make some changes to accommodate the interests of those who want to run under a different ruleset.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/7rnq1mej.jpg)

It should be noted, you can create a split with subcategories and have both rulesets exist simultaneously — but which one should be the default?

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/67e9j5n1.jpg)

Setting the default subcategory may not seem like an important decision, but it's all about creating a positive first impression. Whichever subcategory you set to default will be the one that people see when they first view the category, and chances are pretty good they will look at it before clicking any other options. This means whatever you select as your default will be the primary showcase of the category to anyone who visits the leaderboard, and first impressions are *very* important.

## Should I even care about the default subcategory?

New runners are more likely to gravitate towards the defaulted subcategory, and seeing as it’s likely to be the subcategory that most people are going to run under, it’s what the majority of the games speedrunning audience is going to see. There's no "correct" decision here because every community is different, but here are some things to keep in mind while deciding what the default runs should be:

***Speedgame “Purity”***

There is certainly value to be held in keeping the leaderboard defaults as the categories/subcategories that are the fastest since speedrunning is about completing something as fast as possible at its core.

***Variety in strategies***

Sometimes, a new strategy is found that totally obsoletes every other strategy found thus far. With something as game-changing as this, it’s worth considering which route should be the default.

***Natural Progression***

As time goes on, speedgames will inevitably get shorter through optimization, discovery, or otherwise. Is it worth creating a ruleset to match your needs and wants, or is it better to just “roll with the punches” and take the game as is, noting that there may be changes obsoleting your current decision later down the road?

***First Impressions/Audience Perspective***

It’s no secret that the majority of the greater speedrunning community is made up of spectators, and any community should keep this in mind when it comes to big leaderboard decisions.

***Fun***

Finally, the kicker. *Which subcategory is the most fun?* Fun should absolutely be something to consider in the decision-making process, no matter how much weight you give it. Even on the most hardcore leaderboards, there are people who are just playing to have a good time.

## Leaderboards are community-driven

I’d like to finish off this article by reiterating the importance of community choice. Each and every community is different, and the decisions they come to should be community-driven. Choosing the more entertaining or accessible options are equally valid to selecting the more competitive ones.

Communities are the reason this hobby is so enjoyable, and the different approaches each one takes to solving these situations is what makes them unique.

I hope all of you have a dope day today. Now, go drink some water.

The choice of whether to select a more competitive run as the default subcategory versus a more entertaining one is and should be community-driven.

How Speedrunning Communities Balance Competition and Entertainment

Hey all,



Happy April! We’ve got a few updates we wanted to share, as well as a sneak peek at the future of game moderation on Speedrun.com.



First off, we will be deprecating The Site section of the forum for a new and improved [Support Hub](https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub) for all your site needs. Whether it’s requesting games, reporting users, or asking to become a moderator for a game, all requests will be fulfilled from a single location to be tracked and handled by site staff. You can check out the new Support Hub in the Knowledge Base [here](https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub)!



Second, over the course of the next few days we will be rolling out ads for logged-in users. If you run into any bugs with your logged-in experience, please report them in the bug section of the new [Support Hub](https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub/report-bug).



Last, and certainly the thing we are most excited about, we have a look at the future of the game moderator tools! As we finish developing these, we are looking for volunteer communities willing to beta-test the tools. If you are a super moderator willing to try the new tools and give feedback, please sign up for our beta-testing program [here](https://forms.gle/PHckBxuFGVvc7vH47). Please note that the updates listed below are simply a few of the things we are aiming for in the next few months, and there may be changes in timing or ability to execute on them as we develop.



**Leaderboard Announcements & News**

* A highly requested feature, we will be adding the ability for game moderators to post announcements on the game page for easy communication with the community. Game moderators can also use this feature to share content created by the community, feature specific community members, or share any other news they may have for the community.

  

**Improved Category Management**



One of the main complaints we’ve heard about Category Management is both the organization of the tools as well as the lack of customization on a category by category basis. With that in mind, some updates we are looking forward to are:

* We will be reorganizing the Edit Game section into a Moderator Hub that is both more intuitive and more accessible to new and veteran game moderators.

* We are aiming for the vast majority of settings (such as primary timing method) to change from a game-basis to a category by category basis. 

* Variables will live within a Variable Library, and game moderators will be able to select on a category by category basis which variables they want to apply, fixing the issue of the one/all variable setting. 

* All runs submitted to a category will be visible.

* Which game types are shown as Unofficial will be evaluated and updated.

  

**Run Management**

* Game moderators and verifiers will be able to access more than 50 runs

* We are adding a private Mod Note functionality for game moderators to leave notes for other game moderators on a run.

* Game moderators and verifiers will be able to assign a run to themselves so that they don’t work on the same run simultaneously

  

**Guides & Resources**

* The Guides page and Resources page will be combined into a more customizable Guides & Resources page.

* On this page game moderators will be able to create their own sections as well as add files/guides/links to each section depending on which they need.

* Community members will be able to submit guides and resources, but game moderators will review and approve them before they appear on the Guides & Resources page in order to ensure quality and prevent trolling.

  

**Video Showcase**

* Game moderators will be able to select their favorite videos to showcase on the game page.

  

**Bonus: User Profile Update**

* As we mentioned in February’s update, the User Profile Page widgets will be updated to better reflect the user. This will likely be updated after the moderator tools have been developed, but be on the lookout for that change.

  

We know this does not include the full scope of requests in the [Feedback Form](https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub/give-feedback) and Feedback Forum, but rest assured that we read each recommendation and prioritize it as we are able to on the road map. As we develop these features the order and timing may change, but we look forward to addressing as many concerns as possible as we continue to grow the site.



Cheers,  

Speedrun.com



We're taking a quick look at some of the game moderator tool updates on the horizon, as well as releasing the new Support Hub.

Game Moderator Tools sneak peek & Support Hub release

EBen

xwpw4y0l

summertimealice

SpeedrunCom

A Difficult Game About Climbing

Leaderboard will be closed for moderators to prepare for full game release.

The Outlast Trials

The leaderboards will open 2 weeks from launch to allow discussion about the categories we want to start out with.