What is the Mario Party Series Relay?

The Mario Party series speedrunners are uniting in July to compete in 3 teams of 9 players under the pressure to complete Mario Party 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and Superstars as fast as possible by playing either the Story mode or all Mini-games of their respective game in a form of a traditional relay constantly fighting the odds of RNG.

This community event of recreative nature has a goal of uniting new and old Mario Party runners together and to attract the wide public to appreciate the fineness of a speedgame that isn't considered one. We are celebrating games we like and hope to perform the best we can, while showing what we can for our pleasure.

Bowser's Big Blast is the most recognizable Mini-game of pure luck from Mario party 2, also present in Mario party : The Top 100 and Superstars

How is the event organized (and who's there?)

The relay is done remotely, from distance on a virtual platform, on Twitch. It will not be face-to-face. After a quick ceremony/introduction that starts at 7 AM Eastern Time, the first players will start of with Mario Party 5 : Story mode. Once a player completes their run, the next player is responsibly invited to start their timer and commence their category. In other words, the baton gets passed to the Mario Party 4 runners in their respective teams and have to be immediately pinged/called in Discord. Since the players live in many countries and encounter multiple time zones, the ordering of games is based on the locations and availability of the runners. We will wait for every player to finish their run, before doing the closing ceremony.

New and old players have been learning and relearning their games, here they are !

Starting at 7:00 AM on AQ_Noops Twitch stream channel where the event takes place, the public and the runners are introduced with introduction speeches and good wishes. The gameplay starts at 8:00 AM with Mario Party 5 with hahaPHD, DoubleDubbel and Gordo. The event ends up with Mario Party 3 and then the closing ceremony

Why is this event interesting?

In Mini-games categories, you are required to win all sorts of mini-games. You need to be good at mashing the face buttons, spinning the stick, timing button presses, choosing the right answers to the riddles, puzzles, labyrinths, quizzes or to precisely move the stick, while sometimes combining multiple inputs and skills. The RNG is sometimes a factor too, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, the hype about watching or playing a Mario Party board in a speedrun is all about immediate decisions on the moment based on calculations of time and the winning factors. There are mini-games that you want to lose to progress quicker, but with the consequence of seeing the CPUs buying an item or even a star - which is a time waste. Then, during the playthrough, you have to track the count of the Bonus Stars progression that are awarded at the end. Thus, you can't lose too many mini-games or spend/trade your coins, since the Coin and the Mini-game Bonus Stars are the two most important stars and factors for your board success in Mario Party 1 through Mario Party 5. Additionally, the Coins are often coming in clutch to secure a victory on a board when more than one player are tied in Stars. For example, you may be required to visit Boo to steal some coins or a star in order to avoid losing the board. Another example, you may be in the need to chose to make a CPU lose their Mini-game in a 2vs2 Mini-game, so they don't obtain a star they are close to.

Finally, it is improbable to have the perfect alignment of odds in All Mini-games especially in luck-based ones on the first try. The same way, it's impossible to 100% secure a board victory in Mario Party's, since the human players won't target obtaining stars, because it's a time waste. Or, sometimes the runner won't even have the chance to reach any star, because the star location and relocation is a big factor that may give a CPU up to 5 stars and you none - to quote a real example.

Mario Party 4's Boo's Haunted Bash is a rather disliked board for its multiple unavoidable Bowser and Battle spaces, an inevitable Shop, a lack of Happening Spaces (for securing the Bonus Star for Happenings) and the famous Boo's Haunted Train which costs 23 to 24 seconds to play on the shortest route, although there are ways to avoid it

When and how to watch the players:

Again, the event is live on Twitch starting on the 13th of July at 7 AM Eastern Time on AQ_Noops channel here https://www.twitch.tv/aq_noops

The event lasts close to 24 hours and is a one-day event. This means every player has to be streaming their part, because it is required to be a live event. 30+ people are involved, counting multiple commentators, translators and back-up players. We are from around the world, so the organization of the game ordering is tight and barely interchangeable.

Here's the list of all participants

Noops: https://www.twitch.tv/aq_noops

Akuretaki: https://www.twitch.tv/akuretaki

Dr. Cakenstein: https://www.twitch.tv/drcakenstein

KellyKr22: https://www.twitch.tv/kellykr22

Rixaxun: https://www.twitch.tv/rixaxun

Taco: https://www.twitch.tv/lctaco

DillPickel: https://www.twitch.tv/dillpickel__

Fernando_X: https://www.twitch.tv/fernando_xspeedruns

Freezy Pop: https://www.twitch.tv/freezypopfp

KitsuneofDreams: https://www.twitch.tv/kitsuneofdreams

Axl_SR: https://www.twitch.tv/axl_sr

BleedingBlue11: https://www.twitch.tv/bleedingblue11

g0goTBC: https://www.twitch.tv/g0gotbc

Gerbiez: https://www.twitch.tv/gerbiez

Gordo: https://www.twitch.tv/gordo_98

quo: https://www.twitch.tv/quoooo

DoubleDubbel: https://www.twitch.tv/doubledubbel

Frog1x: https://www.twitch.tv/frog1x

hahaPhD: https://www.youtube.com/@hahaphdgaming

infinigummy: https://www.twitch.tv/infinigummy

Kumanomi: https://www.twitch.tv/kumanomi_0326

Lazaron: https://www.twitch.tv/lazaronhol

SchniDog: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOkKYmWq9G3AH8NGBwh8-Yg

holypotato: https://www.twitch.tv/tatersthegoat

Teddy: https://www.twitch.tv/Teddytank13

ykrin: https://www.twitch.tv/ykrin

Yoshiphx: https://www.twitch.tv/yoshiphoenix

Apeduden: https://www.twitch.tv/apeduden

dalerben: https://www.twitch.tv/dalerben61

AQ_Noops (here in the screenshot, playing Mario Party 8) is the organizer of the event and has put his mind to work for multiple weeks to make sure everyone has the time and the technology to perform their run during their assigned time. He has made decisive schedule adjustments and built the competition as fair as possible, by for example recruiting players of similar skill for the same game and randomly assigning players to teams