As we have all properly got stuck into 2021, the yearly cycle of awesome charity-based speedrun marathons resets. Every year the [European Speedrunner Assembly](https://esamarathon.com/) (usually abbreviated to ESA) puts on several exceptional events that bring our community together to bond, showcase amazing talent, and raise money to support fantastic causes. ESA has two main events, that fall in both the summer and the winter times. Their winter event begins February 12th on their [Twitch channel](https://www.twitch.tv/esamarathon), so we thought it would be nice to put together a list of awesome runs (in no particular order) you absolutely should not miss. Whether you are a speedrunning marathon veteran or somebody completely new, this event will have something for everyone to enjoy.



## Honorable Mention - Skies of Arcadia: Legends — 100% by Pengy

### *February 12 - 4 p.m. CET / 10 a.m. EST*  

Before we get into the main list, it would only make sense to talk about the fact that ESA is planning a giant 20-hour long pre-show before the main event starts. What makes it even more mad is that this 20-hour block is a single speedrun! *Skies of Arcadia: Legends* is a GameCube port of the original *Skies of Arcadia* on the Dreamcast. 



This critically acclaimed title is notorious in the speedrun world for its length and complexity, as the Any% category (beating the game as quickly as possible) is already around 11 hours and 100% pushes most runners way over 20 hours. These types of games with such length are huge challenges to overcome due to the amount of planning involved both inside the game and outside in order to pull off a run like this. Pengy has a [Google Document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hUdRrlRVo_tI6EYykdUYteOeIvkUVjEDmabtljcHZq4/edit?usp=sharing) with his notes for 100% speedruns and it is a staggering 45 pages of deep knowledge of the game’s mechanics. There’s even a tiny little 24 page [guide for beginners](https://www.dropbox.com/s/xtb6kfiskd8afyo/SoAL%20Notes_V12_ArcadiaLegend_Beginner.doc?dl=0) to get into speedrunning this game; so simple stuff, really.



## Dark Souls: Remastered — All Bosses by catalystz

### *February 13: 2 p.m. CET / 8 a.m. EST*

We’ve all heard about the Souls series by now, whether it be the first entry *Demon’s Souls* destroying controllers on the Playstation 3 or from unoriginal critics calling every game the *Dark Souls* of X and Y. These games are rock hard, and a regular playthrough usually takes runners anywhere from 60-100 hours due to the extreme difficulty and steep learning curve. Truly not a series for the faint of heart. This is what makes speedruns of such a difficult game so damn impressive. 



I’ve been familiar with the [Souls community](https://speedsouls.com/) for a number of years now, and Cata has blown the world away several times with how absurdly good he is at *Dark Souls*. Being able to tackle every single boss (including the DLC) in just over an hour is no easy task. Showcasing nifty out of bounds skips, early boss kills, frame-perfect wrong warps, and doing a majority of bosses while one hit away from death is even harder; but I’m sure cata will be up to the challenge.



## Super Mario 64 — 16 Star (Blindfolded) by Bubzia

### *February 13: 10 p.m. CET / 4 p.m. EST*

Gimmick speedruns are always a joy to watch, but right now no gimmick is greater than playing an extremely movement-focused game like *Super Mario 64* without ever seeing the screen. *Super Mario 64* has always been one of the most popular games to speedrun, and the elite few who speedrun the game blindfolded are on a whole other level of incredible. Even if you are familiar with SM64 speedruns, this run will blow you away. The run makes use of what we call "normalized" strategies which essentially means methods of knowing where you are in each stage without any sort of visual reference. This means that blindfolded runs look entirely different to even a standard speedrun, and there will be exceptional commentary provided to make sure you’re in the loop every step of the run.



## Fallout 3 — 100% by Jabo 

### *February 18: 7 p.m. CET / 1 p.m. EST*

When you think of Fallout, you usually think of the abomination that is *Fallout 76*, the chess club video, or extremely short and busted speedruns. Completing 100% of what these games have to offer is a gargantuan task, and tracking all the content is near impossible. This particular 100% run involves completing all quests, all DLCs, and collecting all 20 bobbleheads in the game. Considering the amount of quests there are in the Fallout games, getting them all done in a few hours is extremely impressive. Of course, no Bethesda title would be complete without a ridiculous amount of glitches and exploits, so allow Jabo to take you through each one on his way to 100% completion.



## Honorable Mention — Super Metroid - GT Classic by kekumanshoyu

### *February 19: 4 a.m. CET / 10 p.m. EST*



Fredrik “Edenal” Lidholt is one of the main organizers at ESA, and I reached out to him in order to seek what run he is most looking forward to for the upcoming event: "I'm super excited about Super Metroid! Keku (kekumanshoyu) is a very solid runner with a lot of other SNES games under his belt. Super Metroid encapsulates so much of what speedrunning is to me. Skill, sequence breaks, and the category is damn cool for ESA!"



To those unfamiliar with what [GT Classic](https://wiki.supermetroid.run/GT_Classic) is, it is a speedrun that utilizes the Golden Torizo (GT) code which provides runners with many items such as:



100 Missiles  

20 Super Missiles  

20 Power Bombs  

7 Energy Tanks  

3 Reserve Tanks  

All major items except Screw Attack  

  

Having all these items at your disposal means that runners can take the game to heights never seen before. If you’re a fan of Metroid or really pushing games to their limits, join Edenal in watching this timeless classic.



## Cyberpunk 2077 — Any% by nicnacnic

### *February 20: 1:30 a.m. CET / February 19, 7:30 p.m. EST*



Every run we’ve mentioned so far in this list has been all about putting a new spin on classic games. What happens when you switch gears to a game released only a matter of months ago? You get *Cyberpunk 2077*. Arguably the biggest disappointment from gaming in 2020, the release was riddled with bugs and glitches that made the game unplayable for a lot of angry users. However, as they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure and a growing community of Cyberpunk speedrunners was born. Many insane tricks were discovered very quickly including a way to gain so much momentum via bunny hopping that you can jump around faster than most vehicles. Seeing a modern game become so broken so quickly is something very unusual, so this run will definitely be worth a watch (if you don’t mind the spoilers)!



## Halo: Reach — Legendary by Two_EEzy

### *February 19: 9:30 a.m. CET / 3:30 a.m. EST*



***Your enemies outnumber you greatly and are hunting you down. Can you survive their onslaught?***



This is the message you receive when selecting to play on legendary difficulty in *Halo: Reach*. It is clear that this difficulty is not something that should ever be tackled unless you want one hell of a challenging fight. As someone who has completed every Halo on legendary, I can safely say that this is no lie; an onslaught is a perfect way of describing what awaits. 



Since the early days of speedrunning, there have always been two common ways to speedrun. The fastest difficulty for speed, and the hardest difficulty for bragging rights. This is no different in Halo, as the difficulty between easy and legendary is absolutely colossal, but that will not stop Two_EEzy blasting his way through Reach. AI Manipulation, sequence breaks, and exceptionally skilled combat await those who want to see Noble Six get to work.



## Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories — Any% by Joshimuz 

### *February 21: 12:45 a.m. CET / February 20: 6:45 p.m. EST*

The Grand Theft Auto (GTA) games have always been a staple at ESA and have one of the largest speedrunning communities around. The community brings with it a lot of notorious runners, but Joshimuz is likely a name known well by both veterans and newbies. Going all the way back to ESA 2013 where Josh [broke the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas world record live](https://youtu.be/4B-Qw_tgdcU) and fast-forwarding to the present day where he is a fundraising team leader, Josh has contributed an astonishing amount to both ESA and their respective charities. 



This year will be no different as he tackles *Vice City Stories*, a spinoff title that was originally released as a PSP exclusive back in 2006. *Vice City Stories* is well known to be one of the hardest GTA runs, but a recent discovery smashed the run into a million pieces and shaved around an hour off of the current world record. As the glitch is quite technically complex, we’ll let Josh do the honors on February 20th.



## Where can I watch?



ESA’s winter event will be taking place from February 12-20 over at [twitch.tv/esamarathon](https://www.twitch.tv/esamarathon), and will be running around the clock during those dates to bring you only the best of what speedrunning has to offer. 



What we have mentioned in this list is not all you will be seeing at ESA, and you can find the entire [event schedule on their website](https://esamarathon.com/schedule/). The event will be supporting [Alzheimerfonden](https://www.alzheimersgameover.com/), which is a Swedish organization supporting research into Alzheimer’s and other dementia diseases. You can also find ESA on these platforms:



[Twitter](https://twitter.com/esamarathon)  

[Discord](https://discordapp.com/invite/0TZ2NlveujtasAqb)  

[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/user/EuroSpeedAssembly)  

[Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/europeanspeedrunnerassembly)  

[Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/esamarathon/)  



We hope to see you there!



*Header image credit to [ThisIsProx](https://www.speedrun.com/user/ThisIsProx).*







ESA Winter 2021 runs February 12-20, showcasing amazing talent and raising money for Alzheimerfonden. Not sure where to start with the multi-day event? We've got a list of runs you will not want to miss!

Runs at ESA Winter 2021 you don’t want to miss

# ***You make speedrunning as good as it is***

The greater speedrunning community has some of the most amazing individual communities on the internet. I am constantly reminded how passionate and friendly the members of our communities are, on top of being so patient and willing to teach new runners.

It’s not uncommon for new runners joining a speedrunning Discord to be embraced with a friendly “welcome!” and an offer to answer any questions the runner might have, or at the very least some help in finding premade community resources and guides. It warms my heart to join a community and be welcomed so sincerely.

Now that I’ve been in a few communities myself, I make it a priority to make sure new runners feel just as welcome as I did when I first started. Without the communities in speedrunning, I don’t think it would be quite the same.

Before I picked up speedrunning myself, I had seen a few runs and thought it was *incredible* that a game could be beaten in a single sitting. Looking back, I suppose it was only a matter of time before I picked a game to speedrun - my first speedgame. When I finally did get into speedrunning, it was because I had just finished a game casually and absolutely loved it. Shortly after finishing it, I got curious as to how quickly it could be beaten. As I watched the run, I sat there in awe as the runner blazed through the game ***in under ten minutes.*** By the time I had finished, I had already sunk **30 hours** in! I was blown away.  It looked complex, but even if it took me 10x as long as the world record, I knew I needed to try it.

Shortly after, I found a streamer who was doing PB attempts of the same game, so I decided to join.  This streamer was *incredibly* patient and kind. He answered all the questions I had, took time to demonstrate some tricks, and even showed me how to find the tutorial and Discord server for the speedrunning community. That Discord was filled with even more friendly runners who had no problem with helping me to learn the game and find my way around LiveSplit as well as Speedrun.com. To this day, I consider these runners my friends. We’ve run multiple different games together and still talk most days about speedrunning or even just regular life stuff.

# Speedrunning is special

Not only because it offers a unique experience of playing games in a whole new way, but because the communities within it are so damn remarkable.  The majority of communities that I’ve been in since starting speedrunning have been a great source of friendships. Aside from that, they’ve also created a culture of support, education, and overall a positive atmosphere. I think ***that's*** what makes speedrunning special to me, and I believe there are lots of you who’ve been around for a while that can relate.

I started speedrunning because I was simply interested in trying to play a game I liked kinda fast, but I’ve *stayed* because of the amazing friends I’ve made along the way. I likely would’ve dropped the hobby all together by now if it wasn’t for all the extraordinary people I’ve met doing it.

# Competing through cooperation

Speedrunning is a competition, and it can undoubtedly get *very* competitive. Some of the world’s top speedrunners have pushed their times down so far that it takes incredible precision and dedication to push them further even by just a few milliseconds. That said, it’s safe to say that no single person would ever be able to push a game down as low as we’ve seen without the passion and dedication from a community full of people routing, glitch-hunting, strat-finding, tool-making,  and even just encouraging through support and celebration. Without the fierce enthusiasm from all sides of a community, speedrunning simply wouldn’t be the same from either a competitive or an entertainment standpoint.

Having everyone working together to push a game’s time down as far as possible is *especially* unique compared to other forms of competition because rather than speedrunning being player versus player, it’s more focused on the players versus the game.

Of course, players are competing for times on a leaderboard with other players, but as previously mentioned, the cooperation of the entire community is almost crucial for a speedrun to reach its highest potential. I think it's this difference in opposition compared to other competitive hobbies that allows speedrunners to bond over their chosen speedgame, focusing on improvements to beating the game rather than directly focusing on beating each other. This single degree of separation allows for a unique balance of cooperation and competition that I don’t think many other hobbies can offer.

In conclusion, *you’re* the reason why communities are important in speedrunning.

Whether you run, route, hunt, or watch, ***you*** are a part of the greater speedrunning community and you make speedrunning what it is, the hobby that I and thousands of others get to enjoy. Without you, your communities, and everything you do, this hobby would simply not be the same. Thank you for being here.

Do you have a favorite community? Tell us about them by sending us a tweet @speedruncom with the hashtag #SpeedrunCommunities! Also, if you have a community or individual you think deserves more attention, have them submit to our [Spotlight Nomination form!](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeRUtILBSo12j9kNXjyGLK1G3pCuzDuDOSa3f-Vb2Hu8JlN8g/viewform)

*Header image is a derivative of ["Awesome Games Done Quick 2019" by Angel Cano](https://photos.gamesdonequick.com/AGDQ2019/i-fdctgFh/A)*

Communities are the foundation of speedrunning. They're a source of support, friendship, mutual celebration, and cooperation to optimize speedruns.

Communities are the key to speedrunning

EBen

4m7jny51

# Hey everyone, Blxxd here.


## For the next 1.5 weeks, Into the Pit will NOT be open to accepting submissions until we figure out what we want to have for Categories and the like, alongside some more technical details. Stay tuned!

Five Nights at Freddy's: Into the Pit

UFO 50

We will start accepting runs for this game one week after release to give enough time for an optimal route to be placed and for runners to have a run they like ready to submit.

Astro Bot

The official PC port of the game will be released on 1 August 2024, comeback later! // Официальная версия игры для ПК выйдет 1 августа 2024 года, возвращайтесь позже!

Schoolboy Runaway (PC)

Welcome to the THE JOY OF CREATION Demo! For the sake of giving people time, and for us as moderators to get everything set up for the boards, we will open them up this Monday, August 5th at midnight EST! This will give everyone the chance to complete the demo and begin to improve their times over the weekend. For the time being, there will likely just be 2 categories; any% (game completion) and death% (die as quick as possible).