Part 9: CosmykTheDolfyn

CosmykTheDolfyn

Hometown: I was born literally five minutes from where the Silver Bridge fell on an old farm close by in the Appalachian hills.

Currently Living: Ecuador

Primary Speedgame: The Puyo Puyo series and some racing games

Q:  What's the first speedrun you ever watched? What got you into speedrunning?

A:  My introduction to speedrunning was a little convoluted. You might remember back in the day when DidYouKnowGaming used to post pictures on their website with video game trivia instead of only focusing on videos, and many of these picture posts were submitted to the site by followers of DYKG. I submitted to this quite a few times and stumbled across Speed Demos Archive searching for trivia about Spyro. Specifically, I found the Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage any% video from 2011.

After looking around SDA, I was annoyed by the lack of racing games and figured I could start routing out as many racing games as I could. This was around 2013-14. Funnily enough, I first discovered Twitch and GDQs due to the SDA forums, as compared to nowadays where most find SDA and other resources due to Twitch and GDQs!

Q:  What was it like when you first started speedrunning? How has that changed?

A:  When I started, it seemed less formal. This isn't saying that it wasn't an already fairly well known hobby when I started, but there was more emphasis on the “hobby” bit. As r/speedrun grew in popularity among people who simply enjoy watching speedruns and the advent of speedrun.com, there has been a bit of shift in focus in people caring more about WR times instead of just having fun. 

That's not saying that there were never people that were solely focused on getting the best times and being competitive (there always have been) or that there are no longer people that simply view speedrunning as a fun hobby that they can use to help others through marathons (there's still quite a few), but I do feel as if the attitudes have shifted. 

I've always been more focused on just having fun as compared to being ultra competitive. I lack muscle control and feeling in my right hand due to an accident as a child and felt from the beginning that it would limit me compared to other people in the speedrunning community, as this disability had limited me in my local FGC scene. It's very possible, though, that things haven't changed at all and it simply was my perception that has been flawed from the very start.

Q:  What are you currently working on?

A:  I just got done with some runs in the Bring 'Em Over online marathon to help two of the runners make it to AGDQ 2018. For that marathon, I was practicing Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi on the Genesis, Saturday Morning RPG on Steam, and Puyo Puyo 2 Remix for the Super Famicom. As it turned out, I lowered my previous WR in Saturday Morning RPG during my marathon run, so I guess that practice paid off! I also applied to be a volunteer and commentator for the Spanish re-stream of AGDQ this year, so I'll probably be learning a little bit about a lot of games to try to give the best commentary I can for that.

Q:  Tell us about Buckeye Speed Bash.

A:  Buckeye Speed Bash started off as an idea from a conversation between myself and Genocidal at AGDQ 2015. As it turns out, the Ohio area is stuffed with some incredibly talented runners that have never made it to a GDQ, and we both felt it would be awesome to have a smaller marathon in Ohio to be able to get some of these runners to a live event. 

I was living around Ironton, Ohio at the time and Genocidal was in the Cleveland area. Having the marathon smack dab in the center of the state just made the most sense logistically. We had talked about having it in Cleveland also, but having it in Columbus saved some driving time for me and made it easier for most of the attendees. It took more work than I thought it would at first, but we have had two successful marathons to date, one in June 2016 and the other in June 2017. It's become a much tighter knit crowd and a much greater event than I could have ever done on my own and I can only thank the Ohio speedrunning community for making it that way. 

While we have raised money for 4 Paws For Charity (organization that raises money for training of service dogs), we have always had the approach of trying to have fun first and foremost. The environment has felt more relaxed than the GDQs or the RPG Limit Break I have attended and we have been able to get runs in from almost everybody that has submitted to the marathons. It was always a goal of mine to accept at least one run from each person that submits, or get as close to that as possible. I think it's given us one of most unique marathon schedules for both events we've had. 

For the record, even though I live out of the country now, I plan on flying back every June to be there for BSB. I have to visit family in Ohio anyways, so I should enjoy myself while I'm there!

Q:  Who's another runner that doesn't run your games that you admire and why?

A:  There is no way I can choose just one. princessproto, Tterraj42, RowdyScotBear89, ishypanda, skavenger216, Krunchy, Lrock, Sandbag, Bbforky, THEEEEEEEEEEEEEEBLACKTASTIC, justin-credible, Chaos42666, Crow!, Fappy, Felly, furiouspaul, just-defend. Those guys are all involved with BSB. 

Not BSB folk, but also have to mention GhostKing, osey, Ghoul02, Brossentia, TheWanderingMind and Rizu for being some of the greatest people in the world. I've met too many awesome people through speedrunning.

Q:  If you could change one thing about speedrunning, what would it be?

A:  You know, I think changes generally have more effects than generally meets the eye. I'm not sure that I actually would change anything besides just reminding people to always be respectful, not say mean things about others, and have fun.

Q:  How do you handle frustration or bad runs?

A:  I just generally move on to something else and stay positive. I've had a fairly rough life as it is, but it's taught me to try to be as optimistic as possible. I can't really think of any times that I've ever felt horridly frustrated with a game in particular during all my time in speedrunning, so maybe that has helped. Again, I've always viewed speedrunning as a fun hobby, which means that if a game is no longer fun, I give it a break for a month or two and just move on to another game I run. My library of games I've run is large enough to do that pretty easily.

Q:  How do you think our generation will incorporate video games and speedrunning into middle and old age?

A:  I feel as though many speedrunners will simply continue doing the same old thing and there is a precedent for that. Many players have played Smash or been a part of FGC for years and are approaching middle age as we speak, but still continue. Certain circles of retro gaming competitions are essentially comprised solely of middle aged players. These people haven't given up a hobby because they are simply older now and I have no doubt that the same trends will occur in speedrunning. Sure, some will take a break or retire from it due to family responsibilities and the like, but some will always stay. Heck, there's already some really talented speedrunners that have figured out how to juggle those life changes and kids quite well that have been speedrunning for close to two decades. Some may stop or slow down, but there will always be people who just keep on trucking.

Q:  Lastly, is there anybody who you'd like to shout out or plug their stream?

A:  I'd just like to give a shoutout to Buckeye Speed Bash in hopes that more people will tune in and check us out!

Thanks, Cosmyk.

Part 8: GloriousLiar

Jacob Hulen 

Hometown: Fort Worth

Currently Living: Fort Worth

Primary Speedgame: Donkey Kong 64

Q:  What's the first speedrun you ever watched? What got you into speedrunning? 

A:  I remember watching two different speedruns on the old Google videos site back in the late 2000s; I'm not sure how I came across them, but I watched a  single-segment Ocarina of Time Any% run that was probably about three to four hours long as well as the old old Super Mario 64 TAS. I enjoyed them, but didn't think too much more about them. Fast forward to 2015, I remember passing by my brother's computer where Banjo-Kazooie was being speedrun at AGDQ 2015. Later, I went back to the VOD and watched the whole Banjo-Kazooie run, which I loved. I loved all the explanations of tricks and knowledge the runners had of the games. Over the next few months, I would literally sit in my dorm room and watch speedruns for up to six hours a day sometimes. I always imagined myself doing it in the future, but I had never even considered purchasing a retro console. Eventually, I got into watching DK64 on Twitch, seeing runners like Cfox, 2dos, EmoArbiter, hipstur420, and Speedfrog. I probably would have passed over DK64 had it not been for Emo mentioning that he went to A&M, which is where I was at the time. I started coming back to his stream and striking up conversation. Eventually, I realized I wasn't coming back just for DK64, but because I really liked the people in the community. I stuck around and around spring break, I pulled the trigger and bought my own dinky setup.  I feel like I could go into a lot more detail because this was a period of my life I have many fond memories of, but I'll just leave it as is.

Q:  Many artists, athletes, and technicians describe the thing they do in terms of another skill. Examples include describing writing like music, or music like math, or soccer like chess. Is speedrunning “like” anything, in your mind? 

A:  Speedrunning is a lot like running to me. My start with speedrunning coincided with my personal start with fitness, but I also find them similar due to the different modes. Long runs require endurance from the runner. Short runs require bursts of precision or energy. I see a lot of similarities, despite them obviously being polar opposites in terms of actual activity. 

Q:  What are you currently working on? 

A:  I'm not working on anything in particular. I have a lot of things I could invest my concentration in, but like everyone else when presented with too many options, I can't decide on anything at all. I don't know how that will change, but maybe eventually I'll prioritize or permanently lay some games I've run to rest. I kind of see myself on the way out, but I don't intend to actually leave. I'll definitely be around as a presence for the foreseeable future to guide the young ones on their journey into games I'm familiar with.

Q:  How are you feeling about showcasing Canvas Curse at AGDQ this year? 

A:  I am so excited to run Canvas Curse at AGDQ. I've been campaigning for this game since I picked it up in early 2016 as a TAS game. People started to pick up on that and started backing me and supporting me, much like many support Dan Salvato's All Melons. It's really been a pleasure to TAS and run the game and receive nothing but support from everyone who has kept up with my adventure with the game. I am definitely not as strong with the game as I was last winter, but I still plan to put on one hell of a show when my time comes.  It's a shame that my run is in the dead of morning, but at least I'm getting the overflow from zfg's OoT 100% run. In all honesty, though, it's about damn time.

Q:  Who's another runner that doesn't run your games that you admire and why? 

A:  I don't keep up with many runners outside of games that I run, but swordsmankirby comes to mind. He was the one who got me into Canvas Curse originally by doing a few casual attempts in early 2016, but other than that he runs so many games that I've never touched. He's a really nice guy and a fantastic community leader for the whole Kirby community. That guy has so many different runs under his belt not to mention how good he is at all of them.  I have a lot of respect for people that keep a level head in combination with high skill. Other notable people would all have to be people that I've seen either dominate their respective communities' games or any top runners of highly technical runs that I've seen, like Pjii with Banjo-Tooie or some others in the Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze community.

Q:  If you could change one thing about speedrunning, what would it be?

A:  I wish that people would stop trying to exploit it for money. Charity is the only real exception to this. We're at a point where people recognize skill less than they do what the opportunists bring forward. The opportunist uses speedrunning as a front for their stream, typically downplaying the significance of skill or knowledge and leaning in to the idea that personality or aesthetics are anything more than a bonus. They exploit nostalgia and novelty for their own monetary gain. I encourage people to show off impressive displays of skill, new techniques, or the like, but I don't think that entitles anyone to money. Speedrunning is a hobby. If you want to be a professional streamer, fine, but don't claim you're a professional speedrunner. Obviously, there are exceptions to this, because I know a fair number of people who grew their stream from the displays of skill. But typically they were always honest with their intentions and aligned themselves much closer to the purity of the hobby.

Q:  What does the ideal speedrun look like to you?

A:  An ideal speedrun to me has to be some sort of platformer. The aspects that would make the run great rely on the balance of many factors. The pacing would usually be decided by a combination of the routing, number of glitches, and difficulty of the tasks and glitches themselves. Runs that out-pace themselves are exhausting to watch AND run, so it would hopefully be fast-paced, but not very demanding of the runner. Glitch abuse is cool, but not just a single one repeated. I like variety. Routing is usually dictated by the availability of glitches and the openness of the game, so those should go hand in hand to create something full of sequence breaks and doing things in an unintended order to reach the end-game faster. These things aren't found often in modern games, which is one reason why I love the N64 era of platformers so damn much, especially Rareware.

Q:  How do you think our generation will incorporate video games and speedrunning into middle and old age? 

A:  Honestly, I think most people will give it up. They'll be in denial about it for a long time, but there will come a day when most people realize they haven't been relevant in the scene for a long time, other than maybe providing insight. They won't have the time or energy to keep up anymore. When this happens, they'll start watching more and playing less. After that, they'll probably lose interest in just watching and move on with their lives. They'll keep their circle of friends, but without a common interest, people will fall out of touch. Hopefully a few will stick around.

Q:  Lastly, is there anybody who you'd like to shout out or plug their stream?

A:  There are so many people that have gotten me to where I am today, and hopefully I remind them regularly enough how much I appreciate them. I feel like shouting out anyone in particular would be unfair to all the others, so I'll just say, to those who have touched my life through speedrunning, I appreciate you, even if you've only served to annoy or debase me.

Thanks, Jacob.

Part 7: WhitePaaws

Jorge Aguilera

Hometown: Cali, Colombia

Currently Living: Cali, Colombia

Primary Speedgame: Crash Bandicoot

Q:  What's the first speedrun you ever watched? What got you into speedrunning?

A:  This might be a little embarrassing, but I remember watching videos of casual races of games on Youtube back in 2014 and I thought that it might be fun to try to race a game. I told some friends about it and we ended up choosing Crash Bandicoot as our race game. I beat the game a few times in preparation for the race and I also did some research and ended up coming across SpeedRunsLive. I remember trying to set up the IRC client, and reading carefully through the commands so I wouldn’t mess up. We ended up not going through with the race, but that’s how I got my first glance at speedrunning.

Q:  What was it like for you when you first started speedrunning? How has that changed?

A:  My real first speedgame was actually Gex: Enter the Gecko, despite researching and learning Crash 1. I started running the game in December 2014, I believe. The game was really appealing to me just because of how broken it was. Since Gex wasn’t very popular, I was pretty isolated from the speedrunning community in general, so I couldn’t really say how speedrunning was back then because I just focused on my own thing.

I got into the Sprash (Spyro + Crash) community almost a year later after I started speedrunning and it was the first speedrunning community I ever got into. It’s kind of strange to look back at it since there’s so many people that have quit running the games and are barely active in the community anymore. A few things have changed too; Spyro and Crash communities are now separated and the Crash 1 community was very isolated from the Crash community for a long time.

Q:  What are you currently working on?

A:  I’m actually not working on anything as of now. This is probably the one time since I started speedrunning where I just don’t know what to do next. I wanted to go back to Crash Bandicoot 100%, but I don’t enjoy the category nearly as much as Any%, so I don’t have any motivation to run it. What I might end up doing is practicing lots of the harder strats in Crash Bandicoot Any% and grind for the 39:xx.

Q:  You’ve been working on Crash Bandicoot for a long time now. You just nabbed the Any% WR back from Koji just a few days ago. Does the game and competition still excite you?

A:  Koji left speedrunning as a whole a couple of months ago for an indefinite time, unfortunately. He is an exceptional runner and I have a lot of respect for him. What I want to do is try to keep pushing the game further; I feel that’s what Koji would want, and that’s what I’ll do. Getting the WR back is just a step forward, but there’s still a lot I want to do with the category, and that’s exciting.

Q:  Who's another runner that doesn't run your games that you admire and why?

A:  It’s hard to say really. I admire a couple of runners within the Crash and Spyro communities, but there are few runners outside of Sprash who I constantly look up to. I guess there’s runners like Abney317, who runs Mario Kart 64, and Furiouspaul, who runs Castlevania, who I respect and admire because of their persistence to their runs.

Q:  How do you handle frustration or bad runs?

A:  I keep thinking positive. I think that’s the key. The grind to take the record back was a long painful journey, but what good would it have been to give up? It was frustrating, very frustrating, but keeping a positive mentality and adding the support I got from everyone in the Crash community and from my viewers in my stream helped me deal with the frustration. Bad runs are bound to happen; not every single run you do is going to be a PB. I feel the key is to understand that they can happen and to understand what you did wrong and practice hard so you don’t do the same mistakes as often. That’s why I have a word document that has all my finished times with some notes about where I did my major mistakes, so I can practice those areas.

Q:  How do you think our generation will incorporate video games and speedrunning into middle and old age?

A:  I actually don’t know; it’s not a question that has crossed my mind. I’m not too worried about what it’ll be in the future. It might be because I don’t even know what it will be of me in three years when I’m done with university and I just need to think about that before thinking about speedrunning in a long term.

I guess it’s up to each person to see if they want to quit running, but keep supporting the scene when they are older, or if they just want to keep running until it’s not possible anymore, but for me, I still need to make some other life decisions before thinking of anything else in a long term.

I guess when it comes to video games in general, they have been getting a lot of relevance in the last few years even over here in Colombia. I feel like even when you grow older, you’ll keep having the same love for games as before. It’s not like stopping someone who has been playing games basically all their life from playing games is going to be easy.

Q:  Lastly, is there anybody who you'd like to shout out or plug their stream?

A: There’s honestly a lot of people I would love to give shout outs, so I’ll just give shout outs to the Crash and Spyro speedrunning communities. They have both meant a lot to me over the past few years.

Thanks, Jorge.

Part 6: Obiyo

Maxime Desmeules

Hometown: Northeast Quebec

Currently Living: Northeast Quebec

Primary Speedgame: Diddy Kong Racing

Q:  What's the first speedrun you ever watched? What got you into speedrunning?

A:  While I was in college, my friend who was sitting next to me in our coding class showed me a Super Mario 120 Star speedrun on Youtube. I couldn't believe it was not cheating. This must have been around 2012. The next day on Twitch, I saw that SM64 was near the top of the game list, so I went to check it out. Siglemic was doing 120 Star runs and he was the same guy from the video my friend showed me. It blew my mind. Seeing what he was doing on a real Nintendo 64 in real time was just completely shocking to me.

For a while, I watched him and other runners on Twitch, until I found FireDragon playing Mario Kart 64, which I thought was impossible because it was a racing game. Watching him run MK64 was when I decided that I would start speedrunning and I was going to start running MK64. I downloaded an emulator and Wsplit and did my first All Cups run, which ended up being around 45 minutes long.

Q:  Many artists, athletes, and technicians describe the thing they do in terms of another skill. Examples include describing writing like music, or music like math, or soccer like chess. Is speedrunning “like” anything, in your mind?

A:  I think the closest thing to speedrunning would be running an actual marathon. They both take a lot of perseverance and practice if you want to achieve a great goal, but you can also take it slow and casual and complete it at your own pace.

Q:  What are you currently working on?

A:  I am currently working towards taking the world record back in Diddy Kong Racing 100% and possibly pushing it to a 1:47. My next goal after that would be to get back into Donkey Kong 64 and run No Levels Early to get the Nintendo 64 record and to practice for the upcoming 301% race in January, which includes Banjo-Kazooie 100%, Banjo-Tooie 100%, and DK64 101% back to back to back.

Q:  Why did you decide to stick with Diddy Kong Racing over Mario Kart?

A:  The reason I left Mario Kart 64 behind is simply because I just enjoyed running DKR much much more. I just loved how fast you could go and how much optimization there was left to do and the idea of beating runners like toufool and 0xwas, which in my eyes are two legends of speedrunning, was just way more appealing to me than trying to save a couple minutes in a game that was already a ton more optimized with very little room left to improve. I also liked the idea of running an actual game file with bosses and collectibles rather than just doing four cups in a row.

Q:  What is your favorite and least favorite track in DKR and why?

A:  My favorite track would be Darkmoon Caverns. I don’t think it’s the best track in the game, but this is the first track where I myself found a faster strat than what was being done at the time. It was also the first track where I got the time trial record and the individual level record, so it’s always been a special track for me. On top of that, I was my favorite casual track because I thought the loops were very cool.

My most disliked track would be Fossil Canyon. The random physics that can happen, the AI blocking you or putting oil slicks in your way, and I think the music is one of the worst tracks in the game. It's just not enjoyable. It’s really a shame that we have to do it seven times in 100% and Any%.

Q:  Who's another runner that doesn't run your games that you admire and why?

A:  I have a ton of respect for Puncayshun. He just never gives up on the Super Mario 64 grind. He is the king of perseverance and because of that he gives me a lot of motivation to keep going myself with my endless grind towards DKR 100% World Record. It also takes an outstanding person to go beat and beat a legend like Siglemic and keep the record for as long as he did.

Q:  What does the ideal speedrun look like to you?

A:  I think the ideal speedrun length is about two hours. It needs to be very hard to master and also have minor RNG elements to deal with. DKR 100% fits in that description which is why I run it most. But I would also consider stuff like SM64 120 star or DK64 No Levels Early to be good runs as well. I think those type of speedruns bring the most hype and show the biggest display of skills from the runners.

Q:  How do you think our generation will incorporate video games and speedrunning into middle and old age?

A:  I think people that truly enjoy speedrunning will still do it for many years. I don’t think we are going to speedrun as much because most of us will have a family and other responsibilities, but I don’t think our current generation will ever completely vanish. If you like something, there’s no reason to stop. Taste in game might change depending on what are the new games and systems coming out, but there will always be people that come and go and others that will stay and speedrun until they're tired of it.

Q:  Lastly, is there anybody who you'd like to shout out or plug their stream?

A:  I would like to give a huge shoutout to dkr_paddy. He is the first friend I made in the speedrunning community and he showed me how to become better. He was pretty much my coach for Mario Kart 64 and Diddy Kong Racing in the early days of my speedrunning career. I truly believe that without him, I probably would have dropped it after a couple weeks after starting and would have missed out on so many great friendships.

Thanks, Max.

Part 5: SniperKing

Chris 

Hometown: Southeast Michigan 

Currently Living: Southeast Michigan 

Primary Speedgame: Super Mario Sunshine 

Q:  What's the first speedrun you ever watched? What got you into speedrunning? 

A:  The first speedrun I ever watched was Talon2461 running 180 Emblems in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. I was strolling through the Twitch game directory and found SA2, which is a game that I loved as a kid, and Talon's run blew my mind. I decided to try my hand at speedrunning with a game I thought I was already decent at, Crash Team Racing Any% (now Any% Warpless), which was my first speedrun. After watching only him for a few months, I followed him on a raid to a streamer formerly known as FireDragon764 (now known as simply FireDragon) who was speedrunning Luigi's Mansion. In the same stream, I followed Fifi's raid to SnarfyBobo playing Super Mario Sunshine. I fell in love with Snarf's stream and the chill smooth vibe of the SMS speedrun. After watching these three streams for a few weeks, I saw Snarf do SMS Bingo and knew I needed to pick up the game to partake in the chess match that is SMS Lockout Bingo. I went to Summer Games Done Quick 2015 and everyone I met there encouraged me to stream and were incredibly supportive. So, when I got home, I ordered a copy of SMS and a capture card and the rest is history.

Q:  Many artists, athletes, and technicians describe the thing they do in terms of another skill. Examples include describing writing like music, or music like math, or soccer like chess. Is speedrunning “like” anything, in your mind? 

A:  This is a little obscure but speedrunning is like the X-Games events to me. You're constantly learning new tricks and improving old ones along with your basic technical skills. With each new skill or trick learned and cleaned up basic movement, your score gets better. Your goal is to improve your personal best. And you don't really compete with other people until you've learned enough to be really good. 

Q:  What are you currently working on? 

A:  Sub 1:20 in SMS will perpetually be my goal, but I have a few main things I'm working towards achieving by the end of 2017: Sub 3:30 in SMS 120 Shines, Sub 1 hour in Crash Team Racing, and I'm learning Hollow Knight Any% No Major Glitches. I'm really looking forward to learning Hollow Knight well enough to Bingo! Seriously, Bingo is the best thing in speedrunning!

Q:  Who's another runner that doesn't run your games that you admire and why? 

A:  Seraphim is a speedrunner that I really respect outside the world of Mario. He has world records or top times in many competitive speedgames all while balancing schoool, friends and now a full time job. The dedication and skill he displays are incredible and show in his constant improvement and impressive times. He's one of the nicest and friendliest people I've ever met and he definitely deserves more attention. An amazing role model for any speedrunner in skill, attitude, and personality. Perfect example of this in his AGDQ 2017 SA2 run where he showcased Big The Cat in every level, sacrificing time to bring more attention to Jerkro's Sonic Adventure DX run that was up next and hadn't met its incentive goal yet. It hit the goal because of him and the run was still super entertaining. He's a champion. 

Q:  What does the ideal speedrun look like to you? 

A:  This is definitely different for everyone, but for me, the ideal speedrun balances cool glitches with smooth, fluid movement and has little luck based elements. I also think that a great time for an average run would be around an hour and a half with either a few short cutscenes near the middle of the run or none at all. An hour and a half is a great run length for races and no-resets for people of all different schedules; it's not too long and not too short. It's hard to keep 100% mentally focused for a long period of time and small breaks from that help a lot, I think. Usually, the longer the run, the more frustrating random luck events are, so I prefer shorter runs.

Q:  One of your beginning mottos when you started on Twitch was "Hakuna Matata could change the world", and you still have those words on your Twitter and Twitch page. Can you speak to that? 

A:  Speedrunning should be about having fun, not about what time you have, or who you're better than, or what place on the leaderboards you are. It's really easy to forget that when you're struggling to meet one of your goals. My motto is a fun reminder of what's important. That's not only true for speedrunning, but for all of life. Taking a deep breath and calming down can be hard to do, but it is always beneficial. I think most misunderstandings and mistakes in the world could be prevented if everyone just took a step back and evaluated what was really important, calmed down, and relaxed. The phrase helps.

Q:  How do you think our generation will incorporate video games and speedrunning into middle and old age? 

A:  I think Twitch is a huge example of how video games and speedrunning are here to stay. Even people in the older generation have taken to Twitch and speedrunning. It's an amazing way to share knowledge and passion about whatever games and runs you like. I don't see people completely quitting this community if they're really passionate about it. Life changes and time is hard to find, but we will all always love games. 

Q: Lastly, is there anybody who you'd like to shout out or plug their stream? 

A:  Absolutely! Shoutouts to Pearstrike who is the gem of Twitch more people need to know about. He's an amazing speedrunner and an all around hilarious guy. Shoutouts to Bounceyboy the SMS speed king who has been super supportive of me since day one. Shoutouts to Kungfufruitcup and YellowKillerBee for being amazing female voices in the speedrunning community and leaders of the female speedrunning team Girls on Fire. Finally, shoutouts to Iateyourpie for all the support he's given me and helping me feel more comfortable streaming things other than speedruns.

Thanks, Chris.

Part 4: notvanni

Nick

Hometown: Northeast Ohio

Currently Living: Northeast Ohio

Primary Speedgame: Spyro: Year of the Dragon

Q: What's the first speedrun you ever watched? What got you into speedrunning?

A: The first speedrun I ever saw was Super Mario 64 by Siglemic, back when he used to do 24 hour streams of it. My friends, who are all big Nintendo people, started watching and told me to start. As far as getting into it, I branched out and found Spyro and Crash Bandicoot runners, though not right away. I always wanted to try those games since I replayed them a lot as a kid. I tried a couple separate times with a couple different Sprash games, but it never stuck. When I picked up Spyro the Dragon, it was the attempt that actually stuck and now I run all six games (Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage, and Spyro: Year of the Dragon).

Q: What was it like when you first started speedrunning? How has that changed?

A: Since I never did any offline runs, everything from the start was live. I was very easily embarrassed in the beginning even when no one was watching. Obviously, I made a lot of mistakes but I don't think I ever got mad since I expected to mess up at the start. Since then, I've gotten a lot more comfortable with screwing up and more used to streaming in general. I've gotten tilted here and there, but nothing major. Speedrunning is still fun for me, but what I want out of speedrunning has changed a bit. In the beginning, I was never sure if I'd stay committed to what I wanted to do. My initial plan was to just find some level of consistency to get a decent time in Sprashfecta. Now I look to push myself beyond what I think I can do or even just go to see how far I can take my time down.

Q: What are you currently working on?

A: Right now I'm definitely on hiatus. I've just been enjoying playing various other games. I tend to get pretty committed to whatever my current speedgame is, even to the point in which I'm afraid to pick up another game at all. But I can say Crash 2 100% is still on my mind since I never quite got to where I wanted with that. I have had this thought in the back of my mind that I want to start working on Spyro: Season of Ice 100%, but who knows if that'll ever happen.

Q: Nick, you went from an uncomfortable beginning to holding the World Record for Sprashfecta. Can you tell us a bit about that journey? 

A: That was essentially a perfect storm. I was at a very nice point in my life where I had a large amount of free time. When I started, I was finishing college and just had two part time jobs. After college, I worked both jobs, but it was only about 30ish hours a week. That, combined with some easier classes for my last semesters, gave me a lot of time to work with the games.

As far as the actual journey, I can say I had a lot of fun along the way. While I only played the six games for the majority of that period, I never really felt bored or burnt out. Streaming and the communities helped a lot with that. I met a ton of awesome people who helped me along the way and pushed me to get faster. Every day was sort of new and exciting. I'm the type of person to usually keep low expectations for things, which helped out with starting new games as I didn't get too frustrated. By the last couple of Crash games that I learned, I definitely developed a lot more confidence in myself. I started to approach things differently and definitely experimented with the harder tricks at the end more so than the beginning. I'd say it also helped me just become a more confident person overall as well, which is probably one of my favorite takeaways so far. 

Q: What is your favorite game in Sprash and your least favorite game in Sprash? How are they similar?

A: My favorite is probably Spyro: Year of the Dragon. It's the longest game that I run, but it can also be incredibly comfy for me. The game has a lot of variety with the different characters you can play and each was unique and not too unreasonable in my opinion. Agent 9 was probably my favorite part of the game. Just strafe pumping and shooting around everywhere is a ton of fun and feels good to get a good grasp on the technique.

My least favorite is Crash Bandicoot: Warped. I have a love-hate relationship with that game. I enjoy it, but never as much as the others. The amount of vehicles in the game is similar to Spyro: YotD, but they are a lot more frustrating. The game has its share of bad glitches and instability. It kind of comes off as a little bit boring at times since you have to revisit nearly every level in 105%. I think that got tiring for me.

As far as similarity, they're both the longest categories I run in the respective trilogies and have a good amount of variety within different characters in them. I feel like they both aren't incredibly popular for speedgames even though they're fun; Spyro: YotD for its length and Crash Bandicoot: Warped for its reputation as being hard and/or unfair.

Q: I've always been curious: can you explain your deal with clowns?

A: (laughing) Okay, so there's a couple parts to the whole clown thing. I used to always call things clowny when they went weird. If someone asked me how my runs went, that was usually my response: clowny. Clowny was pretty close to being my catchphrase for a while People always got a kick out of it, so it stuck around. I also call myself names when I mess up, and since then, I've tried to get creative with it. I've probably called myself idiotboy and clown a good number of times, so eventually they blended into clownboy. Eventually, I associated it with my avatar, and then of course it had to become an emote.

Q: Who's another non-Sprash speedrunner that you admire and why? 

A: I've always liked Ennopp112. He's ran Majora's Mask for a long time now. I like how he is consistent in what he plays and I like his sense of humor. He has a unique, almost deadpan, way of delivering jokes or funny lines that adds to what he says. I always knew what I was getting myself into when I watched him. He interacted with chat a good amount, saying hi to people if they said it or holding conversations, but it was never over the top and you could tell his focus was on the game. The piano playing was always nice too. The consistency aspect is something I've tried to mimic, but it's a bit different with six unique games. In my head, it works well enough because they're all related.

Q: How do you think our generation of gamers will incorporate video games (and speedrunning) into middle and old age? Where do you see speedrunning going in the future?

A: I feel like there will be some falling off as people age. People grow up and take on more responsibilities and have less time for this kind of stuff. That being said though, I don't see it totally leaving any of our lives. Video games and speedrunning draw people back pretty often. A lot of people will claim to quit or take breaks only to come back and pick up where they left off. I could see that being true for a full lifespan. Nostalgia is a strong feeling, whether it's the form of nostalgia for the old games that you used to play or even for the nostalgia of the feeling you have when you are speedrunning. I feel like there will be a continuation of it as people age, but I don't see people going as hard as they used to. One other thing is speedrunning, and video games in general, has brought a lot of people together. People, myself included, have met a lot of new friends, even meeting them in person and keeping in touch. I could see a lot of those friendships persisting through peoples' lives, which is a really cool thought.

I feel like speedrunning will only continue to grow. Marathons and events help bring in new people to all kinds of games. As I said before, nostalgia is pretty strong. A lot of current speedrunners run a game that was a big part of their childhood. As more people grow up, I'm sure many games that are currently new will have that same effect on the next generation of speedrunners.

Q:  Lastly, is there anybody who you'd like to shout out or plug their stream?

A:  www.twitch.tv/iateyourpie/subscribe

...

A: (laughing) Really though, I would have such an extensive list I don't know if I could just single anyone else out. Everyone from the Sprash community is fantastic as well as a bunch of others I've made friends with from countless other communities.

Thanks, Nick.

Part 3: Stivitybobo

Stephen Domke

Hometown: New Jersey

Currently Living: USA

Primary Speedgame: Banjo-Kazooie

Q:  What's the first speedrun you ever watched? What got you into speedrunning?

A:  After being introduced to speedrunning back in 2012 by my friend and moderator Joo0ooo on Twitch, I checked out Siglemic’s Super Mario 64 runs. I was more than amazed by his performance in the game. It had never dawned on me how people could move so quickly in games until then. I had always been interested in the concept of speedrunning, but had no idea there was a growing community based around the concept. I decided to pursue streams on my own. Banjo-Kazooie was the choice that immediately came to mind when I was picking a game. It had always been my favorite game and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to bring new life to the gameplay.

Q:  What was it like for you when you first started running? 

A:  When I started, there was really nobody speedrunning BK, not on SpeedRunsLive at least. So, alongside my prior knowledge and experience of the game, I learned to speedrun BK by checking out the Speed Demo Archives run for reference, which was a 2:28:51 game time by Jumpman. It took a couple months to really kick in, but my stream and Banjo-Kazooie as a speed game were slowly being recognized. More people wanted to run the game themselves and the runners and glitch hunters began trickling in. It was definitely exciting to know that growth of the game and the community around it was imminent. A few months later, I stumbled upon a Japanese BK runner named Besurei on Twitch and discovered that there was a Japanese BK community. Thinking that Jumpman’s time was the fastest archived time, I thought that I held the world record with a game time of 2:27ish, but I was surprised to find out that a runner by the name of Hambacon had a game time about 8 minutes faster than Jumpman’s time. I had no clue how that was possible, but I kept grinding. Hambacon and I were in competition for a couple months until I eventually beat his game time of 2:16:58 with a time of 2:16:56 in October 2012. This was the first time I officially held the world record in BK 100% to our community's knowledge at least.

Q:  How has speedrunning changed for you now? 

A:  So much has changed in the last five and a half years. We started going by real time instead of game time pretty shortly after the game took off. That was the up and coming standard for many games and it just made more sense. The original Japanese runners stopped playing and we only have a few still left in the community. However, the general BK community has since grown immensely, bringing in runners, glitch hunters, and spectators from all over the world. As people have brainstormed route improvements or have found a multitude of game-breaking glitches, the game has evolved in ways we would have never thought were possible. Examples that come to mind are Furnace Fun Skip, found by Arbliterator, which allowed us to skip about half of Furnace Fun and the first set of credits, saving upwards of 8 minutes. Furnace Fun Moves, found by Linkus7, allows us to start with any moves we desire, allowing for multiple Bottles skips and faster routes. Reverse Bee Adventure, found by Cronikeys, allows for quicker item collection via backtracking as the bee. All of this plus more probably would not have happened if it weren’t for the growth of the BK community and the awesome people who run the game. It's definitely been a wild ride.

Q:  What are you currently working on?

A:  Currently, I’m trying to bring my BK 100% time down to a 2:01. With the new route, I think it is definitely within reason. However, I am also trying to improve my skill and time in Banjo-Tooie 100%. I also have plans to learn Donkey Kong 64 101%, so I can participate in the 301%, but it could be an interesting game that will probably grow on me. I have no definite plans other than those; however I might learn Diddy Kong Racing 100%, if anything (which I’ve been saying for years).

Q:  Who's another runner that doesn't run BK that you admire and why?

A: The runner that comes to mind for me is cheese05. I really admire his dedication to Super Mario 64 and his drive to meet his goals, and then improve them! I feel that we have very similar mindsets and that I can relate to him very well as a runner. I hope he continues to push SM64 and bring speedrunning to new heights!

Q:  How do you handle frustration and failure / bad runs?

A: I used to get a lot more upset when I lost a run as if a prized possession was ripped from me and thrown into a fire. The stress used to be pretty intense, especially because I used to reset a ton over the smallest of mistakes. Over time, I’ve realized more and more that mistakes are bound to happen and that it just isn’t realistic to expect a flawless run. Human error and bad RNG are factors that are just never going to go away. With that, I’ve gotten a lot better at deflecting frustration and not letting it get to me too much. Of course, I lose sight of this mindset on occasion, but I do my best to remember it. I know what I’m capable of and I just have to remember that if I keep trying, I will improve, and I will eventually reach my goals.

Q: What does a good run look like to you?

A: While mistakes are inevitable, a good run to me is one where the execution is more or less on point, and one that a runner feels personally satisfied with. This is obviously subjective, for everyone has different opinions and skill levels that help shape their definitions of a good run. Improvements also happen and perceptions change. No one will ever be perfect, but people will most likely improve and expect more out of themselves if they keep playing. Therefore, it’s hard for many to ever be fully satisfied and think their run is good, which is why speedrunning seems to be a never ending journey.

Q:  I've heard people call you God, a robot, the human TAS, and not just at BK, but with other games as well. How would you describe your own gameplay?

A: Yeah, people say those things a lot. I do believe I’m inherently skilled at playing video games and this, along with my perseverance with BK, has led me to where I am today. However, we all need to remember that there are many other skilled gamers out there and that there is no ‘chosen one’ for any game. I really would not compare myself to a robot, or my gameplay to that of a TAS. While TAS creators do frequently find ways to save frames, the performance the TAS outputs will always be the same. While BK has become second nature to me, my performance will always fluctuate. This is the difference between TAS and human play, and this is why I would not compare myself, or anyone, to a TAS.

Nevertheless, I do believe my BK gameplay is very well refined. I can consistently perform within a few minutes of my sum of best, and I know I have yet to unlock even further potential.

Q:  How do you think our generation of gamers will incorporate video games (and speedrunning) into middle and old age? Where do you see speedrunning going in the future?

A:  Gaming is becoming more and more normalized in society, which in my opinion is really great. It’s really starting to make a mark on the world, which can especially be seen in the growing esports industry. As video games, the internet, and broadcasting continue to evolve, more and more opportunity will be created for others. It’s to the point where gaming has become not only a hobby, but an alternative for making a living. Of course, not many can make the claim that they live off of their gaming, but I believe we’re still in the beginning stages of this becoming more common and accepted. This will happen mostly through competitive scenes, but maybe concepts like speedrunning will also find a way in somehow. Obviously not everyone is going to aspire to be a professional gamer, but regardless, I do believe our generation as well as those that follow will increasingly respect video games and their impacts throughout the years.

Q:  Lastly, is there anybody who you'd like to shout out or plug their stream?

A:  Not particularly. However, I will say that if you’re interested in BK or related games, I recommend checking out their speedrunning communities on Twitch and Discord. Even if you’re a viewer, it’s always fun to see new people getting involved and you’ll most likely have fun doing so. Who knows, you may even find your own inspiration to start speedrunning, which could be an exciting and rewarding experience.

Thanks, Stiv.