This month, we had the pleasure of speaking with four different women in the speedrunning community. They told us about their speedrunning tastes, the communities they’re a part of, and more. So without further ado, let’s jump in.



## t0uchan



A speedrunner and a high school teacher, t0uchan started running games in the early 2010s.



Whether she’s running games she grew up with or something that otherwise has meaning for her, she says, “everything that I run I have some sort of connection to.”



She enjoys trying new games and learning new routes and she gravitates towards games with “fast, twitchy movement.”



But the thing that makes the biggest impact on if she will run a game or not is simply whether she thinks she can get more out of it.



“Have I milked this game of all its vanilla fun and do I want to keep playing it?” she says, comparing speedrunning to another game mode like New Game Plus or Time Attack.



When it comes to communities, t0uchan says she’s met some of her best friends through different speedrunning communities. She’s happy to see the world of speedrunning becoming more connected with runners from different games connecting and turning what was once a loose web of speedrunning communities into an increasingly cohesive community.



She believes that speedrunning is best when it is inclusive and welcoming to all kinds of people.



In addition to speedrunning, t0uchan teaches high school computer science and animation classes and she admits that her students are sometimes impressed when they find out about her game records.



“I get all the cool kids,” she says.



[Check out t0uchan’s most recent record in Sonic the Hedgehog - All Emeralds - Glitchless.](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/822832542?t=0h14m22s%2F%3Ftt_content%3Dtwitch_logo)



## Amethyst_Rocks



When it comes to streaming, Amethyst plays *Super Mario World* and mods of *Super Mario World* almost exclusively.



In particular, Amethyst_Rocks enjoys Kaizo mods which are designed to push the limits of players with intricate routes that often require tons of practice to pull off correctly.



While she tends to focus more on first plays than on speedruns, certain mods will catch her attention for further practice and honing into a speedrun.



“I’m very, very picky about my speedruns,” she says.



In general, she says the main focus for most Kaizo speedruns is making it through with as few deaths as possible. For this reason, she tends to focus on shorter mods for her own runs.



Despite that preference for shorter runs, her proudest accomplishment as a runner is a 1h 19m 42s run of a mod called Grand Poo World 2.



About the first time she played it, she says, “it kicked my butt so hard.”



But something about the challenge enticed her to run it.



Amethyst is also a former geologist and though she’s a few years outside of academia, for enough channel points she’ll share a rock fact with her audience. An example:



"The oldest terrestrial material we've found on earth is 4.40 billion years old - the age of the earth, for reference, is about 4.54 billion years old."



[blob:B8CfBcCUanJ0KtC2laxXKnb35tcZBtc7KrhS5+Qqi6s0l1csiXv2KaK0i19GkEWqiZ,align=center]



## Lizstar



For Lizstar, speedrunning started as an offshoot of her interest in game collecting. Now, she says the two interests are intertwined.



“I like exploring libraries and trying to find all the interesting things that people don’t pay as much attention to,” she says.



As an extension of both passions, she has undertaken a [“Genesis Quest”](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RsLU-DYmEPTWBEPB7vq8Ji47e3Ff9P2rohCKLp5esT8/edit#gid=0) in which she is streaming through every game ever released on the Sega Genesis. With a library of over 800 games to tackle, she is already more than halfway through.



At the end of each title, a raffle decides who in her audience will pick the next one. The quality of the games varies, to say the least, and sometimes her audience likes to stick her with some of the less polished options.



It’s all in good fun, and Lizstar actually enjoys trying the strange games.



She likes exploring lesser played titles including those that are not as well made but can still be a source of joy while allowing for some fun discussion about just how bad a game can get.



“I like trash and trash is not necessarily bad,” she says. “It’s just things that people don’t pay much attention to and kind of throw out as worthless but there’s a lot of worth in there.”



In addition to her passion for “trash,” Lizstar is passionate about the communities she has found as a runner.



“The community in general is really what lifts speedrunning up even further for me,” she says.



Lizstar has participated in multiple GDQ events. She says that more than once while practicing for the event she’s discovered new time saves (often with help from other top runners). That puts her in the chaotic but exciting position of rerouting a run while still preparing for the event.



As advice to other runners and potential runners, Lizstar encourages everyone to explore outside of their comfort zones.



She says, “I picked up multiple games to speedrun on a dare and they are some of the best games that I’ve speedran and they’ve really helped me grow my community.”



## ShesChardcore



ShesChardcore has over **3000 posted runs.**



She got into speedrunning after losing her job and getting diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.



“So bad things led to good things, essentially,” she says.



She has a preference for games that haven’t received much attention, and newly released games before anyone else has a chance to get in a run, and meme runs.



Most of the time, she focuses on cultivating new strategies and time saves.



“The technical aspects more than the actual runs themselves sort of attract me.” she says.



As an analytical person, she likes to pick apart games and see how she can push them to do strange and interesting things.



When exploring a game, she says, “I think outside the box and think can I do this or can I do that and then try it. And if the answer is yes then we probably found a time save. And if the answer is no then I think of something else to try.”



Any time she sees an empty leaderboard, ShesChardcore wants to put a time on it.



“I may not really care too much about the game but I want someone to have something to beat so if they just happen upon that page or its a game they liked as a kid or whatever. There’s something there for them to accomplish,” she says.



When it comes to meme runs where the goal is to quickly pull off a strange or silly in-game situation, one of her favorites is Hamsteak% for *Maniac Mansion* on the NES which involves putting an NPC’s hamster in a microwave and getting the player killed. [At the time of this publication, she holds the record in this category.](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/846417009?t=0h0m1s%2F%3Ftt_content%3Dtwitch_logo)



Outside of speedrunning, ShesChardcore used to bowl and has multiple perfect game rings. Comparing speedrunning and bowling, she says, “You can pause in bowling.”



In fact, she enjoys the ways speedrunning forces her to keep pushing through a run.



“It’s a bigger rush,” she says.



[blob:BRcfB9CUan3J5+prlaLqh6bNi+p7BtcYlrpSh+Hnh6bnhVWJi1hZK1UOh+cGva0E,align=center]

*View the Twitch VOD featured in the above tweet [here](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/952750403?t=0h0m2s%2F%3Ftt_content%3Dtwitch_logo)





Thank you to all of these women for taking the time to share their perspectives and experience with us. You can find out more about what each of them are up to at the following links:



t0uchan: [Twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/t0uchan/about)  

Lizstar: [Socials](https://lizstar.bemuse.link/)  

Amethyst_Rocks: [Twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/Amethyst_Rocks/about)  

ShesChardcore: [Twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/sheschardcore/about)  



Want to read about more awesome people involved in speedrunning? Check out [our feature on Bobby “TheBlacktastic” Cruz.](https://www.speedrun.com/news/596-2021-2-25-spotlight-bobby-the-blacktastic-cruz)



*Lizstar at AGDQ. Photo via Games Done Quick, photo by Brian. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.*



In March, we spoke with four different women to discuss how they engage with speedrunning, the community, and their favorite games.

Spotlight: Four Women in Speedrunning

So, you’ve decided to pick up speedrunning. Welcome to the wonderful world of routing, glitch hunting, running, or whatever else it is that has attracted you to this side of the internet.



## Where do I start?



Well, the reality is that it comes down to personal preference, but that would be a rather silly article wouldn’t it? *“Play what you want lul.”* Instead, I’ll guide you through the process of finding a game that you actually like rather than telling you what you should like. 



There are all kinds of categories, for all kinds of games, that suit all kinds of different players. You should find out what sort of games you like, as well as *how* you like to play them and go from there. 



It’s worth noting that leaderboards on Speedrun.com will often support multiple categories for runners to choose from that allow for different styles of play. For instance, the most common category you’ll see on SR.C is **“Any%”**.  



Any% generally means that you must go from the start of the game to the end, but you’re allowed to skip however much of the content in the middle as is possible within the limits of the game (eg. glitches/exploits and not straight up just hacking the game)



Any% is fantastic, and it usually shows the true potential of how fast a game could be beaten when the gloves are off. With that said, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and if it isn’t yours, that’s completely okay! 



Many leaderboards will support categories like **“Glitchless”** or **“No Major Glitches”** (sometimes shortened to NMG). These categories are typically created with the goal to keep the speedrun similar to what could be considered an “intended” playthrough, but with routing and optimizations to speed it up significantly. The existence of categories means you can play a single title in many different ways. This allows for a lot of freedom even within a single game. 



## What game do I pick to speedrun?



Now then, back to the original question. What game should you pick to speedrun? In my own personal experience, I got into speedrunning after finishing a casual playthrough of *Prey (2017)*. After completing it, I wanted more. However, I didn’t want to just start another regular playthrough and so I decided to pick up the speedrun since it seemed interesting, short, and easily accessible.



This would be my first suggestion to you, as a budding frame saver. Think of a few of your all-time favorite games, and from that list check out the associated runs for each game. If you’re like me, you’ll be absolutely fascinated to see a whole new take on a cherished game. This is really one of the great things about speedrunning in my opinion, which is replayability. Taking a game, and setting goals within that game gives you so much more to do. You get to enjoy the game for longer, and you get more bang for your buck.



With the above said, I would offer a warning from my personal experience. If your desired speedgame is one that you really enjoyed casually, make sure you’ve really gone through and gotten absolutely everything you can out of a casual playthrough. Once you start speedrunning a game, it starts to look a lot different, and it’s hard to go back to the “casual mindset” after starting your speedy journey. 



## What happens if I don’t want to speedrun a game I’ve played before?



Well, then I don’t blame you. Sometimes, it’s nice to preserve that relaxed enjoyment that comes from a casual playthrough. So what then? Well, there are still multiple avenues to pursue. I highly recommend using Speedrun.com’s own [games page](https://www.speedrun.com/games) to check out some of the most active leaderboards on the site, because activity means at the very least the game appeals to *some* chunk of the internet. As well as the tools available here on SR.C, [Twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/directory/all/tags/7cefbf30-4c3e-4aa7-99cd-70aabb662f27) has its own filter for broadcasts that fall under the tag “Speedrun”. Through this, you can watch live attempts, immerse yourself within the Speedrunning community, and maybe find yourself a game to speedrun. 



## It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.



So, you’ve explored all previous avenues and still don’t know what to run? That’s okay, I’ve got you covered. As of the time that I am writing this, Speedrun.com has over 22,000 games with leaderboards and more being created every day. A lot of these games are really incredible, and I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the fact that I don’t know everything about every single game that’s ever been speedrun. With that said though, I think I have a decent list of recommendations depending on your interests.



### Retro/Classic Runs

*Do any of these really need an introduction?*  

  

*[The Legend of Zelda Series](https://www.speedrun.com/games#title=Legend+of+Zelda)*  

The Legend of Zelda series is full of all kinds of different games, ranging from entirely busted to relatively faithful to the “intended” experience.  

*[The Metroid Series](https://www.speedrun.com/metroid)*   

Metroid is a true classic, boasting satisfying movement and combat across 2D and 3D installments.  

*[The Mario Kart Series](https://www.speedrun.com/mario_kart)*  

Across all the games, tracks, and categories, chances are fairly high there’s a speedrun for you in here.



### Movement-based Runs

*[Super Mario 64 - 16/70 Star](https://www.speedrun.com/sm64)*   

A movement classic with years of player experience and community resources for easy learning.  

*[Super Meat Boy - Any%](https://www.speedrun.com/smb)*   

Easy to pick up, hard to master. A great choice for a first speedgame.  

*[Super Mario Odyssey - Any%](https://www.speedrun.com/smo)*   

Modern Mario movement goodness, with a low barrier to entry and an incredibly high skill ceiling.  

*[Celeste - Any%](https://www.speedrun.com/celeste)*  

Incredibly challenging, beautiful, and chock full of that sweet movement.  

*[Titanfall 2 - Any%](https://www.speedrun.com/titanfall_2)*   

An underrated first-person shooter built on a modified version of the Source engine, with high octane combat and ultra-smooth movement  



### ”Broken-in-the-Best-Way” Runs

*[LoZ: Ocarina of Time // Defeat Ganon - No SRM](https://www.speedrun.com/oot)*   

Until recently, this category was known as Any%. Defeat Ganon was created once Arbitrary Code Execution was found, allowing runners to warp to the credits through a complex process of memory manipulation.  Defeat Ganon is masterfully broken in all kinds of ways and makes for a unique watching experience. This is by no means an easy run if you wish to learn it, but the community has a *ton* of resources to learn from.   

*[Portal - Out of Bounds](https://www.speedrun.com/portal)*   

Abusing Portal collisions to walk through anything? Sign me up.   

*[The Dishonored Series](https://www.speedrun.com/dishonored_series)*   

Elevators, leaps, and lots of OOB goodness.  

*[DOOM 2016 - Any%](https://www.speedrun.com/d2016)*   

Ever looked at a railing and thought to yourself, “Damn, I sure do wish that would send me 1000 feet into the air at Mach 7” because me too, reader. Me too.   

*[Fallout: New Vegas // Main Quest - Yes Man](https://www.speedrun.com/fallout_nv)*   

Ever wanted to become a plane before?



### Puzzle Runs

*[Portal - Inbounds No SLA](https://www.speedrun.com/portal#Inbounds_No_SLA)*   

A hybrid category akin to “No Major Glitches” that blends the classic source movement with some clever routing.  

*[Superliminal - Glitchless](https://www.speedrun.com/superliminal#Glitchless)*   

A mind-boggling game with tight optimization and very satisfying puzzles.  



By no means is this a comprehensive list, not even close. I tried to limit each category to just a few options, and I’m sure I have some personal bias inside my decisions. As such, I encourage you to do your own research and use this article and list as a stepping stone into speedrunning, rather than a direct guide. 



There are so many amazing speedgames out there, with even better communities behind them. I could never hope to create a fully comprehensive list of amazing speedgames, simply because it seems there’s always more to be discovered or even developed. Speedrunning truly is the gift that keeps on giving. 



***What are your favorite games to run and/or watch? Tell us about them by sending us a tweet 

[@speedruncom](https://twitter.com/speedruncom) with the hashtag #FavSpeedgame!***



*Header photo credit to the PHD Gamer via Unsplash.*

Want to get started with speedrunning, but aren't sure what game to try first? We've got some advice to get you started! 

How to pick your first speedgame

With European Speedrunner Assembly (ESA)’s winter event coming to a close last week, 400,000 SEK ($47,000 US) was raised for the Swedish Alzheimer’s Foundation. [Alzheimerfonden](https://www.alzheimerfonden.se/) is an organization that supports research and projects to eventually find a cure for Alzheimer’s and other Dementia-related diseases. The money raised will have a huge impact on people’s lives, and personally, it’s times like these when I am extremely proud to be part of the speedrunning community that constantly works to make the world a better place. With our passion and contributions, we can change the world via speedrunning and that is incredible. Let’s take a look at some highlights for the event, shall we?



## Incredible Luck



We’ll start off by looking at some incredible luck in some of the runs featured at the event. It’s no secret that speedrunning takes an incredible amount of skill to execute well, especially in front of an audience of thousands. The confidence and talent required to remain calm under the pressure is astounding, but sometimes runners do make errors and need a bit of good fortune to bring them back into the game. 



clips.twitch.tv/PopularDeterminedBobaAsianGlow-4XYn8ADFkjlnTwfT



Here, we have MedicCasts’s run of *Hades*, where Medic made a mistake early on by filling the dash slot of his character’s build with a dash that is almost useless in the run. This cut down his damage significantly, making boss fights much slower as a result. However you are offered replacement dashes later on as seen in this clip, and thankfully Medic was offered the Poseidon dash which is a huge boost back in the right direction. Getting Poseidon Dash this early is calculated to be around a 14% chance, so lady luck was definitely on Medic’s side to bring it home!



clips.twitch.tv/ObliqueWildEagleSMOrc-OpwRuuPdIWnwH2ZY



Onto another stroke of fortune, many speedruns done at a marathon will involve a “farming” segment (attempting to get a rare drop over and over as they cannot reset if they get bad luck). This section of a run can sometimes be circumvented, but some games require you to grind the old-fashioned way. In this clip of *Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow*, Diagongdx is getting ready to farm the Black Panther ability, as it’s significantly faster than any other movement type in the game. You can hear in the clip that he and his commentators are preparing the chat to sit back and relax as they will likely be there for a while. 



However, Diagongdx calls that he will get the ability first try and does just that. This ability has a less than 5% drop chance so getting it first try is extremely rare, calling the first try at a live event is even rarer. Definitely a moment to remember as it’s not just a stroke of luck, but perhaps even a stroke of runner intuition as well.



## Dealing With Downtime



clips.twitch.tv/BenevolentSillyReindeerAMPTropPunch-awymNxz42iNYr-Bf



Taking a little break from the crazy luck and insane plays we’ve seen from the event, our next clip is simply a nice little moment from Kyoslilmonster’s *Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition* run. Usually, during runs like this, runners can do whatever they like in the downtime of unskippable cutscenes or sequences, as long as they keep the timer running. Some runners use these moments to take bathroom breaks, or mentally prepare themselves for more difficult sections ahead. Kyo has a personal tradition where they like to do something out of the box such as cooking or long marathons, especially if it comes to raising money for charity. In this particular cutscene, we got to meet Freya the ferret. She’s only a few months old but has apparently taken a liking to sleeping in her own little race car bed, so maybe we can see a co-op run from Kyo and Freya in the future?



## Friendly Competition



clips.twitch.tv/JazzyBadCrabRalpherZ-k4kRPcD-lNgsPFNP



Bobby Cruz (otherwise known as TheBlacktastic) is a well-known community member in both the esports scene as an event producer and the speedrunning scene as a top-level runner in many games. It is quite rare you see these two communities have a large amount of overlap due to how different each scene is, but that wasn’t the case during Bobby’s *Mega Man* run at the event.



During the run, a good friend of Bobby’s who is a member of the fighting game scene by the name of TuboWare donated and created some great banter on the stream. BOWIEtheHERO (another well-known esports commentator) was reading donations at the time, and even he was caught off-guard by Tubo’s donation calling out Bobby for “speedrunning away from this UMVC3 rematch for months now!” It seems that poor Bobby cannot get away so easily for this *Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3* rematch, and both communities will be sure to remind him!



## Solving the Impossible



clips.twitch.tv/NurturingRoughMooseUWot-pBUTNtQZRhthW_Ws



Kainalo is well known within ESA for his outstanding humor and overall silliness, and what better clip to showcase this than him solving puzzles as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. This particular TMNT game is known for its overall jankiness, so it’s not out of the realms of reality that a puzzle could be bugged in a way to make it impossible. However, in this particular instance, the game is definitely working as intended as Kainalo quickly realized. 



The puzzle itself is very similar to the extremely popular “Flow” games that blew up on app stores a number of years ago, where you must simply connect the colors together like a pipeline without crossing any colors over. This usually means starting from the outside and finishing in the center to avoid any overlap. Kainalo’s turtle has an ability to make these puzzles extremely simple, as usually there are a larger number of colors you must deal with. Applying the aforementioned logic to this puzzle makes it extremely trivial, but as someone who has done marathon runs in front of thousands, I can absolutely relate to sometimes making silly mistakes as a result. We still love you Kainalo, keep your head held high!



## Not for the Faint of Nikoheart



*Alien Isolation* on the Nightmare difficulty setting is no laughing matter, or is it?



Nikoheart is an absolute mastermind at *Alien Isolation*, his coverage of this clip is so in-depth with mechanics that I was absolutely mind-blown at the deep knowledge and understanding of something that seems so simple. 



clips.twitch.tv/TangentialAgitatedStapleKippa-wR-CBvl9nrr0AOIr



In this clip, the Xenomorph proves that even the most knowledgeable can still be caught by surprise on occasion. On the Nightmare difficulty setting, the Xenomorphs are extremely prone to noise and movement so some strategies are used in order to move quickly while making minimal noise. These strategies, unfortunately, didn’t work for Niko in this case, so he had to quickly think of a backup solution before he was caught. In this section of the run there are two Xenomorphs you must escape from, one as the door opens and another on the bottom floor of the facility. The one below should in theory be distracted by a flare that Niko has thrown prior to the clip. While Niko was waiting for the first Xenomorph to head up into the vents, he attempted to silently run down the stairs in hopes that he could also avoid the second Xenomorph. To his extreme surprise, it was two steps ahead and was waiting for him behind the doors. Personally, I would have turned the game off at that point, but I respect Niko for sticking it out and finishing strong.



ESA raising almost $50,000 for a great cause is an awesome way to kick off 2021, and I hope that this positivity continues in a time period where we definitely need it. This will not be the only event we will see from ESA this year, as their schedule is consistently filled with smaller events even when the big ones are being prepared. Not to mention other fantastic organizations that raise money for amazing causes around the world all in the name of speedrunning. If you missed the marathon and want to watch it on demand, check out [ESA’s Twitch channel](https://www.twitch.tv/esamarathon) in order to find all the runs available to watch whenever you like. You can also [follow this link](https://linktr.ee/esamarathon) in order to find them on social media and find the latest news from ESA directly.



**Personal thanks to Museus, romscout, Kyoslilmonster, BOWIEtheHERO, Kainalo & Nikoheart for help with accuracy and context for the clips.**



*Header screenshot from ESA Winter 2021.*

ESA Winter 2021 was a great success, entertaining us while raising funds for Alzheimerfonden. Let's check out some event highlights!

Highlights from ESA Winter 2021

The greater speedrunning community is a web of smaller communities where players come together over common interests. In this series, we want to highlight communities and community members who help to make speedrunning what it is.



Bobby Cruz, aka TheBlacktastic, holds multiple records in various retro and retro-style games. 



Beyond that, he is a community moderator, a game show host for Games Done Quick, an esports event producer, and a Twitch partner. But no matter what he’s doing, Cruz brings his personal charm everywhere he goes.



In a recent record-breaking run of *Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2*, originally streamed at two in the morning, he slides between jokes and commentary on the game.



Occasionally he drops into both recognizable and unique character voices, noting that he dreams of becoming a voice actor.



Even exhausted and “slap-happy,” he performs the run and the stream with personability and skill.



# Getting started with speedrunning



Cruz’s interest in speedrunning can be traced back to the early 2010s when he and his local gaming friends would gather to play fighting games and watch speedruns of *Super Mario 64*.



“I always admired the amount of technical skill and patience required to dedicate one's self to the craft of speedrunning,” Cruz said.



Cruz didn’t begin posting his own runs for several years. Eventually, he started running *Castlevania: Symphony of the Night* and the rest was history.



Since then, his list of runs has only grown.



His current records include multiple first-place runs in *Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon and Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2*; first-place runs in the *Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 + 2* versions of *Mega Man 9* (Proto Man Category) and *Mega Man 10* (Bass Category); first place in *Castlevania: Rondo of Blood*; and multiple highly ranked runs in other games.



With as much experience as he has speedrunning, Cruz has a good idea of which kinds of games appeal to him as a runner.



“I’m extremely particular when it comes to my games,” Cruz says.



Regardless of when it was actually released, if he is going to run a game then it needs to have a retro feel with controls that are both crisp and responsive.



He says he enjoys “games that require and reward trial and error and then execution.”



In addition to his own enjoyment, Cruz wants his runs to be equally fun for his viewers.



“I always like incorporating a bit of visual spectacle because if it’s fun for me, I want it to be fun for someone else to watch,” he says.



Cruz enjoys the ways speedrunners can bring new life to older, sometimes forgotten games through exploration and mastery.



Perhaps even more than that, he loves competition.

# Cruz as a host



Over on the Games Done Quick Twitch channel, Cruz co-hosts “Super Boss Bros” with fellow speedrunner, Big Jon.



Together, Cruz and Big Jon cook up fun and categories for contestants to face-off and show off their retro speedrunning chops.



Rounds tend to last about a half-hour and usually focus on a short race like who can get to beat level 20 first in *Dr. Mario* or a timed trial to see which player can accomplish the most of a specific task in the time limit like collecting coins in *Super Mario Bros 3*.



As hosts, Cruz and Big Jon have amusing and genuine chemistry. They laugh about running animations in *The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past* randomizer, discuss the meta nature of providing commentary for *Mario Golf* in hushed golf-announcer voices, and argue whether or not a stage hazard in *Bonk’s Adventure* is a uvula.



“[Big Jon] loves the old-school, PG, weekday-night game shows and I just love the flame of competition,” Cruz says.



When it comes to the speedrunning communities he frequents, Cruz considers the retro platforming scenes to be  “extremely, really really good, wholesome communities.”



In addition to the friendships he’s found there, he also admires the spirit of solidarity in these spaces.



In fact, Cruz mentioned Castlevania4aCause, which started in 2019 as a streaming event where Castlevania-community-member Aphotic_Ktulu put together a charity marathon stream to help a community member cover some overwhelming medical bills. Since then, the event has become a recurring opportunity for the classic Castlevania community to raise money for charitable causes and other community members in need.



“I love being part of things like that and I love being around people who are doing things like that,” he says, revealing that in addition to games and competition, Cruz just cares about people plain and simple.



# The Black Cup



Outside of speedrunning, Cruz has a long-standing love for competitive fighting games.



He enjoys them so much that he produces The Black Cup, a monthly fighting game tournament series featuring different games for each installment.



Additionally, The Black Cup previously hosted the Bloodstained Speedrun Exhibition Series, so there’s something there for everyone.



The next installment of The Black Cup is set for February 28 at 3 p.m. EST.



Links to Cruz’s social media are available at [https://solo.to/theblacktastic](https://solo.to/theblacktastic).



*Header photo courtesy of Bobby Cruz.*

We're putting our February spotlight on a very busy man: Bobby "The Blacktastic" Cruz! Let's talk about what Cruz is up to and where you can follow him.

Spotlight: Bobby "The Blacktastic" Cruz

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

Hey everyone,



Happy new year! As we move into 2021, we've got a lot of things in the pipeline for Speedrun.com, as well as a good amount of ground we've already covered.



**What's Happened So Far?**



**New Logo & Color Update**



As you've probably noticed, we've had a bit of a refresh on our logo and color scheme. We tried to stay as true to the original design as possible while still vectorizing the logo, and we hope you'll grow to love the adjustment as much as we have.



**Front Page Request Form**



We heard a lot of feedback asking us to diversify the content on the front page, and we're thrilled to announce the [Front Page Request Form (Beta Program)](https://forms.gle/dgJTDKztpxqf57Pn9). If you've got a marathon, a speedrun show, a TAS premiere, etc, we want to hear about it. As it's a beta program, we are still working out the policies on the type of content we'll accept, as well as the length of each reservation, but we're super excited to be able to leverage the front page as a place to promote cool community content.



**Community Feature Program**



We're also looking to start doing some written features on communities, runners, and other cool aspects of speedrunning. If you have a community/runner/topic you'd like to nominate, feel free to fill out our form [here](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeRUtILBSo12j9kNXjyGLK1G3pCuzDuDOSa3f-Vb2Hu8JlN8g/viewform)! Have a question? Feel free to reach out to our content expert at <chelsea@elo.io>.



**Minor Externally Facing Updates**



-   Donation perks have been turned on for everyone (except the Coin Badge)

-   The bug has been fixed barring users with unique characters from editing their profiles

-   A page will no longer 404 if a game moderator cancels rejecting a run

-   The rejection window is now larger so game moderators can add more detail

-   Users can list their pronouns on their profiles

-   Author names are no longer listed twice for guides

-   The ZeldaSpeedRuns social badge now links to the correct site

-   Mixer has been removed from social profiles

-   The Mississippi flag has been updated

-   The search bug causing incorrect search results has been fixed

-   Forum posts that have been edited will be marked as 'edited' with the date

-   Direct messages are capped at 10,000 characters

-   Image uploads are capped at 2.5 MB to speed up load time for pages

-   Users can no longer send stacking messages to themselves

  

**Full And Content Moderator Applications Are Open**



These are always open as we're looking to grow our volunteer base, but we wanted to shout it out in case anyone was interested in joining in the new year. The application can be found [here](https://www.speedrun.com/staffapplication).



**What's Next?**



We've got a few things planned for the next year, and we wanted to give you a look at some of the user-facing items next up on our current road map. Our main priority is continuing to optimize the site to handle traffic as it increases, but we also have some features planned in the coming months.



-   Updated News Page with better archiving

-   Knowledge Base for helping new runners and moderators get started

-   Announcements functionality on each game page for game moderators to use

-   Optional featured YouTube videos on the game pages

-   Updated Moderator Tools

  

As always, if you have any feedback feel free to drop it in the [Speedrun.com Feedback Form](https://forms.gle/y5UpJrShzdH6foZ56), and we look forward to hearing from you!



Cheers,



Speedrun.com

Our upcoming plans for 2021 and a look back at what we've done so far.

Looking Towards 2021

Hey all!

So some of you may have already heard from Pac's post over in the forums, but we have some exciting news that we're announcing today. When Speedrun.com was first started by Pac in 2013, it was a labor of love created by volunteers passionate about the speedrunning community. As the website grew, Pac with the help of others continued to develop features to best serve both runners and moderators. What no one could have predicted was the sheer popularity of the site, and especially with the recent boom during pandemic it became harder than ever to keep up with the growing community's needs.



In order to meet those needs, Pac worked with [Elo](https://www.elo.io/) on an acquisition so that Elo could start providing the full-time engineering resources necessary to stabilize the site and continue to fix and develop the tools used by moderators and runners. We've already gotten started on stabilizing the infrastructure, and some of you may have noticed you've been seeing the error page far less often lately. While the community will continue to be run through the expertise of the Full Mods, Content Mods, and Game Moderators, Elo has committed itself to updating the tech infrastructure so that the site can continue to grow in a scalable manner and bugs can be addressed.



To start, we've been working with the Full Mods and Content Mods on the most urgent fixes, such as activation emails not going through or the site going down. Some other milestones on our road map include:



-   Updated run submission and moderator tools

-   Faster search

-   The ability to back up boards and prevent accidental permanent deletion

-   A long list of bug fixes



This is just a snapshot of our plans, and it will take us into 2021 as we do a lot of behind the scenes work, but we want to make sure that you know that we're committed to transparently addressing community needs and providing the best resources we can for the growth of speedrunning communities.To start, we also wanted to provide a way for you to have your voice heard, and we've created this [feedback form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/112eJ-uN55mThCWIYG89cmBhqw9RDDncjH5WV5tEOZ-o/viewform?edit_requested=true) for your hopes and dreams for the site.



- Speedrun.com



P.S. Want to join the team? We're currently hiring for Senior and Intermediate Developer roles to specifically work on SR.C! Learn more and apply at our job posting here - <https://apply.workable.com/elo/>

Speedrun.com joins Elo.io

# ***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

Hi everyone,



This is just a mini update, but we wanted to give everyone a heads-up on some work we'll be doing in the next month or two.



**DONATION PERKS**



We know a lot of people have been asking how they can unlock the donator perks since we've turned off donations, and we're very excited to announce that they will be unlocked for everyone starting today! The only perk that will not be unlocked is the Coin Badge, but anyone who donated during Pac's time running SR.C will keep the Coin Badge. The hover text will now say 'Original Donor' as a thank you for the support.



**SITE BUGS**



Over the next two months we'll be addressing a lot of site bugs, including the milliseconds formatting bug, the 404 window when you try to cancel rejecting a run bug, and some search bugs. This is not a full list, and we'll update everyone in the winter update on the progress we've made.



**SITE MAINTENANCE**



We continue to be hard at work on backend changes to make the site run smoother, and in order to complete some of those tasks we'll need to temporarily bring the site into read-only mode for a few hours in the next couple of weeks. We'll be tweeting and have a banner on the SR.C home page to notify people when it's closer to the date, and we apologize for any inconvenience it might cause.



We've been reading all the feedback we've received through the [feedback form](https://forms.gle/bF1sP7hVrLTuLVdq5) and making sure it's all logged in the proper place, so thank you all again for helping contribute to the improvement of the site! We're especially interested in any feedback on the moderator tools as we've started planning the updates for that tool set, so if you haven't sent that in yet, We'd love any opinions you may have.



Cheers,



Speedrun.com

Update on donation perks and upcoming site maintenance.

Donation Perks Unlocked

EBen

xwpw4y0l

summertimealice

SpeedrunCom

A Difficult Game About Climbing

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

The Outlast Trials

UEFN: Paranoid

An embargo is in place. Please come back when the embargo is open!

**Why?**: The embargo is in place to allow moderators and community members to properly set up the leaderboards. Don't want to rush it and make mistakes!

Dr Robotnik's Ring Racers

Indigo Park: Chapter 1

Sorry, the page will be inaccessible for 2 hours, until 19:00 or 7:00 p.m (French hour). We are setting up the page!