If you didn't watch the event and want one run that's a definite highlight, the Super Mario Maker 2 Relay Race is everything great about GDQ. It's two teams of three, racing against each other on...
If you didn't watch the event and want one run that's a definite highlight, the Super Mario Maker 2 Relay Race is everything great about GDQ. It's two teams of three, racing against each other on custom Mario levels that they've never seen before, all while passing off controllers after each death.
It's not a "speedrun" in the classic sense of the word, but it's an incredible display of skill -- both on the players' part and the part of the level designers. You don't need any insider knowledge to appreciate what's going on (the play and expertise are obvious), and the competitive angle adds in some nice dramatic tension. Other runs can be hard to recommend because they have more niche appeal, but this one is just pure accessible fun.
I'll also say that this particular matchup felt amazing not only because it plays out so well (I hid my spoilers below) but also because they hadn't done one of these in a couple of years due to the past few events not being in-person.
Spoilers
Shoujo was the breakout star of this GDQ (especially after her performance in the similar SMW Race). She clutched it TWICE. What an ending!
Also, despite their team's loss, it is definitely a hat (no matter what Nintendo says).
Overall, I loved the event (as usual). The combination in-person/hybrid is definitely the way going forward, but I will continue to hope they change bonus game incentives to be overall benchmarks (i.e. based on the event's donation total) instead of their own individual donation incentives. The bonus games end up cannibalizing a lot of the other smaller and more fun incentives (e.g. naming characters).
Also, this year in particular it felt like the target amounts for bonus games were way off the mark. A Five Nights at Freddy's game had trouble getting funded at 100K, but then they set a way more niche game, SOUND VOLTEX EXCEED GEAR, at 200K?
It's always awkward when they have to stall for the bonus game, or cash in on their Fangamer/Yetee marketing donations in hopes of getting it close enough to even get some momentum. Plus, when the bonus games are a bigger reach and the hosts have increasingly desperate pushes, it has a way of stepping on the run leading up to it. The Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl run was particularly egregious for it, with the donation incentive being set so high that the couch wasn't even faking enthusiasm and was instead like, weirdly negging Twitch chat the whole time about it.
That said, these are minor critiques for what remains an absolutely fantastic event. It's so positive, entertaining, and informative. My husband and I had a great week watching it, and are looking forward to catching VODs of some of the runs that we missed in the week to come.
Agree, it was awkward. Hearing the host plea that "we're only a hundred thousand dollars away" with 15 minutes left in the run did not inspire confidence. Unfortunately their donation goals had to...
Also, this year in particular it felt like the target amounts for bonus games were way off the mark.
Agree, it was awkward. Hearing the host plea that "we're only a hundred thousand dollars away" with 15 minutes left in the run did not inspire confidence. Unfortunately their donation goals had to fight record inflation and an impending recession, so I suspect their goals were doomed from the start.
A Five Nights at Freddy's game had trouble getting funded at 100K, but then they set a way more niche game, SOUND VOLTEX EXCEED GEAR, at 200K?
Also agree, but I would like to point out that the SOUND VOLTEX EXCEED GEAR run was amazing, even in spite of my personal disinterest in rhythm games. I think the couch mentioned there were only a handful of North American runners who had ever full combo-ed a Lvl 20 song, and yet this runner full combo-ed multiple Lvl 20 songs on stream. I'm convinced the runner isn't merely human but rather some human/drum machine chimera.
Both the SMW and SMM2 races were amazing, Shoujo did a great job in both. Sometimes I feel a little bad for the commentators though, since they need to keep their explanations to a layperson’s...
Both the SMW and SMM2 races were amazing, Shoujo did a great job in both. Sometimes I feel a little bad for the commentators though, since they need to keep their explanations to a layperson’s level, but since it’s Mario there’s not much they can say other than ‘and now they’re jumping differently than before’ and reiterate that the runners have never seen the levels before.
Summer Games Done Quick 2022 has raised over $3 million for Doctors Without Borders in its first live marathon since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic
Summer Games Done Quick 2022 was a special event for many reasons. First and foremost, it was the first one since 2020 since GDQ returned to a live week-long fundraiser. SGDQ 2022 did indeed spend the last week in its old stomping grounds in Bloomington, Minnesota raising money for charity. The week just wrapped up and SGDQ 2022 finished with a total of $3,016,687 raised for Doctors Without Borders.
This year's total surpassed the $2.9 million raised during SGDQ 2021, though it's slightly less than the record-breaking $3.41 million raised during Awesome Games Done Quick earlier this year. Getting to the $3 million milestone took some work. In fact, the GDQ crew offered one final Any% run of Elden Ring if they could pass the $3 million mark. Even with the addition of proceeds from Twitch Bits donated throughout the week, GDQ Twitch channel subscriptions, and purchases from GDQ partners, such as The Yetee and Fangamer, viewers weren't able to unlock that last Elden Ring run until the very end of the marathon. It took one final push, nearly 15 minutes following the end of the initial Elden Ring run, for donors to make up the final $100,000.
The end of Summer Games Done Quick also marks the end of an era. After serving as GDQ Director of Marketing and Business Development (as well as various other roles) for the past eight years, this is the final Games Done Quick event for Kasumi "Sumichu" Yogi, who said her goodbyes both during Saturday's event recap and the SGDQ finale at the end of the broadcast. She also helped lead the crowd in the final march to $3 million. GDQ has grown substantially during Sumichu's time with the team, having expanded into regularly-scheduled content through GDQ Hotfix and side events like the all-woman Frame Fatales. The next Frame Fatales event, Flame Fatales is set to run from August 21-27 and will raise money for Malala Fund.
I'm surprised it started so soon, but then the runs I've been interested in don't start until day 3 or so, assuming the schedule is the same as it was a month or so ago when it was initially announced
I'm surprised it started so soon, but then the runs I've been interested in don't start until day 3 or so, assuming the schedule is the same as it was a month or so ago when it was initially announced
Speedrunner Mekarazium set a new world record for the Blade Wolf DLC during the event. However, a video replay of the run was later removed from the official GDQ YouTube channel and it was confirmed that it was due to forgery.
“Yesterday, we were made aware that Mekarzarium played a segmented video for his DLC run at Summer Games Done Quick 2022. Mekazarium has since admitted to this, both to some members of the community as well as directly to GDQ staff.”
Doesn't really explain why... Was it to make a point? I'm not sure what the motivation might be in this case, but it sounds like it wasn't simply a case of glory seeking since they readily admit...
According to GDQ, Mekazarium contacted the staff “with a document detailing that he had planned this over a month, demonstrating this was planned and intentional. This was made possible because of the remote nature of this particular run in the marathon.”
Doesn't really explain why... Was it to make a point? I'm not sure what the motivation might be in this case, but it sounds like it wasn't simply a case of glory seeking since they readily admit to it.
It's a little disappointing how often these cheating scandals seem to be showing up lately. I think it casts doubt on the thousands of legitimate runs since it feels like anyone could be cheating now.
The scandals are coming out now not because there's more cheating but because the detection is getting so much better. If anything, the runs are more likely to be real now than a few years ago.
The scandals are coming out now not because there's more cheating but because the detection is getting so much better. If anything, the runs are more likely to be real now than a few years ago.
If you didn't watch the event and want one run that's a definite highlight, the Super Mario Maker 2 Relay Race is everything great about GDQ. It's two teams of three, racing against each other on custom Mario levels that they've never seen before, all while passing off controllers after each death.
It's not a "speedrun" in the classic sense of the word, but it's an incredible display of skill -- both on the players' part and the part of the level designers. You don't need any insider knowledge to appreciate what's going on (the play and expertise are obvious), and the competitive angle adds in some nice dramatic tension. Other runs can be hard to recommend because they have more niche appeal, but this one is just pure accessible fun.
I'll also say that this particular matchup felt amazing not only because it plays out so well (I hid my spoilers below) but also because they hadn't done one of these in a couple of years due to the past few events not being in-person.
Spoilers
Shoujo was the breakout star of this GDQ (especially after her performance in the similar SMW Race). She clutched it TWICE. What an ending!
Also, despite their team's loss, it is definitely a hat (no matter what Nintendo says).
Overall, I loved the event (as usual). The combination in-person/hybrid is definitely the way going forward, but I will continue to hope they change bonus game incentives to be overall benchmarks (i.e. based on the event's donation total) instead of their own individual donation incentives. The bonus games end up cannibalizing a lot of the other smaller and more fun incentives (e.g. naming characters).
Also, this year in particular it felt like the target amounts for bonus games were way off the mark. A Five Nights at Freddy's game had trouble getting funded at 100K, but then they set a way more niche game, SOUND VOLTEX EXCEED GEAR, at 200K?
It's always awkward when they have to stall for the bonus game, or cash in on their Fangamer/Yetee marketing donations in hopes of getting it close enough to even get some momentum. Plus, when the bonus games are a bigger reach and the hosts have increasingly desperate pushes, it has a way of stepping on the run leading up to it. The Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl run was particularly egregious for it, with the donation incentive being set so high that the couch wasn't even faking enthusiasm and was instead like, weirdly negging Twitch chat the whole time about it.
That said, these are minor critiques for what remains an absolutely fantastic event. It's so positive, entertaining, and informative. My husband and I had a great week watching it, and are looking forward to catching VODs of some of the runs that we missed in the week to come.
Agree, it was awkward. Hearing the host plea that "we're only a hundred thousand dollars away" with 15 minutes left in the run did not inspire confidence. Unfortunately their donation goals had to fight record inflation and an impending recession, so I suspect their goals were doomed from the start.
Also agree, but I would like to point out that the SOUND VOLTEX EXCEED GEAR run was amazing, even in spite of my personal disinterest in rhythm games. I think the couch mentioned there were only a handful of North American runners who had ever full combo-ed a Lvl 20 song, and yet this runner full combo-ed multiple Lvl 20 songs on stream. I'm convinced the runner isn't merely human but rather some human/drum machine chimera.
Both the SMW and SMM2 races were amazing, Shoujo did a great job in both. Sometimes I feel a little bad for the commentators though, since they need to keep their explanations to a layperson’s level, but since it’s Mario there’s not much they can say other than ‘and now they’re jumping differently than before’ and reiterate that the runners have never seen the levels before.
Summer Games Done Quick 2022 has raised over $3 million for Doctors Without Borders in its first live marathon since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic
I'm surprised it started so soon, but then the runs I've been interested in don't start until day 3 or so, assuming the schedule is the same as it was a month or so ago when it was initially announced
Same I was expecting July, and I haven't finished watching the AGDQ VoDs yet.
Metal Gear Rising Speedrun Removed After Runner Played Pre-Recorded Video for SGDQ
Doesn't really explain why... Was it to make a point? I'm not sure what the motivation might be in this case, but it sounds like it wasn't simply a case of glory seeking since they readily admit to it.
It's a little disappointing how often these cheating scandals seem to be showing up lately. I think it casts doubt on the thousands of legitimate runs since it feels like anyone could be cheating now.
The scandals are coming out now not because there's more cheating but because the detection is getting so much better. If anything, the runs are more likely to be real now than a few years ago.
Schedule
Donations go towards Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders
/r/speedrun’s [SGDQ] VoD Thread 2022 is up now too