Hey everyone! 



We’ve got another site update, this time we’ve got an overhaul to the game page!



## New Game Page Layout! 



The new game page layout brings a fresh new look to your favorite leaderboards, condensing the main menu and shifting it to the top right under the title — letting the leaderboard theme shine through! A dropdown menu allows for better organization of the Full Game and Individual Level (IL)  leaderboards, increasing visibility for leaderboards that contain a lot of levels & IL categories.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/97n61mzq.jpg)And for leaderboards with lots of sub-categories & filters, we’ve got you covered! Categories with more than 3 subcategories will now be placed into a tidy dropdown, and categories with a lot of filters will have extra values placed into a new section you can hover over. Oh, and if you don’t like the default sub-category and filter that gets shown, you can adjust their placement under Edit Game - Variables!

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/7rnqqwnj.jpg)

## Recent Runs

The newly added Recent Runs widget can be found on the right side, showing recently verified runs across all categories and sub-categories for the Full Game and ILs. This change allows communities to celebrate runs from speedrunners of every skill level, and track the current activity on the leaderboard!

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/67e9x1e1.jpg)

## Run Comments



In the spirit of increasing the social aspect of Speedrun.com beyond just forums, we’ve now created a comments section for runs! There were a fair few people who have been asking for this feature for quite some time now, and now you can celebrate runs with your friends and favorite runners in the run comments section!

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/3ynl5me6.jpg)

## Game Page News



As teased in the last update, Game Page News is now live! Moderators are now able to update their community right here on SRC without sticking to forums. 

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/r7z3rlzd.jpg)

You can opt-in to receive notifications from their favorite speedgames on the latest updates from its moderation team! Aside from optional notifications, recent news will appear in the right-hand column on the associated game page.

## Profiles

Surprise! We’re shipping revamped user profiles on top of the previously announced new game pages. 

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/2qnyvdnp.jpg)

The goal with the new profile page is to allow for you to create your own space to express yourself, and make it feel like home. The new profiles come with an option for a biography, statistics around games ran, moderated games, and followed games as well as detailed personal statistics!

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/p4zj51ek.jpg)

We hope this update to the profile page makes it feel just a bit more welcoming, and if you have suggestions for tweaks to this new change by all means please let us know!

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/r1n89xzq.jpg)

## What’s Next?

These past couple of updates have focused on improving some of the spaces commonly traversed by runners and moderators alike. This next update will be focused around entirely *new* spaces for Speedrun.com including new ways to interact with leaderboards and appreciate your favorite communities. We're excited to offer you some new options for showing your support in different ways across Speedrun.com!



We’ll continue to iterate on both the recently released new Mod Hub Run Verification tool as well as these game page updates moving forward, so please keep [sending your feedback and bug reports to us.](https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub)  We’re also continually looking to improve site performance, so expect some tweaking here and there. 



## Wrapping Up

Anything you want to see fixed or added in future updates? Please, let us know! As a side note, I’d like to remind everybody that you can have your community featured right on our Front Page by putting in a request to the [Front Page Stream Request Form!](https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub/request-promotion)



As usual, I'm staying active in the forums and on [Discord](https://discord.gg/0h6sul1ZwHVpXJmK). Also, if you’d like to contact me directly on any of my social media, I have most things connected over on my [user profile](https://www.speedrun.com/user/Meta). I’ll see y’all around!



Meta // Cam

Introducing the new game pages AND profile pages. Some new features and a fresh new look for the existing ones. Let's also discuss some new things on the Speedrun.com roadmap.

Games & Profile Updates

For this month’s spotlight, we talked to Kris De Asis, aka Meep_Moop. He is a Pico-8 speedrunner who mainly focuses on Celeste Classic. He’s also a Ph.D student, a visual artist, and a game developer.



## Speedrunning on the Pico-8



De Asis primarily speedruns Celeste Classic on the Pico-8 ‘fantasy console.’ A fantasy console is kind of like an emulator for a system that does not exist as physical hardware. The Pico-8 has some arbitrary limitations built in which make it a fun and challenging creative space for game developers.



Before the release of Celeste Classic, De Asis’s friend Justin Jaffray was already following the work of Maddy Thorson, who created the game along with their collaborator Noel Berry.



“The moment Celeste Classic dropped, Justin was like, ‘Hey, this is a sick game, you need to play it.’ And so on day one, we were already running it, finding strats for it, and routing it,” De Asis said.



Eventually, he and Jaffray connected with some other players over Twitter and they became one of the earliest seeds of the modern Celeste community.



“Some of us have been around for like five years now playing the same little game. And then we got to see it blossom into the new release of the game,” De Asis said.



In the early days, he focused on routing. Even though he was helping Justin, SecksWrecks, and BaldJared, De Asis didn’t submit an official run of his own until August 2016.



“The main push that made me start submitting runs was when BaldJared quit at 2:03 and I really wanted to see sub-2 happen,” he said. Later, when Celeste(2018) came out, his interest was revitalized.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/9kzwv8nq.jpg)

Outside of speedrunning, De Asis is a Ph.D student studying Computing Science with a background in things like mechatronic engineering and he has repeatedly drawn on his skills in those areas to contribute to the Celeste Classic community.



In terms of glitchhunting, De Asis learned Lua (the programming language used by Pico-8) and combed through the game’s code to understand different glitches and how best to execute them consistently. “I wrote up a glossary on our community website explaining all the relevant glitches,” he said.



Additionally, he has contributed to the development of Tool Assisted Speedruns and even created a brute-force searcher in Python to find the definitive fastest way through certain levels.



On top of all that, when Jaffray created a practice mod that allowed runners to do things like repeating challenging portions of gameplay for efficient practice, De Asis built on the concept, adding quality-of-life features and fixing bugs.



Improving the community’s accessibility has been one of his guiding principles.



“That was something that we didn't have before when we just had this small, four person group and some private Discord. So whenever people watched our runs, they're just like, ‘what the heck is going on? How are you doing all these spike clips? Are you cheating?’” De Asis said, “And then when I started the server one of the things I did was just document everything.” 

When he needs a break from speedrunning Celeste Classic, De Asis branches out to running other Pico-8 games.



The reason he has stuck to running games on the Pico-8 comes down to brevity. He said, “I don't have the attention span to play any long games. I can’t play Final Fantasy or anything. I really liked the game. I think it's fun, but I just can't finish it. And so Celeste Classic was just the perfect length that had the right amount of precision and platforming. And it just really resonated with me.”



The game’s short length makes the grind more relaxed as well. Often, De Asis will run repeated playthroughs while hanging out with a friend.



“Then whenever I have a good one going, I would like pause the conversation and then actually focus and then if that dies, I'll just get back to chilling with my friend,” he said, “and so it doesn't actually feel like I'm like throwing time at this game or it doesn't feel like I'm wasting time. It's just kind of like this fidgeting thing that I'm doing while doing something else.”



That practice pays off. Anyone who has played any version of Celeste understands the high death-rate that is central to each game’s design. De Asis’s first-place runs are completely deathless.



“The thing is that, in that run, you're not seeing all the attempts before where I died a lot. Like it's a really biased sample of the runs that I did,” he said.



Nonetheless, it’s an impressive feat of dexterity and skill.



## Mods

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/oxzdyvzm.jpg)

It is impossible to spend even a few minutes looking through Pico-8 carts without discovering a few mods of Celeste Classic which is great for fans of the game who want more fresh content.



“It turned this two minute game into a whole bunch of little level packs that can sometimes be like 10 minutes long…” De Asis said, “It's community driven content for the game and it's sort of helping keep this two minute game alive. And it has been going strong for a lot longer than I would have expected it to.”



Some of those mods make it onto the Celeste Classic Mods leaderboard and most of the mods on there have either been run by Meep or he had a hand in their creation.



“It's kind of weird because, as familiar as I am with the Celeste Classic engine, I do see a lot of these shortcuts and speed routes in my own mods," he said. “And some of them I would patch out, some of them I would allow, and then they would still find something new, they would still just break it somehow...there's some satisfaction to that even though there can be a little frustration.”



## Before Speedrunning



Before he knew about speedrunning as a larger hobby and community, De Asis got his start playing Megaman X on repeat. “Whenever I had friends or family over, it would be like trying to show them how quickly I could beat the level and see how quickly they could beat it,” he said.



Another precursor to his interest in speedrunning came in the form of Speedcubing, where he and other participants competed to solve puzzle cubes as quickly as possible.



De Asis even designed a robot to solve cubes automatically which he later retooled to scramble cubes for competitions. His scrambler has been used “[in parallel with human scramblers at WCA-sanctioned Rubik's Cube competitions](https://meep.cubing.net/portfolio/proj_phys_333scramblebot.htm).”



In addition to the dexterity and competitive-timing involved in both speedcubing and speedrunning, De Asis has noticed some overlap between the kinds of people he has met in both communities. However, he said that while speedcubing requires a lot of quick, moment-to-moment decisions, running a game without procedural generation like Celeste Classic is more about rote repetition.



## Creativity



De Asis has also designed a couple of original games for the Pico-8 and has created art in a lot of different mediums. For Ludum Dare 48, he created “Rolling in the Deep,” a Binding-of-Isaac-inspired roguelike with a penguin player character.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/y1n5pke3.jpg)

Penguins appear repeatedly throughout De Asis’s work as a visual artist as well as in his profile images on various websites. It all goes back to a stuffed penguin his sister gave him when he was born. “Ever since then, I've just been attached to it. And then everything that I've done has been sort of penguin-revolved.”



Attempts to render the penguin even led him to mediums like illustration, animation, game development and even to the technical focus of his Ph.D.



“My undergrad degree was in Mechatronics Engineering to focus on robotics. So that sort of bridged Game Dev into reality where...now I can interact with this physical system that's also animated and like real, but then I still wasn't satisfied with that…” he said, “and so that's what led me to computer science to focus my graduate studies on artificial intelligence and machine learning. But it all stems back to this little stuffed penguin.”



## Celeste Classic 2



In January 2021, Thorson, Barry, and musician Lena Raine surprised the Celeste community with the release of Celeste Classic 2.



“It was just a pleasant surprise for everybody. And, it was a nice growth of the Celeste Classic community. We got a lot of new people in who started running both games,” De Asis said. Shortly after its release he had already created a practice mod for the new game.



De Asis never expected the Celeste Classic community to grow as much as it has. “It did start out as this close knit community of mainly four people and then a few people who would come and go in this other server,” he said, “...It just sort of spawned into its own little thing and now it has like 700 people in it and I didn't expect this to ever happen.”



You can check out De Asis’s work [here](https://meep.cubing.net/portfolio/index.htm).





This time, we're shining the spotlight on Meep_Moop, a Pico-8 speedrunner with a particular interest in Celeste Classic.

Spotlight: Meep_Moop

Hey everyone! 



I’m back for another update, and we’ve got some exciting stuff to go over today! You may have already noticed some of the new changes to the site, so let’s dig into some of them, shall we?



## New Mod Hub - Runs Awaiting Verification



We’re finally releasing the Mod Hub! With the first entry in a series of Mod Hub updates, we’ve released our first new mod tool — the new Runs Awaiting Verification (RaV) page! For quite some time now, there has been a 50 run cap within every moderator's RaV page. This cap is now removed, with additional runs being paginated for a more organized experience for those of you who moderate large boards.



Speaking of organized, you can now select individual game queues to view *only* the runs from the games you want to see! No longer will the RaV have buried runs you can’t access. Stay efficient and stay organized, fellow moderators!



Also as a note, the new RaV page is under the link https://www.speedrun.com/modhub but if for whatever reason you would like to stick to the legacy RaV page, you can do so here: https://www.speedrun.com/runsawaitingverification. If you run into any issues with the new RaV Page/Mod Hub, please let us know over at [https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub/report-bug](https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub/report-bug)

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/d3ek5rex.jpg)

## Coming Soon™️

Coming very soon, we have a new game page update! This game page update includes multiple quality-of-life changes to help organize game pages more neatly, as well as bring a fresh new look to it. 

On top of aesthetic changes to the game pages, the much-requested game page news will be coming as well! Moderators, you will now have the ability to update your community directly through the Game Page News feature.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/v5e12mn0.jpg)

The days of community updates through stickied forum threads are now over! Speedrunners, fear no more. Follow and optionally receive notifications about the latest news from your favorite leaderboards!

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/qoeo54zg.jpg)

Once again, I want to thank you for helping us improve the site with your bug reports and feedback. You're helping us improve the site by both directing us to bugs in need of squashing AND by letting us know which features and tools you'd like to have!



## Moving Forward



We are actively working on adding improved variable management, better Individual Level support for the site, mass run management, and more as part of future updates. Have another idea you want to see on the site that’s not mentioned here? Head on over to https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub/give-feedback and let us know what you’d like to see!



## Bug Fixes & Feedback



This past weekend, we got reports of users who were running into issues logging into the site due to a weird bug with the session ID cookie, but it was thankfully fixed this morning so we don’t have to worry about that anymore. This quick-fix was largely in thanks to you, the community, for being vocal about it - and I want to thank you for that! 



Your bug reports and feedback are incredibly appreciated by the entire team, so please keep up with that. You can submit [bug reports here](https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub/report-bug) or give us [your feedback here](https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub/give-feedback) As usual, I’m staying active in the forums and on [Discord](https://discord.gg/0h6sul1ZwHVpXJmK). Also, if you’d like to contact me directly on any of my social media, I have most things connected over on my [user profile](https://www.speedrun.com/user/Meta). I’ll see y’all around!



Meta // Cam

Introducing the new Mod Hub with the first tool: a new Runs Awaiting Verification page. Let's also discuss a bug fix and some planned features for the Mod Hub.

The First Mod Hub Update: Runs Awaiting Verification

This month, we're featuring a community of speedrunners who focus on games from developer Team Ico.

Spotlight: Team Ico Speedruns

Hey everyone! 



I hope your week is going well. 



I started as Community Manager on August 16th and, while it’s been a busy time, it’s also been *awesome* chatting with everyone. You should see me bouncing around the forums and Discord more often now. Please feel free to reach out to me via the Support Hub, the forums, Discord, or even Twitter. I want to hear from you about all things speedrunning and site-related!



## Site Update



You may have noticed the site is running smoother after our data migration on August 13th. We know the site performance had been affecting everyone, and we’re pleased to report that the migration and some ensuing tweaks have led to a significant overall improvement. We still have more to do on this front, but this was a massive step in the right direction. Big thanks to the engineers working on this!





## User profile assets endpoint update



Some community tools were unfortunately broken for a short while due to the data migration process changing how some assets were being stored. The site API has been updated to reflect this, particularly in relation to user profile images!



## Uneditable guides, invisible forum posts



An issue occurred where users were not able to create or edit forum posts or guides, and once again we thank the community for flagging this so quickly for us, it helps out a lot!



Thank you for your patience as we continue to improve and expand on the site. We’re constantly working on improving site performance, squashing pesky bugs, and developing some... *much-requested features.*



That’s it from me this time, but I plan on making many more of these community updates as well as staying active in the forums and on [Discord](https://discord.gg/0h6sul1ZwHVpXJmK). If you have additional bugs to report, or feedback you’d like to give please head over to the [Support Hub](https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub) and create a ticket. It really helps us out! Also, if you’d like to contact me directly on any of my social media, I have most things connected over on my [user profile](https://www.speedrun.com/user/Meta). I’ll see y’all around!





Meta // Cam



Checking in this week to follow up on the data migration earlier this month, some bug fixes, and more from our new Community Manager!

Site performance improvements, bug fixes, and more!

Hello everyone!



We’re eight months into 2021 now, and we’ve enjoyed some truly incredible speedrunning in that time. We have a few updates for you today:



## Site Update



We’ve also been working diligently on some changes to the site. You may have noticed the site entered a read-only state for a few hours today. This was because of a data migration taking some of the necessary steps to address some of the performance issues the site has been experiencing. We’ll be monitoring the results in the days to come.



## Farewell, LewisAndSpark



Next, we have some news to share.



LewisAndSpark has decided to move on from Elo. We are grateful for all of their insights and passion in advocating for the speedrunning community. Their hard work and dedication have helped lay a solid foundation for the future of Speedrun.com. 



We know LewisAndSpark will continue to do great things in future opportunities and wish them all the best!



## Community Manager



Now, we are thrilled to announce that effective immediately, Cam “Meta” Enright will be stepping into a new role: Community Manager for Speedrun.com. 



Many of you will recognize Meta from his previous position as Site Support Staff. He’s an active moderator, speedrunner, and has written several articles for the site as well. He’s been a passionate and enthusiastic advocate for the community and has impressed us with his work as a member of our Support Team.



In this new role, as Community Manager, Meta will be an invaluable resource for the community. He’ll be providing updates as well as being available to take questions and feedback. You can find him active across the site as well as in our community Discord. 



We’re looking forward to working closely with him as we continue to improve performance across the site and develop some long-desired features and tools.



Please join us in welcoming Meta as our new Community Manager!



Cheers,  

Speedrun.com

We've updated the site as part of addressing some of the performance issues; we also say farewell to Lewisandspark and welcome Meta in a new role.

Community Update: Data Migration and Community Manager

[Kanno](https://www.speedrun.com/user/KANNO) broke the 6m30s barrier this past Friday, August 6th in the wee hours of the morning making Super Mario 64 history once again, sneaking in just under the wire with a [6:29.950](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1109747627)



So what made this feat possible? Let’s take a dive into the details of Kanno’s most recent SM64 world record.



## A True Classic



Super Mario 64 is one of those classic speedgames that’s been around forever and yet is still somehow being optimized. It really goes to show speedrunners will always find a way. 



Japanese speedrunner Kanno has been optimizing all the short categories for the past three years and has gotten so incredibly skilled at the categories that he has a *full* ***sweep*** including the 0 Star, 1 Star, and 16 Star world records — with 0 Star being the “Any%” category in SM64.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/v5e1yme0.jpg)Kanno’s execution in this run was incredible, near perfect even. Overall, his movement was impeccable but there are two things to highlight from this run that stand out above everything else; getting the fastest version of the Dire Dire Docks skip, and the KASLJ short for the **Kanno Tool Assisted Speedrun Long Jump**.



## DDD Skip

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/qoeoj4ng.jpg)

Dire Dire Docks Skip is the oh-so-difficult skip that separates the 0 Star category from the 1 Star category, and there are multiple setups for it. The main variation in setups is the speed required to clip through the door, and Kanno’s setup requires the least amount of speed out of all of them - making it the fastest. You can view a [comparison of the setups here](https://youtu.be/vvu40CTOLos)



## KASLJ

KASLJ is [Kanno’s newer setup for the TASLJ](https://youtu.be/fmJCWHs36P4) (Tool-Assisted Long Jump) which is about one third of a second slower than the TASLJ, but a **lot** more consistent, making it much more human viable to its Tool-Assisted counterpart — and faster than any other strat by over a second.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/d3ekprzx.jpg)## An Electric Fire Sea

Of course, with everything that went right in this run, that’s not to say it wasn’t without its hiccups. There’s a little bit of RNG with the Amp obstacles in Bowser in the Fire Sea and unfortunately, this RNG was not in Kanno’s favor this time around - losing him 2 seconds to bonking on the Amp, locking him in the zap animation.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/3xz0yxel.jpg)

## Star Door BLJs



In the 0 Star route, runners use Backwards Long Jumps (BLJs) to clip through doors and Kanno mentioned that his BLJs were not the best, losing another 2 seconds to the optimal route. These two things were the only things Kanno mentioned as hiccups for the 6:29 speedrun, which honestly is pretty good when you consider that 2 out of the 4 seconds time loss came down to RNG. Kanno says that his next goal is a 6:25, which would've been this run if not for those 4 seconds lost to the RNG and BLJs.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/9kzww8zq.jpg)

## Tracking Progress



Once again massive congratulations to Kanno for making SM64 history by becoming the first person in the world to beat the game in under six and a half minutes. Also a massive thank you to Kanno from me, for helping me out with the research for this article — I couldn’t have done it otherwise. 



If you’d like to follow Kanno's progress in the journey towards the goal of the 6:25 speedrun for 0 Star in Super Mario 64, you can do so on [his Twitch channel](https://www.twitch.tv/kanno) or keep an eye on [his Youtube channel!](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC04k2wolWHbXUYKqUQhohkg)



Kanno made history by breaking the 6:30 barrier in Super Mario 64. Let's take a look at how this impressive feat was possible.

Kanno breaks the Super Mario 64 6:30 Barrier

The European Speedrunner Assembly’s Summer 2021 marathon has come to an end having raised over $67,000 for [Save the Children](https://www.savethechildren.org/) and marking the most successful online ESA marathon to date.



In case you missed it, here are some highlights from the last three days of the marathon:



## Thursday

### The Legend Of Spyro: The Eternal Night - GBA

### Any% (Dark)

*Race between CDRomatron and lovebot*  

*Commentary by CountCreep*  



Check out this incredible race between two skilled runners and watch for the new World Record set at the end. Dark Mode in The Legend Of Spyro: The Eternal Night is unlocked after defeating the game’s Hard Mode. It keeps the enemies just as strong while starting Spyro with an overpowered form that makes those enemies satisfyingly simple to dispatch.



Watch it [here](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1100518946?t=32h23m43s).



### Super Mario 64 - WiiVC

### Power Star Pathway (Randomizer)

*Race between 360chrism vs. bird650*  



Using a seed of 38666 (based on the donation total at the time), two runners compete to fill up their board with the right stars to earn a win. Expect plenty of Mario-themed puns from the donations and watch the run carefully because you never know what the runners will encounter next! 



Watch it [here](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1100518946?t=36h37m35s).



### The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD WiiU

### 100%

*Run by mralberto*  

*Commentary by Joaish and gymnast85*  



Mralberto and his commentators do a great job introducing and explaining the tricks and glitches as they appear. With some great RNG and impressive frame-perfect tricks, this is definitely a run worth checking out!



Watch it [here](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1100518946?t=37h29m16s).



## FRIDAY, JULY 30TH, 2021

### Metal Gear Solid - PC

### Any% (Easy)

*Run by NickRPGreen*  

*Commentary by bruschetta_bros*  



Running a route that was reworked just a week beforehand, NickRPGreen skips a huge chunk of the game just five minutes into the run. But the end of the game is no cakewalk and will have you on the edge of your seat!



Watch it [here](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1102592903?t=0h58m48s).



### Deal or No Deal - PC

### Win Big Money!



*Run by BigJon and TheBlacktastic*  



While it’s not quite a speedrun, this is a great chance to watch the hosts you know and love from Super Boss Bros as they play a game of Deal or No Deal where the prize money will actually be donated to the marathon. It’s just as fun, silly, and suspenseful as you could want!



Watch it [here](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1102592903?t=16h59m30s).



##  SATURDAY, JULY 31st, 2021

### Super Mario 64 - N64

### 16 Star (Drum%)

*Run by czr_drums*  

*Commentary by Ownasaurus*  



If you haven’t seen czr_drums play his way through Super Mario 64 with a drum instead of a controller, you have got to check it out! With well-executed drum rolls and cymbal crashes, he plays through a familiar game in an unfamiliar way. Make sure to stick around for the end when he jams out to the game’s credits.



Watch it [here](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1102592903?t=27h0m19s).



### Resident Evil Village - PC

### Hardcore (Glitchless) v2

*Run by gidano*  

*Commentary by ThatAccountBlaBlaBla*  



Originally meant to happen earlier in the week, gidano’s run was cut short by a local blackout. Luckily, the marathon staff offered to add a donation incentive to give gidano another shot at running RE:V to close out the marathon. It’s an enjoyable run of a still-new game and of course, it’s a chance to see everyone’s favorite 9-and-a-half foot tall villainess, Lady Dimitrescu.

Watch it [here](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1102592903?t=42h30m35s).



The whole marathon was incredible and there are so many cool runs worth checking out. For more about ESA Summer 2021, check out our early marathon highlights [here](https://www.speedrun.com/news/861-2021-7-30-esa-summer-2021-early-highlights).





ESA Summer 2021 wrapped up successfully, having collected more than $67,000 for charity. Let's take a look at some of the highlights in the final days of the event.

Highlights from the end of ESA Summer 2021

ESA Marathon Summer 2021 kicked off Friday, July 23 with a miniature Break The Record Live event followed by an awesome Pre-Show, all before the main event. Since then (and at the time of publication), ESA has raised an incredible $43,000 for [Save The Children!](https://www.savethechildren.org/)

## Friday



***Persona 5***  

**True Ending Hard**  

*Ran by neviutz*  

*Commentary by Darkkefka, FOG, Metako, Pottoww, RoboSparkle, TatsuyaAct, Ghoul02, NocFrost, Mulsqi and Darkkefl*  

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/r1n86xzq.jpg)The Persona 5 speedrun is among some of the longest speedruns, with True Ending (Hard) being the longest category. Neviutz kicked off ESA Summer 2021 with this incredible feat of endurance, coming in under estimate with a 15:39:07 — yes, that’s FIFTEEN HOURS. 15 hours may sound like a lot, but considering casual playthroughs often taken well over 100 hours, 15 is blazingly fast.



## Saturday



***Alan Wake’s American Nightmare***  

**Any% New Game+**  

*Ran by TaintedTali*  

*Commentary by Demonic*  

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/83nv01em.jpg)Kicking off the main event of ESA Summer 2021, TaintedTali got an incredible time of 56:09 getting herself a new **personal best**. Running at a marathon can be nerve wracking which usually leaves PBs off the table, but TaintedTali conquered those nerves with a run that came *just* shy of a world record!

## Sunday



***Dark Messiah of Might and Magic***  

**Any% Relay Race**  

*Ran by Team Duncan VS Team Percy*  

*Commentary by Moonstruck and Xoneris*  

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/0dz44wz6.jpg)Never before have I seen a Relay Race at a speedrunning marathon, but boy was I ever missing out. This incredible showcase includes multiple runners from world record holders to brand new runners, alongside the energetic commentary from Moonstruck and Xoneris. Not to mention, Dark Messiah is a hilarious demonstration of a variety of entertaining glitches worth watching on their own. In the end, Team Percy ended up clutching out the Race with a time of 28 minutes 42 seconds.

## Monday

***Titanfall 2***  

**All Helmets**  

*Ran by Lord Fluffy*  

*Commentary by Bryonato*  

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/0wzx9rzr.jpg)If you’ve never seen a Titanfall 2 speedrun before, this is a great place to start. Lord Fluffy and Bryonato premiered the All Helmets category at a marathon, showcasing the game's incredible skill ceiling and high octane movement with some of the best commentary at ESA so far.

## Tuesday



***DOOM 2016***  

**Any%**  

*Ran by Heny*  

*Commentary by Danejerus*  

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/qrz268e0.jpg)DOOM Any% is a brutally difficult speedrun involving a lot of precise skips, navigating out of bounds and flying the Slayer through the air at mach 5 by abusing the mantle mechanic. If you haven’t seen DOOM’s speedtech before, you’re missing out, and this is the perfect introduction from Heny and Danejerus.

## Wednesday

***Alien Isolation***  

**No Major Glitches Nightmare Steering Wheel Race**  

*Ran by Nikoheart & Drayux*  

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/2yzrjje4.jpg)Having met a donation incentive, Nikoheart and Drayux bumped up their race from Novice difficulty up to the max Nightmare difficulty while navigating ***with a steering wheel***. This showcase has **MULTIPLE** elements combining to make for an extremely entertaining run, but perhaps the most entertaining is Nikoheart’s googly-eyed steering wheel twisting and turning for 3 hours.



## Forging Forward



ESA Summer ‘21 has been a blast so far, and if I could write about every single run so far I would’ve because it’s been a non-stop ride of entertainment — but not to worry because ESA is still going on! If you want to see more runs like the ones in this article, head on over to [ESA’s Twitch channel](https://www.twitch.tv/esamarathon), and we’ll see you there!



ESA Summer 2021 has already featured some pretty incredible speedruns. We've selected some highlights here, covering the first half of the event.

ESA Summer 2021 early highlights

On February 26, 2020 [MrCheeze](https://www.speedrun.com/user/MrCheeze) bet [Savestate](https://www.speedrun.com/user/Savestate

) that the Ocarina of Time speedrun would never go under 7 minutes. On July 22, 2021, Savestate ***won*** this bet, getting their name in the history books and completing [The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in 6:59.767](https://www.speedrun.com/oot/run/zxgej3ky)

# A Rich History

OOT might be the speedgame with the most documentation and mainstream attention surrounding its world record history. [Narcissa Wright’s 18:10](https://www.speedrun.com/oot/run/emkjx7ly), [Torje’s 16:58](https://www.speedrun.com/oot/run/y215p47z), and now the biggest barrier broken since the discovery of Stale Reference Manipulation (aka SRM, we’ll get more into that in a bit) — Savestate’s 6:59. It’s safe to say there was a lot that led up to what might be the last minute-barrier to ever be broken in OOT, but if I was to cover [everything from the beginning](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DgefbvS3X4geDxfwdE-K6CnGvNcDwZSmiZz_u2KGDcI/htmlview?pli=1#) we’d be here forever. Instead, let's take a brief overview of what the route looks like today.

# The Route

Once Savestate is out of the 3-minute introduction, they do a backflip off of Link’s house and side jump to grab two rupees. The start of this run is all about grabbing some items and rupees to buy more items needed later in the run.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/l1n7m9n5.jpg)Savestate then continues on to grab the sword from a chest, grabbing more rupees along the way.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/97n62meq.jpg)Next, it’s time for some rupee farming. Savestate grabs every permanent rupee in Kokiri Forest (the first area in the game) plus two random ones for a total of 55.

It’s possible to farm some more of the random rupees and save an additional 5 seconds, but Savestate intentionally opts not to for this run since it only has about a 14% chance of success. With the 55 rupees, Savestate buys a Deku Shield, which is needed to get Mido out of the way for a setup later in the run, as well as a Deku Nut, which is used for a glitch later on.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/7rnq5wnj.jpg)This is where things get ***wild*** and *VERY* technical.

Ocarina of Time is quite a long game casually, but a *short* speedrun while running under the Any% ruleset. This is because runners are now able to warp to the final credits from within the first area through an ***INCREDIBLY*** complicated process.

The tech behind this process is complex enough that after a few hours of research, I still feel as though I’ve only scratched the surface of it. I want to thank Savestate, MrCheeze, dannyb, and the Ocarina of Time Speedrunning Discord for assisting me with this information, and I’m going to do my very best to boil it down as best I can. I’ve also listed some documents and videos explaining everything with greater detail at the end of this article.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/67e9g1n1.jpg)After leaving the shop, Savestate manipulates the actor heap at the transition between Kokiri Forest and the Great Deku Tree in order to set up the game’s memory appropriately, performs a glitch called [Return A](https://youtu.be/5A51_byMBXs?t=437) and then heads back up to the crawlspace where they grabbed the sword.

On the sign by the crawlspace, they use a glitch called [Walking While Talking](https://youtu.be/5A51_byMBXs?t=497) which, when combined with Return A, is able to create a Stale Reference from a rock, and then load a fairy in its place, modifying its data.

Normally when fairies are unloaded, they run a function in the unloading process. This function modifies memory in two places, and runners use SRM to modify memory based on the first and second halves of the player's filename.

Players use the first half of the filename to set all the grass polygons to a specific exit within Kokiri Forest, and the second half to set the current cutscene value to 7, which when combined with the exit mentioned previously, wrong warps the runner to the credits. Running back over to the Great Deku Tree unloads the fairy and activates the effects of the SRM.

# ![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/3ynl7mz6.jpg)Technical Marvel

When Stale Reference Manipulation was discovered, there were sub-categories created that banned its use due to how powerful it was, even spawning a new category representative of the route before SRM's discovery. The majority of the community and even the runners of Any% don't seem to *enjoy* the new Any% category in the traditional sense.  However, there is certainly something to be said for the amount of effort, knowledge, and talent that exists behind this run.

So many people spent a combined hundreds of hours into the routing of this run. Even beyond that, the execution required to match up angles precise enough to allow for this glitch is astounding.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/r7z34led.jpg)What lies ahead?

Well, as I was in the middle of writing this very article, prolific speedrunner DannyB who has also held many world records in the past was able to achieve a sub-7 time of his own — lowering the Ocarina of Time world record by a further 2 seconds with a [6:57.400.](https://www.speedrun.com/oot/run/yj5j413m)

Danny was even a contender to be the first person for a sub-7-minute time, but unfortunately due to a caching error (no fault of his own) he had two sub 7 pace runs die right at the end.  He finally managed to get it on July 23, just one day later than Savestate. At the end of this run, Danny mentioned that Any% can be lowered by a further 5 seconds but that it won’t be him that does it.

So what’s to come? No one really knows. Will someone come along and lower the record right after this article gets published? Maybe. One thing is for sure, it seems the last minute barrier for Ocarina of Time has *finally* been broken.

No one’s ever claimed that before — right?

## Resources

***An overview of SRM, ACE and more***

**By Fig**

[Link](https://youtu.be/SPi_d0zhNFc)

***Stale Reference Manipulation Explained at GDQ***

**By ZFG, Savestate, & dannyb**

[Link](https://youtu.be/TAj1cuz7jXs?t=300)

***Reach the Credits from Kokiri Forest using ACE (Ocarina of Time Glitch Explained)***

**By GlitchesAndStuff**

[Link — shows older route, but still great information](https://youtu.be/wdRJWDKb5Bo)

***Ocarina of Time Speedrun World Record History Spreadsheet***

**By Ocarina of Time Speedrunning Community**

[Link](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DgefbvS3X4geDxfwdE-K6CnGvNcDwZSmiZz_u2KGDcI/htmlview?pli=1#)

***OoT Speedunning Discord Server***

**By Ocarina of Time Speedrunning Community**

[Link](https://discord.gg/7FYGh3d)

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/2qnykdzp.gif)

On July 22, 2021, Savestate broke the 7-minute barrier for the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Any% speedrun.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 7-minute barrier broken

xwpw4y0l

summertimealice

SpeedrunCom

A Difficult Game About Climbing

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

The Outlast Trials

The leaderboards will open 2 weeks from launch to allow discussion about the categories we want to start out with.