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Awesome Games Done Quick 2016: January 3rd - 10th.

I really felt down with apprehension on this AGDQ before it started. A lot of personal issues surrounding the scene cropped up on twitter & SDA forums - and to think that I still have not even watched SGDQ 2015 which is a complete 180 compared to the days back in 2011-2014 when I would take annual leave from work to become a slob and veg out on the big screen TV while chatting away on the laptop/phone. But this year was the one where I felt like I was missing out by having to come home from work and play the catch-up feed.

So many great games being run in a variety of categories with all of the runners and the couch chewing the fat the whole time - a huge change compared to the days when people complained that it was too silent or they didn't know what was going on in the speedrun. There were barely moments of audio or visual issues (which is a huge compliment to the GDQ staff) and it was nice to see even supporters clap away during the graveyard shifts. Sure there weren't any big-name runners of yore, but when it concerns an entertainment field that is rampart and thriving on the youth to the point where at least 100,000 people are regularly watching people play videogames live no matter the hours... you can't but feel a sense of accomplishment that you chose a hobby that resonates with so many people around the world.

It wouldn't surprise me if a few of the veterans who skipped out on this year's event (especially those who were ambivalent to the unforeseen road-map progress of GDQ) might feel a little unsettled from the overall positive feedback of AGDQ 2016. Sure there was no Cosmo or Peaches, but it was nice to see iateyourpie donate during Paper Mario with a message and the crowd sing "Old Man River"

Good times and I'll be sure to watch and re-watch the VODs for the next 6 months - a feeling I haven't had in a couple of years.

Cyan said:
Mario Maker blind race is brilliant. I think it works because we all know the mechanics of the game but still get to discover the levels along with the players. And it's clear how difficult they are, but we get to see highly skilled playthroughs.

I mean, maybe moreso from one team than the other. :P

Anyway, definitely one of the highlights of the event.
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Couldn't agree more. I love the shit out of dram55 so it was going to be watched by me regardless, but seeing the race being done blind with superb players and an amazing commentating couch with a packed house just made it that much more enjoyable.

Probably the best "first event" game that they have done in a long time. It would be amazing if they do it annually every year since these guys have excelled from the games that they typically peak on (SMB3, SMW, Yoshi's Island) and thrive on Super Mario Maker which truly tests their twitch skills and on-the-fly wits.
 
Mario Maker is awesome.

Being able to play the levels later made me appreciate even more the skill displayed

speedpop said:
Sure there was no Cosmo or Peaches, but it was nice to see iateyourpie donate during Paper Mario with a message and the crowd sing "Old Man River"
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See gafchat ?
People don't know their speedrunner celebrity lives xD

Still sad that Narcissa didn't won Ocarina name =(
 
Here is what twitch chat thought:
https://www.reddit.com/r/speedrun/comments/40f34f/i_made_a_quick_little_word_cloud_of_the_agdq_2016/ said:
INVAyPg.png
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Another funny anecdote was that Turtle was written 1394 times (I think this was during the TASbot segment at least there a commentator said something like "twitch chat, typing turtle does not work").

Finalow said:
catching up on what I missed.

Mario Maker was great. awful games block is also very fun so far, Lagoon run was great, based PJ.
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If anyone wants to see a small bit of Lagoon my personal highlight is this boos battle (the weak pattern is insane...) and the "who likes Dragon Ball Z?" cutscene afterwards.
 
Starwolf_UK said:
Here is what twitch chat thought:

Another funny anecdote was that Turtle was written 1394 times (I think this was during the TASbot segment at least there a commentator said something like "twitch chat, typing turtle does not work").


If anyone wants to see a small bit of Lagoon my personal highlight is this boos battle (the weak pattern is insane...) and the "who likes Dragon Ball Z?" cutscene afterwards.
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I'm surprised the word Cosmo isn't on that image given how much they dead-named her. Twitch chat spammed "fuck Cosmo" , "Cosmo a grill? *laughing emote face" , "Yay Cosmo loses", "Don't you mean, Cosmo? Kappa" and loads of other shit throughout. Often whenever the file name bid was mentioned or appeared along the bottom.

I heard Lagoon wasn't a very good run. Boss was a bit boring there but the cutscene was great.
 
I'm always bummed when there's a bunch of negativity around a charity event. Do people take issue with the Prevent Cancer Foundation? Bad blood? Runners specifically?

I mean it's a little bummer they don't top themselves each year in donations but they're still raising a shitload of money for ostensibly a good cause. Doing some quick googling it looks like PCF is a standup charity with a majority of donations going to early cancer detection research.

If people aren't feeling the runs I can get behind that but it's a subjective thing. I've picked out a few runners who are genuinely entertaining to watch while also being really good at their chosen game(s). PJ, Trihex, dram, MechaRichter, Puwexil, Spike Vegeta, and I could go on. I also really appreciated the commentary Lucky provided. The dude did his research on everything the runners were doing. Only complaint I had on that was focusing on one runner over the other in the Gunvolt Race.

Hell seeing Panga deal with his own bullshit is always fun to watch.

I had a blast watching this live for the first time and plan to do so again when SGDQ rolls around.
 
Refreshment.01 said:
Thank you.

But that's for Ocarina, im looking for the Majora one.

Also do you happen to know the command that is attached to the URL so you can only see the player?
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I definitely linked the Majora's Mask run. Twitch can only assign one game to a VOD so that entire highlight video is marked as Ocarina on their system. Note the timestamp attached to the URL.

Can't help you otherwise. I don't really use Twitch much.
 
jokkir said:
If you guys want annoying commentators, watch the Star Fox 64 run. The girl on the couch is unbelievably annoying.
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I don't see anything annoying about her. She's just like every other commenter, discussing the run and intricacies of it. I recall the twitch chat (not the gaf channel) arguing the same thing whenever a girl appeared on screen. Unless they were attracted to her. Then they just ranted about how hot/cute she was while ignoring her quality as a person. Youtube comments are treating her and most other women the same it would seem.
 
Ekai said:
I don't see anything annoying about her. She's just like every other commenter, discussing the run and intricacies of it. I recall the twitch chat (not the gaf channel) arguing the same thing whenever a girl appeared on screen. Unless they were attracted to her. Then they just ranted about how hot/cute she was while ignoring her quality as a person. Youtube comments are treating her and most other women the same it would seem.
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Was she more annoying than the Mario Kart 8 commentator? Because oh boy was he obnoxious.
 
demidar said:
Was she more annoying than the Mario Kart 8 commentator? Because oh boy was he obnoxious.
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I don't recall anyone in the Gaf chat commenting on how he was obnoxious and I didn't feel that way during that run either. I can see how his "uhs" might get tiresome to people after a while but it's not like the guy is really any different from most other commentators. Youtube comments sure found him annoying it would seem. And all I recall from the regular twitch chat is that they couldn't stop talking about their accents and about how she couldn't possibly be playing 200CC because a girl doing well in video games is impossible. Lots of other sexist shit too from them with that run.
 
I watched the Majora one live... I forget which cycle they were on, but when they wrap up the cycle after 3 hours without saving in the last minute til midnight on day 3... it's special.
 
those post-agdq viewer count bumps--TMR averaging around 800 now? Carci had 1400 during his RE:0 stream too.

they grow up so fast :') Props to both guys though, I know they both put in a lot of work and took years to get to this point. Hopefully they aren't using ManVsGame strats. TMR doesn't seem like he is, thankfully.
 
Ivan Amiibo said:
those post-agdq viewer count bumps--TMR averaging around 800 now? Carci had 1400 during his RE:0 stream too.

they grow up so fast :') Props to both guys though, I know they both put in a lot of work and took years to get to this point. Hopefully they aren't using ManVsGame strats. TMR doesn't seem like he is, thankfully.
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yeah theres usually a bump up for a lot of the twitch streamers from a GDQ event, though TMR was getting 600~ for NESmania quite often depending on the game, carci is also playing the new RE0 HD so that pulls in people too.
 
Ivan Amiibo said:
those post-agdq viewer count bumps--TMR averaging around 800 now? Carci had 1400 during his RE:0 stream too.

they grow up so fast :') Props to both guys though, I know they both put in a lot of work and took years to get to this point. Hopefully they aren't using ManVsGame strats. TMR doesn't seem like he is, thankfully.
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The poor Spelunky runners that I followed after their awesome runs can barely seem to reach 50 after AGDQ.
 
I could see TMR hitting several thousand once he starts getting to the final hundred or so and the publicity starts rolling in. 10k+ for the final games? I'll stick with that prediction then come back and revisit if i'm not perm'd.

Grinchy said:
The poor Spelunky runners that I followed after their awesome runs can barely seem to reach 50 after AGDQ.
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what were they doing before though? if it was like 10-20, then 50 is a big deal. Viewership is a really exponential thing and takes a long time to break some milestones. Pretty much requires exposure like AGDQ, a more popular streamer noticing you, some stream event going viral on youtube, etc.

of course, some just get screwed or don't have the presentation to retain people.
 
Ivan Amiibo said:
I could see TMR hitting several thousand once he starts getting to the final hundred or so and the publicity starts rolling in. 10k+ for the final games? I'll stick with that prediction then come back and revisit if i'm not perm'd.



what were they doing before though? if it was like 10-20, then 50 is a big deal. Viewership is a really exponential thing and takes a long time to break some milestones. Pretty much requires exposure like AGDQ, a more popular streamer noticing you, some stream event going viral on youtube, etc.

of course, some just get screwed or don't have the presentation to retain people.
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I hadn't heard of them before the event, so it got me watching, at least. And earlier I was watching one of them, and he had 22 people watching. Maybe that's a big improvement for him, I dunno. It just seems so low for a WR-type player.
 
SO

Since we don't have a speedrun OT (that I'm aware of) and I didn't feel like this needed a brand spanking new thread in particular, I would like to post this run of Castlevania Symphony of the Night by one Romscout who is pretty much the god of this game. He beat Castlevania Symphony of the Night in 53:41 which is a pretty awful time.

Unless you're blindfolded.

Which he was.

Enjoy.
 
OniBarubary said:
SO

Since we don't have a speedrun OT (that I'm aware of) and I didn't feel like this needed a brand spanking new thread in particular, I would like to post this run of Castlevania Symphony of the Night by one Romscout who is pretty much the god of this game. He beat Castlevania Symphony of the Night in 53:41 which is a pretty awful time.

Unless you're blindfolded.

Which he was.

Enjoy.
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As much as I was annoyed by Romscout's early perseverance to be up, chug energy drinks, and host [_]GDQs, I can't deny what a phenomenal runner he is at SotN, and how impressive this is to watch.
 
ike_ said:
As much as I was annoyed by Romscout's early perseverance to be up, chug energy drinks, and host [_]GDQs, I can't deny what a phenomenal runner he is at SotN, and how impressive this is to watch.
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aww, i loved his earlier streaming days. pretty chill stream and good chat.
 
anybody got a link to that post with a list of the best runs? I think it had a gif of Bubba Dudley at the end.

I can never seem to find it in my browser history, I need to bookmark the thing.
 
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