Welcome to 21 Questions With #9.

In each entry, the spotlighted individual is asked a variety of quickfire questions about themselves. What's the story behind their username? What's their favourite video game? What do they really think about the community? These are just some of the potential questions, and hopefully you will get a satisfying insight into that member.

21 Questions With... TheNitromeFan

Where do you live? Seoul, South Korea.

What is your occupation? Full-time undergraduate student, majoring in mathematics and computer science.

How did you come up with your username? When I was young (back in 2006), I discovered an online flash game website/company called Nitrome. I deeply enjoyed the games they put out, as they were always consistently high-quality and kid-friendly. When I had to create a username for my YouTube handle, I picked "The Nitrome Fan" to indicate my love for the games. To this day I still use it.

What is your Discord avatar? The Nitrome Cuboy, official mascot of Nitrome.

Who was the first Spelunky streamer you remember watching? Bananasaurus Rex. I knew of him through another speed game of his, Portal 2, which he absolutely dominated as well. I was subscribed to his YouTube channel, and that's how I found out about Spelunky.

What is your favourite category? All Characters%.

Why is All Characters your favourite category? Several reasons. For one, I think it’s at an appropriate length (~1 hour), which makes it appealing to play without being tedious, while also having plenty of gameplay to be engaging. It’s also a category that’s easy to learn but hard to master, so there’s something to enjoy at all levels of experience. The necessary knowledge of the coffin spawns and how you need to plan your run depending on what coffins are left makes the category exciting to play.

Finally, there are surprisingly few elements of RNG that cost major amounts of time (compared to, say, All Journal Entries), so in theory any run could be a good run with perfect play, which is appealing to someone like me who is a bit of a perfectionist. I think the category is criminally underrated, and would certainly like to see more runners take a stab at it.

What is your proudest run? I'm fairly proud of my RTA runs, especially All Characters and All Shortcuts + Olmec.

What is it about RTA runs that you enjoy? For me, a large reason that Spelunky is so enjoyable to speedrun is that, being a randomizer, it forces you to make strategies and improvise under a time constraint. I think the RTA categories really shine in highlighting this aspect of Spelunky. Every RTA category has improvisation to varying degrees, and knowing that good strategic planning can make or break a run makes the categories fun to watch and very rewarding to play.

There’s also the fact that you see a timer ticking by as you play the game. There’s something to be said about categories like All Characters and All Achievements where you see the LiveSplit timer while you exit and restart the game multiple times.

What is your favourite part about the community? I like how it's always supportive and encouraging. I've been in many online communities, and this one is one of my favorites simply because of all the positivity.

Favourite video game? Ice Breaker (Nitrome game). [hb: TheNitromeFan previously did a My Favourite Games and picked Ice Breaker, Portal, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Link here.]

What was the first video game you remember playing? Having grown up during the era of online flash games (2006~2009), I have many fond memories of old Nitrome games. My very first game that could be considered a “video game” was a Nitrome game called “Scribble”. It’s a puzzle-platformer game where you draw lines to manipulate the environment to help ink-blots walk to their goal. Looking at it now, it has a very similar feel to Spelunky. Now I gotta play that game again for old times’ sake…

Favourite food? Spaghetti.

Cake or pie? The cake is a lie, so... pie?

Favourite hobby? Reading and learning about new and unfamiliar topics.

Describe your personality in three words. Analytical, optimistic, determined.

What is your main vice? My inability to read social cues.

What is your perfect day out? Going for a peaceful walk, then having a nice lunch out on a sunny day.

What is the last movie you cried at? Inside Out.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be? The ability to read minds. It would simplify a lot of facets of life.

What would you use the ability to read minds for? Mainly, I would use it to be able to understand a person’s feelings. I have a mental disorder that, among other things, makes it difficult for me to gauge other people’s emotions when engaging in conversation, which has often led to conflict. The ability would help immensely in this regard.

Do you have a message you would like to give to the community? Thanks for all of the support you've given me for the past years, and although I'm more of the silent lurker type I do appreciate all of the contributions by the members and those trying to tie the community together. I love you all .

Thank you for your time, TheNitromeFan!

Previous entries: #8 courgette | #7 chocolatecake5000 | #6 JakeTreester | #5 Linkruler | #4 Vlad | #3 ContraMuffin | #2 GruntingCrunchy | #1 Meowmixmix

The Spelunky Kapala World Cup schedule is out.

Captains for Team USA and Team World submitted team selections on Friday, the full line-up of races to be streamed live on MossRanking's Twitch channel on Saturday 24 November, Sunday 25 November, and Saturday 1 December is available to view here.

Also, check out the trailer below!

Thanks to Suspense for the trailer and Konato_K for the trophy image.

See you on November 24!

Spelunky Kapala World Cup sign-ups have now closed, and a massive 41 people are taking part! Team USA and Team World have 20+ members each, with names such as Kinnijup, Mazerak, Grooomp, and Twiggle representing USA and d_tea, Spef, Krille, and Curt representing World.

Over the weekend, both teams decided on their captains and vice-captains. Team USA will be led by JakeTreester as captain and Mazerak as vice-captain. Team World will be led by Vlad as captain and GreatStriker as vice-captain.

Teams have been given the full list of races and have until Friday, November 9 to make their team selections. The full schedule is planned to be released on Saturday, November 10. The stream events are on November 24 (Saturday), November 25 (Sunday), and December 1 (Saturday).

We will have 16 Tier Races (including Tier 1 Low Hell%!) and 5 Multi-Tier Races. The Multi-Tier Races feature:

- All Shortcuts + Olmec 4v4 Relay - each of the four team members is responsible for one area split (Mines, Jungle, Ice Caves, Temple);

- All Journal Entries Co-op - two team members must complete a combined journal with assistance from their Journal Manager.

The full list of commentators is also confirmed. Commentators will commentate in pairs, one from USA and one from World. For USA, we have Kinnijup, meowmixmix, Lauren, ix, Beens, JakeTreester, and Katty/msp. For World, we have Spef, Vlad, MikeIsMyIke, DiMono, Khold, Polo, and Maplestrip.

See you on November 24!

Welcome to 21 Questions With #8.

In each entry, the spotlighted individual is asked a variety of quickfire questions about themselves. What's the story behind their username? What's their favourite video game? What do they really think about the community? These are just some of the potential questions, and hopefully you will get a satisfying insight into that member.

21 Questions With... courgette

What is your first name? Gael.

Where do you live? Rouen, Normandy, France.

What is your occupation? Law student (currently passing the bar).

How did you come up with your username? Years ago, I was searching for an internet nickname for some multiplayer game, Half-Life 2 or Day of Defeat Source maybe, and my mother-in-law said "courgette" in another room. I found the word to be funny. Plus, we played Quake 3 back then with some friends under the name Haricot Vert, and as both are vegetables in French, it was good enough for me.

Give an interesting fact about yourself. I only speedrun Spelunky, but am also member of a Rising Storm 2 team, the [DT].

What’s appealing to you about Rising Storm 2? The devs managed to create a very good balance between realism (it's not a no-brainer shooter like Call of Duty) and fun gameplay (not walking simulator like ARMA). Tactics do matter (and teamwork improves it even more) and it's not just a sandbox -- it's a real game with well-designed gameplay.

When did you join the community? My first run was submitted in June 2018. I was watching streamers already though for a few months.

What is your favourite category? No Gold categories are fun. Score ones, too. Paradoxal. I'll talk to my shrink about that money obsession.

What is your proudest run or contribution? As I can't livestream (because of a garbage upload speed issue) and I don't organize anything within the Spelunky community, I don't really have contributions to be particularly proud of, except for GGs and poor-quality jokes on Twitch chats. My most satisfactory run so far has been No Gold.

What is your favourite part about the community? The people in it.

Favourite video game? Deus Ex. I played it for the first time during a summer when I was in middle school, and it felt like a first summer love. The atmosphere and soundtrack were out of this world. The sensation of freedom and in-game consequences of past actions were really well done. The story was cool and I totally felt involved in it, even though, like The X-Files for instance, looking back now it feels a little too much like conspiracy theory.

Gameplay was dope, with lots of possible ways to accomplish your goals and not too scripted. I’m pretty much sure the developers didn't think of everything, and playing the game really encourages you to think outside the box. It's not necessarily an "alternative" route created by the developers, it's also borderline looking for glitches, or at least things that were not consciously put there. You could outsmart the game, or at least feel like you did so.

It was so good and I felt so involved that when the (very good) end credits music started, I was borderline crying, like after finishing a very good novel.

Favourite movie? Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Not really sure why I love and watched it so much. Probably the road trip aspect, and the absurdity of many of the situations. I usually watch the original version of the movie (so English most of the time), but that one I watched only in French. It might be a reason for why I love it. The voice-acting is really great.

Favourite song or album? Heligoland, Massive Attack.

Favourite book? Voyage au bout de la nuit (‘Journey to the End of the Night’ in English). Louis-Ferdinand Céline (real name Louis Ferdinand Destouches) was an antisemitic and collaborationist sack of shit, and other novels from him aren't really good in my view, but that specific one is the most masterised, fun, and beautiful novel ever written in French. As far as I know, of course.

Favourite food? Pizza.

Favourite pizza topping? Chorizo, or at least pepperoni.

Which three items would you have if you were stranded on a desert island? A device giving infinite energy, a device that can connect to the internet, and a toothbrush.

What is your perfect day out? Probably involves drinking some beers at some sunny terrace bar.

Which actor would play you in a Hollywood movie? Ryan Gosling, to match my look.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be? To keep getting newspapers even when dead.

Favourite vegetable? I would say tomato (cold and raw, not hot or baked), but it's my understanding that if it's viewed as a vegetable in gastronomy, it's not one biologically speaking. In that case, let's say my favorite is beans. (I'm not into courgette that much.)

Thank you for your time, courgette!

Previous entries: #7 chocolatecake5000 | #6 JakeTreester | #5 Linkruler | #4 Vlad | #3 ContraMuffin | #2 GruntingCrunchy | #1 Meowmixmix

The MossRanking Team are excited to announce a new tournament, the Kapala World Cup. What's different about this one is, it will be a contest between two sides: Team USA and Team World.

The Kapala World Cup is a three-day event, starting Saturday, November 24, and will see a series of around 20 races (of varying categories). In each race, at least one Team USA representative will face off against at least one Team World representative. We have some exciting categories in the works, including potential 2v2 and 4v4 races.

Players of all abilities can sign up! It doesn't matter how experienced you are; organisers will do their best to ensure you will be put in races with suitable opponents and suitable categories. It's also worth bearing in mind that because this is a team event, you are not required to be available on all three days if you are not available for them (November 24, November 25, December 1).

We are also planning on having commentator pairings which always comprise of one from USA and one from World.

If you wish to sign up as a participant, here's the form! The deadline for sign-ups is Thursday, November 1 at 23:59 GMT. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with hb#3495 via Discord direct message (here's also the link to the Spelunky Discord server).

Who will come out on top, Team USA or Team World? Find out when it all begins next month...

- From the Kapala World Cup organisers team (hb, saturnin55, Kinnijup, Spef, and meowmixmix)

UPDATE: We're getting a huge amount of American entrants -- that's great to see! However, this also means that we are now at the point where spaces for Team USA are becoming extremely limited. So with that in mind, we are now restricting any new Team USA sign-ups to anyone who has a Top 100 Moss Rank. Anyone who has previously signed up is unaffected. Any questions, feel free to message hb#3495 on Discord.

Welcome to 21 Questions With #7.

In each entry, the spotlighted individual is asked a variety of quickfire questions about themselves. What's the story behind their username? What's their favourite video game? What do they really think about the community? These are just some of the potential questions, and hopefully you will get a satisfying insight into that member.

21 Questions With... chocolatecake5000

What is your first name? Joseph.

Where do you live? Utah, USA.

How did you come up with your username? My grandma makes good chocolate cake, and I was like, ‘I could eat 5,000 of those’.

Who was the first Spelunky streamer you remember watching? Kinnijup.

What is your proudest run? Low Hell, heck yeah.

What is your favourite category? Low Hell, heck yeah. It is the hardest run worth Moss Points, and I play Spelunky for the challenge.

Favourite video game? The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. [hb: Chocolatecake did a My Favorite Games last year as well, which you can read here. He picked Tales of Symphonia, League of Legends, and The Binding of Isaac.]

Favourite movie? Batman Begins. Batman is cool.

Favourite TV show? Better Call Saul. It has more likeable characters and slower pacing than Breaking Bad.

Favourite book? The Demonata series. It’s about people with magic fighting demons, and it’s really fun.

Favourite food? Chocolate cake.

Favourite animal? My dog. Her name is Serena and she’s a black lab. My favorite thing about her is when I get two tennis balls, and she tries to get both at them at the same time but can’t.

What is your main vice? Insomnia.

Describe your personality in three words. Energy, humorous, sleepy.

Which three items would you have if you were stranded on a desert island? Unlimited supply of pizza, my computer with my games, an internet connection.

What makes you laugh? Stuoid and Ethie, my best friends.

What is your perfect day out? I watch an action movie and then eat pizza.

What is the last movie you cried at? Kingsman: The Golden Circle.

Which actor would play you in a Hollywood movie? Leonardo DiCaprio.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Fly, to not have to ride the bus anymore.

Do you have a message you would like to give to the community? You guys are cool.

Thank you for your time, Chocolatecake!

Previous entries: #6 JakeTreester | #5 Linkruler | #4 Vlad | #3 ContraMuffin | #2 GruntingCrunchy | #1 Meowmixmix

Hi all --

The Spelunky community has competed throughout September (qualifiers) and October (a double-elimination tournament), and we are nearing an exciting conclusion!  The final rounds of the 2018 All Shortcuts + Olmec Spelunky Tournament will be streamed live on Twitch on the MossRanking channel tomorrow (Sunday, October 21) at Noon - 4 pm Eastern Time.  We'll have live commentary from Kinnijup, TicTacFoe, and Jake.  ix (me), will also join the broadcast team once I'm eliminated.

Here's the bracket (link to live version, where you can also make predictions):

So, how did we get here?

In the upper bracket, we have d_tea and Spef, currently the #2 and #3 Spelunkers in the world according to the MossRanking formula.  Both have faced very stiff competition.  Spef kept himself in the upper bracket by defeating MikeIsMyIke, TNF, and Mazerak, while d_tea got here by dropping denis, chocolatecake, and krille to the lower bracket.

In the lower bracket, we have ix, krille, Mazerak, and chocolatecake.  ix made it to this point by beating pojo in the preliminary round, followed by a win over Kirby.  He lost to Mazerak in the upper bracket, but then eliminated meowmixmix and TNF in the lower bracket.  krille, the 2017 AS+O tournament defending champion, opened the 2018 tournament with wins over GruntingCrunchy and Jake before losing to d_tea in the upper bracket semifinals.  Despite holding the #1-overall seed entering the tournament, Mazerak had to face curticus, one of the pre-tournament favorites, in the opening round.  He survived that match-up, then knocked ix to the lower bracket, before losing in the upper bracket semifinals to Spef.  Finally, chocolatecake advanced from the preliminary round with a win over TicTacFoe, next beat Vlad, before being sent to the lower bracket by d_tea.  Chocolatecake recovered with wins over Kirby and TTF.

So that's where the bracket stands.  Tomorrow, we'll crown a 2018 tournament champion.  Hope to see a ton of people there!

-ix

P.S. - As a reminder, the rules of AS+O are the following: Starting from a blank save file, the runner has to start from the tutorial and unlock all the Tunnel Man shortcuts, then complete the game by defeating Olmec and exiting.  This category follows Real Time Attack (RTA) rules: the timer begins when the runner selects a character and stops when the spelunker reappears in the transition screen after exiting Olmec's lair.  This run has been featured at AGDQ 2018 by Kinnijup and AGDQ 2016 by BumCommando & Kinnijup, and will soon appear at GDQx at TwitchCon 2018 (Saturday, October 27 @ around 11 AM Eastern) by meowmixmix!

Welcome to 21 Questions With #6.

In each entry, the spotlighted individual is asked a variety of quickfire questions about themselves. What's the story behind their username? What's their favourite video game? What do they really think about the community? These are just some of the potential questions, and hopefully you will get a satisfying insight into that member.

If you wish to be featured in a future instalment, there is a form at the bottom of this article. Any person in the Spelunky community can take part.

21 Questions With... JakeTreester

What is your first name? Jake.

Where do you live? New York, USA.

What is your occupation? Grad Student, work for an HVAC company.

Describe yourself in one sentence. The most confident yet timid person you'll ever meet.

How did you come up with your username? It is a variation on my real name. My username used to be Yoshimitsu524 then JakeYoshimitsu. Yoshimitsu is my favorite character from Soul Calibur II (though I main Ivy), but I gradually changed my username because I like my real name better. Some people still call me ‘Yosh’ out of habit, which is fine.

Give an interesting fact about yourself. I started a podcast with two friends in June, and it is going really well.

What is your podcast about? Jake & Jake is a freeform podcast that is 100% improv. There are three people involved: myself (Jake) and my friends Jacob (Jake #2) and Jordan (special guest). We talk about whatever comes to mind, and there is never any structured content. Our goal with the podcast is fun, and we just talk the way we normally would. If someone had taken a microphone and put it in front of us at any point in our friendship, you would get the Jake & Jake podcast. I started to think of it as the Seinfeld of podcasts (but obviously on a much smaller scale).

What is your Twitter handle? @jtreister2 (personal), @jakejakepod (podcast)

What is your proudest run? I'd say my Big Money run is my best run. Even if it isn't my highest-ranking run, I always liked the category and to me, Speedlunky is still insane.

What is your favourite part about the community? How even though it has evolved a lot since I started, it maintained the same chill vibe. Also very welcoming of beginners.

Favourite video game? I did a My Favorite Games. [hb: Here’s the link. Jake picked Super Smash Bros. Melee, Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories, and Mario Tennis 64.]

What is your favourite thing about playing Super Smash Bros. Melee competitively? I have been playing Super Smash Bros. casually since I was a kid. I only discovered the competitive scene in 2014, and I was instantly infatuated. The ability to play a familiar game in a competitive setting was enticing to me, which is the same reason why I joined the Spelunky community.

What is your most prized possession? My custom GameCube controller.

What makes it special? In Melee, there’s an advanced technique called shield dropping. This action allows a character to drop through a platform and perform a move faster than if you drop through the platform normally -- see below (or click here for the GIF if it doesn't load).

Only certain GameCube controllers can perform this action, and those that can, can only do it on one side of the analog stick. My controller is special because it can shield drop on both sides.

There is also something else in Melee that is RNG called dashback, which basically allows a character to turn around and run the opposite direction quickly. My controller has 90% dashback, which is really rare. On top of these strokes of luck, it has a custom shell that I made by combining two controllers.

Which do you prefer to play competitively: Spelunky or Super Smash Bros. Melee? In my mind, Spelunky and Melee require identical mindsets. They both require the player to be doing nearly constant improv and be able to react to any scenario. The only difference is that in Melee, most of the RNG is the opponent’s moves, whereas in Spelunky the game determines the RNG. But both require quick reactions.

However, the short answer is that I prefer playing Spelunky competitively because the scene is more intimate and the game has more depth.

Favourite movie? Mr. Holland's Opus. It’s a movie that does a great job of developing its characters and showing how American society evolved through the second half of the 20th century. The main reasons why I like it so much is because it has great storytelling, good pacing, and amazing character arcs. I also love any movie with music -- I’m a big fan of musicals.

What is the last movie you cried at? Coco.

If your life was a movie, what would the movie be called? Treister the Movie (already available on Vimeo -- see below).

Which actor would play you in a Hollywood movie? Finn Wolfhard.

Favourite food? BBQ Ribs.

Do you have a message you would like to give to the community? Keep doing you, love you guys.

Thank you for your time, Jake!

Previous entries: #5 Linkruler | #4 Vlad | #3 ContraMuffin | #2 GruntingCrunchy | #1 Meowmixmix

Welcome to 21 Questions With #5.

In each entry, the spotlighted individual is asked a variety of quickfire questions about themselves. What's the story behind their username? What's their favourite video game? What do they really think about the community? These are just some of the potential questions, and hopefully you will get a satisfying insight into that member.

If you wish to be featured in a future instalment, there is a form at the bottom of this article. Any person in the Spelunky community can take part.

21 Questions With... Linkruler

What is your first name? Josh.

Where do you live? Colorado, USA.

What is your occupation? Student, part-time package handler.

Describe yourself in one sentence. I'm someone who has lots of dreams and goals, and I make every day a challenge to gain a little more self-improvement.

How did you come up with your username? As a kid, I was really enthralled by the Legend of Zelda series. I wanted to use the name 'Linkrules', but it was already taken. For some reason, I switched the ‘s’ to an ‘r’ to make it work (it kinda rolls off the tongue, so I find it a fun username).

Give an interesting fact about yourself. I got my first job at 16 and saved every penny from my first five months to build a nice computer rig (I first speedran Spelunky using a Hypercam on a failing 2008 Toshiba laptop).

Who was the first Spelunky streamer you remember watching? Pibonacci.

What is your favourite category? It kind of depends on the day. Any% is really fun to run with the teleporter when you know what you're doing (although it's very hard to finish). Low% is really satisfying to finish a run on, although it's very hard to get a good time with. All Shortcuts + Olmec is really fun tournament fuel, and the RTA component spices things up. If I had to choose one out of the three, it would probably be AS+O.

What is your proudest run or contribution? I don't necessarily feel like I have any crazy runs (personal bias), but I made it a goal to be supportive of the other runners when they got their goals or milestones. If my support helped give more runners confidence or motivation to keep playing for better times, then I couldn't ask for more.

What is your favourite part about the community? Everyone in the community is so supportive of each other. I remember when I first started streaming my speedrun attempts, I saw the names of big speedrunners in my chat giving me the encouragement to keep trying harder. That was the kind of community I wanted to be involved with. So much to the point that I still try and jump back into the Lunky community, even when I get really busy with school or work life.

Favourite video game? Recently, I really got into the Persona series (Persona 5 specifically) thanks to its mind-blowing visuals and gameplay. Definitely one of my favorites in the JRPG genre. For platformers, Hollow Knight has risen up as one of my favorites, mixing fun Metroidvania exploration with an interesting combat system.

Favourite Persona character? Man, choosing just one favorite character in Persona is probably one of the hardest choices for me to answer. I'd have to go with Yosuke Hanamura from Persona 4, though.

Yosuke is a transfer student, similarly to the main character you play. As you develop a friendship with him, you find that he has a lot of confidence issues and he hasn't been able to make a lot of friends due to a few factors out of his control. He constantly has to deal with people taking advantage of him, and when you develop a true friendship with him, you can see how much his character improves in both skill and confidence.

I relate to a lot about Yosuke, so watching his growth as a character was extra satisfying.

Favourite food? Homemade beef stew.

Favourite animal? Dogs > cats (fight me, Brut).

Favourite hobby? Programming/game design.

Favourite thing you’ve programmed? I still think it's fairly unimpressive, but my favorite programming accomplishment has to go to the game I developed for a high school competition in my senior year. Watching lines of code that I typed turn into something playable by others was an amazing feeling, and even more so when I could say I made it all by myself. The game isn’t anything spectacular, but I learned so much from programming it that I'm proud to let it be a part of my history. I also made it as a finalist at the state level, if any of you were curious.

[You can download the game here, although it might be glitchy in places!]

If you could have any superpower, what would it be? I would love to have the superpower of fixing logic errors in programming before I compile what I've written. Life would be so much easier.

Describe your personality in three words. Kind, adaptive, experimental.

What is your perfect day out? Getting out of the house and spending the entire day with a group of friends. Going to a restaurant or walking around town adds optional enjoyment to it.

What is your most prized possession? The trust I've built with my closest friends.

Do you have a message you would like to give to the community? You guys rock! Seeing the community grow so much over the years has been awesome, and getting to take part in its growth helped make my sophomore and junior years of high school a lot more bearable. I hope everything keeps growing like this once Spelunky 2 hits!

Thank you for your time, Linkruler!

Interested in being featured? Fill out this form. If you have any questions, feel free to direct message me (hb#3495) on Discord.

Previous entries: #4 Vlad | #3 ContraMuffin | #2 GruntingCrunchy | #1 Meowmixmix

The 2018 edition of the All Shortcuts + Olmec Tournament began earlier today. To mark the start of the tournament, MossNews takes a look back at what happened in the 2017 edition.

In the autumn of 2017, a month-long Spelunky All Shortcuts + Olmec tournament captured the attention of the community. Led by saturnin55, the organisers team also included Meowmixmix, Kazzy, Twiggle, and hb (hbix).

Pot Seedings and the Live Draw

A total of 40 participants signed up, and many of them grinded runs to improve their personal bests for a better pot seeding. The seedings worked like this: the top ten players were placed in Pot A, the next ten in Pot B, the next ten in Pot C, and the last ten in Pot D. Each of the 10 groups would comprise of one randomly-selected player from each pot.

Because of the way the pots worked, moving up just one pot could ensure a much easier group for a runner -- and so, in the final week leading up to the deadline, a couple of dozen runners were grinding in the hope of improving their seeding. In particular, the lower half of Pot B and the upper half of Pot C was incredibly competitive, with players moving up and down frequently.

Several people including Linkruler, Khold, and denis1080 were streaming their last attempts on the final evening right up to the cut-off time. Then, the final pot seedings were set. You can see the full list of final times as well using this link, if you wish.

A pre-tournament event was streamed on September 8, hosted by Meowmixmix and ix. In addition to a number of friendly races, the live draw took place (which included a spinning wheel!) as many community members tuned in to see who would end up in which group. Prizes for the top three players in the tournament were also announced.

There were many incredibly exciting groups, with Pot C runners Linkruler and Khold tipped as potentially being able to pull off upsets in Groups B and G respectively. Group I was dubbed the ‘Group of Death’, featuring Twiggle, MikeIsMyIke, ShinGraywords, and denis1080.

You can see the full draw below:

Going into the tournament, d_tea and Krille71 had the top two personal bests and were expected to be strong contenders, but some were tipping the likes of Spef, Twiggle, falafel_raptor, and Meowmixmix as potential winners based on form and personal bests.

The Group Stage

Out of the 40 runners, 16 would qualify for the single-elimination knockout bracket. Everyone in a group had to race each other one time. Races could happen at any time on any day, as long as both players racing streamed and used SRL -- and so for nine days, stream activity was at a real high.

Whoever came top in the group (sorted by number of wins, then head-to-head record, then best race time) would automatically qualify for the knockouts. Then, out of the 10 runners-up, the six with the best group stage record (sorted by number of wins, then best race time) would also qualify.

Below, you can read a brief summary of what happened in each group. This link also provides a deeper look into runners' race times.

Group A... Krille71 (Pot A) emerged as a true favourite, with three wins out of three. ix (Pot B) ran Krille71 close in his race, but he was the subject of a huge upset as patchesfaces (Pot C) produced a brilliant personal best to seal runner-up status.

1. Krille71, 2. patchesfaces, 3. ix, 4. BisleyT

Group B... Buddy7heElf (Pot A) came out of a tough group undefeated, which included solid wins against JakeYoshimitsu (Pot B) and Linkruler (Pot C). Linkruler finished runner-up with victory over JakeYoshimitsu, and a time of 22:32 was enough to qualify for the next stage.

1. Buddy7heElf, 2. Linkruler, 3. Eddiesaurus, 4. JakeYoshimitsu

Group C... d_tea (Pot A) rattled off three wins to top the group. The rest of the group was even-matched, with a three-way tie for second. TNF (Pot B) took the runner-up spot by virtue of a superior race time after beating TicTacFoe (Pot D). TicTacFoe defeated LF (Pot C) with a solid performance, but LF’s win over TNF meant that TNF could not progress to the next round.

1. d_tea, 2. TNF, 3. TicTacFoe, 4. LF

Group D... In the most brutally-fought group, Stuoid (Pot B) upset Curticus (Pot A) by six seconds. But Kirby703 (Pot D) pulled off a greater shock against Stuoid, with a five-minute personal best. At two races remaining, Stuoid, Curticus, and Kirby703 all had a chance to win the group. In the end, Kirby703 lost to Twyn (Pot C) and Curticus, and Stuoid and Curticus qualified from the group.

1. Stuoid, 2. Curticus, 3. Twyn, 4. Kirby703

Group E... Moliman (Pot C) showed he was no pushover, causing two upsets against speedsters Grooomp (Pot A) and Saibot (Pot B) on his way to topping the group. Grooomp beat Saibot and Elad Difficult (Pot D) -- the latter with a time of 19:31, the second-fastest time in the entire group stage -- to confirm a runner-up spot.

1. Moliman, 2. Grooomp, 3. Saibot, 4. Elad Difficult

Group F... Mazerak (Pot A) won the group with three impressive runs. Berumondo (Pot B) finished second, beating Deviltifa (Pot C) and Cloiss (Pot D), but his best race time was not fast enough to rank him as one of the top six runners-up. 

1. Mazerak, 2. Berumondo, 3. Deviltifa, 4. Cloiss

Group G... An unpredictable group. hbix (Pot B) topped the standings, with three wins including an upset against Meowmixmix (Pot A). The other three runners had one win apiece: Meowmeowmix beat the highly-rated Khold (Pot C), Khold beat Zigouigoui (Pot D), and Zigouigoui beat Meowmixmix. Khold had the best time of the three, but could not qualify for the next stage.

1. hbix, 2. Khold, 3. Meowmixmix, 4. Zigouioui

Group H... falafel_raptor (Pot A), a favourite for the tournament, surprisingly failed to qualify, finishing third after defeats to Vlad (Pot B) and GreatStriker (Pot C). GreatStriker summoned an impressive 20:05 personal best against falafel_raptor and then beat AlphaChannel (Pot D) to secure second place. There was no stopping Vlad, who won three out of three races.

1. Vlad, 2. GreatStriker, 3. falafel_raptor, 4. AlphaChannel

Group I... The ‘Group of Death’ lived up to its name, with a number of unpredictable results. denis1080 (Pot D) became the underdog nearly everybody was rooting for. He beat MikeIsMyIke (Pot B) and put himself in contention to qualify, but fell short against ShinGraywords (Pot C). Twiggle won the group with three good wins.

1. Twiggle, 2. ShinGraywords, 3. denis1080, 4. MikeIsMyIke

Group J... Spef (Pot A) made his mark with three very convincing wins. saturnin55 (Pot B) and Pojopoopoohead (Pot C) both beat armantis (Pot D), resulting in in a winner-takes-all match between the pair to determine who would finish runner-up. saturnin55 won that match, but missed out on qualifying by virtue of a slower best race time.

1. Spef, 2. saturnin55, 3. Pojopoopoohead, 4. armantis

The Bracket Draw

The bracket draw was made live on September 18. Of the 16 qualifiers, the eight unseeded players were drawn with the eight seeded players.

Based on the group stage performance, the eight seeds were:

[1] krille71

[2] Spef

[3] Mazerak

[4] twiggle

[5] Buddy7heElf

[6] dtea

[7] hbix

[8] Moliman

The Round of 16

krille71 vs. Vlad

curticus vs. Moliman

Buddy7heElf vs. ShinGraywords

patchesfaces vs. twiggle

Mazerak vs. Linkruler

Stuoid vs. dtea

hbix vs. GreatStriker

Grooomp vs. Spef

The round of 16 had no shortage of exciting match-ups, with highly-regarded runners Vlad and Grooomp unlucky to have been drawn against Krille71 and Spef respectively. Meanwhile, despite being rewarded with a seeding for a brilliant group stage performance, Moliman was unlucky to be matched against the top-rated unseeded player Curticus.

The biggest upset came from patchesfaces. Not content with knocking ix out, patchesfaces defeated one of the favourites of the competition Twiggle. A 1:35 mothership level and a jungle death on the key split from Twiggle enabled patchesfaces to take the lead late on in the race, and patchesfaces kept his nerve while dealing with a rough Olmec fight to seal a famous victory.

Elsewhere, Linkruler came from behind to beat Mazerak. An unfortunate death meant that Linkruler had just begun 1-2, looking for the key, when Mazerak started the Olmec split.

GreatStriker continued his superb tournament run by beating hbix. The Finnish runner was four levels behind at one point during the key split, but fought back to take an exciting two-second lead into the Olmec fight. GreatStriker survived and won the match to book his quarter-final place in the tournament, while hbix died thanks to an untimely exploding orange frog.

Krille71, d_tea, Spef, and Buddy7heElf, all of whom were favourites in their respective matches, progressed as well, with Krille71 posting a time of 20:17.

Quarter-Finals

Krille71 vs. Curticus

Buddy7heElf vs. patchesfaces

Linkruler vs. d_tea

GreatStriker vs. Spef

Krille71 was tested hard by Curticus, but a 19:21 proved to be enough to see him through. Meanwhile, patchesfaces’ incredible run came to an end against a very fast Buddy7heElf. Like Krille71, d_tea finished with a sub-20 time to book his semifinal spot, despite a spirited performance from Linkruler.

The best race of the quarter-finals -- and ultimately voted the best race of the entire tournament at the 2017 Spelunky Discord Community Awards -- was Spef vs. GreatStriker. Underdog GreatStriker was keeping up with Spef's pace into the key split, when Spef in a 2-3 Dead Are Restless level accidentally killed himself after throwing a bomb which ended up stunning him and exploding. GreatStriker held his nerve to deliver the key and defeat Olmec.

This was GreatStriker’s third upset win of the tournament, after beating hbix in the round of 16 and falafel_raptor (one of the pre-tournament favourites) during the group stage.

"When he was ahead, I wasn't really nervous," GreatStriker said in a post-match interview. "But near the end, I was actually nervous."

Semi-Finals

Krille71 vs. Buddy7heElf

d_tea vs. GreatStriker

Hosted on the Speedgaming Twitch channel, the semifinals and finals event drew the largest audience for Spelunky in recent history, with the viewer count hitting several hundred.

Unfortunately, GreatStriker had to pull out of the semifinals due to unavailability, and so Spef took his spot. In a best of three, d_tea looked at his menacing best with two strong wins against Spef. In the first race, he finished with 19:48 in the first race.

In the second race, Spef took a 10-second lead into the three bombs split (both comfortably sub-10 delivering the shotgun) but suffered an extra ice caves death, allowing d_tea to take charge. d_tea was almost flawless from then on, finishing a time of 18:19, which would end up being the fastest race time in the whole tournament.

In the other semifinal between Krille71 and Buddy7heElf, Krille71 executed a triple delivery in the first race thanks to a black market with a jetpack and was 12:11 into the key split. He finished that run with 19:15. The second race saw Krille71 secure a 19:48, taking a 1-3 jetpack and compass on the key split, as Buddy7heElf endured some rough jungle levels.

Third Place Play-Off

Buddy7heElf vs. Spef

In the best-of-three third-place play-off, a very entertaining first race saw Buddy7heElf overcome rough temple levels to hold off a Spef comeback. The pair were on Olmec at the same time, but Buddy7heElf edged the race in the end by less than eight seconds.

Spef levelled the tie with a really strong 19:06, while the deciding race turned out to have several twists and turns.

A triple delivery saw Buddy7heElf start the key split at 12:04, with Spef still on the three bombs split. This led to Spef going for the three ropes/key double delivery.

An unfortunate bounce off of a frog into a pre-triggered tiki trap saw Buddy7heElf die on 2-4, which gave Spef the advantage. But on 3-2, Spef was hit by a mammoth freeze ray and plummeted into the abyss. “Oh no!” co-commentator Meowmixmix exclaimed. “That is such a sad death. I hate it when that happens.” Seeing that Buddy7heElf was in the mines, Spef changed strategy and used the ice caves shortcut to compete the three ropes split the standard way.

A 1-4 death from Buddy7heElf meant that Spef was only two levels behind after delivering the three ropes.

Buddy7heElf maintained that advantage into the ice caves, but an unfortunate moment with a landmine on 3-2 meant that Spef had a golden opportunity to take control of the race and tie. And Spef took it, delivering the key and finishing off Olmec.

Final

Krille71 vs. d_tea

The best-of-three grand finale proved to be a tie with real quality, with the smallest of things enough to shift the momentum. The first race saw Krille71 take an early lead after d_tea died from a brutal spider level on 1-4 during the one rope split. This was a lead that Krille71 maintained for the rest of the race, despite d_tea’s admirable attempts to catch up.

Krille71 finished with 19:30, with d_tea not far behind on 20:27.

In the second race, d_tea took a two-level lead into the shotgun split. However, he ran into some bad luck, getting shotgun-trolled not once but twice. Krille71 found a 2-1 shop and crafted an advantage of more than a full split by the time he entered the three ropes portion of the run. Krille71’s lead remained strong for the remainder of the race, as he sealed a 19:02 time, winning the tournament. d_tea finished with 20:39.

Triumphing nine races out of nine and pulling together a string of consistent performances, Krille71 was very much a deserved winner.