Welcome to 21 Questions With #12.

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... Mazerak

What is your first name? Ethan.

Where do you live? Western Washington.

What is your occupation? Student.

How did you come up with your username? It's pretty boring. About eight years back, I was thinking of making a new username for myself, so I just picked the first thing that sounded cool and got Mazerak.

What is your Discord avatar? It's a picture of my cat with red eyes for some reason.

Who was the first Spelunky streamer you remember watching? I remember watching both d_tea and SchnitzelDX way back in like 2014, and their high level of play just amazed me.

What is your favourite category? Oh, it's gotta be score. I started off by doing dailies, and from that I've grown to love doing score runs.

What is your proudest run or contribution? My 2:59.902 Low% run. After about a year and a half of grinding Low%, I finally got the sub-3, and I consider it better than even my score runs. Mazjump is pretty cool too, though c:

What is your favourite part about the community? Personally, I'd say the Discord server is my favorite. It's a great place to hang out and chat about Lunky and other nonsense.

Favourite video game? Besides Spelunky, probably Terraria. I've invested tons of time into it, and I always enjoy coming back for another playthrough.

What is it about Terraria that makes you come back for more? There’s so much variety in how you can play the game, and you can always mix it up a bit. For example, my most recent playthough has the added rules of no flight and summoner weapons only.

Favourite movie? I'm a big Marvel fan, so I've gotta say Avengers: Infinity War.

Who is your favourite Marvel superhero, and why? I’d say Thor. He’s changed for the better so much in recent movies, and I can’t wait to see where he’s taken next.

Favourite TV show? Stan Lee's Superhumans. I personally find it fascinating to learn about these people who do things that are seemingly impossible.

Favourite food? Salmon. I'm a big fan of most fish, but salmon's just the best.

Favourite hobby? Cross-country/running.

Describe your personality in three words. Lazy, obsessive, calm.

What is your perfect day out? Probably running or racing a 5k, seeing a good movie, and then chilling on the computer for the rest of the day.

What is the last movie you cried at? Coco.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Teleportation. Maybe then I could finally get a sub-2 any% run.

Do you have a message you would like to give to the community? I’m getting that 6-million score run soon.

Thank you for your time, Mazerak!

Previous entries: #11 Graywords | #10 Stuoid | #9 TheNitromeFan | #8 courgette | #7 chocolatecake5000 | #6 JakeTreester | #5 Linkruler | #4 Vlad | #3 ContraMuffin | #2 GruntingCrunchy | #1 Meowmixmix

Welcome to 21 Questions With #11.

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... Graywords

What is your first name? Ansel.

Where do you live? San Antonio, TX.

How did you come up with your username? It's the last name of a character in the anime "Slayers". I've been using it in some capacity for over 20 years, now.

What is your Discord avatar? Richter Belmont from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. HYDRO STORM!!!

Give an interesting fact about yourself. Back before I got interested in the Japanese language, I wanted to be an astronomer when I grew up.

How fluent are you in Japanese? I can hold my own in most day-to-day conversations, owing to the past 25 years or so of immersing myself in the language off-and-on. However, I am not near native speaker level; my vocabulary is more limited than I would like it to be. The most difficult part, though, is the reading and writing! Listening and speaking skills can fall into place fairly naturally, but the system of reading and writing requires an entirely different set of skills and is far more daunting, in my opinion.

What is your proudest run or contribution? For runs, probably my Any% - never thought I would get a sub-2:30 run. Apart from that, I'm most proud of my sprite tweaks and community emote contributions (e.g. ThinkingYama, zooLUL).

What is your favourite part about the community? The camaraderie, the friendly rivalries, the interesting community-run events, and the research teamwork that is *still* creating new discoveries about this game five years after release!

Favourite video game? See my My Favourite Games entry. [hb: The link is here - Graywords picked Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Secret of Mana, and Rocket Knight Adventures.]

What is the first video game you remember playing? The first game system I owned was a Commodore VIC-20, and I have memories of playing Jungle Hunt a lot. However, the NES was probably the most formative video game experience for me. I was absolutely in awe after seeing The Legend of Zelda for the first time, and I sank many hours into the game as a child.

Favourite music artist? Lots of great artists out there, but I'll go with one of my old favorites: X Japan.

Favourite food? Sushi!

Favourite hobby? I don't get to do it as often as I like, but I love metal detecting!

What are some of the best things you’ve found while metal detecting? A few years ago, I found a really cool little medicine/pill box from the 1920s or '30s.  A couple of weeks ago, I found a silver Ben Franklin half-dollar from 1952.

Describe your personality in three words. Silly, logical, introspective.

What makes you happy? Love and peace.

What makes you sad? The news, almost every day.

What is the last movie you cried at? Your Name.

Who is the most famous person you have seen or met? Kinnijup!

Which famous person would you most like to meet? Mr. Vlad, from Paris, France!

If you could have any superpower, what would it be? To imbue empathy into those without it.

Thank you for your time, Graywords!

Previous entries: #10 Stuoid | #9 TheNitromeFan | #8 courgette | #7 chocolatecake5000 | #6 JakeTreester | #5 Linkruler | #4 Vlad | #3 ContraMuffin | #2 GruntingCrunchy | #1 Meowmixmix

Welcome to 21 Questions With #10.

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... Stuoid

Where do you live? That one fake country right above the US. We use Monopoly money, it's weird.

Describe yourself in one sentence. I barely take much of anything seriously, and that's about it.

How did you come up with your username? My original username was essentially a copy of my friend's at the time, but after we had a falling-out a few years ago, I was pretty desperate for a new one. I accidentally said "stuoid" instead of "stupid" in a message to a friend, so I just made it that. Later I added "sause" from a YouTube comment and "plotis" from a Steam review, both of which are typos. When corrected my name, is "Stupid Sause Plot Is".

What is your Discord avatar? Donkey Kong from the knockoff GameBoy Color game Donkey Kong 5: The Journey of Over Time and Space.

Give an interesting fact about yourself. I find my life overall has been absurdly uneventful. I've never really met anyone famous in the slightest, I never had any notable classmates or school stories, etc., and I just don't have that many interesting things going on at any given time.

What is your Twitter handle? @Stuoid_S_Plotis

When did you join the community? According to the 2017 Spelunky Discord Community Awards rules, I joined in 2016 when I submitted my 3:56 Low% to MossTier, but I really joined on August 1, 2017 for the 2017 All Shortcuts + Olmec Tournament.

What is your favourite category? Hell% with teleporter by far. The most fun I can have with the game is using the teleporter, and if a run prolongs that without going to the worm or mothership, I'll gladly run that instead of regular Any%. I enjoy the Hell route more than regular Any% overall as well, so running that is just more fun for me.

What is your proudest run or contribution? I suppose by default, my proudest contribution is bringing awareness to ‘slow look’, as I haven't really done anything else and my runs aren't all that fantastic. I suppose I also sort of popularized the whole penguin trend of early 2018 by recoloring the clipart penguin for kinni.

What is your favourite part about the community? I think how conversations never really devolve into politics is something to be valued. I firmly believe that politics should be left out of almost everything it doesn't need to be in, and I'm glad that the community has largely strayed away from potentially dividing itself by talking about such things.

Favourite video game? I'm conflicted on whether it's Terraria or La-Mulana, so I'm just gonna say it's a tie between the two. [hb: Stuoid previously did a My Favourite Games and picked Lethal League, Terraria, and La-Mulana. Link here.]

What do you think about La-Mulana 2? I'm honestly not sure. I was very excited for it, of course, and when it released I played for like 25 hours and had a lot of fun, but then from about a week after launch to now I haven't had much motivation to play the game. It's not even that the game's bad or I don't enjoy it or anything, I just never feel like playing it. Since then, the only progress I've made is with ShinGraywords in my stream chat guiding me through, because I just don't care enough to go through myself.

It's not even a problem with the game. The game's good. I think the general consensus is that it's not as good as La-Mulana, but it's still good. I'm sort of thinking that using the hint-based guide for La-Mulana is what I really enjoyed about that game, and losing that just makes me not want to bother with progressing?

Favourite song or album? It's a bit of a strange choice considering why it even exists in the first place, but I really enjoy ‘Soulless 4’ by ExileLord. It's strange in that it was made primarily for Guitar Hero which I don't even play but I genuinely like the song a lot. I'm not sure why.

Favourite food? Crepes are objectively the best food. That is a fact.

Favourite hobby? Since mid-July, I've really been getting into editing videos. It's really basic and I've only really done three full ones so far, but it's been a very enjoyable experience for me and I'm really satisfied with the results.

What sort of videos have you been editing? I've just been editing together highlights of playthroughs with friends and such. So far there's ‘fORTNITE Funny Moments’, ‘fORTNITE 2 Funny Moments 2’, and ‘i really love some zombies’.

fFM is just me and SiIverGoId (who started the Spelunky +More mod a while back) going through Portal 2 for an hour and a half, which I edited down to like 50 minutes or so. f2FM2 is a bunch of games from some streams I did in September, totalling like 7 to 9 hours of footage I think, edited to 2 hours and 10 minutes. i really love some zombies is just me playing with random people online in Call of Duty: Black Ops zombies and I edited it down to what I thought were the most enjoyable parts of the game.

I'm also planning on putting together an analysis of sorts on Not Another Needle Game (which I've been planning on doing since February 2018). It's nothing really that special or high-quality, but I enjoy making them and I enjoy the results a lot.

What makes you happy? Being able to do the things I enjoy without overdoing it or having frustratingly few opportunities to do them. Nothing else, really.

What makes you sad? I'm not sure why, but stuff that really gets to me is various things people do on the internet. Being that vague about it doesn't really help make it sound reasonable in the slightest, but I don't want to call out a community or group of people on something like this, so I'll just leave it at that. Just know that it's pretty depressing. Also, for some reason seeing hoarding makes me feel absolutely awful.

What is your main vice? I can be pretty harsh when joking around, and some people might not be that comfortable with it.

Cake or pie? Pie is superior unless the cake is cheesecake.

Do you have a message you would like to give to the community? gg people, great Hell runs. lol.

Thank you for your time, Stuoid!

Previous entries: #9 TheNitromeFan | #8 courgette | #7 chocolatecake5000 | #6 JakeTreester | #5 Linkruler | #4 Vlad | #3 ContraMuffin | #2 GruntingCrunchy | #1 Meowmixmix

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!