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.

The 2018 edition of the All Shortcuts + Olmec Tournament is nearly upon us!

During the first three weekends in October, members of the Spelunky speedrunning community will face off in a modified double-elimination All Shortcuts + Olmec (AS+O) tournament.  All races will take place on Saturday and Sunday, from Noon to 4 PM Eastern Time on the Mossranking Twitch channel.  We'll kick off the tournament with the preliminary round on Saturday, October 6, and the Grand Finals will happen on Sunday, October 21.  Each of the races will feature live commentary by ix, Kinnijup, Vlad, Beens, chocolatecake5000, and a few others -- too many to list, actually!

For the full bracket, swing over to the Challonge website.  You can even make predictions about how the tournament will play out.

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!

For more information about the tournament rules, please check out the tourney document.

Hope to see lots of you there!

-ix

Welcome to 21 Questions With.

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 song? 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... Vlad

What is your first name? Victor.

Where do you live? Paris, France.

What is your occupation? Math teacher.

Describe yourself in one sentence. I like playing games too much for my own good.

How did you come up with your username? I had a weird fascination for Russia when I was a kid (probably due to me playing chess), and Russian names sounded really cool to me, so I picked up one. It went through a few iterations with numbers, until I got rid of them entirely.

What is your proudest run? I'd say my sub-2 Any% run.

What is your favourite category? It has to be a teleporter one. Max Any% or Max Hell%, I'd say. AS+O has done so much for the community, I have to mention it as well.

What is your favourite part about the community? The super-supportive atmosphere. The constant support I received when growing up as a player, even from players way better than me and who wouldn't have cared about those beginner runs in other communities, really meant a lot to me and kept me motivated. Hopefully I contribute to doing the same to the newer players.

Favourite video game? Spelunky, of course. Other than that, the Rayman series, particularly Rayman Legends (and Origins).

Favourite song or album? ‘Notes pour trop tard’ by Orelsan.

Favourite food? Pizza! Pizzaaaaaaaaa!

Favourite pizza topping? I love pizza with meat. I couldn't single one topping out, but I like having several types of meat on my pizza. Any few of ham, merguez, ground beef, chorizo, etc.

Favourite hobby? Gaming. Especially speedrunning and Magic: The Gathering.

Describe your personality in three words. Optimistic, pessimistic, intuitive.

What is your perfect day out? Chilling with friends, enjoying good food and drinks.

What is the last movie you cried at? Polisse, by Maiwenn. It's a movie about the police section dedicated to protecting children from paedophiles and trafficking. It sheds a very crude, true light on these horrible stories while always keeping a touch of hope in the mood. The alchemy is amazing, and I'm now realizing I can't properly talk about it. I guess you really have to see it to get it.

Which famous person would you most like to meet? ShinGraywords!

If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Reading minds.

What would you use your superpower for? I'm just a very curious person overall. I would use it for various small things, to know when people are lying to me and why, to understand them better. And maybe also use it to play strategy games (poker or something) and make an easy living that way.

What is your Twitter handle? @MlA_Vlad

Do you have a message you would like to give to the community? Thank you all for being so awesome! I look forward to exploring Spelunky 2 with all of you.

Thank you for your time, Vlad!

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: ContraMuffin | GruntingCrunchy | Meowmixmix

Welcome to 21 Questions With.

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 movie? 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... ContraMuffin

Where do you live? Los Angeles.

What is your occupation? Student.

Describe yourself in one sentence. I'm a researcher at heart.

How did you come up with your username? About a couple years ago, I needed to come up with a username for a game called World of Tanks. Turns out that not a lot of people know about Latin and Greek roots, so I decided that the easiest way to come up with a username was to simply mash roots together to make a new "word". I got "contra-", which means "opposite" or "against", and put that with "muffin". So my name isn't actually referencing Contra the game (I've never played it), but it's just proof of my dedication to hating muffins.

When did you join the community? I joined the Discord in April or May 2017, which is not coincidentally not long after I started to get into Reddit. I had been with r/Spelunky for a month or so before that and I've played Spelunky for years before then.

What is your favourite category? Any%. Low% is painful. No Gold is alright, but only if I'm not speeding.

What is your proudest contribution? Render dupe. No contest. I love researching, so to finally have an avenue to research and experiment makes me happy. I feel like I'm truly making a contribution when we find something new about render dupe.

What is your favourite part about the community? #the-warstening. RIP. "It will be missed."

Favourite video game? Braid. The best puzzle game ever, no contest.

Favourite movie? I'll be honest, I don't remember a lot of movies. But I recently watched Searching and that was amazing. If you're considering watching a movie, I would recommend that one.

Favourite TV show? Nichijou. But that's not really a TV show, is it?

Favourite music artist? I'll have to say Joe Hisaishi of Studio Ghibli fame.

Favourite song? ‘Pollyanna’ from the Mother series.

Favourite book? The Timekeeper by Mitch Albom.

Favourite food? Curry.

Favourite hobby? I like playing my ocarina. Also, of course, gaming.

Describe your personality in three words. Stoic, rational, realist.

What is the last movie you cried at? Schindler's List.

Cake or pie? A couple days ago, I thought of something super interesting. What if you use the key lime pie goo stuff and use that as frosting on a cake? How would that taste? Someone has to try that out for me.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Control probability. Can you imagine what kind of stuff you could do if you could control probability?

Do you have a message you would like to give to the community? Derek why?

Thank you for your time!

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: GruntingCrunchy | Meowmixmix

Welcome to 21 Questions With.

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 movie? 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... GruntingCrunchy

What is your first name? Will.

Where do you live? Ohio, USA.

What is your occupation? Studying Math and Physics, hoping to become a high school/college teacher.

How did you come up with your username? In third grade I invented several creatures, including a ‘Crunchy’ and a ‘Gruntbuggly’. ‘GruntingCrunchy’ is a combination of the two.

Give an interesting fact about yourself. I've been part of a circus for nine years, and do tons of fun things including juggling, unicycling, tightwire, aerial silks, and German wheel.

Who was the first Spelunky streamer you remember watching? I started watching a few Kinnijup streams before I even got the game. I tried speedrunning Classic at the time.

What is your proudest run? My proudest run is probably my 6:53 Max Hell, although my 17:21 Eggy is up there, or maybe my Snowball% run. I'm pretty proud of finally completing Low% Hell, although no actual proof exists of that right now.

What is your favourite part about the community? The community is really wonderful. The overall atmosphere is very positive and supportive of everyone, but my favorite part is all of the community run events and features, such as MossRanking, MossNews, The Grind, and AS+O Tournaments.

Favourite movie? The Martian.

Favourite TV show? Doctor Who or The Office.

Favourite music artist? Electric Light Orchestra or The Beatles.

Favourite song or album? For song, it’s ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’ by Crosby, Stills & Nash. For album, it’s Rumours by Fleetwood Mac or ‘Let It Be’ by The Beatles.

Favourite book? Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang.

Favourite food? Cheese and bread.

Describe your personality in three words. Positive, curious, unique.

What is your perfect day out? A hike and picnic in the woods, followed by resting in a hammock.

Which three items would you have if you were stranded on a desert island? Something to listen to music with, a multi-tool, and rope.

What is your most prized possession? I have a pair of safety glasses (like for chemistry or construction) with the front of an EasyBake oven taped to it -- the reason for which is a long story involving me getting my hand stuck inside said oven and it being cut out with an electric saw. Many of my friends signed these glasses, and I have a strong sentimental attachment to them now.

Who is the most famous person you have met? I met 50 Cent at a hotel I was staying at during a high school Latin convention. One of my friends told me who he was, and I addressed him as "Mr. Cent". He seemed rather amused.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Time manipulation would be really cool.

Do you have a message you would like to give to the community? You people are awesome. The community is the reason that a not-super-popular game from 2013 is still receiving 150+ run submissions a month. I love being a part of this group of people.

Thank you for your time!

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

Previous entry: Meowmixmix

Welcome to 21 Questions With, MossRanking's newest regular feature.

An introduction: Last year, I created and ran My Favourite Games. By spotlighting each entry on a different member of the community, it gave us an opportunity to get to know each other better through talking about video games. This feature produced 18 articles, the final of which was a Derek Yu special. You can find the whole list here.

I wanted to take this idea further. And so, in 21 Questions With, the individual is asked a variety of quickfire questions about themselves. What's the story behind their username? What's their favourite movie? What do they really think about the community? These are just some of the potential questions, and hopefully each entry will provide a satisfying insight into that member.

This is the very first entry. 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... Meowmixmix

What is your first name? Kevin.

Where do you live? Virginia, USA.

What is your occupation? Software engineer.

Describe yourself in one sentence. A carefree gamer, programmer, and all-around nerd whose main goal is to enjoy life.

How did you come up with your username? I was a little kid trying to come up with a username for some game online. I was (and am still) a big fan of cats and thought the Meow Mix theme song was funny. ‘Meowmix’ was taken though, so I just added another mix to make it work.

When did you join the community? June 2016.

What is your proudest run or contribution? I'm most proud of the events and other community projects I've participated in or helped create. Scoreathlon, AS+O tournaments, and the speedrun challenge are all things I'm glad to have a part in helping make happen. Giving back to the community that has given me so much is something I love to do.

What is your favourite part about the community? All the friends I've made. I feel pretty close to a lot of members in this community, and I'm glad Spelunky gave me the opportunity to meet them.

Favourite video game? Can we link the My Favorite Games article? [hb: Yes - here it is. He picked Halo 3, Fable, and Minecraft.]

Favourite movie? This Is the End. It's really not a great movie, but it is my exact sense of humor and I love it for that. Plus, it brings up good memories of watching it with my friends for the first time.

Favourite TV show? Lost.

Favourite music artist? Childish Gambino. I love his music, but I also have seen him go from making YouTube videos to becoming a huge star, so it's been really inspiring following his career.

Favourite food? Burrito.

Describe your personality in three words. Chill, dedicated, thicc.

Which actor would play you in a Hollywood movie? Michael Cera.

Which three items would you have if you were stranded on a desert island? An Iron Man suit. The other two items are not necessary.

What makes you happy? When other people in my life who are important to me are happy. Petting a cute cat. Getting home from work to chill and watch a movie or play video games.

What makes you angry? Honestly, anything that I think is unjust that I don't know how to change. For instance, there are a lot of things especially in United States politics these days that make me angry and I don't know what I can do about it. It's a sense of helplessness seeing something unjust unfold and knowing I can't do anything against it. That definitely makes me angry.

What is the last movie you cried at? Coco.

What is your perfect day out? It's pretty boring. We have a movie theater called the Alamo near me and it serves food during the movie. It is my favorite place to go and I go with my girlfriend frequently. A good movie, good food, and good company all in one night is really all I need for it to be a perfect day out. In some rarer cases, it would be exploring a new place for the first time with my girlfriend (like a new city or new country).

Do you have a message you would like to give to the community? You all are awesome! Spelunky is a great game, but what really has kept me playing so long is all the amazing people in the community. I'm so excited to share the Spelunky 2 experience with everyone when that comes out.

Thank you for your time!

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

Hello all! GruntingCrunchy here, bringing the first MossNews update of the summer! I’ll be covering runs since June 6th, so this edition may be slightly longer than previous editions. In addition, I will be doing a special spotlight on the RTA categories due to special interest, as well as highlights of the 13 World Records. Let’s jump right in, starting with the main 4 categories!

Main 4 Categories

Long-time player Bum made an impressive return with a $3,225,000 score run, the 12th highest in the category. This was his first run submitted in over a year, and I hope this is a sign of more runs to come! In addition, resident Xbox player Geordie_May_Cry submitted a $2,126,175 run - a terrific score, especially considering Xbox does not have unlockable characters, making the usual Robot strategies to carry the Plasma Cannon to the City of Gold impossible. Geordie opted to leave the Plasma Cannon in 4-1 and continue on for a Hell finish. TNF achieved a score of $1,957,600 before his untimely death on Olmec, and resident Daily player 84BombsJetpack finished a Hell run with a score of $1,900,525 - a first submission! Finally, new MossRanking member EvilKmart submitted a score of $659,975.

Next up is Any% - one of the most submitted categories this summer, with 17 new PBs. Players Finn and thatmarkguy submitted times of 5:15 and 4:31 respectively, both of which were actually Low% runs! Kirby703 submitted a blazingly fast time of 2:07.614, with the additional hype of the music syncing to the run. Kirby continued this run despite being impaled on an arrow on 1-2, and finished with 1 HP, narrowly dodging a snake on the exit of Olmec. Geordie also submitted a time of 2:12.003, overcoming the shorter teleporter range to zoom through the levels. Both these runners are extremely skilled, and I look forward to sub-2 submissions from them! Speaking of extremely skilled, next up is runner E5ten, who submitted his first sub-4 run with a time of 3:31. Both Horseb and GruntingCrunchy submitted sub-3 runs with times of 2:59 and 2:55 respectively. Both these runs were accomplished without the use of a teleporter. Carlibraun and TicTacFoe also submitted No Teleporter runs that are edging closer to the 3 minute mark with times of 3:03 and 3:12 respectively. I look forward to seeing sub-3 times from these runners! Runs were also submitted by Tuabiht (4:13), Andu (4:45), EvilKmart (4:03), HOBT0R (3:25), Hazzahnator (4:40), LogaSoba (4:44), Courgette (5:26), and Luigidude851 (3:45). GGs all around!

Moving on, we have the more difficult extension of Any% - Hell%. In order to conquer this category, players have to survive an additional 4 difficult levels while collecting various items to progress. With 14 submissions, this category was also a popular one. Firstly, 2 players submitted runs under 5 minutes - Haunted category master falafel_raptor with an insane 4:04.827 and original memelord ix with a 4:42.333 - both extremely impressive times. Raptor is extremely close to the huge 4 minute milestone, and I believe he has the skill to easily break it! In addition, Kirby and Geordie both submitted mid-5 minute runs with times of 5:31 and 5:27 respectively. Even more impressively, both of these runs were achieved without the aid of a teleporter! 3 more runners submitted times under 7 minutes - TNF with a time of 6:52, Chocolatecake5000 with a time of 6:30, and GruntingCrunchy with a time of 6:07. Again, all 3 of these runs were accomplished without a teleporter, so I’m sure each of these runners will be able to improve their times! We had 2 new members join the Speedlunky Hell club - Suspense21 with a time of 7:56 and E5ten with a time of 7:21. Runs were also submitted by Betty (14:55), EvilKmart (10:43), Courgette (17:14), Luigidude851 (8:46), and MNC Mascot (9:51).

The last of the main 4 categories is one of the most competitive - Low%. This summer saw a large influx of very good runs submitted as runners continue to shave time off their PBs. Firstly, top tier runner Spef submitted an unbelievable time of 2:47.397 - shaving a second off of his PB from over a year ago even after an unlucky Olmec fight. DaftLunk also shaved 5 seconds off of his PB after an unlucky Olmec fight for a final time of 2:50.517. In addition, 2 members joined the elite sub-3 low% club! Both Kirby and Geordie submitted killer runs, with times of 2:58.264 and 2:54.759 respectively. Both runs were exciting throughout, including scary drops (Kirby) and shopkeeper aggro (Geordie)! GG to both of them on this huge achievement! Runners DieDai and TNF are also edging closer to this elusive goal, with times of 3:05 and 3:06 respectively. Both runners have the skill required for this run, and I believe they can both do it! Runners Horseb and Suspense also submitted times below the 4 minute mark - another major milestone - with runs of 3:45 and 3:57 respectively. E5ten is approaching the sub 5 milestone with a time of 5:02. Good luck to him! Runs were also submitted by EvilKmart (4:13), Courgette (6:39), Finn (5:15), Hazzahnator (4:40), and thatmarkguy (4:31). Many of these runners also completed their very first Low% run, so GG to them!

Challenge Runs

Perhaps the most famous category of all is the legendary Eggplant run. We had 1 runner complete their very first Eggplant run - GG to Kirby on finishing one of the most technically difficult main category runs, and welcome to the Eggplant Club! With a time of 32:04.452. This run was a real nail biter - despite using buy% strats (including ghosting 2-1 for over $62k!), it was by no means easy. This means Kirby’s only penalty left is Low% Hell - Good luck, and I expect to see that on the next MossNews! GreatStriker submitted their third eggplant run with a time of 30:45. Two runners also improved their eggplant times - ix with a time of 12:50, and Meow with a time of 13:50. Both of these times are very good for such a difficult category. GG to all!

Another very difficult main category challenge run is Low% Hell. 4 runs of this category were submitted, including 1 first clear - Congratulations to memelord Chocolatecake5000 who recently finished his last penalty run. He then quickly improved it with a killer time of 9:07.127. This is an insanely good time, especially for second clear! The other three runs were submitted by GreatStriker, ix, and Stuoid. GreatStriker’s run was their first sub-20 time of 18:35, despite terrible Hell level layouts. In ix’s 9:42 run, he utilized a thwomp to conserve bombs. Stuoid completed his 2nd run with a time of 13:12 despite difficult Anubis and Yama fight layouts. Congratulations to these runners on the completion of this difficult category!

One of the more interesting categories (in my opinion) is Big Money, in which players must finish the game with at least $500,000. 6 PBs were submitted in this category. Choco got a speedy time of 8:25.301, bringing himself closer to the speedlunky mark. Good luck on reaching that milestone! TNF submitted their first sub-10 run, with a time of 9:52. Runs were also submitted by Carlibraun (15:33), E5ten (12:19), and Horseb (11:54). Keep up the good work!

No Teleporter Any% is another interesting category. In addition to the runs mentioned in the Any% category, and those Low% runs which are also No Teleporter Any% PBs (from Kirby, Finn, EvilKmart, and thatmarkguy), 4 runners submitted unique runs. Geordie submitted a blazingly fast run with a time of 2:33.339, the 9th fastest run in the category! Chocolatecake5000 also submitted his first sub-3 run out of his 12 submitted runs in this category, with a time of 2:58. GG! HOBT0R completed a 3:48, their first run under 4 minutes, a milestone that E5ten is approaching with a time of 4:18. GG all!

No Gold

One of the most infuriating categories, No Gold, received several amazing runs this summer! Kirby shattered their previous PB of 4:00, submitting the incredible time of 2:10.916 - the 6th fastest run in this category. Spef also submitted a speedy time of 2:26.906, managing a PB even after accidentally dropping his teleporter during the Olmec fight. Geordie submitted a time of 3:02, very close to the 3-minute barrier, which he certainly has the skill to break. 3 runners submitted runs without a teleporter - TicTacFoe with a time of 4:03, Courgette with a time of 11:45, and GruntingCrunchy with a small PB of 3:38. In addition, 2 runners submitted No Gold PBs that were also Low%! Congratulations to Chocolatecake5000 with the excellent sub-4 time of 3:56, before improving to 3:39, and Pajecka with a speedy 4:56!

It may seem counterintuitive to go through a entire level made up of solid gold without taking any of it, but that’s exactly what 3 runners did when they submitted No Gold Hell% runs. Firstly, ix got a blazing time of 5:31.878, the 6th fastest run of this category! He used the safer version of the mittless paste fight popularized by community member Sawr to secure his Yama fight. In addition, MNC Mascot completed their first run of this category with a respectable time of 21:32 - I look forward to MNC improving this category! Finally, GruntingCrunchy performed a clutch overhead skull whip to submit a time of 11:04, which he got during the MossRanking event The Grind: No%. GG runners!

Just when you thought No Gold runs couldn’t get harder, you get those runners who complete runs without using items! There were 5 submitted Low% No Gold runs, all of which have very fast times! Pajecka completed their first sub-5 run with a time of 4:57, while Chocolatecake5000 clinched the sub-4 with a time of 3:56, before improving his time to 3:39. Kirby and Geordie also nailed some very fast times with times of 3:27 and 3:24 respectively! All 4 of these runs were also PBs for their runners’ No Teleporter No Gold Any% category. Finally, ix clinched a 10 second improvement with a 3:34 time. GG!

Maximum

Have you ever fought your way through a worm’s intestinal tract, then climbed through an explosion-prone alien spaceship? 11 runners did just that by submitting Max Any% runs! Spef got the incredible time of 2:31.949, a PB which didn’t even collect gold until an unfortunate explosion in the ice caves.  E5ten and Samcv both PBed in this category as well, with times of 4:40 and 4:22 respectively. 5 runners completed this category with the additional restriction of not using a teleporter! DaftLunk and Geordie both submitted speedy times of 3:33, less than 0.3 seconds apart! Horseb submitted a time of 4:09, Suspense earned the time of 5:33, and Courgette knocked out another category with a first clear time of 21:54! Not only did MNC Mascot complete this category without a teleporter, MNC actually didn’t use any items at all, completing an impressive Max Low% run of 6:31. TNF also submitted a special run, opting to go through the Haunted Castle as well, submitting a time of 3:47. Finally, ix got a truly remarkable run. He completed this category in just 3:00.520 - without collecting any gold! Congratulations to all runners!

Sometimes intestinal tracts and spaceships aren’t enough, and people have to follow it up with a literal trip to Hell. 4 runners did, all of them without the use of a teleporter! Meow and TNF both got excellent speedlunky times of 6:34 and 7:27 respectively, while 2 other runners got first completions for Max Hell% - MNC Mascot, with a time of 15:45, and Tuabiht, with a time of 26:03.

Despite the difficulty of the Max categories, some crazy people like to run it without the aid of any items or health! In addition to MNC Mascot’s 6:31, 5 other runners completed this category. Firstly, falafel_raptor got the impressive sub-4 time of 3:55.078, improving his old PB by nearly a second. Carlibraun and Geordie submitted sub-5 runs with times of 4:52 and 4:28 respectively. These are both very respectable times, but these runners certainly have the skill for further improvements! Chocolatecake5000 nearly hit the sub-5 milestone with a time of 5:02, although I’m sure this barrier is only temporary. GruntingCrunchy improved his PB by a full minute, submitting a 5:58 run.

Daily Challenges

The last of the main categories are the 2 Daily Challenge runs - Daily High Score and Daily Average. In the past 2 and a half months, community members have submitted 1  Daily High Score run above 3 million, 5 other Daily High Scores above 2 million, and 12 other Daily High Scores above 1 million. Our very own Grandmaster Kinnijup got his highest score ever on a Daily Challenge - $3,450,025. This is the highest Daily Challenge score not taking place on December 17th, 2017, and the 3rd highest Daily Score ever. With this run he improved the Daily Average World Record with a top-10 average of $3,277,147. Congratulations Kinni! Two dates were especially high-scoring: June 27th, with Chocolatecake5000’s score of $2.06 million and SuGaR335’s score of $2.02 million, and August 18th, with Meow’s score of $2.22 million and TicTacFoe’s score of $1.48 million. Congratulations to Malungo ($2.59 million) and SoM’s 16in1 ($2.34 million), as well as Sense, Suspense, Esquatre, Samcv, Tuabiht, 84BombsJetpack, The Mad Murf, BlueCadet3, Luigidude851, and MNC Mascot, who got Daily High Scores above $1 million.

Miscellaneous Categories

Moving on from the main categories, many runs were submitted in a variety of miscellaneous categories. One of the most famously difficult of these is No Gold True Pacifist Hell, which received two submissions. Challenge run master ix completed a damsel-less run in 26:03 before Kinnijup smashed the World Record, setting a new time of 14:11.363! Congratulations!

The same 2 runners also submitted to the simpler variant with gold allowed. Kinnijup’s World Record was also a True Pacifist Hell PB, while ix achieved an impressive World Record time of 12:34. It’s nice to see such challenging categories receiving competitive submissions!

2 more difficult categories received new World Records! ix set the World Record for Max Shield Run with a time of 17:55.585 - an excellent time for such a difficult category! However, ix notes that this is still one of the weaker World Records, and there is room for improvement.

Kinnijup also set the World Record for Max Eggplant% with a time of 10:38.462! He shaved over a minute off of the previous World Record, which he also held. GG Kinni!

Those of you know #17 ranked player ix know his trials and tribulations with the infamous Low% No Gold Hell run. He has been trying for a very long time to complete this run - and this summer he did! The run was full of terrifying moments, including a breathtaking last minute dodge of a flying sapphire in the ice caves. GG ix, and congratulations on your completion of this difficult category!

We had another World Record in the category of No Teleporter No Gold Any%! Kinnijup improved his posted World Record by 16 seconds, bringing the time from 2:36.015 to the blazing time of 2:20.204! The run was exciting throughout, starting off strong with a 35 second mines, a 32 second jungle, a 23 second ice caves, as well as a scary 4-1 exit and terrifying 4-2 thwomps before ending in a bang with clutch 4-3 crate paste to save an additional 5 seconds on the Olmec fight! This No Gold run is faster than any No Teleporter Any% run - even with gold - with the exception of Kinnijup’s No Teleporter Any% World Record. Congratulations Kinni!

The No Gold variants of the Max categories were also quite popular, receiving 13 submissions this summer! In addition to ix’s blazingly fast Max Any% No Gold mentioned earlier, Spef and Geordie submitted Max Any% No Gold runs without teleporters (a real game changer for the Worm) with times of 3:53 and 4:04 respectively. GG on those nice times! In addition, Shin and ix both submitted runs in the Hell% variant of Max No Gold, with times of 19:06 and 7:41 respectively. Congratulations to both of them! The Low% variant also received 2 submissions - falafel_raptor with the crazy fast time of 4:29.851 - only 13 seconds off the World Record - and Geordie, who submitted a very special run. Up until the very beginning of this summer, the difficult category of Haunted Max Low% No Gold had only one submission - falafel_raptor’s World Record. Over the course of 2 months, however, 3 more runs were completed! Firstly, ix completed his run with a time of 10:13, before Kinnijup clutched the World Record with a time of 5:36.913! Geordie then completed his run - just barely 10 seconds off the record, submitting a time of 5:46. Geordie’s single run also counted for his Max Low% No Gold, Haunted Max Any%, Haunted Max Any% No Gold, and Haunted Max Low% runs. GG all on expanding the frontiers of this category!

Haunted categories were another popular section of runs this summer, with 15 submissions. Falafel submitted a 4:36 Haunted Max Low% run, and GruntingCrunchy also submitted a Haunted Max Hell% run of 9:14 before Kinnijup set the new World Record in that category! With a time of 4:59.239, this is the first run ever under 5 minutes. Despite difficult Hell layouts, as well as not ewven having a jetpack, Kinnijup was able to reclaim the Record from Spef, who has a time of 5:18.331. GG! Both of these top tier runners submitted Haunted Max Any% No Gold runs as well! Spef submitted the killer World Record time of 4:06.695, taking the World Record from ix. This run was incredible, and was even completed without a teleporter! Spef made good use of a mattock to aid his journey through the levels. However, this record only lasted for a little over a month before Kinnijup claimed the record, with a crazy time of 3:43.485. The run featured highlights such as an … interesting … 1-2 shop robbery from below. This run was also completed without the use of a teleporter, so I look forward to seeing how fast such skilled runners would be able to go with a teleporter!

Meme Runs

The meme runs were also rather popular, with 26 submissions over 8 categories! By far the most popular this summer was Temple Shortcut% - a Low% run over 3 levels plus Olmec. Of the 10 submissions, 7 were under 1 minute, and 1 was under 50 seconds. Two runners also submitted first clears - Courgette with 2:04 and LogaSoba with 1:37. Congratulations to BlueCadet3 (59.8), GruntingCrunchy (57.3), Chocolatecake5000 (55.6), Kirby (55.5), ix (53.1), and Carlibraun (51.8). Carlibraun’s run is the 3rd fastest run, just behind Geordie’s unbelievable 48.457. This run was less than 0.3 off of Kinnijup’s World Record, and is the second ever recorded sub-50. GG all on the improvements!

RTA Categories

By far the most popular categories this summer fell under the RTA (Real Time Attack) section. All 5 of the active categories received multiple submissions, and 4 of them were of special interest. First off, the ultimate category of All Achievements received 7 submissions, a large number for such a long run. Meow claimed the first ever sub-3 hour run with a World Record time of 2:51:56.759, before ix reclaimed his favorite category with a new World Record of 2:39:12.970. Kirby then snatched the World Record by less than a minute, with a time of 2:38:26.770. GG all, and congratulations! Runs were also submitted by Samcv (4:12:00), Sawr (3:33:22), Khold (3:02:29), and TNF (3:44:40). Much of the interest in this category was due to 2 developments - a tracker developed by community member Sawr, and the introduction of a new route - an initial co-op no gold speedlunky run.

Two other RTA categories fall entirely under the umbrella of All Achievements - All Characters and All Journal Entries. In addition to submissions from AA runs (from Samcv and TNF) and community events (Kirby), there were 3 submissions to All Journal Entries - Luigidude851 with a 1:23:56, MNC Mascot with a 1:13:45, and Spef, with the killer 3rd place time of 33:06. GG on these runs!

Far and away the most-submitted category of the summer was Tutorial%! 12 different runners continuously improved their PBs for a total of 39 submitted runs. This outburst of runs was catalyzed by the introduction of new strategies, mainly by current World Record holder Spef, who submitted 9 runs slowly chipping away the time while introducing and developing new strategies before claiming the record with an unbelievable time of 1:14.673. What makes this run truly remarkable is that while the previous record used a teleporter to save seconds at the end, Spef instead relied on extremely precise Low% platforming! Congratulations to all the runners who submitted runs (HOBT0R, MNC Mascot, Samcv, and Kirby), those who submitted sub-1:19s (ix, GruntingCrunchy, TNF, and Geordie), sub-1:18s (Shin and Grooomp), and Khold with an impressive 1:16.

If Tutorial% was the most popular in terms of submissions, then All Shortcuts + Olmec was the most popular in terms of community involvement. This unique main category involves players beating the tutorial, unlocking all of the shortcuts, and beating the final boss as quickly as possible. 6 players of all skill levels submitted runs - HOBT0R with their second run, a 15 minute improvement to a final 25:03, and Samcv with their third run to a time of 25:20. Kirby also completed their first sub-20 run with a time of 19:39. TNF managed an impressive sub-19, clutching a jetpack-less triple delivery to end with a final time of 18:49. Vlad also submitted his first sub-19 with an 18:14. Grooomp got a killer 16:45, 1 of only 6 runs under the 17-minute mark, while Spef claimed the third fastest run with a killer 16:03. Much of the interest in this category was due to several community events, including versions of The Grind featuring races in this category, as well as a mini AS+O tournament this past weekend. It was recently announced that their will be another major AS+O tournament coming up, featuring players of all skill levels. If you are at all interested in this, be sure to get involved!

With that, I would like to wish a huge GG to everybody - so many awesome runs have been submitted in the past 3 months! This news was written in a slightly different format than previous news, so let me know whether or not you like it! I spent the better part of a week working on this, so I would appreciate any and all feedback. Thanks, and good luck ‘lunking!

~ GruntingCrunchy