The Gold Split - Week #24: The Gold Split Speed Awards
Week #24 (13 Dec): Speed Awards; Holiday Break; Mario Kart 64; YouTube Essays; Event News; TAS Movies; New World Records: Sekiro, Super Mario Sunshine, Final Fantasy IX, Tomb Raider
Happy Week #24!
‘Tis the season of award shows, Wrappeds and Rewinds. I don’t have data for the latter two, but I am able to give out a few arbitrary awards to round out this year of speedrunning. And so that’s exactly what I’ll do. Join me.
This will be the last Gold Split before the new year. I’m planning to take full advantage of the holidays, hoarding news until the first Thursday of 2025: January 2nd. I hope you’ll be able to wind down during this time, enjoy the company of your loved ones if you celebrate, and am already wishing you a Happy New Year! Thank you so much for your continued support. See you in 2025!
Contents
Up to Speed ⚡️
Frame by Frame (TAS Movies) 🔧
I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should cover, go ahead and submit them here or in the Gold Split Discord! 📨
Story of the Week ✨
After realising that anybody can give out any award for any reason, I thought: why not give it a shot? The Gold Split Speed Awards (working title) are guaranteed to be subjective and arbitrary.
Nevertheless, there are plenty of people, runs or other entities that do deserve to be mentioned here. I hope the list successfully showcases some of the high points of 2024 and makes it harder to forget them.
I consider myself to be immersed in the scene, but I definitely missed someone or something that should be featured here. Let me know!
Next year I’ll plan further ahead and we’ll have a proper ceremony with trophies and booze. Definitely. But without further ado, let’s get into the categories!
Speedrunner of the Year 🏆
There was never any doubt that this awards wouldn’t go to Suigi. The entire speedrunning community has been tripping over each other while coming up with new superlatives to describe his most recent achievement, something that has never been done before: holding all five records in all five main categories for Super Mario 64. I, too, consider it to be among the greatest achievements in speedrunning history, ever. Nobody else came close this year. 🐐
Check out the main story in Week #21 of The Gold Split, where I use fancy graphs and many more words to explain the when, how and why.
Speedrun of the Year 🏆
SummoningSalt is primarily known for their video essays on world record histories. But they’re also the best at Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, holding impressive records in five of the game’s categories. This year, they achieved a huge improvement in the isolated final fight against Mike Tyson himself. It is by far the hardest one in the game and a good time does not only depend on dodging, ducking, and hitting frame-perfect punches, but also on randomness.
In June, SummoningSalt defeated Mike Tyson in 2:00.00. This run improved the previous record by eight frames. This might not sound like much, but according to them, the luck necessary to get this time has a 1/6,000 chance of occurring. And even then, it’s still necessary to hit all 21 frame-perfect punches (each 1/60 of a second) and lose as few frames as possible while dodging and ducking.
It is as much about execution as it is about luck, and the persistence to put in tens of thousands of attempts over many years to achieve it deserves a special place here.
Glitch Discovery of the Year 🏆
I admit that there many other glitches this year that were potentially more impactful, saved more time, trivialised complicated sections, or changed speedruns entirely, but the award goes to the Disc 1 Skip in Final Fantasy VII.
While it did also have huge implications for the speedrun, prompting major route changes and saving a good chunk of time, you may argue that it had an even bigger effect on the game’s story. By skipping from the end of Midgar straight to Disc 2 the cutscene in which Aerith is killed by Sepiroth still plays, but she remains in the party and can be used throughout the rest of the run. I dare say that Aerith’s death is one of the most iconic ones in video game history. And the fact that this glitch saves Aerith and is actually useful in the speedrun at the same time makes it the winner in this category.
Video Essay of the Year 🏆
In 2024, SummoningSalt alone put out five high-quality long-form video essays, and it’s awesome to see the amount of content creators who put in so much effort to explain glitches, strategies, or the history of world records in any given game.
The award this year goes to the crazy scientist that brought you Super Mario 64’s parallel universes: pannenkoek2012
Their lecture about invisible walls in Super Mario 64 not only captivates casual players and viewers, but it’s something even the most seasoned veterans of Super Mario 64 speedrunning can still learn from. Outstanding.
Speedrunning Game of the Year 🏆
For me, Chained Together is the best game for speedrunning released in 2024. It has everything you might look for in a tense run and more. Tough execution, high stakes, no downtime, and a good Any% runtime all contribute. In addition, the game’s coop feature is hilarious and it’s been a while since I’ve seen good coop speedruns from a new game.
Non-Video-Game Speedrun of the Year 🏆
In May 2024, Baking was invented. More specifically, baking twelve chocolate chip cookies. As fast as possible. Popularised by streamer QTCinderella, it quickly gained some traction on its leaderboards, but it took a few months for the ruleset to be well defined. Too many corners were cut to get ahead of the competition. By now, the recipe no longer containes quantities, just a set of mandatory ingredients, and each cookie must be measured and tested for quality control.
Nevertheless, applying the speedrunning formula to real-life tasks is hilarious to me and something every speedrunner can probably relate to. What do you mean by you’ve never tried to speedrun your shopping?
(New) Speedrunning Event of the Year 🏆
This was a tough category and I considered not including it. In order to avoid AGDQ or SGDQ taking the top spot on metrics every single time, I felt like I had to restrict it to events that newly arrived to the scene in 2024.
Amongst those, Fast50 stands out to me. It broke with a lot of conventions, but in doing so it did an undeniably great job at bringing speedrunning to an almost entirely new audience. It successfully combined live speedruns with reaction content from popular streamers and raised $250,000+ for a good cause on top of being incredibly entertaining.
Non-Speedrun Achievement of the Year 🏆
Many feats of gaming excellence qualify for this category, but I can’t think of a better one than beating the (potentially) final milestone in a 35 year old classic: dogplayingtetris achieving Rebirth in NES Tetris.
Rebirth is considered the true end of Tetris happens when the player finishes level 255. The level counter rolls over and resets the speed and score multiplier. There are many challenges on the way there though. Starting at level 29, pieces come in at the maximum speed, and it is a long and tough battle to get all the way to 255. This is further aggravated by level 235, where the player needs to clear 810 lines to advance instead of 10 like on any other level. Additionally, after level 138, pieces start to no longer appear within the standard colour palette and are sometimes barely visible against the background. The entire run took dogplayingtetris more than 80 minutes, clearing more than 3,300 lines, most of them at ridiculous speed.
The video below does a good job at putting this insane achievement into context and expanding on some of the intricacies that led to it:
Top Dog of the Year 🏆
Shiba Inu Peanut Butter and his human JSR_ entered the big speedrunning stage with a remote speedrun of Gyromite at AGDQ 2024.
At SGDQ 2024, it was then time for the literal stage. Peanut Butter showcased the speedrun for Ken Griffey Jr. Presents MLB, putting all that training and practice to the test, demonstrating nerves of steel and absolutely knocking it out of the park. What a good dog.
Personal Quest to Perfection Award 🏆
This award solely exists because Bubzia showed up every other week whenever I did research for The Gold Split, continuously pushing for more optimisation and better times in his blindfolded Super Mario 64 speedruns.
Many thought the pinnacle was reached two years ago when he collected all 120 power stars blindfolded in 11 hours, 22 minutes and 43 seconds. But he was just getting started with optimising strategies and categories and has not stopped throughout the whole year. This would already be impressive, but is topped off by his showcase of Super Mario 64 Randomizer at SGDQ 2024, where he showed off not only execution, but also the learning and memorisation elements of his blindfolded speedruns.
Up to Speed ⚡️
🏆 Squeex wins Speedrun Streamer of the Year at The Streamer Awards (4-minute video)
The Streamer Awards are an annual event, recognising streaming excellence in various categories. The winner for each category is decided by a public vote. Other nominees for Speedrun Streamer of the Year included Suigi, Wirtual and LilAggy.
⏱️ Beck Abney improves the Mario Kart 64 (All Cups w/ skips) record (28-minute video)
This run was a rollercoaster, improving on the previous record by more than ten seconds. This is a big deal in a game and category as optimised as this one. After some tough luck early on, the runner turns it around through the use of some incredible skips. You can also find their re-watch of the run with commentary by the runner on Twitch.
🔍 The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom leaderboards open category extensions (Leaderboards)
Category Extensions are a way to legitimise more obscure or arbitrary categories on a different page than a game’s main leaderboard. The category extensions for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom include:
Low Echoes: Completing the game with a single echo
All Automatons: Obtaining all automatons
All Smoothies: Creating all 69 smoothie recipes
Blindfolded
Many more are likely to be added in the future. At the time of writing, no runs had been submitted.
Briefly
🍄 Every Goomba Glitch in Super Mario 64 (144-minute video)
🌊 Why it took 8 years to beat this Wind Waker speedrun (16-minute video)
📜 Why the full bestiary speedrun of Final Fantasy 1 (PSP) is so long (8-minute video)
Event News 📅
Surprise, Really Really Long a Thon 8 is still going strong! At the time of writing, they have already raised CA$3,420 and will be running at least until December 24th.
Because of the planned break during the holidays, I’ve included every event until the end of the year. For your choice of a wide variety of showcases, Power Up With Pride will host Fireside Pride during the upcoming weekend. Sonic fans will want to look out for Sonic Adventure Era Marathon, and Shine in the Dark is going to exclusively feature blindfolded speedruns and challenges.
I usually don’t feature events that aren’t streamed in English, but RTA in Japan is an exception for being one of the biggest and best ones. Enjoy!
🏁 Finished
No Holidays Allowed 2024 raised $521 for the Go Rescue Pet Adoption Center
Bingothon Winter 2024 raised $1,717 for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
⏱️ Running
Until Dec 24 (at least): Really Really Long a Thon 8 (Schedule), benefitting The Open Medicine Foundation
🔜 Upcoming
Starts Dec 13: Fireside Pride 2024 (Schedule), benefitting Point of Pride
Starts Dec 13: Sonic Adventure Era Marathon Winter 2024 (Schedule)
Starts Dec 14: Shine in the Dark 2024 (Schedule)
Starts Dec 21: Indie Horror Speedruns Marathon 2024 (Schedule)
Starts Dec 25: RTA in Japan Winter 2024 (Schedule), benefitting Doctors Without Borders
This Week’s Top Times 🏆
🥇 First Place
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Shura: PC, Glitchless) in 00:28:16.000 by Yeruka
Video • Twitch • YouTubeSuper Mario Sunshine (120 Shines: GCN) in 02:51:32.000 by sblectric
Video • Twitch • YouTubeNEED MORE HEAT (Good Ending...?: New Version) in 00:04:52.504 by Danny_real (She/Her)
Video • YouTubeFinal Fantasy IX (HD PC: Any% No Major Skips) in 07:20:23.000 by KeeperBK
VideoCeleste 64 (Any%) in 00:00:14.865 by Ellaquin (They/Them)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeTomb Raider (Any%: PC, Glitches) in 00:55:01.000 by TrexOfTerror (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeThe Secret Of Monkey Island (Any%: ScummVM) in 00:25:14.000 by hyperformance
Video • Twitch • YouTubeWe are Eva (Any%) in 00:09:22.731 by PurpleNinjaGrrl (She/Her)
Video
🥈 Second Place
Resident Evil (PC: Jill, Bad Ending, No Major Glitches, No Restriction) in 00:38:04.000 by LanceLM
Video • TwitchSCP Containment Breach (Set Seed Inbounds: Gate A: Ending 1) in 00:04:05.204 by vmpqnmy (She/Her)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeHello Kitty: Roller Rescue (Any%) in 00:31:08.000 by Segastar (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeLightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (Any% Normal: PC) in 01:54:34.000 by a_ki_yoshi (Any/All)
Video • Twitch
🥉 Third Place
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (MST) in 01:43:40.000 by Amateseru
Video • Twitch • YouTubeThe Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Any%) in 01:27:50.000 by Nitroz
Video • Twitch • YouTubeKirby Super Star (Any%) in 00:33:53.000 by zzzh0nki
Video
Frame by Frame 🔧
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS) in 1:02:23 by benstephens56
Video • Author Notes • Goal: All Dungeons
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (DS) in 28:13.44 by McBobX
Video • Author Notes • Goal: All Items
Crazy Taxi (GC) in 04:03.27 by SJ
Video • Author Notes • Goal: Arcade
Sonic Gems Collection: Sonic R (GC) in 04:53.83 by KusogeMan
Video • Author Notes • Goal: Any%
👋🏻 Aaand that’s it for this... year? See you on the first Thursday of the new year, January 2nd 2025. 👋🏻
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Thanks for reading.