Speeding through video games to combat cancer

Every January, hundreds of skilled gamers gather to put on one of the most beloved events of the year. It’s a time of bus stop analogies, playground rumors coming to life and games being completed as fast as possible while raising millions of dollars for cancer research. This past Sunday marked the end of Awesome Games Done Quick 2023, the winter edition of the semiannual “Games Done Quick” speedrunning marathon. This year’s event brought a race through a once-lost Zelda game, a fast-footed showcase of the “Dance Dance Revolution”-inspired “StepMania” and the first Mario world record at a GDQ event in over a decade.

Games Done Quick was started in January of 2010 by then-Speed Demos Archive administrator Mike Uyama during the gaming convention MAGFest in Maryland. Originally intended for the show floor, internet issues forced Uyama and over 20 runners into his mother’s basement for two days of non-stop action. The event raised over $10,000 for the charity CARE, a humanitarian organization focused on combating poverty and world hunger, and from there it only expanded.

Instead of two days in a basement, GDQ events now take up entire hotels over the course of a week, with exceptions for the pandemic and AGDQ 2023 — which was scheduled for Florida but moved online due to the “Don’t Say Gay” law and restrictions on coronavirus requirements. Instead of around 20 runners, this past event saw over 150 gamers take part. 

However, the most notable expansion comes from the growth in donations. Last week, AGDQ 2023 raised $2,642,493 for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Over the past 13 years, the grand total raised for charity has accumulated to over $41 million.

“I think the coolest thing about GDQ is it’s one of the ways that speedrunning gets out there to the masses, and I’m grateful the way it gets out there is this cool charity event,” said Kosmic, a full-time speedrunner and YouTube creator with over 165,000 subscribers. “So common are these comments like, ‘Wow, you guys are just wasting your life…why aren’t you guys curing cancer instead of spending all this time on video games?’ and it’s like, dude, this could not be more ironic. We literally raise millions for [fighting] cancer.”

Throughout his time speedrunning, Kosmic has set 40 world records in games like “Super Mario Bros.” and “Donkey Kong 64.” Some of these records were earned by mere milliseconds. In “Super Mario Bros.,” it took years to optimize a single level, “4-2.” Kosmic believes the skill on display is what gives speedrunning its mass appeal.

“Video games are just popular in general, and so the same way that people who enjoy playing sports enjoy watching them at a high level,” Kosmic said. “It’s the same thing.”

One of the highlights of AGDQ 2023 was Tuesday’s “Super Mario Galaxy 2” Any% race, where runners competed to beat the game as fast as possible by any means necessary. Nothing was off the table, including glitches and two-player mode. After two hours, 54 minutes and 51 seconds, speedrunner Jhay got the category’s world record, a rare sight during GDQ. The prior record had been standing for nine months and was beaten by less than a minute. 

Jhay had spent the prior week practicing live on Twitch, with streams lasting nearly 12 hours and multiple runs hitting world record pace. Even still, at the start of the race, Jhay could not ignore the fact he was playing in front of 80,000 viewers.

“I was so nervous,” Jhay said. “You could probably see it in the first couple of levels… my cursor in the game was shaking a lot.” He got more comfortable throughout the run, and upon the magical moment of touching that final star, he entered a completely different state of being. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever celebrated as hard in my life,” he said. “Even in the video, at the end you can see me popping off like crazy…I was speechless”. 

The other runners also did incredible with times ranking within the top 15 all-time. For Jhay, this event was more than just about a world record for him, but an opportunity to showcase a game he loves with members of a community he loves. “Just being able to show off what I do in my game, and the Galaxy community itself was such a good experience”.

Another community that got attention this year was “Mega Man,” with a “Mega Man ZX” run on Thursday and two others on Saturday. Max, known online as OneOneTwo, is a casual speedrunner, Twitch streamer and administrator on the r/MegaMan subreddit and Discord server. 

“It’s just wonderful to see these games represented more … I feel like people, especially ‘Mega Man’ fans, sort of overestimate how popular the series is,” they said. ”Seeing people not only play [“Mega Man ZX”] more, but show why the game is so unique … it was really cool.”

One of Max’s favorite parts of GDQ is the accessibility livestream commentators bring to speedrunning during runs. 

“I think the thing GDQ does best is explaining how tricks work,” they said. “One thing I’ve noticed is that when people try to get into speedrunning games, they often don’t know where to start because they don’t understand how the mechanics and the tricks work.” 

Whether you choose to learn the mechanics or otherwise, Kosmic, Jhay and Max had the same advice for those looking to start speedrunning: just go for it.

“You’ve got nothing to lose,” Jhay said. “It might be rough at the beginning, but as long as you put in the time and you’ve got the motivation, you can do it. You can do anything. It doesn’t [take] a special person to be good at speedrunning, just someone with a lot of dedication.”