The Most CLUTCH Speedrun In HISTORY Just Happened

helloyou absolute legends something truly amazing has happened a moment in time that will go down as one of the greatest in all of speedrunning history that's the very end of January 7 of the greatest Super Mario 64 speed runners from all around the world were flown to Sweden for a three-day head-to-head competition to break the existing 120 star world record on the line was the biggest cash prize this niche has ever seen if someone bested the competition with a time better than 1 hour and 39 minutes they could take home a total of $12,500 this had all the makings of something magical but if I am being honest the possibility of someone actually pulling it off seemed too low for high hopes this was a task that each of the speedrunners had already spent months or years trying to complete in the comfort of their own home live events and marathons are notoriously difficult to perform well in the greatest speedruns usually take hundreds or thousands of attempts so allocating a few days to break a record isn't a recipe for success on top of that with the added spotlight the event brings it increases the pressure dramatically but against all odds something magical did happen on the 1st of February the speed runner known as cheese collected 120 stars and finished Super Mario 64 in a time of one hour 38 minutes and 54 seconds and he did it live in front of over 10,000 viewers it is an incredible achievement and beyond that marks an important step in the evolution of speedrunning into a more legitimate form of professional competition in this video we will cover the lead-up to this epic gaming moment we will discover why it is so special and ponder what it means for the future of speedrunning I hope you enjoy on the 30th of March 2019 a Reddit user by the name of f-bomb 2f made a post titled $4,000 n64 sm64 120 star verified world record bounty it's outlined a four thousand dollar prize for the person who held the verified record on the 31st of December 2019 this was a pretty massive deal at the time and was the largest bounty ever put up for a speedrunning record this motivated a lot of the top mario runners to grind 120 star to try and win the cash but the favorite by far was the runner cheese he already held the record at the time with a 139 19 and appeared to be fully capable and poised to take it much lower he had been on 138 pace multiple times already as early as 2018 these insane runs failing only to missed Bowser throws right at the very end he couldn't rest on his laurels though and other runners definitely had potential to snatch the record especially the run-up puncayshun who was the record holder for many years and is regarded as one of the all-time greatest players he was less than 20 seconds behind with a run set back in 2017 and a lot of things had been learned since then paving the way for a huge possible time gain but unfortunately for the other runners it seemed as though cheese had all but sealed the deal when he achieved a time of 138 51 on the 4th of August there was just one problem during a star in Jolly Roger Bay his capture card crashed dropping both audio and video signals it took over 30 seconds to get anything back on screen which as far as verification was concerned nullified the run it still appeared on the top of the speedrun.com leaderboards but it was listed as unverified aside from being a nasty eyesore on the ranks it also meant that the run was ineligible for the $4,000 bounty as it required a verified run the run was still a huge milestone for the community being the first time a run had been finished in a time of better than one hour and 39 minutes but it was disappointing to see that the run couldn't be fully acknowledged as 2019 progressed it was still seemingly more and more inevitable that cheese would win the bounty as no one else was close but a lot can happen over the course of nine months and people weren't sure if the bounty was still even up for grabs questions started to be raised about these status of the 4,000 dollar prize and it was cheese himself who broke the news that due to a worsening financial position f-bomb 2f was no longer able to put up the money so I should probably share that news but I've officially spoken one-on-one to the guy who initially created the bounty the guy f-bomb who was the one who actually created the bounty and said that he would give the four thousand dollars he said that the bounty is not a thing anymore rip the bounty is not happening it's official it's official the bounty is not happening fortunately this is not where the story ends in early December the youtuber ez scape uploaded a video announcing that he was putting up $1000 himself for a new bounty but there was more on the 5th of December the reddit user Chatham too created a reddit post stating that he would sponsor the bounty the full four thousand dollars obviously seeing as the community had just been burned people were skeptical but he did actually come through with the goods even sending a seascape a check for the full amount in advance for safekeeping but again there was more on the same day ballistics gaming created a post advising that they would sponsor the bounty for $5,000 given the source this offer seemed a lot more credible in total ten thousand dollars was put up for grabs and a new bounty was born this prize was slightly different than the previous offering though with it being available immediately all someone needed to do was get a verified 138 first and the prize would be awarded they wouldn't be getting the full $10,000 though as the prize would be split five ways 5,000 to the winner 2,000 for the person holding the second fastest time and $1,000 for the next three runner-ups this was already the largest prize for a speedrunning competition in history but again it didn't stop there on the 26th of December the European Speedrunner Assembly announced a weekend long super mario 64 competition this would take place at the end of January 2020 and would comprise of seven of the best 120 star runners the players who would be flown out to Sweden where cheese puncayshun Targo Perry kuzia Liam Kings D whatever and simply the winner would collect a cool $2,500 but this wasn't the only cash prize our for grabs if anyone beat the existing verified record which at the time was 130 905 by a puncayshun they would collect another $5,000 this meant that if a runner achieved a 138 live at the event it would mean a total cash payout of $12,500 with all of the bounties and prizes combined of course the odds of this actually happening were pretty low in the entire history of the game only a single 138 had ever been achieved we are talking about an accumulated total of tens of thousands of hours of playtime to produce one run quick enough not only that but they set up the players would be using was different than their regular rig speedrunners of classic consoles almost universally used CRT TVs this is because the conversion from analog output signal to digital which modern TVs use creates a delay in the image appearing on screen this is called input lag and describes the time it takes for a controller input to produce feedback on the TV screen the older CRTs have the lowest amount of input lag making them ideal for high precision play in break the record which was the name of the event the players would be using digital monitors thankfully they were able to minimize the input lag significantly though these days there are various technical solutions to achieve this pretty successfully still it's not as good and the players needed to adjust quickly the competition itself was exciting though and even the prospect of someone taking home $2,000 for first place was enough to attract a decently sized audience with a consistent viewership of over 10,000 spectators unlike other marathons or races where players had one shot the runners in break the record had the entirety of the day to get in as many attempts as they could by the end of the first day it was cheese who held the lead with a 139 49 this was the only run better than a 144 any competitor day one wasn't the best indicator of everyone's true potential however as players were still getting used to the new environment and the new equipment day 2 is where things started to really heat up four hours in today - cheese finish they run in one hour 39 minutes and 21 seconds while this didn't break the existing record it was remarkable because the second half of the run was the fastest ever recorded in a 120 star completion cheese was admittedly sleep deprived having barely slept the night before he was also dealing with a stomach flu but he was determined and more focused than ever four hours later chase began a new run truth be told it wasn't the most polished run Jesus fatigue was causing some costly errors by the time he had collected 66 stars and entered dire dire docks he was just barely behind the pace of the 130 921 he'd achieved hours earlier but then something magical started to happen she started playing out of his mind ten minutes later heading through the second key door into the upstairs sections he was 47 seconds ahead five minutes later he was a full minute ahead a minute is a long time but in Super Mario 64 especially in the latest stages a single mistake can wipe out that lead entirely until the run is over it can end at any time and this isn't an exaggeration keep in mind also that he was racing against the fastest finish ever recorded so he still had to play very well to maintain his advantage a mistake in tiny huge island cost 15 seconds bringing the lead down to 46 seconds the next few stages kept him more or less in line but a sloppy tick tock clock lowered the margin again to 29 seconds from here cheese could afford no more major mistakes or time losses with the lead he had been able to maintain if everything went well he would still be able to barely finish under 139 rainbow ride the final stage and one of the most anxiety-inducing here almost every conceivable mistake results in Mario's death killing the run though in this case cheese kept it together and barring a couple of minor mishaps played the level commendably well with 119 stars collected all that was left was to make it through the final Bowser stage collect 8 red coins and face off against Bowser with only several seconds to spare a missed Bowser throw a single for would eliminate any chance of 138 and on the first of February 2020 with 12,000 on lookers cheese did this all beautiful or straight into the speak there could be uh tea cycle nice oh it's fine these platforms today man getting everyone I'm speaking beautifully chunks of confidence let's go cheese yeah ice [Music] nice it's going pretty safety good he kind of had to the cycle is kind of bad they're just coming up throws all righty nice froze let's go cheese [Music] [Music] Oh what are your legends you are a legend cheese oh my god you are a legend holy holy dude my heart is beating I'm gonna stay here just be a little bit fresh enough oh dang cheese against all odds it actually happened with this run she's regained the verified 120 star world record and collected a grand prize of $12,500 truly one of the greatest moments in speedrunning history and in my opinion the most clutch speedrun we have ever seen the break the record event was by all metrics a huge success and has likely ushered in a new age of professional speedrunning the commentary it was on point the layout was superb and easy to follow and the large viewership makes the investment from future sponsors an easy decision we are probably going to see a lot more events crop up like this in the future or at least I hope we do speed running needs to be taken out of bedrooms and into the real world as much as possible if the hobby is ever going to be taken seriously live competition separates the pros from the amateurs in the comfort of your own home talent can get you pretty far but in events such as this other attributes become increasingly important confidence attitude strategy perseverance and adaptability will make or break a performance and in this realm it seems as though cheese is undoubtedly the king now speaking of cheese he's currently trying to build up his YouTube channel so please do me a favor and go and subscribe to his channel he uploads a ton of fun and interesting content again thank you for watching new legends I hope you were having a fantastic day and I will see you in the next video

Channel: Karl Jobst

Views: 1,735,206

Rating: 4.9202747 out of 5

Keywords: speedrun, karl jobst, speedrunning, super mario 64, super mario 64 speedrun, mario speedrun, cheese speedrunning, mario world record, break the record, european speedrunner assembly, super mario, nintendo 64, n64, nintendo, games done quick, gdq

Id: mZ3s7QWXwQE

Length: 14min 49sec (889 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 02 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/smexymofo]

Been following cheese the past year and a half and was floored when I saw him beat the record at Break the Record.

[u/Advokatten]

Im glad speedrunning is geting bigger, and im super glad we have some under the clg banner

[u/flamenga546]

damn didn't even know he was in clg. lots of respect to speed runners. small niche which requires lots of work and for low pay

[u/_Fizzy]

What an amazing achievement! Lets go, Cheese!

[u/Alfgross]

OH! Was about to post this one, Cheese is insane, been knocking around this time for quite some time, absolute legend.

[u/[deleted]]

The warp, Jimmy! Use the warp!

[u/mohsenj3]

Guys what does clutch mean? I randomly ended up here and it triggered me watching loads of speedruns if old games it’s awesome. But I hear clutch a lot and wanna know what it means in this case?