Speedruns

My Speedrun Got Rejected, Don’t Let it Happen to You
Guides, Speedruns

My Speedrun Got Rejected, Don’t Let it Happen to You

Your hands are shaking, and your palms are sweating as you glance over at the splits. Seven seconds ahead. This is the run. Just a few more easy hits on the True Final Boss and it's going to be a new PB (personal best). You take the final swing with your ax and kill the boss, slamming your hand onto the space bar to end the split. You nervously look over to check the final time. After weeks of grinding it's finally over. A ten-second PB, enough to climb the leader boards, enough for a new world record. You're so happy, you can't wait to upload this run for your friends and community members to see. You hit the submit run button on SpeedRun.com and eagerly wait for it to be approved. A few days later you wake up and jump online to check the status of your run. You open the website and see...
7 TAS Videos You Need to Watch
Speedruns, TAS

7 TAS Videos You Need to Watch

What TAS Means (Tool-Assisted Speedrun) To launch things off, let's do a quick overview of what makes a TAS different from a normal speedrun. A TAS run uses special tools to manipulate the game in a way that is impossible for real-time speedrunners (RTA). A TAS has access to save states and frame-by-frame advancing or rewinding. This means that the TASer (the person who creates the TAS) can choose exactly which inputs to perform on every single frame of the game and use save states to go back and correct any mistakes. In a sense, this means a TAS run could be theoretically perfect. Every known strategy and trick is implemented to perfection. In short: A TAS is a Tool-Assisted Speedrun. TAS use save states, fast-forward, rewind, and any other tools available to showcase a perfect ...
The Trackmania Playoffs – Why You Want To Check It Out!
Esports & Competitive, Speedruns, Tournaments & Races

The Trackmania Playoffs – Why You Want To Check It Out!

The regular season of the Trackmania Grand League may have just ended, but now is the best time to start watching the event. The playoffs are right around the corner, and this guide will get you up to speed on Trackmania Esports even if you haven't watched the season or played the game. This league is one of the peaks of competitive speedrunning, and you don't want to miss out on the excitement of the final stretch. What is Trackmania? Trackmania is the world's most competitive racing game. The goal of the game is simple, drive as fast as you can to the finish line on any given track. After setting a time, it's placed into the leaderboards, automatically ranking everyone against each other. Players compete for their own personal bests, challenge the in-game medal system, or...
What is an Any% Speedrun?
Guides, Speedruns

What is an Any% Speedrun?

If you're a fan of video games, and have been around the internet a few times, you've more than likely heard of speedrunning. Speedrunning is the act of completing full games, individual levels, or particular tasks within video games in the shortest amount of time possible. It's quite common for people to look up speedruns of their favorite games, or of games they have just finished playing, to see them get absolutely torn apart by the world's top players. Others may be looking up speedruns because they want to get into speedrunning themselves. If you've done this, there's a good chance you've seen the term "Any%" in a video title, but what does it mean? In this article, we'll explain exactly what Any% means. In short: Any% in speedruns means to reach the end credits of a video game as f...
Speedruns

Audio Problems in OBS – Open Broadcaster Software (Solutions)

I've come across many audio issues over my years of helping Twitch streamers and Youtubers with setup and troubleshooting. It seems that audio is the cause of most technical issues when it comes to gaming, speedrunning, or general livestreaming. When searching around for answers, you're likely to find solutions to other problems, but then you'll have to exit out and rephrase your search. To avoid that, I wanted to create a comprehensive OBS audio issue guide for easy reference -- so here it is! This guide should help with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software), OBS Studio, Streamlabs OBS, or any other streaming and recording software. The steps will just be slightly different, but the same logic will still apply. When Only Viewers Can Hear Game Audio (Solution) In OBS or Streamlabs OBS, you ...
Speedrun Meaning
Speedruns

Speedrun Meaning

What does speedrun mean? There are lots of different types of speedruns, there are opinions about what makes a speedrun good or bad, and there are even debates around how to classify speedruns. With all the complex wording, categories, and in-depth conversations surrounding speedruns, one this is certain: the meaning of speedrunning. Speedrun definition: Completing video games as quickly as possible. Speedrunning in a nutshell There are many different types of speedruns. Speedruns can be co-op, blindfolded, completionist, glitched, glitchless, one-handed, one-player using two controllers, segmented speedruns, and there are even speedruns done by robots or with pre-recorded inputs. So long as a speedrun can be categorized, it can be considered a speedrun. The only requirement for a...
How to Find the Speedrun World Record for Any Game
Guides, Speedruns, World Records

How to Find the Speedrun World Record for Any Game

Over the last few years, speedrunning has exploded into one of gaming's most popular niches. Humans (and sometimes robots) compete to complete video games of all genres, qualities, platforms, and popularities in as little time as possible while following particular rules set in place by a game's respective speedrunning community. Most games will have numerous different categories, ranging from merely completing a game to achieving 100% completion, individual-level times, runs with particular feature or glitch restrictions, or straight-up meme categories. With each speedrun category comes a world record to chase, and we'll show you where and how to find them. How To Find A Speedrun World Record To find the world record for a speedrun, go to Speedrun.com and search for any game you're c...
Quick LiveSplit Setup Guide For Speedruns (3 Minutes)
Guides, Speedruns

Quick LiveSplit Setup Guide For Speedruns (3 Minutes)

First, head to LiveSplit.org to download the timer. If you're not a Windows user, you'll need to check out the guide for other available timers here in our article Which Timer to Use For Speedrunning? To set up LiveSplit, first, download it from LiveSplit.org. Once downloaded, open it and right-click to go to "Edit Splits" and add the Game Name and Category. From here, you need to also add splits for your speedrun. Additionally, you can style LiveSplit in the "Layout Editor" and set timer hotkeys in the "Settings". LiveSplit Timer Functionality Setup In the newly-downloaded file, open LiveSplit. First, right-click the timer and head to Edit Splits. Then, in the Game Name section, start typing the name of the game. A dropdown will display the best matches from Speedrun.com so you can e...
How to Set Up LiveSplit – In-Depth Guide with Screenshots
Guides, Speedruns

How to Set Up LiveSplit – In-Depth Guide with Screenshots

Timing your speedruns is an essential part of tracking your progress. Furthermore, if you stream on Twitch or upload videos to YouTube, your viewers will enjoy seeing your pace. Bettering yourself with every run feels great and it's thrilling to watch! The timer on your phone may have sufficed as you were adjusting to the idea of splitting and timing your speedruns. However, if you’re ready to really start tracking your time, then you need to set up a more sophisticated timer. To set up LiveSplit you need to download LiveSplit, add splits, establish your hotkeys, and edit the layout. Additionally, you can capture LiveSplit with OBS to display your splits on stream or in videos. https://youtu.be/2S2MbvBr5Rs?t=128 Welcome to the ultimate LiveSplit setup guide. This 'more than you'd ...
How to Start Speedrunning – Guide, Tips, Timers, Hardware
Guides, Speedruns

How to Start Speedrunning – Guide, Tips, Timers, Hardware

At some point, in 2015, after years of watching speedruns, I found a game that I truly wanted to speedrun. I went through a lot of headaches and confusion when getting started up, so I figure I'll save you some trouble. I'll first start off covering the details on a surface level, and then if you need any extra details of how to speedrun, you can keep reading. I hope this guide works as both a quick speedrun checklist, and a thorough enough guide that you'll be able to refer back to it when you're looking into more advanced approaches. I personally believe the best way to start speedrunning is to not overthink it. As a quick guide for beginners to jump in and get started, here's the general overview of the steps you will need to take. How to Start Speedrunning Choose a game Wat...