Information & History

This is an overview of my speedrunning history over the years. I took a long break from speedrunning from May 2022 to April 2024, primarily to work on completing the Classic Mega Man series without taking damage.
Afterwards, I came back to speedrunning

2013

• Watched SGDQ 2013 and was hooked into the idea of a speedrun community, immediately joined SRL. Played a lot of Mario 64 16 star and Mega Man 2 races to get into speedrunning.
• Joined a fair amount of blind races (back when #blind would have regular full game blinds that were on the ‘list’)
• Casually learned a whole bunch of speedruns, including Mega Man 5, Mega Man 8, Dragon Warrior Monsters, Mega Man X: Command Mission
  

2014

• Started the year with a AGDQ 2014 run of Kaizou Choujin Shubibinman Zero
• Spent most of 2014 playing classic Mega Man. Played Mega Man 10 in the summer, Rockman & Forte (both characters) throughout the fall/winter. Had a brief stint with X3, decided to play R&F more though. Getting a 34 in MM10 was my main Mega Man goal & accomplishment.
• Began routing Dragon Quest IX, didn’t perform runs until 2015
  

2015

• Overall 2015 was my most active & competitive year.
• Final Fantasy VI in winter, got a sub 4 in sketch and realized it was a short stint & was not for me
• Played some Mega Man 10 Bass, a fun (uncompetitive) side category
• Finished routing and preparing Dragon Quest IX, did quite a few runs in throughout spring. Took comparatively a ton of work (long run) compared to other games I played
• After Dragon Quest IX, played Dragon Quest Monsters 2 and got the second best time (a time I’m generally happy with)
• Got the fastest time in both Rockman & Forte categories, Rockman being much more difficult to achieve
• Played Rockman & Forte (Rockman) and Mega Man X2 (4-way race) at SGDQ 2015. Although it was fun and I was content with both runs, it was very demanding preparing both games
• Learned Umihara Kawase Shun for PSX and performed a few runs
• Afterwards SGDQ 2015, I decided I wanted to take a RPG seriously, and began learning Dragon Quest III. Started doing runs in late winter 2015
  

2016

• Early parts of 2016 were dedicated primarily to Dragon Quest III, doing many runs and trying to hit goals, with the eventual goal to get a sub 3 hour time.
• Learned Mega Man Zero 2, which was the culmination of my experiences with classic and X series. Meanwhile, revisited Mega Man 8 briefly to get a time I was much more happy with.
• Played Dragon Quest III at RPG Limit Break 2016, with the marathon run I’m most proud of to date
• Soon after RPGLB 2016, I achieved my goal time of under 3 hours in Dragon Quest III, the first to do so in the west. Immediately went on hiatus (but to return, I hope)
• At SGDQ 2016, raced andy in Streemerz (a fun non-chalant race) and Mega Man Zero 2. My Z2 run was a generally rough performance and took me awhile to recover from (all other marathon runs I’ve had went well before that one)
• Learned and ran Final Fantasy Legend II, did a few runs (for the fastest time, at the time) then performed in an online marathon SaGa 2016
• Returned briefly to Umihara Kawase Shun for the PC
• In fall 2016, decided my main speedrun for awhile would be Super Mario Galaxy 2, which was a major genre shift from my previous titles. Spent most of fall/winter getting ready to do runs, which a ton of time & effort
  

2017

• Started doing speedruns of Super Mario Galaxy 2, and got a time decently was happy with but planned to return sometime after a short (turned out to be not so short) break
• Decided my PB in Mega Man Zero 2 was not at all representative of my ability to play, so I returned. It took a long time to get generally ready for runs again
• Spent much of late spring preparing for TRIPLE M, a race through 23 Mega Man games. Participated and got 2nd place
• Although sitting down and running Mega Man Zero 2 was tough, I eventually got the best time in summer 2017. As of now I know there are improvements to be made for me, but given everything about the game (difficulty/relative popularity/etc.) I decided I was happy and would move on
• In fall 2017, began learning & running Lufia II, after an extended period without taking a RPG run seriously.
• Currently figuring out what 3D Mario will be what I play into the future, given I feel finally accomplished with Mega Man (no plans to return), either returning to SMG2 or playing SMO.
  

2018

• Performed a co-op run of The Legend of the Mystical Ninja with countdown at AGDQ 2018, after a ~1.5 year break from GDQ marathons. Run went well with no major errors.
• Finally routed & ran a personal favorite game, Arc Rise Fantasia, a very long and difficult Wii JRPG
• Returned to Mega Man 8, seeking after the goal to have the fastest time and be the first person to cut 51 minutes RTA. Achieved 3/15/2018.
• Performed Mega Man 8 at SGDQ 2018 as a race with orsa.
• Decided to long term play SMO as one of my main speedgames.
• Was swept by the OoT Randomizer craze, and in particular got interested in data analytics around seed generation

2019

• Spent most of 2019 developing Final Fantasy V: Career Day, an open source, open world randomizer of FFV. I am the lead assembly programmer and am reponsible for most core development of the mod, but I worked with Caerulius who helped in many ways to contribute to early development, especially in areas I was less familiar with (website hosting, abstract Python programming)
• Played SMO Dark Side during the winter, getting an acceptable time for learning the game but putting down to pick up again later
• Spring & Summer 2019 was overall quiet for speedgaming
• In the Fall of 2019, got a motivational wave to revisit speedruns. Decided to pick up ALTTP NMG as a fun project to challenge myself like others had for sub 90. Revisits to DQIX Japanese (to long term contest the record) and SMO in the short to mid term future.
• Performed in the Ocarina of Timer Randomizer tournament at SpeedGamingLive 2019, after spending some time getting prepared. Played well during the event, but placed low in the actual tournament. It was very fun, and I finally put my foot down to properly learn how to play ZOOTR like the rest of the racers

2020 - 2022

• Most of my speedrun projects during this time were to simply push PBs at my own pace. I participated in live events less often. The speedgames I worked on the most during this time were Dragon Quest III & Dragon Quest VI

May 2022 - April 2024

• After getting a PB in Dragon Quest III of 2:55:29, I decided to go on a long hiatus from speedrunning and work on other things
• During this time I primarily worked on completing the Classic Mega Man series without taking damage

May 2024

• After a two year break, I decided to get back into speedruns again, with a more dedicated focus on trying to push categories for times as much as possible, instead of focusing on marathons or moving on to other games abruptly
• My break from the hobby was very important and gave me a lot of perspective

Other Projects

• Organized DQRTA Marathon 1 (2015) and 2 (2016), which were non-charity/monetary community showcases. I do not serve as the main organizer any longer (have relegated to other community members), but participate and generally support them
• Served RPG Limit Break staff as a NAMI & interviewing coordinator. I began during RPGLB 2017. After a short involvement being on the GDQ interviewing team (SGDQ 2016), I decided to work more closely with RPGLB. I ended my time as a staff member in 2022.
• Organized TRIPLE M - a brawl through 23 Mega Man games in a row. [Link https://sites.google.com/site/mastersmavericksmutos/]
• Organized CRC and RPG Speed Watch (individual pages on the left sidebar)