We’ve all heard negative narratives that surround boys and video games. There are positive narratives too, like how gaming provides cognitive benefits, opportunities for socializing and stress relief, outlets for creativity and imagination, cultivation of resilience and adaptability, and career opportunities.
This article adds to the positive narratives by giving insight into the competitive world of video game speedrunning. I hope you enjoy it!
Who is SethBling?
I went to high school with a man who is known by his fans today as SethBling.
A computer science graduate and former Microsoft employee, Seth has built a following on YouTube (2 million subscribers) and on Twitch (250,000 followers) by showcasing the mind-blowing things he can do in video games — particularly in the Super Mario and Minecraft games.
Possessing immense technical prowess, Seth’s gaming feats go well beyond the activity of speedrunning. But it was his speedruns of a classic game for the Super Nintendo that brought him back on my radar nearly two decades after he and I graduated from Newport High School.
Seth currently holds or has held the world record fastest speedrun times for a few games, including Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
What is a speedrun?
To speedrun a video game means to beat the game as quickly as possible.
Websites like Speedrun.com keep track of world records for the fastest times for thousands of different titles. For any given game, there are multiple leaderboards that separately keep track of:
- The fastest times playing through the game in a conventional way.
- The fastest times beating the game by exploiting glitches in the game’s programming.
It is in the realm of glitchy gameplay that SethBling really excels.
In fact, one of Seth’s world record speedruns is so sophisticated that it involves injecting code into the game that causes it to skip from the first level directly to the end credits, thereby completing the game astoundingly fast. Seth does this using nothing but a standard controller with a standard Super Nintendo console. (Under normal circumstances, a player only reaches the credits by playing through the game from beginning to end and beating the final boss.)
YouTube introduces me to Summoning Salt
My own days of playing video games ended when I was age 15. My gaming journey finished on the Nintendo 64 and the Playstation 1. My favorite games were Ken Griffey Junior’s Slugfest, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Banjo Kazooie, and Mario Kart 64.
How did my fascination with the world of video game speedrunning come about twenty years after I stopped playing video games myself? It was similar to how my fascination with parkour began. (See our article “7 Reasons to Admire the Men of World-Famous Parkour Team STORROR”).
YouTube is the answer.
One day, the YouTube algorithm suggested a video about Mario Kart 64 that caught my eye. It was by a channel called Summoning Salt. As the video played, I witnessed a meticulous recounting of how a collection of guys in multiple countries worked together over the span of many years — unearthing ever more ingenious time-saving strategies — to achieve seemingly impossible world record times in Mario Kart 64.
“Because a speedrun is an individual performance, it may look like a solitary activity. But it couldn’t be farther from that. We all work together with the community to create new strategies, routes, and techniques. We ask for and give each other help, and we engage in friendly competition. The speedrun itself is the tip of the iceberg, with a massive community undertaking lying beneath the surface.” – SethBling
Summoning Salt’s world record history videos
The Summoning Salt YouTube channel drew me in with its videos about games I had loved playing as a kid. The nostalgia is real! These were video games that gave me endless hours of satisfaction from trying, failing, trying again, succeeding, and triumphantly declaring victory over challenges. The brilliant soundtracks were key to my enjoyment of the games too.
Summoning Salt’s documentary-style videos explain in great detail the history of one elite speedrunner after the next lowering the world record for particular games. As the history unfolds in these videos, it’s impossible to predict what new strategies players will find that shave seconds or even minutes off of the fastest possible time for beating a game. Watching the new techniques be unearthed, and then seeing how implementing them impacts other elements of the speedrun…it’s really interesting!
What is required for speedrunners to achieve these unbelievable world record times is the combination of:
- speedrunners relentlessly pursuing new techniques for beating sections of the game faster,
- speedrunners sharing with others the techniques they discover, and
- speedrunners making thousands upon thousands of attempts to master the execution of the techniques until they string together a sufficiently perfect play-through of the game to set a new fastest time.
Also, some games have randomly-generated elements that must go a particular way for getting a world record to be possible. So, luck is another thing that is sometimes necessary.
SethBling’s Super Mario elation
One of Summoning Salt’s documentaries showcases the wizardry of SethBling, my peer from high school. The video is about the lowering of the world record time for beating the beloved game Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo.
Seth and others in the speedrunning community figured out an extremely complex trick that allows a player to skip straight from the game’s first level to its end credits, thereby beating the game in under one minute! For comparison, the current fastest time for beating the game without utilizing any glitches is 10 minutes and 33 seconds. Yeah, that’s pretty quick too!
The part in Summoning Salt’s video that shows SethBling starts at 11:02. The narrator says, “SethBling was pretty excited once he got the trick to work.” Then we see Seth’s expression of shock and elation when he pulls off the trick. The viewer can’t help but smile and be happy for him.
Seth told me about that moment:
“When I finally pulled off the Credits Warp on a Super Nintendo console, I was shocked. Up until that point, no one even knew conclusively if the glitch would work on real hardware. We’d only seen it done on software emulators on PC. I’d been practicing for weeks hoping it would work. I had tried and failed dozens of times by that point, so it really felt out of the blue when the credits started playing and I realized I had actually done it.” – SethBling
Moral support from Seth’s parents and partner
When speedrunners come together for events, they often broadcast them online and raise money for charity.
SethBling was a featured speedrunner in 2022 at an event held in Minneapolis called Summer Games Done Quick. During Seth’s speedrun performance, his parents and his partner made donations and sent encouraging words to Seth. (This is seen at 11:50 and 13:15 in the video).
In the video, Seth is seen thanking his parents and his partner and responding “I love you” after their donations are announced. That prompts cheers and applause from the audience.
Considering the rejection that some receive when video games are their passion, I found it very uplifting to see Seth’s loved ones deliver those expressions of acceptance and moral support for him. Seth explained to me how important that support is:
“I’ve always felt very lucky to have the fullest of support from my family. I’ve chosen a very non-traditional career, and not all families are so accepting of that. My mom always tells me that she refreshes my channel regularly to see if I’ve put out any new videos, and they always make sure to watch and contribute when I’m doing a charity event. They’re really proud of me, which drives me to continually improve.” – SethBling
Why I’m a fan of speedrunning and speedrunners
I’ve already alluded to some reasons why I’m a fan of speedrunning and why I admire speedrunners. Here’s a list:
Creativity and problem-solving. The amount of ingenuity speedrunners demonstrate as they discover new methods for beating the game faster is extremely impressive.
Teamwork. Driving world-record times downward is a team effort that incorporates strategies discovered and shared by many speedrunners across multiple countries.
Perseverance and concentration. Breaking records can require thousands of attempts. When the fastest method for beating a game reaches a point of peak optimization, one small mistake or one bit of bad luck in an hour-long attempt will make the difference between success and failure.
Competitiveness. These guys are driven to be the best, and they put in the work to get there.
Entertainment. It’s entertaining to watch skilled speedrunners execute their gameplay so flawlessly. When a speedrunner achieves that blissful moment of setting a new world record or getting a new personal best time, it’s a pleasure to witness their joyous reaction.
Generosity and altruism. They raise millions of dollars for charity at their events!
If you know someone who likes video games, ask them if they know about speedrunning. And if you’re curious what it looks like to watch the video games you knew and loved as a kid be beaten in unthinkably fast times, search YouTube for the title of the game plus the word “speedrun” — and enjoy!
See related: ‘This book hit a nerve’: Bellevue man presents reading of Brilliant Bob is Competitive children’s book