Speedrunning involves putting a person’s skills and a game’s capabilities to the test through training and exploration. Beating a game as fast as humanly possible has created a thriving community centered around that idea and breathes new life into retro games and pits the latest releases to the test. Pretty much any game you find has people who have tried to play it fast, and many games have people who have dedicated themselves to being the best at playing that game fast.
The camaraderie and competition is fierce in speedrunning. There are leaderboards and races that stoke that competive flame and big events and marathons that foster the camaraderie, but there aren’t many dedicated events geared towards competition. This is where Olymspeed comes into the picture, fans of speedrunning and speedrunners themselves want to fill that void and provide a venue for runners to pit their skills directly against another in competition. Event coordinators Damien Parrello and Maud Correa aim to do just that! I had the opportunity to sit down with them and discuss their plans with them! They talked about when they’d like to have the event happen, what they need to make it happen, their inspiration behind the event, and what the community feedback is towards their idea!
With the massive success of the Games Done Quick events and other speedrunning events, an event like this could easily draw a crowd and even larger viewing audience. While GDQ events are fun, they often aren’t a runners best. They often have the pressure of talking during their run, performing before an audience, raising money for charity, and more! However place them in the mindset of competition and there would be plenty of excitement to go around! Races are always some of the most exciting showcases in speedrunning and Olymspeed wants to build on that idea and allow speedrunners to give it their all and show once and for all who’s the fastest! Structured similarly to the Olympics with events overlapping each other over the course of the event people would tune into the stream showcasing the event of their interest. Also similar to the Olympics they also would like this to become a family affair, something that everyone can sit down and enjoy, to see their favorite games featured and played at high levels of skill. This is one of the biggest differences one will see compared to a marathon where one run is featured at a time.
Olysmpeed is currently looking at Winter 2019 in Fargo, North Dakota and has a lot of things established towards making this a reality, but there’s still plenty to do. Things like sponsorship and volunteers are crucial in this. For more information listen to the interview, and reach out to Olymspeed if you feel inspired to help make this amazing idea a full reality.
NOTE: Heads up to listeners that they are from France and that English is not their first language and they have an accent that may be difficult to understand at times. I also apologize that I failed to do a proper intro and outro to the interview.
For those who may find the audio difficult to understand or prefer written:
Who are you and how did this idea come to you?
Who are we I? So, I am Damien and I am a scientist. I am working as a researcher at the University of North Dakota since February 2018 in the biomedical department. “And I am Maud. I am a Graphic/Web designer and a photograph.”
We are both huge fans of video games. Especially of open world / open world-like games, point-and-click and survivor horror games.
We discovered speedrunning pretty recently in 2017 via Twitch Communities and we were instantly amazed by those guys who could play video games with so much skills. As gamers, we understood all the work necessary to reach such a level. For anyone who played Mario 64 or Ocarina of Time during their childhood, they can only be fascinated by the regularity and the skills of a Cheese05 or a Zgf.
We were excited each time we saw an improbable glitch leading to an improbable route to finish the game. And we quickly thought that it would be just fair to find a way to pay tribute to this amazing community.
This is how, in a nutshell, the idea of Olympiads for speedrunning came out.
But why Olympiads? Why this format?
It was pretty obvious for us. If you really think about what it asks to be a great speedrunner, you will see that, like we have said on our website, it requires strength of character and will. It demands hard work, a mind of steel, huge reflexes, precision, as well as a high degree of concentration and memorization. You need to imagine those guys, alone, practicing again and again without any support at the beginning. They are on their own, leading by their passion, the desire of surpass themselves and backing the game into a corner. We understood what we felt about speedrunning. Speedrunning asks the same noble athletic skills, mind and will promoted by the Olympic Games. So we decided to build something around this feeling to highlight this community.
And the Olymspeed Games was born.
In the practice, will it be races?
Yes, exactly. According to the game and the category played, it will be single or multi-run knockout races. To participate, players will have to prove that they are able to speedrun the desire category under a Tmax published in our website. Then, an online pre-competition will be organized to select the ones who will attempt the big finals. The number of possible finalists for each game/category will be specified in our website.
So, those big finals will be a physical event?
Oh yes! Making a physical event appears to be obvious according to the feelings we want to share. Can you imagine: dozens of speedrunners speedrunning a game at the same time in front of an audience that vibrates at the rate of crazy glitches/technics successfully realized… or not! Race is one of the most entertaining format. You can feel the tension between players where hours of devoted practice converge into one single moment. It will be amazing.
And we planned to organize so many side activities during the big finals. All the games speedrunned during the event will be playable by everyone, there will be rooms describing their universe and how their associated glitches work, retro games for which the players with the highest scores done during the event will be awarded, food coming from certain video game universe, and so many other things leading to a true entertaining non-stop 3-day event.
Also, everything will be broadcast live on Twitch.
How do you select the games present at the Olymspeed Games?
We base our selection on the level of skills asked by the game and how crazy are the associated glitches to ensure a very exciting show and showcase the speedrunners the way we feel. In average, there will be two categories per games without counting the levels of difficulties: any% and 100%. Both demonstrating different facets of speedrunning.
What will be the rewards for the winners?
In the spirit of the Olympic Games, the main reward will be a medal (Gold, Silver, Bronze). Plus, of course, rewards that will depend of the sponsors.
When and where do you want to organize the first event?
Fall 2019 and it will be probably in Fargo or Grand Forks, North Dakota. Both have airports and as a scientist, I have contacts with the universities over there that propose very good premises. Plus, it’s on the middle line of the USA… everyone in the US can come (laughs). To be realistic, the location will depend on the sponsorships. We are discussing with some, right now. We should have an answer quickly.
Are the Olymspeed Games associated with a charity?
Not officially yet. However, we are in touch with two charities related to kids. Be parents a 2 years-old little girl opens new perspectives and some facts that happened right next to us broke our hearts… So if the OSG are successful enough we will clearly be involved in charities related to specific causes touching kids. As soon as everything is clarified, we will highlight our charity partners.
Last words?
We want to build something different from the existing eSport competitions. We want to create a unique atmosphere where the athletic greatness is its hearth and the competitive spirit its soul. We want to showcase the practice of speedrunning to all the fans of video games under the best traits and make it accessible and entertaining. The Olymspeed Games are more than a classical gaming competition (or other potential speedrunning contest) in their essence. Very few people are watching the sports present in the Olympics outside the Olympics. But when the time of the Olympics comes, a fever rises and passions are unleashed. This is what we want to achieve with the Olymspeed Games. We want to perpetuate the feelings of greatness and nobility of practicing an Olympic Sport through the practice of eSports (in particular speedrunning).
