Detailed Explanation of Everything (announcement at end)

I wanna give you guys an in-depth story on my journey through speedrunning: why I started and why I quit.

--November 2014--
I was browsing videos on YouTube, and I was watching a longplay of Donkey Kong Country 2 for the SNES (because nostalgia). After I finished watching, I clicked a video on the side. It was a speedrun of DKC2 by Twig at AGDQ 2013. I was super impressed and amazed by it, and I ended up watching a TON of speedrun videos after that. I figured I'd give this a try at some point, but didn't know when.

--January 2015--
First GDQ I watched live. Some of my fvorite runs were the DKC2 race, DKC:TF run, Arkham City, SMB Lost Levels by Big Jon, and SMB3.

--March 2015--
I had gotten a Wii U for Christmas, and I had played it a bunch, including VC games. I played through SMB3, DKC1-3, SM64, etc. One day I was bored and wanted to try to see if I could do any of those tricks I saw in the DKC2 speedrun videos. I eventually found their website where they posted tutorials on some of the Wrong Warp glitches. I turned on the Wii U and decided to try CLC first, as it didn't look nearly as complicated as some of the others. After almost an hour of studying it and trying it, I did it.

I was ECSTATIC. I managed to break a game and make it go by faster. I knew at that point that if I learned the other tricks, I could maybe try to do a run of the game and see how fast I could do it. I played around with some of the other stuff, but only had some luck.

--April 2015--
First DKC2 Any% run in 1:13:02. Gross, but I knew I could beat it.

--June 2015--
I had just turned 18. My dad got me an Avermedia Live Gamer Portable capture device. I was super excited that I could finally record game footage and stream it.

I was on my old Twitch at the time (smartalec1996) and I was streaming DKC2. I was playing DKC2 102% and 2 people, djeez and crismas, came into my stream. I recognized their names from the DKC wiki, so I felt a little bit of pressure. Well, it then turned into a ton of it. They were not friendly to me. I wasn't given a "gl" or anything like that. They came into my stream and started memeing and shitposting (for lack of a better term), and a couple other viewers chimed in too, to the former 2's amusement. I cut stream.

Wait, 102%? Why? Any% was pissing me off, and I noticed that there was a 102% section on the leaderboards. Thing is, I didn't know who to watch. So, I searched on YouTube for runs, and at first I had no luck, but after I clicked "most recent", I found the video that inspired me to try it. In fact, it's still up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5bkvB0kFU4

I didn't know this guy at all, but he seemed VERY mature, while also providing an entertaining stream. I decided to learn 102%.

--July 2015--
I made a new account this month (smartalec0624), and during my time offline, I was learning and doing runs of 102%. If I got confused, I would refer to Antilles's video. Eventually I got my time down to a 1:55:31. Not great, and still had about 8 minutes to play with at the time, but I was satisfied.

I realized I wasn't following Antilles on Twitch, so I stopped by and said hi. He and some guy named MrZeratheMant were talking about 102% (which was one of the last games declined for SGDQ 2015). I mentioned I had started running it, and the conversation switched to my progress.

"Have you done runs?" Antilles
"My best is a 1:55:31 right now." - Me
"Dude!!!! Submit it to the leaderboards! We need more times on there!" - Zera

I knew on this day I had found 2 people that welcomed me into this thing called speedrunning. That day I made an account on the DKC wiki and posted my 102% time (went ahead and threw my 56 Any% time too for the lols). I already felt like I belonged, and I had just started! Reading Ant's bio, I learned he was a Christian, and since I am as well, I felt we had a good connection there.

I tried streaming an attempt of 102% later that week, but the run died halfway through, so that one was a bust. The next day I tried an offline attempt and got a 1:48:35. First thing I did was pull up Ant's stream and shared the news. He was happy I broke 1:50, and asked if I was gonna keep going. I said I would, but I wanted to see if I could try Any% again.

--August 2015--
I did a run of Any% and got a 52:2X. The biggest issue I was having was Bramble Scramble, a level that took me FOREVER to get through as a kid. The Wrong Warp for this was found 1 year prior to this, so there was finally a proper tutorial for it. After 3 hours of BS, I nailed it. It was a 2-frame clash against a bramble, then throwing it by Squawks's box, all while keeping ID's in check. I practiced this for the rest of that night, and the next day I lost a couple runs to failing it too much.

I got up the next day with a scratchy throat, but I wanted to give Any% another try. My phone went off near the start of my run, and it was a Twitter notification from Antilles. He said Twitch was blocked where he worked, but he used a 3rd party website to watch my stream. I got a run to Brambler, and my nerves kicked in. I was still on pace for sub-50, which wasn't even my goal (finish a run with Brambler in it). 2 failed attempts, but the 3rd got the trick. Ant and I both fist-pumped at the same time after I got the Wrong Warp. I took a couple parts safe later on in the run (I had no PCP strats), but I managed to get a 49:33. Ant's first time watching me and I PB'd. Pretty good first impression I'd say.

Djeez and Crismas were watching too, and while I appreciated it, I was still skeptical from the earlier interaction.

I tried 102% for a bit more, but I instead postponed it so I could learn DKC3. I put some work in with little strats and eventually got a 59:27 in Any%, and I put 103% on the list to learn after hearing about the 306% category.

--September 2015--
Started learning DKC1 All Stages and DKC3 103%. First 103% run was a 2:46, which bopped Ant's first run (sry lol), and I got a 45 in All Stages, which I was okay with at that point.

But I wanted to play 102% more. I wanted a 1:45:XX. After a race with Ant, Zera, and a guy named V0oid (who got WR like a week prior), and a guy named Dave (who was learning the category too) I knew this was needed. About a week after this race, Ant and I rematched. I was playing DKC2 all day for like 12 hours, and I ONLY got a 12 second PB. I was not happy. I deserved a much bigger improvement than that. The next day, I did 1 attempt offline, and somehow I beat my set goal again: 1:44:54.

DKC2 was on the shelf, and I put more work into 103%, eventually getting all the way down to 2:24. After I did this, I learned Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Subspace Emissary. I got the 3rd best time ever at the time, so I was satisfied.

--November 2015--
Skipping ahead, I had improved all of my times in the DKC games. DKC2 was turning 20, so we did a big anniversary race of Any% and 102%. This was easily one of my worst days ever.

I forfeited both races. Only reason I forfeited Any% was because I was running out of time before the 102% race. When we started 102%, I was already behind. I was the only one having problems in my run, and it seemed like no one cared. I wanted to quit so badly because the game was pissing me off, but they kept saying in voice "no, don't, finish for practice" etc. etc.

First off, practice? For what? Second off, I ended up quitting in Animal Antics after being 25 minutes behind my PB of 1:44:54. Yeah, not a fun day for me.

DKC1 and DKC3 were cooperating with me though, but I hit a wall with DKC2. Simply put, I was hitting my limit. But others didn't think so. I said I was done with DKC2 for good. "We'll see", Antilles said.

--January 2016--
I got a shoutout during V0oid's AGDQ 2016 run, so that was cool.

I had a 2:15 in 103%, but I started struggling to improve. Antilles and I planned to do a race of Mega Man 2 later in the month, and when we finally did, we planned a DKC2 Any% race afterwards (including Namux, Ant's friend). Ant mocked me for doing the race since I said I quit (it was friendly banter, its ok lol), but to be honest, I think he was onto something. My PB was 48:00, and that race was a 48:50 for me. My 2nd best run ever. Looks like I just needed a break.

--February 2016---
I had learned a bunch of other games along with multiple categories, but this started backfiring on me. I couldn't PB in anything for a long while. After I got a sub-2:10 in 103%, and after my first 12 Hour Challenge of Batman Arkham City, I said I would take 2 months off from speedrunning so I could play FFVII...

--March 2016--
...yeah this didn't happen. Honestly, FFVII wasn't that fun. I knew I wasn't too into JRPG's, but I wanted to play FFVII anyway. I think by turning this into a playthrough series for my YouTube channel made matters worse, but more on that later.

I had no clue what to come back to. I simply was having no luck with any games. I learned 101%, but aside from that, I was really in a hole, and it was starting to interfere with my stream and my life.

I ranted on Twitter about how I wasn't even good at what I was doing, and people cited my problem as comparison. I kept looking at top times and trying to emulate that instead of just setting my own goals.

Not sure what I dreamt that night, but I decided that the only way to get better at something is to keep doing it. I wanted to get better, so I decided I would play DKC2 again. I had gotten another PB (on accident lol) in that the previous month with a 47:11, but I wanted to beat Twig's time. He was the first person I had ever watched do a speedrun. DKC2 was one of my favorite games growing up. I looked at his run and I looked at mine.

"I can beat him."

I wrote a pastebin about my plans and on my whole speedrunning philosophy in general, and I was taken aback at how much positive reception it got. It seemed like I made the right choice, and 2 months later, I learned that I was right.

--May 2016--
I confirmed I was going to SGDQ 2016.

I just finished my second year of college and got a job at Goodwill. When I wasn't working, I was playing DKC2 Any%. His time was a 44:16, I had a 44:59. I (very slowly) kept bringing it down, and I eventually got to a 44:21.

If you watched my PB run live, you know exactly what's coming next.

I was resetting a TON. It became a "will he or won't he" moment. I was hitting Wrong Warps first try, despite my movement being unoptimal. The stars just needed to align.

And they did.

I had a run -27 seconds coming out of World 5. Arctic Abyss (which I always thought was easy, but that's a different story): I died. I started getting nervous. "I don't know if this'll do it." But Zera reminded me "you have 8 seconds on the last split". I only needed 6 seconds to cut Twig. After CLC, I started struggling to keep myself cool. After World 6, I was -9 seconds. It was enough, just needed to survive the sprint and K.Rool.

44 minutes and 9 seconds after I hit start, I had reached my goal.

I started hyperventilating. I couldn't believe I had done it. At that point, I said I was done with Any% since I finally hit a goal that was respectable. Well, I thought it was.

I remember Antilles and I were PM'ing on Twitter about my run since he had just watched it back. He said I had a lot of time left on the table still and that I should get a 43 since I was so close.

He wasn't the only one who did this. Others in the community wanted me to keep going, completely ignoring the fact I hit a goal they wanted me to get. A goal I wanted to hit. I wasn't sure if I was good enough or not.

--June 2016--
I switched to DKC3 (and played on SNES this time, since my controller on VC was giving me issues), and got down to a 52:10, my goal before SGDQ 2016.

We found out Nocturne was going to have to drop out of the SGDQ race. "Well Alec can get sub-50 and take his spot". I did not want to read this comment, but unfortunately I did. Apparently I could just get PB's out of nowhere and not have to work for it, yet the same people that believed this saw I had to for DKC2. I was starting to feel like people were trying to dictate what I was allowed to do.

I said I would DKC games after SGDQ.

--July 2016--
I got to SGDQ, and Zera gave me the biggest hug I've ever gotten (almost broke my back lol). That night I met others like BluntBunny (who had long blonde hair at the time, which I didn't know lol), Klosty, etc. I met more people through the rest of the week, and it was a great experience. I don't regret going. In fact, V0oid and I got along better in person than on stream IMO.

I stood firm by my decision to quit DKC games, and after RaikouRider and I raced 306%, I confirmed it. I was not having fun playing the games. Someone (can't remember who) said something along the lines of "I was hoping SGDQ would convince you to keep playing them, but whatever". Best thing to say to someone who says they're quitting SeemsGood

--August 2016--
The idea of a DKC2 tourney came into fruition (and was mentioned at SGDQ 2016), and everyone wanted me to do it. I REALLY didn't want to. But apparently it doesn't matter. If I run the game, I have to join. So I angrily joined, then dropped, then rejoined. And then quit one more time. I knew I was gonna lose and didn't want people to harass me for DKC-related things.

--September 2016--
I came back for 1 week to prepare to run DKC2 and 3 for an online marathon. I ran Sly 1 as well, which ended up being my next big project.

This was also the month where Supreme asked why I care so much about what I do. Supreme has been nothing but a jerk to me from the day I met him, and I have NO CLUE why. I honestly don't care at this point though.

--November 2016--
I was running a bunch of different games at this point, and I had just participated in an event called the Tiny 10, where 10 game boy games were raced back to back.

I submitted Alan Wake's American Nightmare for an online marathon later in that month.

I also had an argument with Antilles about why people wanted me to play DKC. He explained that when people say "when's [insert time]?" it's more of a confidence thing rather than a "play this, I don't care about anything else". Now, his argument was valid, but I didn't believe it from the DKC community. When you hear those 2 words, who do you think of? I think of Claude, crismas, Supreme, Kipples, Djeez, etc. These people are supposed to lead by example, but instead their self-centered personalities rub off on everyone else. If you don't have an elite time, they don't care about you. If you memeshit though, then you fit right in. Again, Ant's point is valid, but I felt this didn't apply to that community.

It became clear that I didn't belong in that community. Yet the dumbest thing ever was that I wanted to play DKC3 again. However, I KNEW people would harass me about it. Well, if anyone did, I would ban them. That was my plan.

I did a trilogy run (because why not I guess) and announced I was returning to DKC3. I improved in every category for that game, and while they still suck, I was satisfied with them. I briefly returned to 102% to try to get sub-1:40, but I quit after a couple attempts. Why?

--December 2016--
Because something happened that pissed me off. Most of this was cleared up months later, but I'm going to give my perspective on what happened.

CptBrian mentioned he wanted to do runs of DKC2 but wondered why people use a wiki instead of using speedrun.com. Instead of just giving a direct answer, Andy-Kuma felt posting a bunch of emotes that translate into a meme was more appropriate. Kanis eventually went on there and said that the wiki feels more like home in the community. True, but this also makes it seem like the DKC community purposely sets itself apart from everyone else.

Then Crismas went in that forum and basically shit all over Brian. I wasn't surprised she did that, and that was the last straw. I knew arguing with her was meaningless (her strategy to argue is to ignore what you're saying and just throw random memes/shit at you), so I instead retaliated by removing my times from the wiki. I checked the next day and saw that Morks had done the same. I was really confused at first, but then I saw what was going on on Twitter. Morks and Crismas were arguing since he kept removing "(No Balloon Jump)" from the leaderboards. THIS ISN'T EVEN FUNNY AND LITERALLY NO ONE KNOWS WHY IT'S THERE. But since everyone bows down to Claude for some bizarre reason, there's no point in me trying to change things. Anyways, Crismas didn't know how to properly articulate a point to Morks, who questioned why she banned Skyler from the leaderboards and why the whole community is so self-centered. At that point Supreme and Djeez got involved and Morks unfortunately made no progress in his argument. Can't argue with people that don't listen I guess, I don't know.

No one really questioned why I removed my times except Skyler, who informed me that he was banned from the site. He also told me Claude PM'd Skyler telling him to kill himself, but I can't confirm this to be true (I believe him though). At that point, I was 100% anti-DKC. Not the games necessarily, but the community.

--January 2017--
I was learning several new games while still doing schoolwork. I don't really remember much from this month or February, but let's skip to March.

--March 2017--
Kanis and I got into an argument when I jumped into the speedrun.com forum since CptBrian was still being harassed. I basically said that the community and their behavior is why I quit running the games and Kanis attacked me over it. At the time, I wasn't really offended at all. I still stood by what I said, so yeah.

Kanis and I later both apologized, but more on that later.

DKC Festival was going to be a thing this month (might've been February I don't remember lol). I went in there for a bit just to see what it was. I REALLY wish I didn't go in there.

All I saw was spamming copypasta from speedrun.com and other stuff. Celebration of the DKC games my ass. All it was was a group of friends getting together and memeing and shitting on everyone else outside the community for 3 days. And the people that were actually trying to have fun and do the races were virtually ignored by the memelords and "leaders" of the community.

--May 2017--
I was getting really pissed off about my whole situation. However, I realized that the more people are against me, the harder it is to succeed in what I'm trying to do. The DKC community knew about everything I said about them, but it wasn't everyone. I went into their discord and apologized to everyone. Kanis and I talked for a bit and we ended up on good terms.

I ended up dropping their discord shortly after, one because I only went in just to apologize, but also because someone immediately marked me as a DKC runner when I rejoined, and I hadn't even touched DKC in 5 months lol. I was only a bit offended, but nothing crazy.

I toyed around with doing DKC offline only, but I never committed to this.

--June 2017--
Everything I've talked about has been related to DKC. I wish it wasn't, but luckily that isn't how this ended.

Speedrunning/streaming was becoming a chore rather than a hobby. I had put 2 years into something that I never ended up being great at. Yeah I had a couple good moments, but I felt like they were overshadowed by the bad ones.

I didn't see the value in continuing, so I decided to quit. I wanted to enjoy video games again. I didn't want a timer to dictate how I played a game.

Why did I delete my Twitch and YouTube videos? Because I couldn't handle the stress I was having. It's like people didn't think I was done for good. People like Supreme told me that I just needed a break (breaks have never worked for me), and I was having none of it. I got rid of that stuff.

Later I ended up dropping out of my own discord server (pathetic, I know) and I eventually quit discord entirely. I'm currently trying to get my speedrun.com profile deleted as well, and I'm too lazy to delete my times from the DKC wiki again.

--July 2017--
And now we're here.

I've been having a lot of fun with games lately. I got NES carts of Zelda 1 and Battletoads, and I got some more PS3 games like Killzone 2 and 3, Ratchet and Clank Collection, and I got some PS4 games like Crash Trilogy and Horizon.

Speedrunning was fun at a few various points, but overall, it was very stressful for me. I needed to stop.

So, what am I doing now?

Nothing's changed in my life. I'm still in school and I still play games offline.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I didn't want to reveal this, but writing this pastebin makes me want to.

I have a new Twitch account called unelitist. It might be apparent why I chose the name lol. This will be my online alias from now on. smartalec0624 is dead.

I only have my account to follow people and watch streams. I don't plan to return to streaming. But hey, no telling what the future holds.

If you read this whole thing, congratulations! You have no life.

(for real though, thanks for taking the time to read this thing. I didn't proofread it so I hope I did okay lol)

And I think that's it! This will be linked in the description of my YouTube video I'm posting on the smartalec0624 channel (I will rename it to unelitist later). If you have any questions about anything, hit me up.

Thank you.

-Alec, now known as unelitist