Post SGDQ Novel

For a while I couldn't get started typing this, so I'm just gonna type things and then not type things and hopefully organize it. SGDQ was again a ton of fun, but in a very different way this year. Last year there was a big group of people I was quite close with, so I mostly just hung out with them the entire time. This time around a lot of that big group couldn't make it unfortunately, so I spent a lot of time hanging out with people I only sort of knew. So while I missed the people I couldn't see again, I was able to really make a lot more connections with people I'd only really talked to in streams and the like, so I think it in a weird way balanced out. I was gonna make like a play-by-play, but I think I'll just hit the high points in (I think) chronological order.

The first night was pretty quiet, one thing that stuck out was Cujo arriving and one of his beers exploding as he was unpacking. So he decided to "pour it out for the homies". The room was fairly nice, unfortunately we didn't have a fridge so much as a glorified cooler that we couldn't even really get cold... so we didn't really get a chance to swap beers like we originally planned.

I watched the opening run, bounceyboy did a very nice job, even with the early jitters. I happened to have a slice of pizza with him later that day and he said he was SUPER nervous, but he put on quite the show. The rest of day/night was spent hanging out with some of the SMW crew. Real talk had a blast meeting and hanging with all those guys and gals, they're a good group.

Had a huge game of CAH with Cujo, Kronic, lildingus, zoast, and a bunch of other SM people whose names are completely escaping me right now... Was fun if not a bit long since we had like 10 people and still decided to go to the normal 7. I think that ended up being the latest night, wasn't too bad.

We honored America by having a 5-way SMB1 144 Fireworks race on the 4th; that was crazy fun. I didn't remember much of the game itself so I think I had a couple of gameovers due to being bad, but IIRC I didn't have to go back and replay any stages due to missing the '6'. Cab actually set the "WR" since he's the first one to have a clean run without missing any fireworks. We looked into LL 144 Fireworks but there's a lot more to it, so it didn't seem as fun.

Was either Monday or Tuesday had a big practice session with Sky where we swapped SMW strats for SMB3 strats. I definitely learned that I have a lot to learn :P We were planning on getting another session in, but unfortunately we never had a chance. Also tried to line up some Zelda and/or SMB3 Rando, but again schedules just got busy. Other than a couple SMB3 runs, a terrible MMX race, a worse SMW race and some messing around in Where's Waldo and Tarchan, I didn't actually like play a ton of games, there were too many good people to watch and hang out with ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Wednesday we hit up Fogo, was very glad I could make it this time around, even if a couple people couldn't make it. The meat sweats were super real lol. I made the stupid decision of ordering turtle cheesecake; it was really good but I was about ready to pop before I even ate it, so the walk back to the hotel was a real struggle. Minneapolis had a much better selection for food spots than St. Paul, I don't think I ate anywhere more than once besides Qdoba, and that was only twice.

I think? Wednesday was one of the nights I had some drinks with the 9 1 4, was quite a good time. We learned that Yuna didn't know Ghandi was dead and that became the theme of the evening lol. Later that night met up and had a few drinks with Mitch and Poo and hung out in their room for a while. I think we sat around and talked shop and played hard Mario levels for a few hours, it was pretty nice. We didn't do a ton of SMB3 community stuff like I would have hoped, but tbh my schedule filled up pretty quickly past that day.

I had my first donation station shift on Thursday. Luckily the bulk of my shift was during the Tetris showcase, which was incredible. The set-up itself was insane, as were the runs put on by everybody. The general mood seemed like this was the last hoorah for them, and while I can understand their feelings, I hope that they come back at some point, even if it is after a bit of a break. After that was Trials Fusion which was... less impressive. Seemed like the general consensus was that the setup of the showcase didn't quite work and there were some other issues that led to it being less than stellar, but honestly if that's what most people considered the worst run, that isn't a terrible low point.

We had a fresh as HECK WtP: RTA race... well except I got bodied lol. I did OK in the first two adventures that I actually had routed, but after that I forgot what to do constantly and just played terribly. Need to take some time to be less garbage at that game. I missed the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory blind race, as well as a Sunshine race and SM64 race due to being busy and/or not knowing when it was happening, but oh well can't find time for everything.

Friday was the big day. Cujo's run went amazingly. We from the start wanted to have a lot more fun with it, since it was just a solo run this time around and we didn't have to really worry about saying how far ahead or behind one person was. The problem with just a solo 100% run though is keeping things entertaining through the autoscrollers, so we had a few things in place and they all went over really well. I've seen it pop up on a few "top runs" listing from random people, so that's really nice. Got a nice view of the SMW stuff since I was "shadowing" Sky hosting during that, the AC was great and Reze's run was DOPE. So glad that he got to show off his stuff on the big stage, and RezeNana was amazing. After that was my hosting shift. Honestly, I thought I did kinda bad but I suppose I could have done worse. People for the most part said I sounded a bit nervous at first, but got into it and did a pretty good job ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ We're all our own worse critic, so I'm sure the mistakes weren't too bad. I didn't ruin any runs so that's good. The block itself was pretty good, all the runs went pretty well, was glad I got a good block to host for.

Friday night was... a thing. Drank a little bit too much too fast and paid the price. Had a lot of fun until that point tho. Hanging with Aardee, Ryden, and Cujo was a blast.

Saturday I packed up and said goodbye to a few people, worked another donation station shift, then said goodbye to a bunch more people before having another nice dinner at the Larices. I couldn't stay too long there since I needed to get back to get to bed, but it was great seeing them again.

That's about it for things that happened, guess I can just shoutout people in no particular order. If I missed you, it definitely means that you mean nothing to me and not that I'm a big idiot who forgets things.

Cujo: Thanks so much for having me on the couch, had a ton of fun hanging with you all week. Still feel like an idiot for not finding you at the end and giving you a proper goodbye, but I'm hopeful our paths will cross again :) Next time maybe we'll having a way to get beers cold so we can compare the local offerings.

MES: Glad we could finally meet in person! Was a pleasure rooming with

Poo: So glad I got to meet you! Definitely a super fun couch, hope we get to do something again sometime. I'm thinking 4-way WtP:RTA race? Seriously tho you sell yourself short, don't ever think you're not a real speedrunner!

Mitch: Also stoked I got to meet you! Thanks for letting me scrawl my name on your NES along with actual good video game players :P Really enjoyed talking shop that first night. Also your hack looks impossible and I'm way too scrub to ever beat it :P

MrCab, XDragon, Yuna, MatchboxMatt, CTConqueror, JohnCarls, Proto and anyone else involved in the 9 1 4: Had a super good time the couple of nights I joined you guys, and from what it looks like I missed a couple more lol. Thanks for being super inviting of me from the start, I kind of latched on hoping to be "the other guy in the crew" and you guys treated me like an old friend from the start and I greatly appreciate that. From harmonizing Ghandi to rants about baritones and everything in between, you gave me lots of laughs :) Great runs Proto and JohnCarls, you guys killed! Please remember me when you're Twitch famous.

Skybilz: Was great to see you again! Thanks for all the SMW tips, hopefully the SMB3 tips were a good enough repayment! Sad we couldn't get another practice session in, but my door is always open :) I'll probably knock yours down a few times for SMW tips. Also thanks for all the help and encouragement with hosting as well, I would/could not have done that without it.

authorblues: Yo thanks for holding it down AND keeping it fresh to DEATH. WtP:RTA race was fun even though you DESTROYED me. Was a lot of fun watching you race LttP with other people as well. Really glad I got to like actually meet you this go-around. Loved all your couch commentary as well.

Terrex: Had fun meeting you, and losing a close WtP: Race! Spacefish looks like a crazy hack, might have to give it a try if I ever decided to actually go through with getting good at MM6. Also your Crash Dummies run was awesome even if you don't think so.

EBC: YO THIS GUY RIGHT HERE IS LIT FAM! Seriously tho, was great to meet you, congrats on the great KDL race, really enjoyed it. Hope we run into each other again somewhere soon.

Shasta: Nice runs man. One of the GDQs we're gonna actually be able to sit down and talk. At least I hope so :P

Edobean: Another person that really was instrumental towards my hosting gig, thanks a bunch for the recommendation and the help. We didn't get much time to talk as you were busy with a ton of stuff, but I still was happy to meet you.

Tonic, Caleb, Trogdor, and Gymfreak: Thanks for some dope runs. Really enjoyed hosting for you guys, you make some really tough speedruns look like nothing. Hopefully my hosting was adequate enough for you guys.

Spikevegeta: Was really happy to talk to you for more than 15 seconds this year :P Loved watching the DK:TF race, great speedgame and you guys put on a great show. You're a big inspiration to me and I'm so glad we got to hang out here and there.

Yen: Glad we got to meet and do a horribly sloppy race of MMX! Sounded like you enjoyed your hosting gig as well which is awesome, hope you decide to go to another GDQ some day.

Lack: Man it was an honor and a treasure meeting you in person. Watching your practice runs and having the SMB1 144 race was soooo much fun. I'm still peeved I couldn't watch your run live! But you did really well, you crushed it.

Mill: I'm so happy you could make it out! Didn't get to see much of you, but I'm happy we got to meet in person. We're gonna have to find a new game to do bad races of now tho...

LilDingus: Loved hearing your stories about waking up in other countries lmao. You are definitely one of the funniest guys around. If you ever make your way across the pond again let me know.

Mia: miaStroobs! Was good to meet you and my favorite emote! We didn't get to spend a ton of time together, but I enjoyed the time we did.

Doombacon: Glad to see you again and partake in the meat sweats this time! I'm down for making it an annual thing if SGDQ stays in MN :)

Andy: Didn't see too much of you unfortunately, but was nice to run into you again. Hope you enjoy Wisconsin, it's a great state to live in. HMU if you're ever on the west side of the state :)

Kronic: Please don't forget me now that you are the god of SMM! Sad we didn't cross paths too often, if we do both end up going to AGDQ we're definitely fixing that.

Mr. and Mrs. Larix: Thanks again for having a lovely dinner, sorry I had to essentially eat and run, if you guys are ever in the area feel free to hit me up :)

Ryden: dingus

Aardee: also dingus

Nah real talk it was great seein you guys again and getting far too intoxicated for our own good :P Next time you dinguses better be available for more than a couple days tho!


ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ IF I FORGOT YOU I'M SORRY PLS NO BULLY ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Edit: I guess I never really wrapped this up. One thing I did wanna mention was that I think the postSGDQ blues hit me very differently this time around. Last year I legit cried for like 5 minutes after leaving the hotel, but then I bounced back rather quickly. This year I didn't get like emotional, but I definitely felt off for a few days, not sure if I am completely out of the funk tbh. I think a number of things contributed to this. I left abruptly after 2015, probably because I was in a much bigger rush, whereas this year I kind of eased my way into saying goodbye to people, which probably softened the blow. Also last year my car crapped out on me, so I probably had less time to think about being away from everybody again and more about how I was going to get anywhere. Finally, I definitely wasn't sure if I would ever be even coming back to an event like that, but now that I know I'm going to try and go to as many as I can it didn't feel so much like an ending. Anyways, lots of people are asking and I'd love love love to go to AGDQ 2017. It'd be a bit more expensive, but it's something I could do if things line up. We'll see what the next few months bring I guess.

<3 Glib