14 Talisman

When I was fourteen years old in June 2012, I was still hunting shiny Pokemon. I happened upon a few speedrunners who were racing Leaf Green: MexiricanBassMonkey and imNasD. I watched them regularly for about a week, when I found a shiny Slowpoke. I named it "MBM" after the streamer I was watching, who I recall distinctly being in the Safari Zone mid-run. This was my first real documented experience in the speedrunning community. Watching Pokemon streams was satisfying for a few months. But as things do, it got stale quickly.

Seeking more, I ventured out into this new site "TwitchTV" in search of something with more meaning to me, as Pokemon was not a game I "grew up" with. Early on in my childhood, before I could even remember, we had a Sony Playstation. My brother, Forwarrd1, and I grew up with the Spyro and Crash Bandicoot series, as well as a few other games like The Grinch or A Bug's Life. I was unable to find much of anything on a lot of the games I could remember (which I would go back to later on and pioneer), but I did stumble upon a flurry of livestreams all at the same time. They were playing one of my favorite games: Spyro 3. I watched eagerly as most of you do when you first find a speedrun stream. I watched the latter half of this race: http://www.speedrunslive.com/races/result/#!/25221

Inspired, I did some digging and found out about the "Spyro, Crash, and Ape Escape Leaderboards" that were set on a Google Drive spreadsheet. I saw all the times that were insanely low, and did a lot of Spyro binge-watching. Here are the times I recall existing when I found the community:
Spyro 1 - Any%
	 in 44:08 (Surreal)
Spyro 1 - 120%
	 in 1:41:49 (Surreal)
	 2nd place 1:47:xx (CrashCycle)
Spyro 2 - Any%
	 in 28:26 (SSBMstuff)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pztw5xeKwuo]
	 2nd place 29:22 (Crash41596)
	 3rd place 30:35 (BuffSeagull)
Spyro 2 - 100%
	 in 2:13:xx (Spudlyman and Cypryss back and forth)
Spyro 3 - Any%
	 in 59:54 (SSBMstuff)

I started talking a lot with SSBMstuff and Crash41596 and naturally fell into speedrunning with their guidance and support. I was not a streamer, but I was able to figure out WSplit and I did some timed runs and races of Spyro 1 Any% and Spyro 2 Any%. I quickly fell in love with Spyro 2 Any%. Before the end of 2012 when I was still some dumb fifteen year old, I took 3rd place in the category with a 30:33. From here, I set my goal to the next step up, and a time I knew I would be able to achieve: a sub 30 minute run.

It was about March or April 2013 when I got my first 29 in the category clocking in at a time of 29:45. At this time I still had never streamed or even owned a capture card. People struggled to believe that some kid would show up and get a top time in the category, as it was notorious for being one of the most difficult. There are a few people who believed in me and supported me regardless, such as SSBMstuff.

I don't remember how I got the money to buy a capture card, but I do know that Crash41596 explained to me how splitters, capture cards, amarec, xsplit, etc worked. On April 28th 2013 I streamed for the first time for 10 viewers and 60 followers. I was able to show off some skill by displaying a 30:15 speedrun. A few days later on May 3rd, I was able to achieve a 29:59 on stream. I felt very close to "proving myself" within the community. It wasn't until May 19th that I was able to show my true potential by tying my personal best in the category on stream. I was not happy with the PB itself, just the fact that I earned my spot in the community. That video still exists and can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AYBrpQ-6jY

I slowly improved my time, along with SSBMstuff who was always one step ahead of me. I remember surpassing the 29:22, and being respectfully congratulated by Crash41596. It was a long road, but I first took the world record on March 2nd 2014 with a time of 27:23, after the category had been renamed to 14 Talisman with the discovery of Gulp skip, and proxies were used in the route. The video can be found here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/46844691

SSBMstuff took his WR back very soon after. We raced the category at SGDQ 2014, and I won the race with a time of 27:29, a very good run for my standards. The video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USFndfvFVGE

SSBMstuff improved his time phenomenally throughout the following months, dropping his time to an amazing 26:00. I was dedicated to the game and I knew I had the skill to top him. On Feb 21st 2015, a long while later, I had a fantastic run through Gulp, a 22:04: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/41311125

I choked hard in Winter Tundra. I don't remember what happened. 22:04 was the fastest Gulp split thereafter for quite a long time, and was still my best until April 29th 2017, when I topped it with a 22:01. This 22:04 run also died to Winter Tundra. This run was the most disheartened I'd ever been by a video game. Ever. It threw me into a full TWO YEARS of avoiding the game altogether.

For the entirety of 2015 and 2016, I didn't do a single run of the category whatsoever. I ventured out to IWBTG fangames, flash games, Crash Bash, Super Mario Sunshine, you name it. I played it all except the game I was most fond of. In October 2016, I challenged myself to "The Neat Repeat" where I was to beat every PB that still stood from 2014 or earlier. This started with Crash Team Racing. Within the next month, I was able to accomplish roughly 25% of this challenge.

In November, I decided to start speedrunning Spyro 1 Any% again. I grinded the category out to a 40:45, and it turned out to be the run I was most proud of throughout my speedrunning career. I was inspired by this grind, and I wanted so badly to come back to Spyro. Next up for me was Spyro 3 Any%. I hit a nice time there with a 29:33. Next up was 100 Egg. I was able to PB by a fair bit landing my first ever sub 1 hour run; a 59:51. I was unable to find motivation to continue further than this.

On March 29th, it was time to switch it up. I decided to relearn 14 Talisman. It was time to come back. On my first night back, I got a 26:57. This was my first 26 and a PB by 12 seconds. I could have stopped. I checked it off my TNR checklist, and I had an opportunity right there to move on to something else. Sub 27 is a milestone, don't get me wrong. But I wanted more. I was capable of more. I set my eyes on 25:xx and pushed forward.

Over the next couple weeks, I was able to lose more runs than I am willing to admit. I made every mistake in the book, and added a couple pages to said book myself. I improved my 26:57 to 26:38 only a few days later. 19 seconds is a lot to improve by in one run. Next PB was one day later with a 26:28, another 10 seconds saved. This run failed swim in air. A full week later came the 26:22, 6 seconds saved. 12 days later on April 23rd, I got a 26:17, another 5 seconds saved.

Every day throughout the month of April 2017 was full of runs that had potential but couldn't finish. It was demotivating, but every day I pushed and pushed. I was not going to back down.

It was at this point where I prepared myself for the worst. I wrote a pastebin explaining a lot of my feelings towards the category, and explained that I was going to prepare myself for an unsatisfactory 25:5x. I have had a LOT of runs that got to or through Gulp on amazing pace. I had a 19:44 Shady Oasis followed by a 19:28 Shady Oasis. For comparison, LewisB99's best Shady Oasis time is a 19:23. And do you remember that 22:04 Gulp run? That had a 19:48 Shady Oasis. I was at my full potential but couldn't seem to close it up. I expressed a lot of distress towards close friends. This category tortured me.

But today, on April 30th 2017, it's over. I am proud of this run. Thank you for experiencing this with me.

Special shoutouts to those who supported me over this last month:
JustEllie, Forwarrd1, SSBMstuff, LewisB99, S0GGYJ0HNS0N, VSnake, SoakedSock, xOnionRings, and Mystaldi.

My personal best for 14 Talisman is 25:28. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_WXB5TAYfk