306 Post-mortem

​Alright - my 306% run is in the bag and it had a lot of ups and downs. I went into it thinking I had at least second place in the bag, with an outside shot at WR in the category. Afterwards, I realize just how ambitious a goal that really is.  It's not that I'm not capable of hitting those times, it's just that expecting everything to go almost as well as it can for almost 5 hours is a bit unrealistic.​

DKC1 was great. I hit exactly the sort of time I wanted to - 53:45. Less than a minute off of my PB and over a minute faster than the pace I needed to be on for WR. And probably the highlight of the entire run was hitting the Perils jump roll. If there was any *one* thing I wanted to have happen in the whole run, it was hitting that trick.

The PROBLEM was, hitting that left me really excited and filled with adrenaline. That did NOT mix well with DKC2. My 102% run can be described as nothing less than an abject disaster. I did not know I was capable of playing that poorly. I basically choked away all of world 2. I was 2 minutes behind after that and never really got better. I lost a minute each in W3, 4, and 5. Hit Vine Clip and had a good Web Woods, but not even that could really save me.

Things started looking up in W6 and I was actually making up quite a bit of time. I had an almost perfect Rattly section in Toxic, hitting both Omegas and not missing a single jump that I attempted. Finishing up K. Rool I was looking at maybe a high 1:37, meaning WR would be possible with an excellent DKC3 run (2:07 or so).

Then I missed the shot into the barrel on the zip. I died thanks to RNG cat, missed the zip on the retry, and then died a bazillion times trying to finish out the level. So depressing.

At this point it really didn't matter what happened in 103%, and I ended up not even getting what I thought would be an easy PB in that game. I chalk that up to inexperience. Even though I'm capable of a 2:06 or 2:07, the fact that I've done maybe 10 full 103% runs ever really showed. I just didn't have the experience I needed for consistency to hit those times.

Now, aside from the run itself, that was actually a *very* fun stream. Major shoutouts to puwexil for the big raid right near the start of DKC3. I was pretty bummed out at that point because of how DKC2 ended, so his raid really breathed a lot of life and excitement into the run. A lot of people were there, from regulars to new faces, and the chat was mostly a lot of fun. It was great how people were celebrating my successes and whining about my failures along with me, so it was overall just a really awesome stream - one of my favorites in recent memory.  And, ultimately, isn't that what this is all really about? It's not about records or PBs - it's about hanging out with people and having fun! That's why I'm on Twitch to begin with.

So what's next? I'm going to run it back, of course! WR is stlil an outside possibility, but as I already said, that's a bit unrealistic, as it means I'd have to play very well and not have any major mistakes for almost 5 hours. However, I know that I am capable of MUCH, MUCH, better than the time I ended up with, and I'd like to go knock Techiyo out of second place. Now I know what to expect, I know how to handle the emotions of it, and I feel like I'll all around just play better. I'm planning to do this on Friday. And of course, even if I fail, we'll have another great stream and a lot of fun along the way!

Thanks for the support everyone! As I said it was a great stream, and I still managed to get a 4:50, which means I'm one of only 4 people ever to complete these three games in under 5 hours. That's pretty cool.

Tom