SGDQ 2016 post mortem

SGDQ 2016 post mortem

SGDQ was quite a blast (even though I was only there for a day and a half). I met so many people and was really surprised by how many people knew me. It was pretty weird calling everyone by their Twitch/Twitter name in person, but I've been watching GDQs and other gaming events long enough that it's just part of the culture.

I came to SGDQ with some family and I think they enjoyed both the event and my run just as much as I did. It was nice seeing some trees/grass again even if I was at the hotel for most of my stay (being from Arizona I just see clear skies and dirt everywhere I go). As for the event/venue the setup was really cool. There were two practice rooms; one for pretty much everyone and a private room for just the runners. Ironically I did most of my practice in casual room because I wanted to get accustomed to playing in an environment with noise and a crowd. I think that partially helped with staying calm for the run. Plus I got to meet a lot of people!

Thinking back on it now I was pretty crazy for doing this, but me and Slurpeeninja did a co-op run of Trauma Center: New Blood just a few hours before my run. We really wanted to not only play it for fun ourselves, but also show just how awesome a co-op run of New Blood is for a potential future GDQ run. As expected of our first run, it was really clumsy and filled with mistakes but really fun. Despite all of the mistakes and lack of optimization it was still faster than my solo PB. So with some more practice we could definitely save a lot of time for this category.

As for my run I'm relatively satisfied with my own performance. I wanted to get a sub 1:30:00 but marathon luck gave me a mean Deftera/Savato. Commentary by Altabiscut, Slurpeeninja, and DarkTerrex was great. Virtually everything I was thinking of saying came out before I got a chance to speak so I able to focus more on the run. I felt unusually calm during my run to be honest. I guess the lack of an audience/low expectation helped me keep my cool. I wish I had said more during/after my run but I really couldn't think of anything to say. After I finished my run I noticed that SZSK was livetweeting and writing about my run while it was going on. I can't express how happy that made me feel. Ever since I watched his runs in 2014, I've strived to push my level of play to his. It always felt nice getting a PB then going back to his run to see where I can improve. And just like a "sensei" I'd learn the smallest things about how fast I should be suturing, where to have my cursor next, when I shouldn't use the Healing Touch, etc. I highly encourage anyone who's interested in learning any of the Trauma Center games to watch his runs. Even without commentary, the game play more than speaks for itself.

Future plans are to cleanup TC: Second Opinion Any% Hard. I'm more or less done with Any% Normal now and would just like to get a deathless Any% Hard run that I'm satisfied with. After that I might actually explore running other games like Time Crisis 3 or Link to the Past. I've also been considering playing Pitfall and Metroid Prime casually but that's up in the air.

Once more details about AGDQ 2017 come out I'll likely switch to doing TC: New Blood runs. I'm not really sure if I'll attend AGDQ 2017 but I have a lot to improve on in that game and I'd like to try beating SZSK's PB for that game. I'm still/always working on trying to be less socially awkward and SGDQ definitely helped with that. Also a quick shoutout to Vulajin and the tech crew for accommodating me to the setup I wanted with my sensor bar, chair, etc. It really helped me play at my best and didn't cramp my wrists. And lastly thanks to everyone who followed me one Twitch/Twitter and the positive response to my run. I'm really glad everyone enjoyed it.