I'm taking a break from streaming.

This is kind of ironic, considering the fact that a few days ago during a voice call, Rebag asked Cameron why he was doing runs if he was on a break, and I noted how I would never say I was taking a break, and I only ever said I'd slow down on streaming.

And yet here we are. And the title does not lie; I am indeed taking a break from streaming.

This was not a decision I made lightly, and in fact I have thought about this for several days now. But I think that right now this is the best choice for me. I was already slowing down on the amount of times I was streaming per week, but this is going to be a full on break; outside of maybe a couple of rare occasions, I do not plan on streaming at all until the break is over.

So why have I made this decision? Well, as I mentioned in my last Pastebin, I have been looking for a new job, and I had been rejected from one that I applied to and thought I had had a good interview for. For the past couple of weeks I had been implying that something else had lined itself up. This was indeed the case; I was fortunate enough to land another interview for a different company thanks to a connection I had. It all happened really quickly, I sent that connection my resume, they forwarded it to their higher ups, I was called and an interview was set.

When I went in for the interview, everything was fantastic. I loved the environment, the people were extremely friendly, and it seemed like the process went smoothly. I felt super confident about this one.

Sadly, it too ended in failure.

That one hit really hard, because I felt super excited about this job, even moreso than the one I had applied for before. I felt like everything had gone so well and it still wasn't enough.

After spending the day wallowing in sadness, and having my sister give me the text message equivalent of a slap to the face, I realized that this was a wakeup call. Finding a new job was not going to be anywhere close to easy, and it would take a lot of time and effort constantly looking for me to be successful in my search.

I realized that streaming and speedrunning, even now that I have cut back on how often I do it, eats up a lot of my time. It consumes the better part of my night, a night that can be spent continuing my job search. I love streaming, I really do. But for the sake of my personal life and my happiness, I NEED to find something that will allow me to move away from where I am, and I need to commit my time to that. And unfortunately, that means that for now, I should not be streaming.

I know that this leaves a lot of questions regarding things I had planned. I will address those now:



*The 312% run: Truth be told, I was hoping to save my 1000 follower special for AFTER I moved into a new place; it would be much easier for me to plan a 9+ hour run when I don't have to risk being interrupted. After I knew this would not happen the way I wanted it to, I actually planned on having it done this Friday. This might still be a possibility, so I will let you know if that happens. If not, I truly don't know when it will be, and if anything I may just save the 312 as a big "I HAVE RETURNED" stream for when my break ends. I am truly sorry to have promised this run and still not had it happen for over a month now; if anyone who followed me to see that happen wants to unfollow, I would completely understand.

*Speedgoals: There are still so many goals I wanted to achieve that I still have yet to. Getting back the Crash 2 NST 100% and 102% records (and pushing them down to 1:30 and 2:11, respectively), as well as returning to Crash 3 105%, were on my agenda. I also wanted to improve my All Gems time, and both my No GO and 100% times in OG Crash 2. Additionally, I wanted to get sub-1 hour in A Hat in Time, and simply just become better at Spyro 120%. Unfortunately, these will all have to go on hold. It's sad, but that's just the way things are right now. I do plan on returning to all of these when I come back, and I fully intend on being the best NST Crash 2 runner again (maybe even back to being the best NST runner overall; we'll see).

*SGDQ 2018: This is one that I thought really hard about, but I have decided that I am not submitting, nor am I going, to SGDQ. The amount of time it would take for me to prepare submissions is too much time that I could spend looking for jobs, which is much more important right now. Additionally, not only would I have to take a full week off to attend the event (which, depending on when I get a new job, I may not have, especially since I will also be attending EVO 2018 in August), I would also have to pay for airfare, as it is not super close to me like AGDQ is. Another note is the charity that SGDQ supports; Doctors Without Borders is a very noble cause that I recommend supporting, but the Prevent Cancer Foundation has a lot more personal meaning to me, and I feel like if I ever get into a GDQ, that's the charity that I truly want to do a run for. The timeframe for SGDQ is also not favorable, as it would also be around the same time as the Yu-Gi-Oh! North American Championship, as well as the 1545. I don't think I would want to juggle all of that in a single month even if I could. I know that Cameron plans on submitting Crash 1 NST to SGDQ, and I believe Dep was considering it as well, so even without me there, I know that Crash will have a fantastic showing regardless. And I encourage you all to support them.

*The 1545: Obviously, I submitted all three Crash games and Spyro 1 to the 1545 before I decided I was going to take a break. I am not going to withdraw my submission; if I get accepted into the event, then I will come out of the break to practice the games in the weeks leading up to the race (assuming I am still without a new job by then).

*Top 20 Favorite Games: I know this isn't something related to streaming, but it is also something that takes up my time, and it has been taking much longer to do than I thought. For now, I am simply going to remove a tentative release date on this. I will continue to work on it, but I truly don't know when I will finish it, especially since there are some changes I want to make to the list itself. Again, I am truly sorry to people who have been anticipating this.



Of note is that I will only be taking a break from streaming; I will still be active on Twitter and other social media, and I will still be in Twitch chats and voice calls whenever I am able to. I may also still upload things to YouTube (such as strat videos/guides for NST) if the situation arises.

Additionally, streaming is my ONLY hobby I am taking a break from; I will still continue playing Yu-Gi-Oh! and Smash, as they do not take up as much time as streaming does. I do not think it would be healthy for me to stop doing everything social, but streaming unfortunately is the one that is most time consuming, so I think it is the best one to step back from for a while.

I really wish I didn't have to do this, but I do believe it is for the best. With any luck, this break will not last long, and I will be back streaming in a matter of weeks. But for all we know, I may be gone for a while. But I promise that when I come back I will be better than ever. I'm nowhere near done with streaming or speedrunning, and I plan on being the best I can be at them.

I sincerely thank everyone that supports me and my endeavors; I never thought I would have as much fun or success streaming as I have had (even if my "success" equates to 1000 followers and a dozen or so viewers per stream, that's still way more than I thought I'd ever get).

I will be back.

~Riko