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-2018 was an alright speed year for me. I pretty consistently got something every month, but not much more than that. Still got a fair amount done, added in some new games, and really enjoyed everything I worked on. 2019 looks good as well, I have a lot of games that I can see myself working on and getting good improvements in, as well as some new games lined up too.
+2019 was a pretty good speed year. Ended up working on a lot of completionist categories of the 2D Sonics, worked on some really solid Pokemon runs along with branching out to some new stuff in that area, and a decent variety of other stuff too. I'm gonna start adding the marathon runs I do to this list, as I put a fair amount of work into making them good products to watch too.
 
-Here are my PB's from 2018, listed in chronological order:
+Without further ado, here are my PB's from 2019, listed in chronological order:
 
-Pokemon Heart Gold
+Pokemon Soul Silver
-Any% in 1:59:29
+Any% Glitchless in 3:35:41 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20y3SWVJR7E
-Possibly my best run of the year right at the start. Spent a large amount of time re-routing this, and the results were fantastic. Managed to bring this time down by several minutes, which is a huge amount of a Pokemon game like this. Is always one of my favourite games to come back to, and getting it under 2 hours was a long term dream of mine, this one gave me a lot of joy
+Once again, started off with possibly my favourite speedgame out there. And perhaps the last of the genius routes that'll be put together. In what felt like a fairly sterile landscape, this route completely changed everything. Even now I still think I'm doing mental gymnastics when saying "playing Voltorb Flip for 3 minutes is faster". Love this game.
 
-Sonic Jam (Game.Com)
+Pokemon Crystal
-Sonic 2 in 4:00
+Rocky in 4:29:47 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i109QN-FqrQ
-Sonic 3 in 8:59
+And so starts the new campaign. I mentioned above that I think it might've been the last 'genius' route, and what I meant by that was that the optimisations left in the (good) Pokemon speedgames are just not going to be interesting. I've been around some greats - the double Tentacruel, the Metronome, Flash, Chain Manip, using Theif on a Lucky Egg Chansey, and finally Voltorb Flip. But I think they are exhausted. And so now where do I turn to get my fix of genius? Alt Pokemon.
-Sonic & Knuckles in 10:00
+And Rocky is the first. Beating Crystal with just the in-game traded Onix, known as Rocky. Was a huge amount of fun, and I may end up coming back to this one at one stage. But very happy this was the start. There will be more of this in the future (and even on this list), the expansion of possibilities this gives is needed for my longevity of speedrunning Pokemon games.
-Probably the memeiest run I have ever done. Sonic Game for the Game.Com is the worst Sonic Game I have ever played. It is appallingly bad. But I ran this game for Golden's 12 Hour Challenge, so  I could once again pick up a game and within 12 Hours get the record for it. It was a fun day.
+
 Sonic the Hedgehog (Game Gear)
 Any% in 15:46 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15eIHb88Nk8
-Poke Ball in 21:39
+Max Special Bonus in 22:47 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg-1C6DmTeM
-Great Ball in 26:42
+Did a fair amount of 8 bit stuff this year, and this game was probably my favourite of the bunch. Really enjoyed this one, and also really enjoyed the completionist category here too.
-Ultra Ball in 29:15
+
-Master Ball in 27:42
+
-L50 Cup in 30:05
+Gym Leader Castle Round 1 in 2:06:00 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqkqLDWEcVs
-All Cups in 1:56:54
+Potentially the most frustrating of all the runs I did this year, had so many great pace runs that died *right* at the end. I sadly had a few that were better than this one that ended up falling, but I was relieved to finally get a good improvement here.
-Complete the Game in 2:38:30
+
-I got into the final Stadium Game, the Japanese only release. Sometimes referred to as "Pokemon Stadium 0", the game overs a limited amount of Pokemon and less cups, but the general playstyle is very much the same. So as always, had a lot of fun routing out the battles and such. I very frustratingly never got a deathless complete game run, losing to the very last Pokemon because of a 1/256 miss. Genuinely one of the most bullshit things to happen to me.
+Sonic 1 (2013)
 Sonic in 12:40 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxrxUDD_4-U
-Pokemon Pearl
+Tails in 13:22 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuKpQ8rpkQs
-Any% in 57:36
+Knuckles in 16:56 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dpZ6jQJT2c
-Went back to this as my time had gotten beaten. Really grinded it out as much as I could bear, and finally got it back. It's since been beaten again, but I don't think I'll ever come back. Because it's purely a grind, there's nothing new or interesting about it. I'm happy with this time here.
+I've reached a point where I largely prefer the 2013 remakes to the originals now. Just more fun to play. Except with Knuckles, lol. But Sonic is the main draw here. I only spent 2 days doing runs, but it was really fun. Definitely will do both 2013 games more in the future.
 
-Pokemon Diamond
+
-Any% Glitchless in 3:44:03
+100% Glitchless in 2:38:00 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yHHSvKyoyA
-Pushed the limits of manip here a good deal, and was really happy I managed to get the record back here as a result. It's very tight at the top here now. When I got this time as well, it was the start of a few month period where I held the record for all Gen 4 games in all categories. I don't think this'll ever happen again, but I'm really happy I got to that point, given I think they are the best speedgames, the most creative, and ones I got into quite late in my journey.
+Ok, now this was fun. I had stayed away from this for a long time thinking it would be far to dependant on silver coins. But after actually putting some time into routing I found that wasn't the case. And that then naturally had me putting more time into routing...and man was it fun.
 
 Sonic Battle
-Gym Leader Castle Round 1 - Japanese in 1:37:18
+Cream's Story in 22:49 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3gOjORzAjM
-Amazing that I spent I think 2 days only doing runs of this? And it's my best GLC run in any game. Sad that it has like no competition so you can't tell! Got insanely lucky throughout this whole run bar like, 1 fight (The fucking Lad in the first gym of all things!)
+Just decided to come back to this for a bit of fun and improve on of the single stories.
 
 Sonic the Fighters
-Beat the Game in 10:42
+Sonic in 3'17"07 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOAsHLBEPas
-Max Jackpot Bonus in 29:28
+Tails in 4'21"04 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usSoVD0r6XQ
-Now this game, was really fucking fun. There was a few week period where it was insanely active. Before that though, there was a skip found in the Machine where you could get into the boss room, but it was random. And insanely rare. The game was short though, so whenever people would complain about it, I would just insist you should go for it. Without understanding it, I also insisted it should be consistent somehow, just control the things that matter. After weeks of people not going for it, I finally lost my patience and decided to pick up the game. I ended up finding a 100% consistent setup for that, along with a 100% consistent setup to skip the emeralds in the Machine too, as well as a really specific, but possible, setup for Toxic Caves skip too. The next few weeks were chaos as this was happening, and several runners were all churning out PBs left and right. I was more happy with my work on the game than my run itself, I managed to basically cut 50% of the time off myself. But Zaxon sits with the crown now, and I don't see myself taking it off him. I've still got Max Jackpot until he decides to play it though =)
+Times got beaten so I came back and beat them back. I didn't notice till doing this list (or maybe I just forgot), that they got beaten back since. So I guess you'll be seeing these on this list again next year, lol.
 
-Wario Land 3
+
-Any% Glitchless in 1:17:08
+Great Ball in 24:14 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfDjET_fNT0
-I'd tried to run this game many times in the past, but I just HATE the walljumps in it. They just aren't fun to perform, and are so crucial. But when I went to the leaderboards and saw there was a glitchless category now, I knew I'd found something to go for. Was a really fun project. My time actually got beaten here like a week ago, so I'll probably be going back to this soon!
+'97 Cup in 28:14 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz4pOXuVqkM
 One of my single cups got beaten so I came back to reclaim that and also attempt complete game deathless again in the meantime. I didn't achieve the latter, and it's still on my list of things I want. Will use as a side project at some point again.
-Sonic Pocket Adventure
+
-Beat the Game in 11:49
+Ys: The Vanished Omens
-This was so much fun to work on too. Really under appreciated and unexplored Sonic game. A game I hadn't touched at all before this year, and felt like I'd almost mastered by the end. Really enjoyed this, wish there were more games like this out there for me to jump on.
+Any% in 20.917s | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqrUpU2l5gI
 Ok, now this one needs a story. One day in March, I was looking through the submissions for the AusSpeedruns marathon coming up later in the year. One one game caught my eye, because the estimate was only 1 solitary minute. I'd never played the game, but I watched the run and thought man that's pretty cool, I reckon I could do that.
 Anyway, that night I got the WR. Good fun.
-Main Story Glitchless in 35:03
+
-I don't like Main Story that much, but with these categories split into glitchless as well, I figured i may as well have a dip at this, since I didn't have a time for it. Was fun, but I think you'll see me doing the other categories here in the future, but probably still focusing on glitchless again.
+
 Max Jackpot Bonus in 27:46 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-yewiYbIL4
-Sonic CD
+Did some more re-routing for my preferred category of this game. Happy with the result. Really happy with everything I've got out of this game over the past couple of years actually, have done a lot of successful glitch hunting and routing that have really brought it down.
-All Good Futures in 13:55:42
+
-Man, routing this was super enjoyable too. In the same vein as SPA, this category specifically felt really unexplored, and this game is honestly like a goldmine for strats. It's brilliant. Even since this run there's been significant improvements, could definitely see myself coming back here.
+
 Elite Four Round 2 in 4:57:01 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR0aJTe-27M
 One of, if not possibly my most bizarre PBs of all time. I *still* can't figure out if this run was good or not. It was incredible, yet also awful. And I can't explain better than that without watching it.
-Any% in 2:45:43
+
-If Heart Gold wasn't the run of the year, this one probably was. One of the most creative routes I've ever come up with, and it still makes me smile and laugh whenever I say it out loud now. Catching 2 Tentacruels, and maining them both. Faster. Unreal. The run is also incredibly hard execution wise, so it's very very satisfying for me to complete a run here. This time was good without being perfect, I could see myself coming back when this gets beaten, but not before then.
+Sonic Megamix
 Sonic in 20:03 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dllZ7TXFUis
 This is a fun romhack that I have a fair bit of history with that I really enjoy. ime got beaten so used it as an excuse to come back and have some more fun with it. Would like to get the sub 20, probably will happen one day.
-Elite Four Round 2 in 4:59:18
+
-Got the sub 5 here with some more creative routing and rough execution, once again pushing the boundaries with chain manip this time. I had better runs than this one that died to some hard bs, so I can definitely see myself coming back here at some point.
+Pokemon Alpha Sapphire
 Makit in 3:20:30 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M7y2r1hgXI
-Pokemon Adventures Red Chapter
+Now for the second Alt run - using the in-game traded Makuhita known as 'Makit' in OR/AS. What was most incredible about this run, was that I ended up actually beating my regular PB! This was only because it was several years old, but still fairly incredible that ended up happening. Based Makit.
-Any% Glitchless in 3:57:12
+
-This run won't show up on my speedrun profile, given it's just a romhack, but I figured I'd give it a go here. A game I learnt specifically for the Pokemon Speedrun Marathon, and has a huge amount of fun with. The run is far from optimised given I only ever did 2 runs (1 practice, and the marathon run), but I still really enjoyed running and routing a Pokemon game from absolute scratch again. Haven't done that in a long, long time.
+Pocket Monsters Stadium 2
 Gym Leader Castle Round 2 in 2:41:46 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HNi4Q2MI7k
-Octopath Traveler
+Mostly just training for the full game, this was still a pretty good result. Was at the time several minutes better than my English time despite the fact it has much worse rentals.
-Ophilia in 54:44
+
-Cyrus in 52:32
+Mario Tennis: Power Tour
-Alfyn in 53:57
+Any% Singles in 1:10:06 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64IniufHsb4
-Olberic in 1:07:35
+Any% Doubles in 1:06:46 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVnl2Dv9obM
-Probably the biggest deviation for me in terms of speedgames this year. It's not like a turn based RPG is exactly outside of my wheelhouse, but the game is *new*. And I've never ever run a new game before. And I never thought I would, there's just so much going against running a new game for me. That just goes to show how much I love this game. It's absolutely fucking amazing, and I just wanted to spend more time playing it. The creative process was really really fun too, was a great challenge and a rewarding one coming up with the strats here. Had a lot of fun with this.
+Felt like coming back to one of the Mario Tennis games, really do enjoy them a bit. This game has now got separate categories for difficulties, so definitely expect me to come back here some time soon. My only problem with this game was how easy it was when speedrunning because it used the easy difficulty, so definitely looking forward to running the harder ones.
 
 WarioWare: Twisted
-Gym Leader Castle Round 1 in 2:09:09
+Any% in 28:04 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb40Vu8fVhc
-This is a story that honestly should go down in history, but not many people will be able to truly appreciate it. But Zewing and I were both grinding this game out, hoping to get a new PB, because we both knew the time could go down lower. Both of us kept trying to improve the route as well, but neither of us could think of anything that worked. Then one day I finally had a new idea that worked, and worked so well, was both faster and safer. And I shit you not, as I was writing the idea into my notes, I got a message from Zewing. He'd just had the *exact* same idea. Years after working on the game, we both had the exact same idea, at almost the exact same time.
+Came back here because I was running it for AusSpeedruns. But man this was actually a fantastic run. Only 2 seconds off my Sum of Best. Really, really solid. Might be one of my most difficult PBs to beat in any game now actually.
-Weeks later, I would finally get a PB, and a several minute improvement to the record. Finally, after a long grind I'd broken through. Before that run had even finished, Zewing had started his run that would also beat the record. So after all the grinding, we ended up PBing at almost exactly the same time. His again, slightly after mine, but slightly better. Our times within 1 turn of each other. Ridiculous stuff.
+
 Pokemon Yellow
-Sonic 2 2013
+Any% Glitchless in 1:57:05 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Got2yGEVNqw
-Sonic in 17:01
+Again, came back to this because I was running it for the AusSpeedruns marathon. Happy I got a nice improvement to my PB here. Was alright, probably won't ever come back.
-Tails in 17:09
+
-Knuckles in 19:39
+Looney Tunes (GB)
-Came back here once I finally figured out a setup for 3 button spindashes (Thanks Raikou!!). The game is super fun, and again, because it's less explored then I get to be more creative and come up with new stuff. And I loved that. Can definitely see myself coming back here, especially for Sonic, at some stage. The other two probably only if they get beaten, but Knuckles is not fun in this game.
+Any% in 4:18 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdh6-60Gx1M
 I once again decided to participate in the 12 Hour Challenge, where you learn a game within 12 hours. Because I actually had a perfect game once again - one where I beleived I could get the record within those 12 hours. And I did! Has one really tough skip right near the start of the game, but otherwise alright.
 
-Complete Round 1 in 7:44:58
+Pocket Monsters Stadium 2
-Complete the Game in 19:34:28
+Complete Round 1 in 7:08:27 (Same run)
-The last game of the year, Complete the Game is my favourite, and the best category in all the Stadium games. I put a lot of work into rerouting all the battles in this game, and was really happy with my results. Even with a run that could've had better luck, I ended up saving over an hour here. It took a more more effort this time to PB though, usually it'd just be one run and I'd have a fat PB, but this time it took quite a few weeks, which given the length of the run, took a fair bit out of me. Will be hard to improve from this point too but...you can definitely see me coming back one day...
+Complete the Game in 26:47:05 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0iiSFb0SC0
 Here it is, the longest Pokemon game to beat. Over 24 hours. It's also the hardest. Has some absolutely ridiculous fights, and this run produced some beautiful moments too. Really happy I finished it, is a really significant accomplishment imo.
-Anyway, that was 2018. Did a fair few more runs than I thought I did, I guess on account of doing more games where I did more than 1 category. Hopefully 2019 can be just as productive, if not more!
+
 Knuckles Chaotix
 Best Ending in 54:29 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB4RBMEq2Dk
 Another completionist sonic run, this game has pretty cool special stages so I wanted to give this a go. Was good fun routing this one, and playing this game more I always learn a lot more about it. Found quite a few new tricks and knowledge along the way, really enjoyed this project.
 
 Pokemon Gaia
 Any% Glitchless in 3:52:01 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr6Ys0ONz10
 The romhack I picked up this year for PSR Marathon, was really really fun to play. Happy I got a fairly decent time in, but not one I think I'd return to. Romhacks are better as one off projects for Pokemon for me personally.
 
 Pokemon Platinum
 Any% in 2:43:29 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2ieAgd-t34
 Came back here after my time was beaten. Happy to get it back and a significant improvement. Always feel indebted to runs like these - after getting so much out of routing them I feel very compelled give back and get a decent time. Is a bit better now...probably still a bit left in it though.
 
 Pokemon Gold/Silver
 Any% No ACE in 32:45 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzcVZZxLIP8
 Ok, this category owns. Gen 2 glitched had a heyday where it competed for being the most interesting and fun categories across the series. Those days were destroyed by ACE, the any% runs are now very, very boring. But this category brings those days back, in a new a fun route. Picked this up because I knew it'd be a great marathon run, was really fun to get done.
 
 Sonic the Hedgehog (Master System)
 Max Special Bonus in 23:36 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIb2-sGKhs0
 After doing the GG version I felt I should try out the very similar but different SMS version. I preferred the GG one to be honest, but still decided to try my hand at Max Special Bonus, which is my preferred category. Was actually fairly brutal, just completing a run of this is REALLY hard.
 
 Sonic Triple Trouble
 Best Ending Sonic in 30:21 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abE4DHGRmm4
 Best Ending Tails in 30:03 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu4bHZYIJY0
 Another completionist 2D Sonic run(s), another game I feel is very underdone and therefore one that's very fun for me personally because there's so much stuff to discover. And that definitely happened. Both runs could definitely be better, but the discovery of new techniques in this game was what I really enjoyed. Air-roll cancel, instant blocks, full elevator skip, etc.
 
 Pokemon Stadium
 Gym Leader Castle Round 2 in 2:29:13 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11VgWKpm0u4
 Another one that frustrated me for way too long but gave a much greater sense of relief. My best run finished, completely deathless, and completely satisfied. Will not return to this category again.
 
 Sonic Megamix
 Tails in 20:53 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvwyS67mpoc
 Once again my time was beaten here, but this time there was one level in particular that I'd missed a really obvious and significant time save. So had to come back. Tails gets more and more fun the more you play him in this game, mastering his aerial controls is very rewarding.
 
 --
 
 And here are my marathon runs from 2019:
 
 AusSpeedruns Marathon:
 WarioWare: Twisted Any%: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAaqZ_WIy-E
 This run went perfectly for a marathon run. Exactly how I wanted. And I don't mean it was a perfect speedrun, because sometimes the perfect marathon run has a failure. And this is a perfect example.
 
 Pokemon Yellow Any% Glitchless: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJG02c6Omd8
 After all this time I'd still never done a RBY Glitchless run at a marathon. So I wanted to correct that. Was really happy with how it went, and glad I've now got a live, well commentated run of it. And can put it all behind me.
 
 Pokemon Speedrun Marathon:
 Pokemon Gaia Any%: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMJ7MmHrLNM
 Keeping on with my tradition of learning something very new for the PSR marathon, I kept up with finding a fun and enjoyable romhack to do. Really enjoyed this game overall, irrespective of the speedrun. But the run is really cool too, not many Poke romhacks are designed as compact as this one, like the main series games, to make them still fun to run.
 
 AusSpeedruns @ PAX:
 Pokemon Gold Any% No ACE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4sJfAlltVk
 This run is super cool for a marathon setting imo. Had some absolute classic marathon moments on stage too, god damn.
 
 --
 
 And that was 2019. Looking forward to 2020, hopefully with even more!