Connecting to SRL IRC, the easy way (TTYD races)

As you may or may not know, races that take place on SpeedRunsLive are hosted on an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) server. Over the years, many people have encountered difficulties connecting to the server and joining the proper channel. There are several ways to do this, but I'll show the simplest.

The only program you'll need to do this is Livesplit. This is nice, because it's something you probably already have downloaded if you've done speedruns in the past year and a half. If you don't have Livesplit, I'd recommend getting it even if you don't plan on doing races often; it's a pretty versatile timer.

http://livesplit.github.io/

The next step is to register a nick on SRL. Your nick is essentially your username on SpeedRunsLive.com. It's the name that goes on any recorded race that you join. To do this, go to this URL:

http://www.speedrunslive.com/channel/

Enter your chosen nick into the box labeled "Choose a nickname" and enter a password in the box labeled "Password." Then click "Connect."

Once the IRC server is displayed, you'll need to register your nick. To do so, type the following in the IRC chat:

/nickserv register [password] [e-mail]

Replace [password] with the password that you entered in the previous step, and replace [e-mail] with an e-mail address you use. The e-mail is only used to retrieve lost passwords; you won't get any random messages from SRL, Nickserv, etc.

After you've done this, you can close the SRL page entirely. All SRL races can be accessed through Livesplit, which will launch its own IRC client for you to use. To do this, open Livesplit (and open your TTYD splits if you have those. If not, a plain timer is just fine.) Right click on the timer and hover over "Races" to create a dropdown menu. I'll open the TTYD race channel approximately 15-20 minutes before the race starts, so it'll show up in the menu. Click on it, and enter your username and password in the window that appears.

Once you've done that, you should be in the TTYD race IRC channel. In the bottom right corner there will be a button to enter the race, so click on that. When you're ready, check the box above it that says "Ready." Once everyone in the race is ready, the RaceBot will start a countdown. When RaceBot says "GO!" everyone starts the game. For TTYD, you press A to confirm your file name.

It should be noted that Livesplit will automatically start your timer, so don't press your timer hotkey when the race starts. If you reset your timer at any time, Livesplit will automatically forfeit you from the race. If this is a mistake, type ".undone" in the IRC channel to un-forfeit yourself.

Once you hit your final split (or stop your timer,) Livesplit will automatically flag you as "done" in the IRC channel. For TTYD, we end the timer when the game circle-fades out to start the credits, so don't stop your timer before that. If you stop your timer on accident, again, just type ".undone" in the IRC channel.

If for some reason Livesplit didn't register that you finished the race, even though you stopped your timer, type ".done" in the channel.