5 Levels of Speedrunning

The 5 levels of speedrunning:

Level 1:

You've probably heard about speedrunning from your drunk friend who watched Trihex talk about some fat woman ordering 16 cheeseburgers at once, and thought the idea sounded pretty cool. So you put up a timer and play through a game, and record how fast you go. You are essentially just doing a timed let's play, and completely suck ass. This is also seen when new games come out, and people play through them fast with no indication of what to actually do.

You probably have 0 resets, because you haven't figured out how to reset yet
You are too fat to do splits
You still think PB stands for peanut butter. If you figure out how to use google, you might reach...

Level 2:

You have taken the initiative to maybe try a bit before playing your game. You've looked up the video of the World Record, and are now trying to copy the strats. You still fail a lot, and are really still trying to get a grip on the game. You've started planning a bit on how to execute the speedrun though, and have a general idea of "how to go fast". This level also applies to the person first start running a game seriously, it signifies where the quest really begins from.

You probably have between 1-100 resets
You get a best split anytime nothing bad happens, it's merely an indication that it lacked failure, rather than had success
You PB any run where you don't do something incredibly dumb, like unintentionally die, probably once every 10-20 runs. Fulfillment from these PBs is probably limited, especially if so many others are ahead of you, but if you take enough out of the obvious progress you are making and remain determined you find your way to...

Level 3:

You've started to come to grips with the game, and have a decent understand of things that go on. You've now got setups for things in the game, perhaps even different setups from what others use, playing your own style. At this stage you've probably talked to others running the same game, and now collaborate strategies in order to best defeat the game. PBs are now actually satisfactory, but you still make mistakes you shouldn't, some things still happen that you don't understand, compelling you to develop better strats for the game. This is probably the most interactive, and fulfilling level overall, as you learn to master hard tricks, get involved with others playing the game, and start to feel good about your play overall

You probably have between 100-1000 resets
You get best splits when you play well and everything goes pretty smooth
You PB when you play alright varied a lot based on game, usually between every 50-200. You still know there is more to be improved upon, but are still happy with every piece of progress you make. If you wish to find out just how much you can improve you may reach...

Level 4:

You now understand your game completely, and are looking for a good run to finish with. Your movement is so solid, and so ingrained with muscle memory that very few things surprise you anymore, new strats are so rare they excite you, setups come so naturally you don't even think about them. This is grind central, you might find yourself getting rusty at the later parts of the game because you're doing the start over and over again. Burning out on this level is very common, because improvement is so slow, and psychologically draining because it still exists, you still aren't perfect but progress is so slow.

You probably have between 1000-10000 resets
You really only eve get a best split on the backend of the game, since you rarely ever get there anyway. Sometimes new strats/flawless luck will get you one too, doing it just on execution is rare
You PB on good days, rather than at a specific rate. They feel pretty good on this level about PBs, they were good runs. You know more can be improved though, and as you strive closer to greatness runs just being good means less and less, and you therefore may continue to return until you reach...

Level 5:

You have truly optimised your game, and are just waiting for the god run. You have gone over your game meticulously, you probably know more about the mechanics of the game than the people who made it do. You have literally seen it all, no mistake, no enemy pattern, no glitch or mishap surprises you because you've seen everything to see. At the halfway point of your run, you can probably calculate in your head exactly how much time you have lost to execution and to luck. And can also rattle off how much you can save in the rest of the run. You will reset over missing a trick that saves 2 frames simply because you don't want your god run to miss it, and that's all that will satisfy you now. The run to end all runs. You know it will come eventually...but it never does. Hence speedrunning never ends

You probably have over 10000 resets
You get a best split only with absolutely flawless execution and lose no time to rng, or you just split early/late
PBs are a thing to be celebrated, an actual event that is so rare you've forgotten what it feels like. However, if it isn't the god run you were hoping for, it doesn't even matter, and back to the grind you go. It never is the god run, of course, because it doesn't exist, no run is ever perfect and hence you never reach the ultimate goal and remain forever unsatisfied.