So this is just me yapping about Minecraft speedrunning because I'm obsessed with it.
No that's legit it. I'm just gonna ramble because I'm incredibly hyperfixated and it's my website and I get to do what I want.So I've kind of had a casual interest in MCSR for ages, I've kept up with the world record for more or less 4 years and was a clip compilation/Couriway youtube viewer for about two years (after watching the Danny Gonzalez faking a minecraft speedrun video. thank you Danny Gonzalez). And then a little over a year ago the first Midoffs happened! I got a recommended vid about the roster and since I already knew and watched Couriway (and Rekrap) I was like "hey maybe I should watch this, it could be fun!" so I opened Twitch for the first time in ages and clicked on Couriway's stream. And then I watched his student Jumper win the tournament and had a lot of fun! So I decided to keep watching Couriway's streams and to also watch the actual high level Playoffs! Which I knew was a thing but I'd never watched one live.
On the first day of September I watched Couriway do his 7000th run and spawn next to a woodland mansion. The whole run felt so giddy and joyful and it was the most fun I'd ever had watching a stream. I also got my first ever gifted sub that day! And then Playoffs also came around at the same time, and I tuned in. But I wanted to pick someone to root for, because hey, it's more fun if you actually have a favorite to win. I decided to go with hackingnoises. Basically arbitrarily. Well, okay, I had a few reasons. Firstly, I knew he was really good. I had watched the vod for Couriway's 6k No Reset Invitational, and in that, he said Hax was one of the best mechanical players. And I knew he had performed really well in Playoffs very consistently: he'd never not podiumed, but he had also never won. Second, third, second, third, third. Also, I though he had a really nice laugh. I knew he was an underdog pick, because he'd barely played in the season. 70 matches in the last week of the season, just enough to play in the Last Chance Qualifiers to make Playoffs, and that's it. I didn't think he would actually win, but I wanted him to keep the podium streak and I thought he was fun, so I picked him.
Little did I know this choice would change my life permanently. I watched Hax win his first match 3-0. And I watched all the other round of 16 matches too, and I had so much fun. And then the second weekend came around. I was in Geneva visiting my best friend, and I was pretty busy but I made time to watch back the quarterfinal matches on Saturday as soon as I could. And I watched Hax win 3-0 again. And now that he was in the top 4 I realized that I did't want him to keep the podium streak anymore. I wanted him to win. I really really wanted him to win. So by the time the final day came on Sunday, I was all nerves. I couldn't watch Hax's semifinals match because I was helping my friend practice a presentation. But I was also so scared to look at the results. My friend looked for me and they told me Hax had won. After that, I went back to my hotel room. I watched the second semifinals match and the third place match. And then it was time for the finals. Hax versus Infume.
Man it was such an amazing match. Almost all the seeds were so close. And then, Hax was up 3-2, one win away from getting the gold. I will never forget that one seed. 7 minutes and 15 seconds. I went through every single emotion in those 7 minutes. I was jumping and pacing and curling up on the bed and then, by about two seconds, Hax won. Hax won Playoffs. And then gave the most beautiful interview in Playoffs history. Our shining star in the sky ♥. The player, who I had picked to root for for the fun of it, and gradually grew to genuinely cheer for, had just won. And it had meant so much to him that he cried in his interview and gave an incredible speech.
That day marked a turning point in my journey with Minecraft Speedrunning. I went into that Playoffs as still a pretty casual enjoyer, and came out the other side passionately invested. My journey after that has had two sides. One as a viewer, and one as a player. Because yes, after that day, I wanted to learn speedrunning too. I wanted to learn all the cool tech and actually become a speedrunner myself. But I'll talk about my viewer journey at first.
I've been watching MCSR streams pretty much daily since. I watch my favorite runners like Hax, Rowl, Mongey, Couriway, and Fulham do their regular daily streams and I watch special events like tourneys. I adore tourneys, especially Playoffs. And if Hax is playing, I always, always root for him. I don't think I could ever care about anyone else's tourney runs as much as I care about his. This Minecraft Speedrunning shit gets so serious. And hey, I'd say it has turned out pretty well for me! He ended up winning the next Playoffs too. But then I experienced my first tourney heartbreak the Playoffs after that one, where he got 3-0'd in the first round and ended his podium streak. However it was all made better when just a month after that, at the first ever MCSR Ranked World Championships, which was the first official open qual LAN event, he ended up winning again. It's been pretty fun to root for the person who has won three of the four biggest tourneys of the year :3
And there's also the friends I've made. Bee, who I liveblog with and play priv rooms with, and all my mutuals who I can go insane with. Amazing people, who I will get to meet in person in November at a smaller LAN event. There's so much more I could say but it's just become such an integral part of my life that I wouldn't even know where to begin. So I'll talk about my player journey.
I'm not good at video games. I never have been. I'd never done anything other than super casual survival worlds in Minecraft. Usually with KeepInventory on. I'd never done anything competitive, or technical. But I wanted to play ranked so badly. I started learning bastion routes and one cycling. But I was still playing like I had been before. I scrolled on my hotbar and I double tapped w to sprint. And bastions felt so hard. So I completely overhauled my playstyle. I switched to toggle sprint and set hotkeys and started hotkeying my hotbar. I bought a better mouse with side mouse buttons. I rebound things like f5 and f3. I started trying so hard. Even when I wasn't practicing bastions, when I was just playing Minecraft, I kept up these habits to get used to them. It was a long process, and I died so so much on that practice map, but I got myself used to the hotkeys. And I learned all the routes, and after that I learned everything else gradually. It was pretty on and off until about April, but around then, I started to feel confident enough in my knowledge that I wanted to try full runs. I was scared, because I knew I would suck, but sometimes you have to do things scared. And I did really suck. I kept dying over and over. And then I finally got a run. I mismeasured the stronghold, but I wanted to finish it so bad so I remeasured and kept going. And I got my first completion. 33:34. And I kept playing. And dying. And then I got my first completion. 19:34. It was so fraudulent because the seed was incredible, but it was a sub 20. For a few weeks after that, I still sucked pretty bad. I kept dying but I also kept playing. And then eventually it clicked. I stopped dying so much. I counted every single one of my completions at first. I've lost count by now. I practiced and practiced on my own, until I finally felt ready to queue up and get my rank in July. So I did. It was a wild ride, it had its ups and downs, but in the end, I got placed in Gold I. Which was everything I could've wanted. I kept playing and got to Gold II fairly easily. I kept practicing, got faster and faster times until I got my current pb of 13:10, and when the season ended two weeks ago, I was in Gold III. I'd decided I wanted to hit emerald a while ago, but I was really starting to feel like I actually could do it. So when the ranks reset and the new season started, I queued up again. I got placed in Gold III. And I felt good, so I wanted to keep playing. So I did. I queued and I played well and I won until it happened. I hit Emerald I. On Sunday, the 6th, I hit Emerald. The next day, September 7th, was the anniversary of the Playoffs finals that changed my life. In exactly one year, I had gone from being a casual fan to hitting Emerald with a 17 minute average completion time. For the first time in my life, I feel like and actually competent player in a WASD game. After hundreds of hours, I did it. I got to my goal rank.
Now it's time to keep that rank consistently ♥