Charity Marathon Speed Runners of AGDQ 2014 Raise Over 1 Million Dollars

A lot of animosity and vinegar exists in the world of Competitive Gaming. Be the target maximizing damage, minimizing movement, or cutting that corner a little closer at every lap. But that has never been the case at AGDQ. For one week straight, twice a year, the best players of the world gather to play videos games in a little pocket, somewhere in Washington in the name of charity. This time around, it was for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.  
  
If you're not familiar with the "Awesome Games Done Quick" and the "Summer Games Done Quick" speed runners, you can find archives of their runs on various outlets, such as youtube and twitch.tv. On January 5th, everything kicked off with a wild run of the original Jak and Daxter by legendary SpeedRunner BONESAW577. The internet was in a rush when news of the epic run hit some of the most renown twitter pages and gaming news sites. But this run was quickly overshadowed by what was to come, with a jaw-dropping run of Viewtiful Joe, by tminator64. The energy in the room was already electric, when word came in that only 12 hours into the run they had raised $100,000. The runners themselves had never missed an opportunity to be optimistic, boasting early that with the rate of donations and hype of the event, they would easily make their 1 Million Dollar dream donation.       This is the third annual AGDQ, and also the most successful to date. Each year a different charity is chosen by the community, and the plans are set in motion. A majority of the runs are completed with only one player, surrounded by a massive crowd of his friends and fellow runners, watched live by tens-of-thousands of viewers on the Twitch.tv channel. But that's not all! The other runs sometimes include a blindfold, two players at a time on CoOP, two runners using one controller, or 4 players in a heated, frame for frame, nail-biting race for the finish. The types of runs vary by definition. Not all of the games are completed to a 100% cap, sometimes it's dictated by the fall of the final boss. In some special cases, like the Spore Spawner in Super Metroid, runs are considered completed when a specific objective is met. Of course this doesn't rule out exactly how these runs are completed.      In the SpeedRunning world, extremely important details come into play. Sometimes major things like Japanese Cartridges over English. Sometimes it's tiny things, like sidestepping instead of rolling because of a superstition, or the "Im pretty sure it makes a difference." But regardless of the level of bizarre that the measures can reach, it all comes down to some of the most incredible use (or abuse?) of mechanics within the game. World famous games like the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time happen to be riddled in glitches, amazing world skipping, dungeon skipping, game murdering glitches that can end the game in under 20 minutes. Other classic games such as Megaman have an extremely competitive scene, using similar wall sliding, explosion dodging, lemon dropping tactics to shave MILLISECONDS off of their record shattering times. But it's also not uncommon to hear from Level Designers or Lead Developers behind some of these games during the run! This year we got to hear from Zoid, a developer from Metroid Prime on the Nintento Gamecube. He called in via Skype to chat with everyone while watching someone behead the beautiful beast of his creation. Developers love knowing that something that they took part in is not only loved and respected, but used to raise money for a wonderful cause.      These runs aren't without their humor and fun though. An entire block of time is dedicated to players trying their best to drudge their way through some of best of the worst games ever completed. Most players are familiar with titles like Glover, but you might not know about some of the more obscure games like Prayer Warriors, or Pacman 2: The New Adventures. These can be some of the most entertaining and mind-melting experiences during the AGDQ and SGDQ (summer games done quick) marathons, as you witness your favorite runners brought to sheer frustration and uncontrollable laughter by these monstrosities.      In the end it's all worth it. Every second, every moment. Every YUMP, every jump. Every quick turn, dangerous maneuver or wicked corner, every "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU COULD HAVE LOST IT ALL" followed by a smirk and a chuckle, "It's more exciting.." Yes, yes it is CGN. (newcomer for F-Zero GX).       As of January 11th, 2014, the Marathon Runners and Record Breaking Champions of The People have raised over $1,000,000 for their cause. The stream is still happening now, and you can find more information at their website, http://gamesdonequick.com/