This month we talked with Emray, a speedrunner, gamedev, and artist with a passion for routing runs and metal music.



Before we get into the article, Emray’s hometown of Houma, Louisiana was recently devastated by Hurricane Ida. Learn how you can support relief efforts [here](https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=9005).



## Speedrunning



As a teen in the mid-aughts (before she knew about the larger speedrunning community), Emray used to run The Lion King on an SNES emulator. In 2015, she started running Banjo-Tooie and, in 2017, she joined the Pokémon community with a run of Pokémon X.



But at the time, she encountered a lot of sexism in both communities and ended up mostly leaving them when she started running Hollow Knight in September 2018. However, she maintained a leadership role in the 3DS and Nintendo Switch Pokémon communities.

Hollow Knight would quickly become her most-run game and as she became associated with the game some indie developers even reached out asking her to try early releases of their games.



Eventually, she was introduced to Shredrunners, a group of metalhead speedrunners. She promised the group that if she ever became a Twitch Partner she would make an official Shredrunners Twitch Team.



![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/1pzm6knk.jpg)

*An adorable pair of Amigurumi Emray made as a prize for SGDQ2020.*



In February 2020, she performed three runs at Frame Fatales and by May of that year, she became a Twitch Partner.



True to her word, Emray established Shredrunners as an official Twitch Team and in May 2021 they held their first “Shredathon” which was streamed via her own channel.



## Routing



Routing a speedrun can get complicated fast. In Metroidvanias and other games with nonlinear designs, the branching paths can create exponential possibilities to sort through in order to find the fastest options. To some, the prospect might be too much but for Emray, it’s the best part.



“You know how everyone has their niche in speedrunning? I'm really good at routing,” she said.



Emray has contributed to a lot of Hollow Knight categories including All Achievements, Egg%, NKG%, and Happy Couple. In fact, she pioneered every category for the Nintendo Switch version of the game.



“I went through the trouble of routing and running every one of the main Switch categories and inspired a bunch of runners to actually pick it up and now it's one of the main tab categories and there's a lot more people that run console now. That was my goal,” she said.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/2yzr64z4.jpg)

*A sample of Emray's extensive handwritten routing notes.*



When routing, she relies on pen-and-paper to get started. “I work better with paper so I'll write everything down that I need to get or locations or whatever and I'll put it together like a puzzle.”



From there it’s just a matter of trying out different possibilities, she said, “I shuffle them around until it makes sense. Then I test it out and see what needs to be fixed.”



## Metroid and Metroid Dread



Emray is also a huge Metroid fan and like so many others has been enjoying Metroid Dread since its release earlier this month.



“I just love the Metroid series. I've been playing it since I was a little kid,” she said.



Her favorite game of the series is Samus Returns. She said, “I love the way that she feels in that game. And it's just fun to control. And a lot of what they did in Samus returns translated to Dread.”



In particular, she said, “the way that she feels, the control, and a couple of quality of life things. Also the aeon abilities, the counters, the cool animations with the counters. I love that.”



But with Metroid Dread, she is doing some things differently than she normally would. Having recently experienced some severe burnout as a mod for Hollow Knight (take care of your mods, everybody!), she wants to avoid ending up with more responsibility than one person can handle.



She said, “I'm a verifier on the leaderboard so I do get to watch a lot of runs. I like to see what strats people come up with. I basically, for the first time in my life as a speedrunner, followed the community and just trusted everyone else's routing and everyone else's movement and things like that.”



And so far it seems to be going well. “It's kind of been a little bit comfy, just only having that one little responsibility instead of feeling like I'm carrying a lot more,” she said.



Right now she’s running the Any% category, but that is just temporary. “I'm running Any% until I get a sub-40. That's my goal-time for now,” she said.



## Outside of Running



In addition to speedrunning, Emray is a talented artist. She crochets stuffed toys called Amigurumi and has illustrated some incredible Pokémon art. She has also created emotes for some other streamers.



Along with fellow-speedrunner Corvimae, Emray is developing a Metroidvania game as well. She said it’s too early to reveal much, but the main character is a bird.



She said, “[Corvimae is] a programmer, and I'm an artist, and we're kind of working together on the story, and some of the ideas and the aesthetics and stuff like that.”



---



Thanks so much to Emray for talking to us. Check out her stream [here](https://www.twitch.tv/emray).



It's our pleasure to introduce you to Emray: a speedrunner with a flair for routing.

Spotlight: Emray

Hey everyone, we’ve got a second round of moderation features for the recently released comments sections. Let’s dig into the details.



## Comments Permission Levels

Game Moderators (both Super Mods & Regular Mods) can choose a setting for run comments on their game:

   - Allow comments on runs

   - Allow comments from users with a verified run (in *any* game)

   - Allow comments from users with a verified run (in *this* game)

   - Disable comments on runs for this game

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/2yzr6jz4.jpg)

These new comments permission level options can be found underneath “Edit Game” for Game Moderators only.



## Individual Run Comments Controls

   - Authors (Runners) or Game Moderators can lock comments sections, preventing new comments from being posted but leaving old ones in place

   - Authors (Runners) or Game Moderators can disable comments sections, preventing new comments from being posted and wiping existing comments

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/v5ngpxnq.jpg)

These new run specific options can be found underneath any run, so long as you are a speedrunner who contributed to the run (even co-operative speedrunners) or a Game Moderator on the associated leaderboard.

 

Please note that a generous sweep has been done from the side of the database to target the primary spammers (as well as alternative accounts), removing more than 99.5% of spammy or abusive comments.



Thank you for your patience, please don't hesitate to submit a ticket to the [Support Hub](https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub/) if you have any further concerns or feedback with anything about Speedrun.com



We’ve released a second round of moderation features for the recently released comments sections. Let’s dig into the details.

Games & Profiles - Comments Disabling, Permission Levels & Controls

Hey everyone, following up on the recent Games & Profiles update and the concerns around the comments feature we’ve incrementally released a host of bug fixes, anti-spam measures, as well as moderation and privacy features. Let’s dig into the details.



## Moderation Improvements

- Allow runners (and run submitters) to moderate comments on their runs  

- Allow runners to globally disable comments on their runs  

- Fix issue where sometimes game moderators could not moderate comments  

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/0dz46wn6.jpg)

There are now additional actions available when moderating comments:  

   - Option to remove all other comments made by that author on that run

   - Option to add the comment author to your block list

   - Added ability for moderators (and runners, on their own runs) to view deleted comments  



## Anti-Spam Measures

- Added measures to limit comment spam  

- Added measures to limit unproductive comments  

- Added measures to limit the ability for accounts created with malicious intent to post comments  

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/0wzx1rer.jpg)

These changes to comment section security target and mitigate mass spam on single runs as well as spam spanning the entire leaderboard. This type of spam should be significantly reduced, and we are exploring additional measures to combat bad actors.



## Privacy & Safety improvements

- Allow users to globally disable comments on their runs  

- Allow users to hide the "Games Followed" statistics on their profile  

- Comments cannot be posted on runs if the comment author is blocked by the runner  

 

These options can be toggled through the new Privacy settings page

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/qrz2k8z0.jpg) 

## Interface improvements

- Added a "RUNNER" badge on comments when a runner posts a comment on their own run  

- Minor comment style improvements  

- Minor leaderboard style improvements  



We want to apologize for the issues this update created when it was launched, and we hope these changes will create a more enjoyable and safe experience. We are working on additional moderation tools for comments throughout this week to foster a safer comment experience as well as implementing some design changes requested by the community.



Thank you for your patience, we’re committed to acting on your feedback.



Let's talk about comments, spam moderation, runner safety, and more.

Games & Profiles - Moderation Features, Privacy Improvements & More

Hey everyone! 



We’ve got another site update, this time we’ve got an overhaul to the game page!



## New Game Page Layout! 



The new game page layout brings a fresh new look to your favorite leaderboards, condensing the main menu and shifting it to the top right under the title — letting the leaderboard theme shine through! A dropdown menu allows for better organization of the Full Game and Individual Level (IL)  leaderboards, increasing visibility for leaderboards that contain a lot of levels & IL categories.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/97n61mzq.jpg)And for leaderboards with lots of sub-categories & filters, we’ve got you covered! Categories with more than 3 subcategories will now be placed into a tidy dropdown, and categories with a lot of filters will have extra values placed into a new section you can hover over. Oh, and if you don’t like the default sub-category and filter that gets shown, you can adjust their placement under Edit Game - Variables!

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/7rnqqwnj.jpg)

## Recent Runs

The newly added Recent Runs widget can be found on the right side, showing recently verified runs across all categories and sub-categories for the Full Game and ILs. This change allows communities to celebrate runs from speedrunners of every skill level, and track the current activity on the leaderboard!

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/67e9x1e1.jpg)

## Run Comments



In the spirit of increasing the social aspect of Speedrun.com beyond just forums, we’ve now created a comments section for runs! There were a fair few people who have been asking for this feature for quite some time now, and now you can celebrate runs with your friends and favorite runners in the run comments section!

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/3ynl5me6.jpg)

## Game Page News



As teased in the last update, Game Page News is now live! Moderators are now able to update their community right here on SRC without sticking to forums. 

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/r7z3rlzd.jpg)

You can opt-in to receive notifications from their favorite speedgames on the latest updates from its moderation team! Aside from optional notifications, recent news will appear in the right-hand column on the associated game page.

## Profiles

Surprise! We’re shipping revamped user profiles on top of the previously announced new game pages. 

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/2qnyvdnp.jpg)

The goal with the new profile page is to allow for you to create your own space to express yourself, and make it feel like home. The new profiles come with an option for a biography, statistics around games ran, moderated games, and followed games as well as detailed personal statistics!

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/p4zj51ek.jpg)

We hope this update to the profile page makes it feel just a bit more welcoming, and if you have suggestions for tweaks to this new change by all means please let us know!

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/r1n89xzq.jpg)

## What’s Next?

These past couple of updates have focused on improving some of the spaces commonly traversed by runners and moderators alike. This next update will be focused around entirely *new* spaces for Speedrun.com including new ways to interact with leaderboards and appreciate your favorite communities. We're excited to offer you some new options for showing your support in different ways across Speedrun.com!



We’ll continue to iterate on both the recently released new Mod Hub Run Verification tool as well as these game page updates moving forward, so please keep [sending your feedback and bug reports to us.](https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub)  We’re also continually looking to improve site performance, so expect some tweaking here and there. 



## Wrapping Up

Anything you want to see fixed or added in future updates? Please, let us know! As a side note, I’d like to remind everybody that you can have your community featured right on our Front Page by putting in a request to the [Front Page Stream Request Form!](https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub/request-promotion)



As usual, I'm staying active in the forums and on [Discord](https://discord.gg/0h6sul1ZwHVpXJmK). Also, if you’d like to contact me directly on any of my social media, I have most things connected over on my [user profile](https://www.speedrun.com/user/Meta). I’ll see y’all around!



Meta // Cam

Introducing the new game pages AND profile pages. Some new features and a fresh new look for the existing ones. Let's also discuss some new things on the Speedrun.com roadmap.

Games & Profile Updates

For this month’s spotlight, we talked to Kris De Asis, aka Meep_Moop. He is a Pico-8 speedrunner who mainly focuses on Celeste Classic. He’s also a Ph.D student, a visual artist, and a game developer.



## Speedrunning on the Pico-8



De Asis primarily speedruns Celeste Classic on the Pico-8 ‘fantasy console.’ A fantasy console is kind of like an emulator for a system that does not exist as physical hardware. The Pico-8 has some arbitrary limitations built in which make it a fun and challenging creative space for game developers.



Before the release of Celeste Classic, De Asis’s friend Justin Jaffray was already following the work of Maddy Thorson, who created the game along with their collaborator Noel Berry.



“The moment Celeste Classic dropped, Justin was like, ‘Hey, this is a sick game, you need to play it.’ And so on day one, we were already running it, finding strats for it, and routing it,” De Asis said.



Eventually, he and Jaffray connected with some other players over Twitter and they became one of the earliest seeds of the modern Celeste community.



“Some of us have been around for like five years now playing the same little game. And then we got to see it blossom into the new release of the game,” De Asis said.



In the early days, he focused on routing. Even though he was helping Justin, SecksWrecks, and BaldJared, De Asis didn’t submit an official run of his own until August 2016.



“The main push that made me start submitting runs was when BaldJared quit at 2:03 and I really wanted to see sub-2 happen,” he said. Later, when Celeste(2018) came out, his interest was revitalized.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/9kzwv8nq.jpg)

Outside of speedrunning, De Asis is a Ph.D student studying Computing Science with a background in things like mechatronic engineering and he has repeatedly drawn on his skills in those areas to contribute to the Celeste Classic community.



In terms of glitchhunting, De Asis learned Lua (the programming language used by Pico-8) and combed through the game’s code to understand different glitches and how best to execute them consistently. “I wrote up a glossary on our community website explaining all the relevant glitches,” he said.



Additionally, he has contributed to the development of Tool Assisted Speedruns and even created a brute-force searcher in Python to find the definitive fastest way through certain levels.



On top of all that, when Jaffray created a practice mod that allowed runners to do things like repeating challenging portions of gameplay for efficient practice, De Asis built on the concept, adding quality-of-life features and fixing bugs.



Improving the community’s accessibility has been one of his guiding principles.



“That was something that we didn't have before when we just had this small, four person group and some private Discord. So whenever people watched our runs, they're just like, ‘what the heck is going on? How are you doing all these spike clips? Are you cheating?’” De Asis said, “And then when I started the server one of the things I did was just document everything.” 

When he needs a break from speedrunning Celeste Classic, De Asis branches out to running other Pico-8 games.



The reason he has stuck to running games on the Pico-8 comes down to brevity. He said, “I don't have the attention span to play any long games. I can’t play Final Fantasy or anything. I really liked the game. I think it's fun, but I just can't finish it. And so Celeste Classic was just the perfect length that had the right amount of precision and platforming. And it just really resonated with me.”



The game’s short length makes the grind more relaxed as well. Often, De Asis will run repeated playthroughs while hanging out with a friend.



“Then whenever I have a good one going, I would like pause the conversation and then actually focus and then if that dies, I'll just get back to chilling with my friend,” he said, “and so it doesn't actually feel like I'm like throwing time at this game or it doesn't feel like I'm wasting time. It's just kind of like this fidgeting thing that I'm doing while doing something else.”



That practice pays off. Anyone who has played any version of Celeste understands the high death-rate that is central to each game’s design. De Asis’s first-place runs are completely deathless.



“The thing is that, in that run, you're not seeing all the attempts before where I died a lot. Like it's a really biased sample of the runs that I did,” he said.



Nonetheless, it’s an impressive feat of dexterity and skill.



## Mods

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/oxzdyvzm.jpg)

It is impossible to spend even a few minutes looking through Pico-8 carts without discovering a few mods of Celeste Classic which is great for fans of the game who want more fresh content.



“It turned this two minute game into a whole bunch of little level packs that can sometimes be like 10 minutes long…” De Asis said, “It's community driven content for the game and it's sort of helping keep this two minute game alive. And it has been going strong for a lot longer than I would have expected it to.”



Some of those mods make it onto the Celeste Classic Mods leaderboard and most of the mods on there have either been run by Meep or he had a hand in their creation.



“It's kind of weird because, as familiar as I am with the Celeste Classic engine, I do see a lot of these shortcuts and speed routes in my own mods," he said. “And some of them I would patch out, some of them I would allow, and then they would still find something new, they would still just break it somehow...there's some satisfaction to that even though there can be a little frustration.”



## Before Speedrunning



Before he knew about speedrunning as a larger hobby and community, De Asis got his start playing Megaman X on repeat. “Whenever I had friends or family over, it would be like trying to show them how quickly I could beat the level and see how quickly they could beat it,” he said.



Another precursor to his interest in speedrunning came in the form of Speedcubing, where he and other participants competed to solve puzzle cubes as quickly as possible.



De Asis even designed a robot to solve cubes automatically which he later retooled to scramble cubes for competitions. His scrambler has been used “[in parallel with human scramblers at WCA-sanctioned Rubik's Cube competitions](https://meep.cubing.net/portfolio/proj_phys_333scramblebot.htm).”



In addition to the dexterity and competitive-timing involved in both speedcubing and speedrunning, De Asis has noticed some overlap between the kinds of people he has met in both communities. However, he said that while speedcubing requires a lot of quick, moment-to-moment decisions, running a game without procedural generation like Celeste Classic is more about rote repetition.



## Creativity



De Asis has also designed a couple of original games for the Pico-8 and has created art in a lot of different mediums. For Ludum Dare 48, he created “Rolling in the Deep,” a Binding-of-Isaac-inspired roguelike with a penguin player character.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/y1n5pke3.jpg)

Penguins appear repeatedly throughout De Asis’s work as a visual artist as well as in his profile images on various websites. It all goes back to a stuffed penguin his sister gave him when he was born. “Ever since then, I've just been attached to it. And then everything that I've done has been sort of penguin-revolved.”



Attempts to render the penguin even led him to mediums like illustration, animation, game development and even to the technical focus of his Ph.D.



“My undergrad degree was in Mechatronics Engineering to focus on robotics. So that sort of bridged Game Dev into reality where...now I can interact with this physical system that's also animated and like real, but then I still wasn't satisfied with that…” he said, “and so that's what led me to computer science to focus my graduate studies on artificial intelligence and machine learning. But it all stems back to this little stuffed penguin.”



## Celeste Classic 2



In January 2021, Thorson, Barry, and musician Lena Raine surprised the Celeste community with the release of Celeste Classic 2.



“It was just a pleasant surprise for everybody. And, it was a nice growth of the Celeste Classic community. We got a lot of new people in who started running both games,” De Asis said. Shortly after its release he had already created a practice mod for the new game.



De Asis never expected the Celeste Classic community to grow as much as it has. “It did start out as this close knit community of mainly four people and then a few people who would come and go in this other server,” he said, “...It just sort of spawned into its own little thing and now it has like 700 people in it and I didn't expect this to ever happen.”



You can check out De Asis’s work [here](https://meep.cubing.net/portfolio/index.htm).





This time, we're shining the spotlight on Meep_Moop, a Pico-8 speedrunner with a particular interest in Celeste Classic.

Spotlight: Meep_Moop

Hey everyone! 



I’m back for another update, and we’ve got some exciting stuff to go over today! You may have already noticed some of the new changes to the site, so let’s dig into some of them, shall we?



## New Mod Hub - Runs Awaiting Verification



We’re finally releasing the Mod Hub! With the first entry in a series of Mod Hub updates, we’ve released our first new mod tool — the new Runs Awaiting Verification (RaV) page! For quite some time now, there has been a 50 run cap within every moderator's RaV page. This cap is now removed, with additional runs being paginated for a more organized experience for those of you who moderate large boards.



Speaking of organized, you can now select individual game queues to view *only* the runs from the games you want to see! No longer will the RaV have buried runs you can’t access. Stay efficient and stay organized, fellow moderators!



Also as a note, the new RaV page is under the link https://www.speedrun.com/modhub but if for whatever reason you would like to stick to the legacy RaV page, you can do so here: https://www.speedrun.com/runsawaitingverification. If you run into any issues with the new RaV Page/Mod Hub, please let us know over at [https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub/report-bug](https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub/report-bug)

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/d3ek5rex.jpg)

## Coming Soon™️

Coming very soon, we have a new game page update! This game page update includes multiple quality-of-life changes to help organize game pages more neatly, as well as bring a fresh new look to it. 

On top of aesthetic changes to the game pages, the much-requested game page news will be coming as well! Moderators, you will now have the ability to update your community directly through the Game Page News feature.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/v5e12mn0.jpg)

The days of community updates through stickied forum threads are now over! Speedrunners, fear no more. Follow and optionally receive notifications about the latest news from your favorite leaderboards!

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/qoeo54zg.jpg)

Once again, I want to thank you for helping us improve the site with your bug reports and feedback. You're helping us improve the site by both directing us to bugs in need of squashing AND by letting us know which features and tools you'd like to have!



## Moving Forward



We are actively working on adding improved variable management, better Individual Level support for the site, mass run management, and more as part of future updates. Have another idea you want to see on the site that’s not mentioned here? Head on over to https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub/give-feedback and let us know what you’d like to see!



## Bug Fixes & Feedback



This past weekend, we got reports of users who were running into issues logging into the site due to a weird bug with the session ID cookie, but it was thankfully fixed this morning so we don’t have to worry about that anymore. This quick-fix was largely in thanks to you, the community, for being vocal about it - and I want to thank you for that! 



Your bug reports and feedback are incredibly appreciated by the entire team, so please keep up with that. You can submit [bug reports here](https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub/report-bug) or give us [your feedback here](https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub/give-feedback) As usual, I’m staying active in the forums and on [Discord](https://discord.gg/0h6sul1ZwHVpXJmK). Also, if you’d like to contact me directly on any of my social media, I have most things connected over on my [user profile](https://www.speedrun.com/user/Meta). I’ll see y’all around!



Meta // Cam

Introducing the new Mod Hub with the first tool: a new Runs Awaiting Verification page. Let's also discuss a bug fix and some planned features for the Mod Hub.

The First Mod Hub Update: Runs Awaiting Verification

This month, we're featuring a community of speedrunners who focus on games from developer Team Ico.

Spotlight: Team Ico Speedruns

Hey everyone! 



I hope your week is going well. 



I started as Community Manager on August 16th and, while it’s been a busy time, it’s also been *awesome* chatting with everyone. You should see me bouncing around the forums and Discord more often now. Please feel free to reach out to me via the Support Hub, the forums, Discord, or even Twitter. I want to hear from you about all things speedrunning and site-related!



## Site Update



You may have noticed the site is running smoother after our data migration on August 13th. We know the site performance had been affecting everyone, and we’re pleased to report that the migration and some ensuing tweaks have led to a significant overall improvement. We still have more to do on this front, but this was a massive step in the right direction. Big thanks to the engineers working on this!





## User profile assets endpoint update



Some community tools were unfortunately broken for a short while due to the data migration process changing how some assets were being stored. The site API has been updated to reflect this, particularly in relation to user profile images!



## Uneditable guides, invisible forum posts



An issue occurred where users were not able to create or edit forum posts or guides, and once again we thank the community for flagging this so quickly for us, it helps out a lot!



Thank you for your patience as we continue to improve and expand on the site. We’re constantly working on improving site performance, squashing pesky bugs, and developing some... *much-requested features.*



That’s it from me this time, but I plan on making many more of these community updates as well as staying active in the forums and on [Discord](https://discord.gg/0h6sul1ZwHVpXJmK). If you have additional bugs to report, or feedback you’d like to give please head over to the [Support Hub](https://www.speedrun.com/knowledgebase/supporthub) and create a ticket. It really helps us out! Also, if you’d like to contact me directly on any of my social media, I have most things connected over on my [user profile](https://www.speedrun.com/user/Meta). I’ll see y’all around!





Meta // Cam



Checking in this week to follow up on the data migration earlier this month, some bug fixes, and more from our new Community Manager!

Site performance improvements, bug fixes, and more!

Hello everyone!



We’re eight months into 2021 now, and we’ve enjoyed some truly incredible speedrunning in that time. We have a few updates for you today:



## Site Update



We’ve also been working diligently on some changes to the site. You may have noticed the site entered a read-only state for a few hours today. This was because of a data migration taking some of the necessary steps to address some of the performance issues the site has been experiencing. We’ll be monitoring the results in the days to come.



## Farewell, LewisAndSpark



Next, we have some news to share.



LewisAndSpark has decided to move on from Elo. We are grateful for all of their insights and passion in advocating for the speedrunning community. Their hard work and dedication have helped lay a solid foundation for the future of Speedrun.com. 



We know LewisAndSpark will continue to do great things in future opportunities and wish them all the best!



## Community Manager



Now, we are thrilled to announce that effective immediately, Cam “Meta” Enright will be stepping into a new role: Community Manager for Speedrun.com. 



Many of you will recognize Meta from his previous position as Site Support Staff. He’s an active moderator, speedrunner, and has written several articles for the site as well. He’s been a passionate and enthusiastic advocate for the community and has impressed us with his work as a member of our Support Team.



In this new role, as Community Manager, Meta will be an invaluable resource for the community. He’ll be providing updates as well as being available to take questions and feedback. You can find him active across the site as well as in our community Discord. 



We’re looking forward to working closely with him as we continue to improve performance across the site and develop some long-desired features and tools.



Please join us in welcoming Meta as our new Community Manager!



Cheers,  

Speedrun.com

We've updated the site as part of addressing some of the performance issues; we also say farewell to Lewisandspark and welcome Meta in a new role.

Community Update: Data Migration and Community Manager

[Kanno](https://www.speedrun.com/user/KANNO) broke the 6m30s barrier this past Friday, August 6th in the wee hours of the morning making Super Mario 64 history once again, sneaking in just under the wire with a [6:29.950](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1109747627)



So what made this feat possible? Let’s take a dive into the details of Kanno’s most recent SM64 world record.



## A True Classic



Super Mario 64 is one of those classic speedgames that’s been around forever and yet is still somehow being optimized. It really goes to show speedrunners will always find a way. 



Japanese speedrunner Kanno has been optimizing all the short categories for the past three years and has gotten so incredibly skilled at the categories that he has a *full* ***sweep*** including the 0 Star, 1 Star, and 16 Star world records — with 0 Star being the “Any%” category in SM64.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/v5e1yme0.jpg)Kanno’s execution in this run was incredible, near perfect even. Overall, his movement was impeccable but there are two things to highlight from this run that stand out above everything else; getting the fastest version of the Dire Dire Docks skip, and the KASLJ short for the **Kanno Tool Assisted Speedrun Long Jump**.



## DDD Skip

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/qoeoj4ng.jpg)

Dire Dire Docks Skip is the oh-so-difficult skip that separates the 0 Star category from the 1 Star category, and there are multiple setups for it. The main variation in setups is the speed required to clip through the door, and Kanno’s setup requires the least amount of speed out of all of them - making it the fastest. You can view a [comparison of the setups here](https://youtu.be/vvu40CTOLos)



## KASLJ

KASLJ is [Kanno’s newer setup for the TASLJ](https://youtu.be/fmJCWHs36P4) (Tool-Assisted Long Jump) which is about one third of a second slower than the TASLJ, but a **lot** more consistent, making it much more human viable to its Tool-Assisted counterpart — and faster than any other strat by over a second.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/d3ekprzx.jpg)## An Electric Fire Sea

Of course, with everything that went right in this run, that’s not to say it wasn’t without its hiccups. There’s a little bit of RNG with the Amp obstacles in Bowser in the Fire Sea and unfortunately, this RNG was not in Kanno’s favor this time around - losing him 2 seconds to bonking on the Amp, locking him in the zap animation.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/3xz0yxel.jpg)

## Star Door BLJs



In the 0 Star route, runners use Backwards Long Jumps (BLJs) to clip through doors and Kanno mentioned that his BLJs were not the best, losing another 2 seconds to the optimal route. These two things were the only things Kanno mentioned as hiccups for the 6:29 speedrun, which honestly is pretty good when you consider that 2 out of the 4 seconds time loss came down to RNG. Kanno says that his next goal is a 6:25, which would've been this run if not for those 4 seconds lost to the RNG and BLJs.

![](https://next.speedrun.com/static/blob/9kzww8zq.jpg)

## Tracking Progress



Once again massive congratulations to Kanno for making SM64 history by becoming the first person in the world to beat the game in under six and a half minutes. Also a massive thank you to Kanno from me, for helping me out with the research for this article — I couldn’t have done it otherwise. 



If you’d like to follow Kanno's progress in the journey towards the goal of the 6:25 speedrun for 0 Star in Super Mario 64, you can do so on [his Twitch channel](https://www.twitch.tv/kanno) or keep an eye on [his Youtube channel!](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC04k2wolWHbXUYKqUQhohkg)



Kanno made history by breaking the 6:30 barrier in Super Mario 64. Let's take a look at how this impressive feat was possible.

Kanno breaks the Super Mario 64 6:30 Barrier

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summertimealice

SpeedrunCom

The leaderboards will open 2 weeks from launch to allow discussion about the categories we want to start out with.

Hades 2

Indigo Park: Chapter 1

Rooftops & Alleys

An embargo is in place. Please come back when the embargo is open!

**Why?**: The embargo is in place to allow moderators and community members to properly set up the leaderboards. Don't want to rush it and make mistakes!

Dr Robotnik's Ring Racers

UEFN: Paranoid

Join the discord to to learn about the categories if you'd like to start doing runs ahead of the board opening.