I have been watching the speedrunning charity event, Awesome Games Done Quick, for about 10 years at this point. It is a gaming marathon where a list of gamers (called runners) play a video game on stage (and streamed online) to beat said game in the shortest amount of time possible, utilizing both advance skills and technical exploitation. Awesome Games Done Quick, abbreviated as AGDQ, has benefitted the Prevent Cancer Foundation and to date has raised just under 30 million dollars.
For the last three years, AGDQ has been held in my backyard of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and this year I had the good fortune of being able to afford two badges (one for myself and one for my lady friend) as well as an overnight stay in the hotel the event was being ran at. Since I've been wanting to ramp up my creative works, I figured I would take some time to write about my first time experience and what this event has done to me.
The Pre-Pre-Show
As stated above, I believe it was 2016 when I first became aware of Games Done Quick. I've alluded to it in the past, but 2016 is kind of when my life as it is started. It is when my friend group became permanently established (I will find you if you try to leave), I reconnected with my lady love, and I became more serious about my content creation (I'm trying so hard). It was through my friend, Kam, that I learned what Games Done Quick was. Ever since that event, I've made the two weeklong marathons (Awesome Games Done Quick in January and Summer Games Done Quick in June) a part of my life. Often, I'll request the week of the marathons off so I can watch along at home.
Typically, the events were held in a different state than my home, making travel and lodging a bit out of my financial capabilities. That was until 2024 when they held Awesome Games Done Quick in Pittsburgh. The event could literally not be closer, eliminating the need for both travel and lodging. The only thing preventing me from attending was... well... everything else.
2024 was a difficult year for me, funds wise. A culmination of things lead me to having to move out of my apartment, back in with my parents for about 8 months, and now back to having my own place. Money and adult life is difficult and I won't go too far into the details of what caused my home displacement. Needless to say, I had more personal matters to focus on and watched in frustration as two years passed me by, leaving me to watch online as the marathon occurred less than 30 minutes away from me.
Then 2025 rolled around and they announced that the marathon would once again be held in Pittsburgh. The universe told me the time was now. I had gotten my feet back under me, squashed a good chunk of my debt, and had the means to make the dream come true. And so I did, with little hesitation. Once registration opened up, I promptly ignored the morning meeting at work and bought two foil badges and made the commitment.
The First Day
Sunday, January 4th had arrived and I was less prepared than I would've liked (Christmas is expensive). Regardless, we were ready and knew for a fact we would be at AGDQ for the opening day and the closing day. Alarms went off and we headed out, snagging some McDonald's breakfast before making our drive down. After a surprisingly easy time on the Fort Pitt Bridge (if you know, you know), we were parked and walked the short distance to the hotel. Check in for our badges was perfectly fast and easy and then we waited for the doors to open up... awkwardly. There were a ton of people standing in this semi-lobby area and our party of two wasn't entirely sure what the vibe was. Or even where to go or what to do as we waited. We stood by, a little away from the crowd, as we waited to see what happens.
It was then we met our first member of the GDQ staff (excluding the lovely check in people). A kind woman who made some small talk with us, answered a few questions and hanged out before they opened the doors. She introduced herself by her handle, Air Angel (✨AirAngel✨ (@airangel.bsky.social) — Bluesky) and that she was the vendor cordinator (I may have the job title wrong). I awkwardly introduce myself by my handle, which I don't know if I have ever done in public. As you can tell, I was shy and nervous and wish I had the energy I do now.
Regardless, the doors open and we settle down in the ballroom, taking a seat on chairs that really hurt your butt after a few hours of sitting there. Truly, if I have one complaint about the location / event - it's that these chairs were not made for marathon sitting. I am a long time sitter and have put my cheeks on a many of cushion and these were the least cushiony. It was honestly fine, ultimately, but my butt did not appreciate it.
Seeing the stream from the audience perspective was wild. There were three large screens that were projecting exactly what the online streams would see. In front of those were four blindingly bright stage lights that illuminated the runners and the couch behind them. These lights were a little harsh on the eyes, since the rest of the stream room was dark - save for a few lights on the walls and RGB lights placed on the floor. This didn't really take away from the viewing experience, but it was a little harsh on the eyes. Then the Pre-Show started in earnest, and the showrunners had a bit about time travel and uncovering the secrets of AGDQ 2026 from the year 3026. These bits can always be a little hit or miss but I certainly appreciate that it existed. Honestly, things would feel a little out of place if they did just start the show as a "Welcome and here's what's going to happen". I appreciate them spicing things as they did. And this bit did come back around at the end of the show.
And then I got to experience my first in person run- Super Mario Sunshine any% by inkstar (https://twitch.tv/inkstar). It was a great run to start with, as Mario games typically are and I happen to be an avid Sunshine enjoyer. I also got to experience my first crowd interaction, as we would try to clap on time to the runner getting each Star Sprite. At this point, I think I was still testing out the energy of the crowd. I wasn't fully tapped in, but mostly because I don't usually enter social settings like this. This, of course, changes by the end of the run.
After the run ended, we decided to wander around a bit. There was a whole artist alley to check out, after all. We also stopped to pay far too much for far too little food from the market district fridges they had in the lobby. Not a slight or complaint against GDQ, this is 100% on the hotel / city pricing.
The Artist Alley was cool to see with my only complaint being that it was a bit crowded. There were 2000+ people attending the marathon and there were about five booths set up in a hallway that became narrow very quickly. I do suppose the term "alley" was rather apt. Everyone's art was fantastic and I made sure to grab several business cards (I'm an old man) and take pictures of folks' handles. In total, we bought a Gengar / ghost type Pokemon keychain and, later on, a wall clock that is Majora's Mask theme. It can't be understated how cool and amazing everything looked.
We also took this time to visit The Yetee table. The Yetee is a merch / apparel vendor that sells, usually, t-shirts with art made by independent creators. They've partnered with GDQ for years and always have a dozen designs they bring to every event. I get in line to buy two shirts: an event shirt they redesign every year (this year being Animal Crossing themed) and a Super Mario shirt based on the 70 person relay (more on that later). It was here that I had also talked, briefly and not really about anything, with a fellow attendee. It's now, since I have this new sociable energy, that I wish I was more chill and less awkward but... what ya gonna do.
We then filed back in, finding our seats for the start of the Spyro 2 run by DylanJayFox (https://twitch.tv/dylanjayfox). This ended up becoming one of my favorite runs of the entire marathon. The gameplay was fun and fast, though I don't particularly have any nostalgia for Spyro. The commentary from DylanJayFox and the overall vibe he brought to the stream was excellent. Many cheers and claps were had and I got my first taste of community and hype that this audience would carry for the entire week. Can't say enough good things about this run.
We would stay for the next three runs, each one incredible before we decided to pack up and head home, not wanting to be down in the city too late (which wouldn't last). The trip home was just as easy as the trip down and we ended our day with good vibes and happy memories.
Our Next Day
We wouldn't return to the marathon until Wednesday. We had planned on using Monday and Tuesday to get a few chores done, always with the intention that we wouldn't go down every single day. We, of course, pushed the chores off and still haven't gotten everything done but I was on vacation, dang it. I'm allowed to do this.
When we returned it was to watch the awesome HeartGold/SoulSilver run by TTS4Life (https://twitch.tv/TTS4life) This would be our first in person Pokemon speedrun and I think I'm a new big fan. All the Pokemon runs of the event were amazing and I was such a captivated audience. Outside of watching the speedruns, we visisted the onsite arcade and goodness have I missed arcades.
The arcade was provided by Ikigai Arcade, who has a permanent location in Pittsburgh. There were two rooms set up- a rhythm and music game room where there were several machines making so much loud noises. They had auxilary jacks but, of course, we didn't have a headset with us to connect to the machines. We didn't spend much time in this room, really just looking around before moving to the secondary room.
We tested out House of the Dead and I wasn't terribly impressed. The lidar guns were cool but the machine didn't have any sound coming out and, since there weren't any crosshairs, the aiming felt a bit awkward. We made our way through a level and killed some giant boss monster before we went to the main event - Tetris.
I've not had much experience with arcade sticks and playing a game like Tetris did feel a bit awkward. Most of my Tetris experience actually comes from the PS3 game, which I played a ton of. The joystick felt awkward to use and it took me a little bit to get used to the buttons. I don't think this is a slight on the cabinet and was, quite literally, a skill issue. Especially since my lady love, Yanzer, proceeded to deliever butt whooping after butt whooping. In total for the whole event, we probably played a little over 10 rounds of Tetris, and I won maybe 2 of them. I, like any real gamer, blamed the controller I was using instead of my lack of skill.
The Final Day
And then it was here. The final day. We didn't return to the event until the last day, this time purposefully staying all night as we had a hotel room already reserved. It was always in the plan and boy am I glad we did it this way cause we didn't go to sleep until like 3 or 4 in the morning.
We got some breakfast from a place called Eat N' Park (No clue if this is a national brand or not. I'm assuming not) and drove to the event. We got our room, deposited all our fun stuff and settled in for, also arguably the best run, Super Mario 64 70 Runner Relay.
Organized by KingJ (https://twitch.tv/KingjO444), the goal was to get 70 stars and beat the game. The gimmick: 70 Runners would be switching off after collecting only a single star. A few of these runners were experts, being able to do their stars blindfolded. Some of the runners have never played Super Mario 64 before the onsite practicing. It was incredible and I'm not sure I ever cheered as much or as hard as I had before. It was in this moment that I truly felt the energy of the audience and marathon in general. The hype was real and I was a part of it. This is what core memories are made of and I will not forget the energy I felt in that moment. I'm running out of words to describe how awesome it was. Truly a "You'd have to be there" moment.
At some point, either before the run or after, I don't fully remember (I think before?), we had purchased my keepsake of the event - that amazing Majora's Mask clock that is currently ticking away in my bedroom. We then headed up to our hotel room to reset, since we had gotten up early and our sleep schedule was completely destroyed at this point. We wouldn't go down until part way through the Hades II run (also very hyped by: https://twitch.tv/BehemothSteve) and make our last trip to the arcade. We played some pinball, a few of the machines getting their balls stuck before the last run of Tetris. It was part way through Tetris that we saw the folks begin to pack up the pinball machines and decided we should move on to the showroom so we could be part of the hype when they unlocked Hollow Knight: SilkSong. Which we did, of course.
An incredible run but slightly shown up by the 2 million dollar milestone. Of course, it was awesome to see SilkSong be beaten in under an hour and deathless by https://twitch.tv/Ceenthebean21. Once again, I was in the energy with the community. Cliche as it is, I felt as one with the huge crowd of people around me. As the run came to a close we stretched our legs, did our bathroom break and settled in for the final run of Pokemon Emerald by https://twitch.tv/adef - which is also in contention for the best run of the event, which I had a feeling it would be. Adef, for those unaware, is one of the showrunners for GDQ. He is one of the folks you see during the in between segments and I'm sure he does a plethora of other behind the scenes work.
Honestly, I can't say enough nice things about Adef. I, of course, do not know this man personally. But if his personal life is anything like his on-stage persona, I have a feeling our personalities would jive well. And, of course, the man knows how to put on a show. A ton of energy was seen on stage as he battled against the audience, in a sense. His Pokemon Emerald run was, mostly, dictated by the viewers who could donate to choose which singular pokemon he would take in to battle. And, of course, the crowd fed him some of the weaker Pokemons, forcing Adef to think outside the box and puzzle solve for how he could make any progress. It was amazing and I was locked in for the whole thing... that was until the fire alarm got pulled and we were all forced outside into the cold.
At some point near the end, we all had to evacuate the building over, what I assume to be, a false alarm. There was probably 1000+ of us standing outside in the Pittsburgh cold as we waited for fire fighters to come and give us the all clear. It was during this time, as a tangent, that I got to be around some of the other onstage personalities. Really, I got to see how much of a delight Mr. Game and Shout (https://bsky.app/profile/shout.rocks) is as he hanged outside with us and joined in on our goofy shenanigans. And, no shade, I got to see just how *tiny* KungFuFruitCup is (Kungfufruitcup (@kungfufruitcup.bsky.social) — Bluesky). Both, of course, wonderful human beings.
We then get shuffled back into the event, my lady and I steal better seats, and settle in. We then immediately get hyped as Adef instantly brings the energy back into the room before continuing the run. And, in the wee hours of the morning, it was over. My voice was hoarse, my hands were sore and I was ready to feel the emotions as the final video played. But... I didn't. I don't cry much, which I don't wear as a badge of strength. Crying is important and I wish my brain would let me do it more but it's always been a challenge for me. I felt immense gratitude that we were able to go this year as we saw the next AGDQ would NOT be in Pittsburgh but instead Atlanta, Georgia. (Which something in my bones told me this would be our "last chance").
As we stood there, waiting for the elevators amongst the crowd of people all trying to go to sleep, I came to the realization. My inner voice was quiet. I struggle with anxiety. A lot of the world makes me worried, both in my personal life and the world as a whole. The political climate is heating up (which I won't get into much more than saying Abolish I.C.E. and Justice for all those unjustly imprisoned or killed by this administration) did light a bit of a fire in me; awakening this longing for a community that I felt a part of and would be ready to do anything for. And I found it amongst those tired gamers in the hotel. After high energy events like this, I tend to enter a depressed state. I'll think about all the things I didn't do and wonder if I spent my time wisely enough and so on. And, while it could be a product of having my forever person with me, this was a rare moment when I didn't feel that.
I felt peace. I felt belonging.
It's a rare thing for me to feel. I should be terrified of the future, in terms of my own financial stability, my career, my creative desires and so on. But I don't. I should feel the pains of jealousy as I watch folks my age (or younger as I learned Adef is and I'm totally okay with that knowledge and not angry that I am older than this man by three years nope) do exactly what I wanna be doing, creating cool things and helping those that need support, but I don't. All I felt was that sense of belonging. I felt like I was where I was supposed to be, doing what I was supposed to be doing, and all I could think was "I want more". But not in a sense of "I'm sad this is over". I feel optimistic for the future, something that is rare these days.
I want more. I want to do more. And even though the event (at least next year) won't be held in my hometown, I want to make it to the next one. And then the one after that. And I don't just want to be an attendee in the audience. I loved the feeling of being part of the crowd and screaming "Hype" alongside everyone. What I would love, and what I've known I wanted to dedicate my life to, is to give this experience. I want to be one of the folks behind the scenes making the show run correctly and giving a helping hand in the experience. I want to grab a hammer and help build up this community even further. And I have a sense of confidence that I will do just that.
That being said, I'm not announcing my shift into speedrunning (though I've thought about playing around with some games already) nor am I giving GDQ an application (I don't think it works that way anyways) but I want to do more. In whatever form that takes. If it's getting more involved in the communities that I've been a passive member of, then so be it. If it's volunteering for GDQ or doing contract work, then so be it. If it is as a speedrunner (unlikely, I'm nowhere near that good at any video game), then so be it. I love this feeling. I love the community that I stayed up far pass bedtime with. And I feel welcomed to explore this endeavor.
I tend to call myself an introvert and I do believe that is true, but I think it is true because of necessity. I have my fair share of childhood trauma where my mental state and external factors made it difficult for me to establish friend groups and stunted my creative career. I love people. I love how people can be creative and caring and quirky. I love how we raised, together, so much money for charity. I loved standing out in the cold with strangers who I would call my friends. I joined in on a group, that I did not know, doing squats in the cold to stay warm. I joined in with the mass of people chanting "fire truck" like the big, group of neurodivergents we are. I loved the Pokemon nerd that sat in front me that knew Pokemon Emerald inside and out and would comment on things Adef didn't know (not in a judgy way). I loved the two SilkSong cosplayers that allowed me to take pictures of them. I loved the kid that got excited by the Tenna plushie that my partner had. I loved the folks that I met in the elevator. I loved the awkward guy that I met in the Yetee line that talked to me about Final Fantasy. I loved AirAngel and how she was kind to two idiots that must have looked lost. I loved the guy that tilt the pinball machine to unjam one of the balls.
I love all of them. I love all of it. I've always been a love focused person, knowing that love for my fellow humans was important to me. And I'm realizing that it is okay to stop hiding behind the walls I built. I've been hurt by trying to integrate into friend groups that were unkind to me. For a long time, I felt like the outcast, and I would purposefully hide myself from social settings for fear of being treated unkindly again. But not a single time did I feel that fear while at AGDQ. I loved every second of it.
I feel I am starting to get a bit rambly, so to bring this long post to an end.
My experience at Awesome Games Done Quick reminded me that:
Despite Everything, I'm Still Me.
And it taught me:
Doing Good Is Better Together.
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