(Jan 17th, 2024, 08:51 PM)Mr EliteL Wrote:

Oh, were they holding back incentives again? I didn't notice during the MKWii run as there wasn't really one for it and PMTTYD run met their incentive before the runner got to the area where they could get Flavio. Did see some random interviews in the schedule which might take time for incentives to build up but if there is stalling again, that's bad.

• Evil Zone | Finals Tournament Bracket
  Already mentioned it in my previous post but now that I'm back home I can take time to give better thoughts on it. As I said, I never knew of this game before this and the only reason I caught it in the first place was because I wanted to get a good seat early for the SMW relay race that came on after this. I believe most of the players involved had barely any experience with the game and yet managed to all do really well, and in the final I really thought Caveman (the reigning champion) might actually lose). It's definitely one of the more unique fighting games I've seen, with a big emphasis on cinematic moves and a system that allows a player to attack from any range on the stage, so one can punish their opponent if they try to keep their distance. Even if you don't want to watch the whole video, I'd suggest at least watching a couple of rounds just to get an idea of how this game plays because I think it's cool enough to at least warrant giving it that much time.
  
  
• Super Mario World - Kaizo Relay Race | Groovy Goombas (juzcook, GlitchCat7, TheJavaBrew, YouFailMe) vs. Funky Fuzzies (Shoujo, shovda, MarkAlarm, Thebeast721)
  Mario relay races are a highlight of every GDQ event, and this one was no different. Some of the levels made for this run pushed what was possible for SMW ROM hack levels in ways I don't think anyone would have ever expected, and this run is a showcase of not only the talent of the runners but also the talent of the creators who put this relay together. I haven't checked yet whether I'm visible in the crowd or not yet, but there's a decent chance I am because I was centered to the stage and very close to the front.
  
  
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time by dannyb
  I didn't catch this whole run, but I believe this one was actually using very recently discovered tech that was almost discovered seven years ago by accident, but at the time it was assumed to always lead to a game crash until someone else picked it back up earlier this year and found that there was actually something usable. I assume the run goes over all of this, but I know it because there was a segment covering the story of the tech discovery earlier in the day while the run was still yet to meet its incentive goal.
  
  
• WACCA Reverse by NB1RS
  Music games are always some of the craziest things showcased at GDQ's for me because of the sheer level of skill on display by whoever the runner is, so it wasn't hard for this one to be a highlight for me. I will never fathom how this guy manages to keep up with the last track in the showcase which can only be seen to understand how fucking mental it is.
  
  
• Grand Poo World 3 by MrMightyMouse
  The creator of this is my favourite Twitch streamer, and he was present as one of the couch commentators so I was very invested in seeing this run. A very fun couch and a superb SMW ROM hack with skips that the creator didn't even know about beforehand, so it was cool to see his live reaction to some of the stuff being pulled off in a game where you'd expect him to know everything about it.
  
  
• Penny's Big Breakaway by Mildew
  I knew this game had a lot of movement tech even back when it first came out, but I've never really seen a full run of the game nor the extent to which the tech can be taken. A pretty chill run to watch that's good to put on if you want something that you don't need to give constant attention to out of fear of missing something and getting lost with what's going on.
  
  
• Super Mario Maker 2 - Troll Level Race | CarlSagan42 vs. juzcook
  A race in name only rather than execution, but for me this was the most fun run of the event that I caught. The trolls were all really creative and designed to be fun not just for the audience but also the runners, so nothing ends up becoming frustrating, tedious, or predictable like troll levels would typically be.
  
  
• Elden Ring by blanxz
  Although last years Elden Ring run was cool, I wasn't a big fan of how most of the run involved just skipping to the end of the game through glitches, so I enjoyed this one a lot more since it was a glitchless run. Fighting bosses at a low level isn't anything new for any Souls game, but doing it where speed is key makes it very different I think. The cheese strat used against the Tree Sentinel outside of Leyndell is something I didn't know about before and I'm shocked it hasn't been patched for how easy it seems to be to pull off once you know how to do it.
  

(Jul 8th, 2024, 11:42 AM)Mr EliteL Wrote:

I noticed you both there in the Evil Zone Finals, best view is when Alymra walks on to the stage but also just left of the canvas when they have the camera on the commentators/callers. Can't see you in the Kaizo Relay Race though, too many heads and bodies. Were you in the same seats as you were in Evil Zone or did you move? But again, the view is so small I can't confidently tell even if I look where I think that previous spot was.

For the gameplay of Evil Zone it looked OK, just some grabs look like they take too long and would get annoying watching them repeatedly if a player gets caught. Ugh, frick those Kaizo levels. Yeah better to just watch.