Today we're excited to launch **Community News**, an update to the Speedrun.com news system that allows everyone to contribute important announcements and news stories, and to help speedrunners and spectators learn about new games, marathons, or other important community events.

Here's how it works:

- Anyone can now submit news stories to Speedrun.com (including you!)
- After you submit a story, the site moderation team will either approve or reject your story. We'll also do some light copy-editing to make sure it's clear, concise, and free of major spelling or grammar mistakes.
- If approved, your story will appear on the homepage, news page, and other areas of the site. You'll be credited by name, with a link to your Speedrun.com account.

Here are some examples of what makes for a good story:

- New world record was set in a popular game.
- Popular streamer is hosting a charity event.
- Speedrunning an obscure game takes off in popularity.
- Marathon event is announced or shares new details.
- Famous personality mentions or promotes speedrunning.
- Announcement of charity event or fundraiser.
- Leaderboards open for a major new release.
- Notable bug, glitch, or skip discovered in major game.

Of course, we'll consider any compelling news story, even if it doesn't fit neatly into the list above.

All news stories also have a comments section to provide a place for discussion. We're excited to read and share your stories!

You can [submit community news here](/news/new).

Now everyone can submit news stories to Speedrun.com!

Introducing community news!

Thanks to a fellow runner @LeonSReckon we now have an autosplitter for PC version of Gears of War. This autosplitter will cut out load times and help keep an even playing field for all PC runners, regardless of hardware. We hope more players will get on the game and try it out!

![](/static/blob/rz2mwln0.png)

Everything you need to pick up the run is in resource and guides section on the leaderboard. We are always looking for more runners to join the community - it's quite small for the franchise.

Runner @LeonSReckon has made an autosplitter for the game. Helping players to cut out the cutscene loads and parts for a more accurate time.

Autosplitter for Gears of War

Today MoistCritikal announced his fourth $10,000 speedrunning challenge, this time featuring [Escape From Lavender Island (2023)](/efli). Fitting with the theme of featuring obscure games with a limited speedrunning history, the game previously had [only one run](/efli/runs/y9ko81kz) on Speedrun.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc04EBhH7D4

In the [announcement video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc04EBhH7D4), MoistCritikal also discusses the challenge of keeping up with the previously planned schedule of one game per month. In addition to the new game and challenge, he also announced a format change: the glitch bounty is gone and has been replaced by an end-of-challenge race!

There's also an important change to the prize structure, increasing the number of runs that will be eligible for prize money (and adjusting the amount of money that each place wins). If you're interested in participating, be sure to watch the linked tutorial video.

Additional resources:

- [Announcement video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc04EBhH7D4)
- [Tutorial video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbY2SGUvfqU)
- [Escape From Lavender Island game page on Speedrun.com](/efli)
- [Escape From Lavender Island game page on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2164310/Escape_From_Lavender_Island/)
- [MoistCritikal Speedrunning Challenge Discord](https://discord.gg/35SjawXXEZ)
- [Escape from Lavender Island Speedrunning Discord](https://discord.gg/tcFVUB8ZYg)

Good luck everyone!

The latest $10,000 speedrun challenge game is a 3rd person exploration game released this year. There are also changes to the format, replacing the glitch bounty with a race and expanding the number of prize-winning runs.

MoistCr1tikal announces new $10K challenge

Ghostrunner speedrunners came together to form the community now known as GRSR (simply just Ghostrunner Speedrunning). Since 2020 GRSR has submitted a whopping 4500+ runs between the demo and the full game. Even today, Ghostrunner has around 45 active runners - a respectable number for a game coming up on 4 years old.

![](/static/blob/5ngx24eq.jpg)

So when One More Level released a demo on September 14th for the upcoming sequel Ghostrunner 2 (GR2), dozens of hungry runners hopped in to start running and hunting for strats and new tech (including myself.)

![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/3uYctGx6rigQQzmn1NEgfXHssGTzWcKuUzIgYU2CsAJvjEuq6ptFvgaxmzKF-Q3yiTEjQs8idkj-LBsCZW3QMb095TDWPqFD51BKKuOid9g_XqGnFX9V8Kled7cjdmh_MQBS-sNPAyCEZMB7BSkni58)

GR1 had a decent range of movement tech to choose from, including Slidehops, Dash Slide Jumps (DSJ’s), Ledgeboosts, Super DSJ’s, Wavedashes, Updog (yes, it's actually called that), and more. Thankfully, GR2 managed to keep all of the mentioned techniques intact, if with some small changes in timing in particular with the DSJ. Since the movement felt quite similar, demo speedrun times were able to drop *fast*.

# Day 1

After the demo was released around 6pm EDT, most people did a casual playthrough and then immediately hopped into testing all known techniques from GR1, and searching for optimal routes and new strats. The first attempted speedrun was completed and posted by [Ekorn](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Ekorn), around 7 pm - coming in with a time of 8:05.370. This was already a decent bit shorter than the average 20-minute completion time for the demo, but with lots of room for optimization - especially with strats left to be discovered.

![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/nGBrJ9P8iGUuNLAR56fP5UoyKU3jO5adlQ0HvQgb6l9FHbmKEAVjHpooUj38rOL1mCvA_RR0vOVJ2tgjaS6ns-i9EIT9jpO2Yxkjy37pPNV9_hl1jAYBk9A3H2zVUW-SWP9vSK6bZYKS6zDDDvDtJZ8)

Around the same time as Ekorn posted his run, runner [EzBaek](https://www.speedrun.com/users/EzBaek) found new tech specific to GR2 which has since been dubbed Wall Launching/Wallboosting/WEC (pronounced “weak”, standing for Wall E. Coyote) At the end of a wallrun, the game will force you off. After the game forces you off, you have a little less than half a second to stack jump inputs which will send you away from the wall at an angle with increased speed based on the number of jump inputs you were able to get off. So far, wallboosting has no *concrete* uses in the route, but it does provide an opportunity for some alternate strategies in certain places.

Sometime within the next hour, three new skips would be discovered.It was discovered by multiple people that you could skip the introduction to the Slammer enemy type by simply [going around the arena](https://youtu.be/57FKD2W7Vew?si=k1aZG9HHQO2-Q3U7&t=28) with a couple simple DSJ’s. Conveniently, this same skip also skips a decent amount of platforming - overall saving about 10-15s.

![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/UInadOv2qpFhaqKBox-FAHDtSzTN8onGozfQcCnKynlLJPhh345GEV0VpkcoHrJuuKXpru9-fRV-lFgIgK5xAfleHEci-fybp3Ommc5H3ZUwDDvDY0hAQFK16jJDIB2DLU4e4MUSakXz6BmJg_hKyx4)

Ekorn also found two new [puzzle skips](https://youtu.be/C-zQWSnbcUs?si=njUgQKiMHTYsufPV&t=155), which added up to an additional ~20s timesave

By 10 pm, top GR1 runner (and well-versed movement speedrunner) [Blaidan](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Blaidan) had lowered the record down to 5:50.110, and then even further down to [5:27.930](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2_Demo/runs/y9k767kz) by 10:30 pm. This would stand as the final WR at the end of Day 1.

![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/1JWrIY69nY1cPXkuFqQEbq86WcPLXebsvti8Ac8dzhrT69n-k0EbiMlwkPuuovAWxtw4b6V1H9Bc9TBk7jw4l9COEV_XFI6wrxb47smbeSXlZEouO68c6ACtTyD1IsIoKYdrX8iz7klZzI623Phtj1A)

# Day 2

While Day 1 had technically ended, there was absolutely no slowdown of activity in the GRSR Discord server. There was still constant iteration on optimal routes through every area, as well as working on faster and more efficient combat routes for the arenas.

Around 1 am EDT, runner [BladeLMAO](https://www.speedrun.com/users/BladeLMAO) managed to squeak in the first sub 5 minute run with a [4:58.970](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2_Demo/runs/y9k769ez). Runners [Taartin](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Taartin) and [Pasiflora](https://www.speedrun.com/users/pasiflora) would both follow up with their own sub 5 minute runs just a few hours later.

![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/oBdTMzifb1thF57m0y8cuwHeGlDVPTEUEyxwPn0VctGLihXEGg1Sp7d4UITMNXyn1QPkA57HrKc_Zjc2HzjxnIpaCyZc23TY-ZROOmx5jyZZ9kuXPcxxZ8I0wF-NCKdDLnr-e2iZrLuiyq8uvWRAps8)

Around lunchtime, runner [Leoninrus](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Leoninrus_Emligan) discovered [the first shortcut](https://clips.twitch.tv/BitterTentativeEagleSSSsss-wWbcf6xoElzOn1ng) in the motorbike section (IWBBT) of the demo. There are a few possible shortcuts in IWBBT, but even [the current WR](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2_Demo/runs/mr28402y) at the time of writing only uses one, presumably due to difficulty/inconsistency.

![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/W_JtwvmUQ2BQIVUse5NqCpVWuD_Vyso4jG8Ss3CY3QB0ZOqz7TyCsjBLLovIR6IHMHev95g6vEzBGSDyo9vcha87hFGRTD_NJjgTbSJPMQpLBPfIBxLNT3tZgE9Vsf9JiwANezsR8E9TVrj6oGX3ML8)

By the time dinnertime hit the East Coast, runner [JanisSG](https://www.speedrun.com/users/JanisSG) had discovered that spacing out boosts increases your average speed by around 20 kph, shaving off some additional seconds in IWBBT.At this point, the run was getting quite optimized for the known route - so much so that by the end of September 15th (Day 2) the WR still stood at [4:57.590](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2_Demo/runs/zqd6e28m) by [Taartin](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2_Demo/runs/zqd6e28m)

# Catching Up To Today

Between Days 3 - 6, just about **20 seconds** was taken off the world record. This is in part due to multiple factors, including [faster arena strats,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWMlFyHT1PA) the discovery that the motorbike goes faster at 60FPS compared to higher framerates, as well as general movement optimizations. At the moment, the world record sits at a shocking [4:37.440](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2_Demo/runs/mr28402y) by runner [E1uM4y](https://www.speedrun.com/users/E1uM4y).

Theoretically, a very low 4:3X should be possible within the next few days - or perhaps even a sub 4:30 with a new strat or two. Here are the current known fastest times for each level

**Licking The Wounds** [2:02.XXX](https://youtu.be/hnJhX2ELzcc?si=uULTpEsG6AV-iQSf) by [Blaidan](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Blaidan)

![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/lx48htdfXTLqnxY60UMgmRw4MTef5a9sjZYIlPnL1ctUilCVSOmHo-k0v367SU7yBkrAvQtsUEVKuLr7lZKppmycGL5qNnaQMX1HwKdnyWJwoWiGG_H9t5QYFGmy3-pM72z2mVLVMLmfs-8MLwc_LzA)

**I Won’t Be Back Today** [2:29.670](https://youtu.be/LGQt1lfGsoc?si=zgg24ohXWufBFvkJ) by [probablyToph](https://www.speedrun.com/users/probablyToph)

![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/TmNM6XTA9zZIwwovpfQ2Ioc7n5pOYCMZ78vl9ux0p4t6sxWQUe_S_UQWC2GX15Lw8GvcdZL0Ue_mSNasGFj6o89zd245vAvT9zQYXHRm4sCTWktDDWIQyEUW3I4sSDi4jNQ432OOeiVsS3A1zIuqGv4)

# Conclusion

GRSR is by far one of the most passionate speedrunning communities out there, and I certainly am not biased as a member of it ;) I would like to thank Ekorn, Blaidan, Taartin, EzBaek, probablyToph, and the rest of the GRSR community for helping me out with this article - you guys are the best!

![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/JWjboeHllo8y_bdVaCJY0ejgDPQWsUPsuR0FRvd2UjtcO1exORjZvFdTG7USNKP2EMY8ToGL-Sf5Zzt4uzQhD6islSdUXLuqzUXDuWHkFDtt6Sdc15bTZC4YFDD_d71v2PR-LO9MS9FjoCz0vfHvlxo)

With the amount of activity, we’ve seen in just the first week of the GR2 demo, between just *two levels* - I can’t understate my excitement for the full release of Ghostrunner 2. The dopamine I get from the early routing days of a fresh speedgame is nearly unmatched.

![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/4_yFcmdWpezxnKK_eILApAQbEOHphIDLRKZBpwa4G7zVnRqHCMzlJ6f7jNYZ1J0gVZ0yHK20WxK8flRPICfN-ices7NkQ0YPW-EHJaxAroXNQXmbuftZTX_c0EcPa0n-CypIAJyPN5jSHyNkv9tN6YE)

If you’re interested in trying out the speedrun for the Ghostrunner 2 demo, you can learn the majority of what you need from the world record video - but I also recommend you check out [Blaidan’s Ghostrunner Basic Movement Tutorial](https://youtu.be/1vfsX8hg4ig?si=7L-GUtK2rINkvp99). This tutorial was made for GR1, but all of the advice applies to GR2 as well :) Just keep in mind that some of the timings may be slightly different, and for that, you can reference the [GR2 demo world record run](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2_Demo?h=leaderboards-will-open-soon-restricted&x=z27eemgk-dlo9jvrl.le233z6l).

The first Ghostrunner game (GR1) was a big hit with the speedrunning community when it launched in 2020, especially with movement enthusiasts.

Ghostrunner Community Tackles New Demo

In the world of speedrunning, it's common for dedicated runners to remain loyal to a single game or series, with the occasional dabble into fresh games as they are announced at game conferences. Some are dedicated to a genre, such as racing or first-person shooters, but rarely do we see runners that have the broad skill set to conquer a variety of genres, game engines, and platforms. There is a small subset of speedrunners whose goal is to obtain world records from the widest variety of games (world record grinders), and [Akuretaki](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Akuretaki) is one of them.

This community focuses on high profile games within different game groups and attempts to battle out full game and individual level records. These games range from old Atari hits, such as [Sky Jinks](https://www.speedrun.com/sky_jinks), to IL intensive web games, such as [Seterra](https://www.speedrun.com/seterra).

![](/static/blob/1n87dxeq.png)

*Seterra Individual Levels are largely dominated by World Record Grinders and Run Farmers*

# Notable World Records:

To commemorate the achievement, let's take a look at some of the most notable world records out of the 10K achieved:

### 1. [Nox - Wizard Any% in 34:32](https://www.speedrun.com/nox_pc/runs/mrl0vp8m)

Akuretaki's main speedgame, he continues to dominate the leaderboard with his large skill gap over the competition. He is currently working on a route for the hardcore difficulty.

![](/static/blob/wzxvqrer.png)

*Wizard% is his most optimized category*

### 2. [Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear - Pandora Trigger (Recruit) in 0:14.567](https://www.speedrun.com/tom_clancys_rainbow_six_rogue_spear/runs/z0nd6nom)

Many fans of the Tom Clancy series will quickly recognize rogue spear for its gameplay being very similar to other first-person shooters released in 1998. Akuretaki beat this world record by a single frame.

![](/static/blob/rz2mp8n0.png)

### 3. [Phasmophobia - 200% (Launch Maps) in 1:53:45](https://www.speedrun.com/phasmophobia/runs/z1rrx1rm)

Akuretaki was the first person to pull off a full 200% run in the game, and the only person to complete the category successfully. Why? An extreme level of luck required to complete a run, and Akuretaki spent hours in this category for a completed run.

![](/static/blob/pzmqgoek.png)

*Phasmophobia is a popular horror game released in 2020*

# Interview:

**1. What was your first speedrun, and what made you choose that game?**

> I used to record Mario Kart Double Dash attempts back in 2005; however, my first speedrun with the intent of submitting to a site was World of Tanks. I played this game since 2012 and had hundreds of hours in the game, so it seemed like an easy choice. I ran the Soviet Union Boot Camp category, where I was minutes behind first place. The heavy RNG component made me take a break from the game, and I never submit to the site for this category. My first submission to SRC was Phasmophobia.

**2. What made you decide to start your world record journey?**

> After running Phasmophobia for quite some time, I ran a game called [Carmageddon II](https://www.speedrun.com/carmageddon_two/levels). I didn't like the RNG part of the full game run, so I decided to run only Individual Levels (IL's) for the game, taking almost all of the world records. Once I completed this game, I started to search the **Newest Added** tab on the games page for the site, where I found a game with a lot of IL's. A moderator of one of the games, [Darrel69](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Darrel69), invited me to a Discord server with statistics about anything you could think about on the site. One of these stats was **Most World Records by a User**, and I wanted to be on the top of that list.

**3. What have you learned from your world record journey, and have you been exposed to other genres you otherwise would have not played?**

> The overall take-away from my journey is that there is no such thing as a best speedrunner in any sense. Each game has its top player that creates a gap between themselves and the rest of the play field. It's impossible for one runner to master every genre, platform, and game engine, so make the most of your skills and play the games that are most fun to you. 

> I would say having a variety of games really reduces burnout and I always feel motivated to grind a game. Changing games creates a fresh start, and there is no better way to reduce burnout than to start from the bottom of a leaderboard and work your way up the rankings. Also, after playing hundreds of games, it's much more relaxing to run glitchless than to constantly learn new out-of-bounds and weird mechanic glitches.

**4. What tips would you give to new runners wanting to go down your path?**

> The biggest barrier of entry for any game is the resources provided by the community. When you are searching for games to run, try and find a commentary run to follow along with, it makes the learning process much more seamless. **ALWAYS CHECK THE NEWEST ADDED GAMES!** There is no better way to find a hidden gem of the game than this page, so check it frequently to make sure you don't miss anything that may interest you.

> For following world records that you may want to take, follow games in a genre you like and make a list of what world records interest you. Follow users from genres you are interested in as well, as they usually spot high quality games quickly and go for early world records.

Thanks to Akuretaki for the interview, and congratulations on world record milestone! For those interested in keeping up-to-date with your own standings on many site leaderboards (World Records, Verifications, Total Runs, Etc.), make sure to join [Farmington](https://discord.gg/BYrpjwkteA) on Discord.

Akuretaki becomes the first runner to obtain 10k world records across 761 games, including 1,110 Full Game records and 9,279 IL records.

Akuretaki Becomes First Runner to Obtain 10,000 World Records

https://www.speedrun.com/users/LloydBanks

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