Attention runners! We're excited for our next challenge as part of our SRC Series! If you don’t know, the SRC Series is a lineup of challenges we're rolling out on a semi-regular basis, funded entirely by Speedrun.com. SRC Series challenges are designed to be fun and engaging, with a focus on community involvement. The prize bounties are smaller compared to sponsored challenges, providing a break from the stress of high-stakes competition! We hope SRC Series challenges will continue to bring speedrunners together from all kinds of communities to discover new games and meet new people.

## The Game

For our next challenge, we've selected ULTRAKILL! If you're unfamiliar, ULTRAKILL is an FPS currently in development (available through early access) by Arsi “Hakita” Patala, and published by New Blood Interactive. ULTRAKILL currently has the highest active player count on Speedrun.com, with a whopping 1,266 speedrunners who’ve recently submitted runs. It’s certainly no surprise how many runners are attracted to ULTRAKILL, considering the pure speed and efficiency of its combat routing.

Here’s everything you’ll want to know heading into the challenge:

**Starting Date:** March 10th, 2024

**Duration:** 10 days, until 11:59PM UTC March 20th, 2024

## **Prize Distribution:**

The $500 prize pool will be distributed among the top performers for fastest completion time in the chosen category. The distribution is as follows:

**1st place** - $250

**2nd place** - $150

**3rd place** - $100

## **Participation Prizes:**

New to this challenge, we are introducing a couple participation prizes!

First of all, any runner who submits any runs to the ULTRAKILL challenge will receive **one month** of SRC Supporter, if you haven’t heard of Supporter before you may learn more about it [here](https://www.speedrun.com/supporter)!

Secondly, we will be releasing a new cosmetic feature that will be available to challenge participants - no news I can share on that quite yet but stay tuned!

## **Eligibility:**

Open to players aged 18 and above worldwide, with the following exceptions: North Korea, Syria, Sudan, Cuba, Iran, Somalia, and Venezuela.

## **Category:**

As this is a challenge for a pre-existing game, we will not be revealing the category until near the start of the challenge to avoid anyone starting ahead of time. That said, if you want to hop in a game and start learning the basics to prepare yourself - we encourage you to do so if you’d like!

## **Submission:**

Record your speedrun and submit it via[ our Challenge leaderboard here on Speedrun.com.](https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/vx30zp26-ultrakill-src-series-ultrakill-speedrun-challenge)

Follow the guidelines provided for video formatting and submission requirements, found in the rules section. Please note that a new requirement has been added to this challenge, requiring that prize eligible runs must have been live streamed.

## **Rules and Regulations:**

All speedruns must adhere to the official rules, available on the Speedrun.com Challenge leaderboard.

Contest Rules:[ https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/vx30zp26-ultrakill-src-series-ultrakill-speedrun-challenge/contest](https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/vx30zp26-ultrakill-src-series-ultrakill-speedrun-challenge/contest)

Category Rules: [https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/vx30zp26-ultrakill-src-series-ultrakill-speedrun-challenge/rules?view=challenge](https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/vx30zp26-ultrakill-src-series-ultrakill-speedrun-challenge/rules?view=challenge)

## **Preparation Suggestions**

To find tips & tricks for the speedrun, visit[ the ULTRAKILL leaderboard right here on Speedrun.com.](https://www.speedrun.com/ultrakill) Follow either the game or the challenge to receive notifications about challenge activity! You can also join[ the ULTRAKILL Discord server](https://discord.com/invite/jP92MqdqAY) to keep up with the community!

**Good luck, and have fun!️**

Join us for our next SRC Series Challenge with ULTRAKILL!

SRC Series: ULTRAKILL Speedrun Challenge

Prepare yourselves for a challenge which will test your wit and of course - speed.

**Starting Date:** 12:00pm UTC May 22nd, 2024

**Duration:** 11 days, until 11:59PM UTC June 2nd, 2024

This challenge is especially exciting, because we’ve worked with the developer on some extra content developed *specifically* for this speedrun challenge - more on that later. Here’s what you need to know:

## **Eligibility:**

Must own a legitimate copy of Athena Crisis

Open to players aged 18 and above worldwide, with the following exceptions: North Korea, Syria, Sudan, Cuba, and Venezuela.

## **Category:**

As this is a challenge for a pre-existing game, we will not be revealing the category until near the start of the challenge to avoid anyone starting too far ahead of time. That said, if you want to hop in a game and start learning the basics to prepare yourself - we encourage you to do so if you’d like!

# **Submission:**

Record your speedrun and submit it via our[ Challenge leaderboard here on Speedrun.com.](https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/ml3l8pr0-Athena_Crisis-athena-crisis-speedrun-challenge)

Follow the guidelines provided for video formatting and submission requirements, found in the rules section.

# **Rules and Regulations:**

All speedruns must adhere to the official rules, available on the Speedrun.com Challenge leaderboard.

**Contest Rules:**[https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/ml3l8pr0-Athena_Crisis-athena-crisis-speedrun-challenge/contest](https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/ml3l8pr0-Athena_Crisis-athena-crisis-speedrun-challenge/contest)

**Category Rules:**[https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/ml3l8pr0-Athena_Crisis-athena-crisis-speedrun-challenge/rules?view=challenge](https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/ml3l8pr0-Athena_Crisis-athena-crisis-speedrun-challenge/rules?view=challenge)

## **Prize Distribution:**

The $1000 prize pool will be distributed among the top performers for fastest completion time in the chosen category. The distribution is as follows:

**1st place** - $500

**2nd place** - $300

**3rd place** - $200

## **Challenges**

In case you aren’t aware of what a challenge is in the context of Speedrun.com, a Challenge leaderboard functions similarly to the regular leaderboards you're already familiar with. However, we've made a few layout adjustments to cater to the time-sensitive nature of challenges and the inclusion of prize pools.

We always aim to avoid any undue pressure on the associated moderation team with whatever game is the focus of the challenge - so to ensure a smooth process, all runs submitted to the challenge leaderboard will be screened and verified by either SRC staff or Athena Crisis moderation team members *volunteering for the challenge specifically*. After the challenge concludes, SRC staff will collaborate with the Athena Crisis moderation team to discuss the potential merging of challenge runs into the regular leaderboard once the moratorium period expires, respecting the mod team's preferences.

## **Preparation Suggestions**

To follow the challenge as well as find tips & tricks for the speedrun, visit the[ Athena Crisis Challenge leaderboard right here on Speedrun.com](https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/ml3l8pr0-Athena_Crisis-athena-crisis-speedrun-challenge) and the #🏃🏽-speedrun channel in the [Athena Crisis Discord server](https://discord.gg/ch9qYJ34Xq)

Good luck, and have fun speedrunners! :)

Attention all turn-based strategy enjoyers and speedrunners from all genres! We are extremely excited to announce our $1000 Athena Crisis Speedrunning Challenge in collaboration with Nakazawa Tech & Null Games!

Athena Crisis $1000 Speedrun Challenge!

In all seriousness though, I think this is awesome for the community and looking forward to the growth this game's gonna have by full release and beyond :3 