What is the "speedrun", the collaborative time trial of the video game?

• Every Thursday, in its “off-field” section,

  20 Minutes

  explores new spaces for expressing sport, unexpected, unusual, clever or in full swing.

• This week, we're focusing on the world of esports, and more specifically

  speedrunning

  , the practice of finishing a video game as quickly as possible.

• "The word community is essential in the speedrun", specifies "GrosHiken", specialist of the

  Celeste

  game .

Four minutes, 54 seconds and 881 hundredths.

That's how long it took "Niftski", an American, to finish

Bros.

Reading this, the most nostalgic among us will surely remember their struggles to reach the end of the game, after several hours of failure.

But "Niftski" is not a player like the others: he practices

, which consists of finishing a video game as quickly as possible, thanks to relentless training and the help of a community of other players.

The practice is governed by rules, summarized by Ronan “Realmyop” Letoqueux, former presenter of the specialized programs

and

.

“There is no limit, except not to hack the game. You just need the original game and a controller.

Then there are categories, which are defined by the community.

The

may thus have to complete the game, collect all the objects or beat all the

.

He can also be given handicaps: share a controller with another player, or play... blindfolded!

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4,000 hours of play in four years

Before getting started, “Realmyop” gives two pieces of advice: “You have to be sure you have time, and choose a game that you really like.

Because in

, training is repetitive, and above all very time-consuming.

game specialist

, “GrosHiken” specifies: “The game was released in 2018, and I played it nearly 4,000 hours, or three hours a day on average.

I can't do long sessions but some can play up to 6 or 7 hours a day”.

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To improve, the method is specific to each player.

Some take notes on the path to take, others gobble up the videos and prefer to memorize them.

Streamer and

on more than thirty games, “1TLAU” believes that “the most important thing is to play”.

“I often take an hour-long warm-up period to fill in my gaps.

Then I start a

[a timed game], and I play, I play, I play.

When I see that it blocks, I stop and go back to training.

It allows you to come back fresher.

“Result: he spent more than 3,500 hours on

, which the classic player finishes in about thirty hours.

“The word community is essential”

Despite all this,

are far from being on their own.

Because each game has its own community, omnipresent as soon as you decide to start.

“GrosHiken” does not define the

as an individual act: “It is a community that plays a game to get to know it as best as possible and to finish it as quickly as possible.

The word community is essential.

The competitive aspect is thus almost set aside in favor of cooperation.

“In esports, when you find a strategy, you keep it to yourself.

There, the first reflex is to share it.

»

It is indeed in groups that the players try to find the fastest path.

Some don't even have final performance as their objective, but rather research: they test techniques, unearth bugs, always with the aim of gaining a few seconds.

Specialized sites, such as speedrun.com, host the

of other players.

"The

, even if you practice it alone, you don't do it alone, assures "Realmyop".

Often, other people will tell us how to do it, explain certain things to us.

There is always a phase of learning and research.

»

Nostalgia feeds the speedrun

A rather confidential practice,

has gradually gained in popularity.

First thanks to certain charity events that have put it forward, such as the Games Done Quick in the United States.

Or more recently in France with “Speedons”, organized by the streamer “MisterMV”.

Then, and above all, thanks to the spectacular side of each performance.

"Being good is not enough to interest, and that's why the events are worth it," says "1TLAU".

On stage, the players put on a show.

The

is also based on nostalgia, and concerns games that everyone has played:

,

…”

Our off-road file

The advantage is that the practice is potentially endless.

By winning the world record eight months ago on

, "Niftski" provisionally took the gold medal from a community that is still hyperactive, more than 35 years after the game's release. The American has already and already announced that it wants to go below 4'54”800.

"It's endless," concludes "1TLAU".

Because there is no

perfect

So all you have to do is rummage around and start over.

But always with others.

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