So, I've been getting a lot of youtube recommendations for AGDQ 2014 videos the last few days, and I think something that's really telling about the current state of the event is the lack of gimmick runs. There's what, one blindfold run for the whole thing? Compare to 2014, where we had blindfolded attempts at both Punch-Out games:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=CvzIb53Lcnohttps://youtube.com/watch?v=vSr3aXd4XuQ
Or maybe you'd rather watch two people play a single-player game co-op?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=UWwTJpv6LbYhttps://youtube.com/watch?v=hWDRtyq3Yhg
How about we put speed aside and do a high score run of Starfox?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=NvYwDotkoTk
And, hell, somebody even beat Super Mario 64 with only one hand.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=u4-D5YZdnts
In my mind, the absence of runs like these is a microcosm of how GDQ got to the state it finds itself in. Runs like these are exceptionally challenging, even by speedrunning standards. They require the runner to not only be accomplished at their base craft, but also at adapting to the nonsense they inflict upon themselves. What GDQ has done, either by malice or ineptitude, is purge its ranks of everyone who was both good and crazy enough to attempt gimmick runs like these. It is worth noting that according to their own
playlist, 2020 was the first year where they failed to set any world records live on stage, another sign of the declining skill level of their runners. With the cream of the crop forcibly excised, all that is left to fill the gaps are literal whos and attention whores that probably deserve a thread unto themselves, and the entire even collapses into a laughing stock.
GDQ is dead. Cause: suicide.