With Summer Games Done Quick 2017 just around the corner, be ready to free up your week to see one of the most amazing gaming events of the year. The AGDQ and SGDQ marathons are an awesome get-together hosted by the speedrunning community — and the fact that it’s all done for a charitable, good cause means that pretty much everyone should support it.
While the event is a major highlight of many gamers’ summers, it’s not all smiles and laughs. The Games Done Quick events have been some of the best (or worst?) sources of cringe material, too. When you put dozens and dozens of the world’s best speedrunners in one venue, there’s bound to be some social awkwardness. It happens every year, and you can bet that it’ll happen this year too.
To get you ready for what you’re in for, here are some of the most cringe-worthy moments from GDQs of the past.
Gamerpro011 is Crazy
Although you may have to be some sort of masochist to enjoy running a game like Crash Bandicoot 2, I think it’s safe to say that Gamerpro011 took it way too far during Summer Games Done Quick 2015.
Through the entire run, he constantly mentions suicide, how he’d love to kill himself, how he hates himself, domestic abuse, and other touchy subjects. The audience and couch were clearly a bit uncomfortable.
The grand finale was when he said, “I swear I’m going to become a psychopath and murder everyone someday.” That was enough to get him banned on Twitch after the event, and I’m sure he’ll never be returning.
“Can You Stop?”
This one is the holy grail of GDQ cringe. It’s the original. During AGDQ 2013, which was a very small and personal event (as you can see), a female audience member interrupted Runnerguy2489’s run, as he’s wearing full Link cosplay, to let us know that she’s been knitting the entire time in memory of her grandmother that died of cancer.
While that’s upsetting, the way she handled this was extremely awkward. She interrupted his run, asked if he could stop the run, was ignored, told everyone that there’s a “50% chance that she’s going to die to cancer,” began rambling, and then started sobbing. The personal feel of this particular AGDQ really brought the cringe out in this one.
Chibi Just Won’t Shut Up
During SGDQ 2014, CavemanDCJ was running Tomba 2 when Chibi decided to invite himself to the couch for commentary. CavemanDCJ had no idea who Chibi was before this moment.
For what seemed like forever, Chibi kept going on and on with terrible commentary and jokes — and you could tell CavemanDCJ was getting tired of it. There were quotes like:
Chibi: Dude, I love bagels!
CavemanDCJ: I believe you.
And then:
Chibi: This game kind of reminds me of Adventure Island.
CavemanDCJ: Alright.
It’s good to have commentary, but you’ve got to know when people don’t want to hear your thoughts and opinions the entire time. Give the spotlight to the runner.
Finally, at around 5:20 in the video above, CavemanDCJ just lets him have it: “I would really prefer if you’d be quiet.” Simple as that. It was met with a chuckle, but it happened. The room immediately went from cringe to tense. To make matters even worse, donations were pouring in that were trying to fuel some feud between the two.
Had Enough “WAH”
During one of the most hyped runs of AGDQ 2017, CruelFancyBaron decided he had heard way too much of the annoying “WAH” chants, a famous noise made by Waluigi, and decided he should speak up about it.
“None of you guys are funny. If you want to prevent cancer consider standing out in front of the shuttle that’s running in front of the hotel on the hour. Thank you.”
While I do agree that constantly repeating a loud and obnoxious sound isn’t funny, that’s a pretty rough thing to say during an event watched by tens of thousands of people, including young kids. As the joke clearly plays off of, the donations were going to the Prevent Cancer Foundation. But in spite of a few laughs, CruelFancyBaron won’t be returning to future GDQs.
The Trihex Arm Shuffle
It’s simple, elegant, and probably one of the most legendary clips to come out of SGDQ 2013. You may recognize the guy in the middle, Trihex, from Twitch’s TriHard emote.
What you see in this clip is what you get. Sometimes, when you’re completely nerding out and playing games for a week straight with your friends, you forget that it might be awkward to somebody else if you decide to rub or interlock arms with them in front of several thousand people. Well, Trihex wasn’t having it.
Donation From “SamSVG”
This one doesn’t hit you until you understand the context.
StivityBobo was running Banjo-Kazooie when the announcer decided he’d announce a “good one” from SamSVG. It sounds as if the reality slowly sinks in while he’s reading it, too.
During SGDQ 2014, the event just before this one, StivityBobo allegedly slept with the wife of another runner, SamSVG, during the event. Eventually, he made a public apology and the whole thing really created this elephant in the room for AGDQ 2015.
Bad Applause Time
Ending on a little bit of sad cringe in this clip, the announcer had just finished receiving some praise for her skills in donation reading when this happened.
A generous donator mentions how his grandfather passed away today — and the audience, focused on the gameplay, begin clapping as Natty finishes a race in Crash Team Racing.
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What’s your favorite worst GDQ moment? Have any that you think are harder to watch than the ones above? Let me know in the comments because I’d love to give them a look.
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Published: Jun 28, 2017 10:30 am