SGDQ, the weeklong speedrunning marathon, wrapped up last week raising over $3 million for its chosen charity, Doctors Without Borders.
Games Done Quick, which has raised more than $40 million for various charities since beginning its series of gaming marathons, returned to operating in person for Summer Games Done Quick 2022. This follows two years of online-only events conducted since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the fourth event to break the $3 million barrier.
The finale highlighted how important it was to participants to return to the in-person event. As these communities are founded online including people from all over the world, many only can meet their friends at these events. Strict safety procedures were followed including a vaccination and mask mandate, as well as a limit of two people sharing each hotel room, and seating being socially distanced.
However, there was some controversy as to the organization of the event. Many runs ran longer than expected, leading two games to be cut from the schedule. Superhot VR and Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon were dropped from the schedule and the runners offered the chance to perform them again at the next event in six months.
However, on the final day the organizers added another bonus game into the schedule. A Pokémon run that failed to meet its donation target earlier in the marathon was chosen to fill the space. This was decided on due to the belief that a game from a popular franchise was more likely to encourage donations.
One of the GDQ organizers CoolMatty wrote a statement apologizing to the runners who were bumped and explaining the situation to fans. In it, he wrote, “The ultimate goal is to maximize money for the charity. To that, we accomplished our goal.”
He went on to admit that it was ultimately the wrong decision saying, “This is not a situation I ever want to repeat.” Speaking of the runners who were removed from the schedule he added, “It still hurt them, and I absolutely recognize that. Our staff has apologized directly to them.”
He ended the statement by saying, “I’m serious when I say we will do everything we can to make this better for the future.”
In other speedrunning news, runners have completed FromSoft’s epic Elden Ring in less than seven minutes.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
