ESA Summer Marathon 2024 Recap: Takeaways and Interviews with the Zelda Runners

This post was co-authored by Nicole Scott.

The Dungeon Runners are making their way over to Europe, as it’s time for the summer portion of the European Speedrunner Assembly (ESA) Marathon, which was held from July 20th to July 27th in Malmö, Skåne, Sweden. This year featured a few unique runs with the Nintendo 64 classic, Ocarina of Time, as well as a somewhat different take on a run involving an A Link to the Past randomizer. Our team also got a chance to interview some of the runners from the 2024 ESA Summer Marathon.

Also, the money that was raised throughout this event was given to The Swedish Alzheimer’s Foundation (AKA Alzheimerfonden), which is a non-profit organization that primarily focuses on raising money for research and information about Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Thanks to the runners and staff who helped/participated at the marathon, ESA Speedrunning was able to raise over $57,000 USD for Alzheimerfonden.

We hope you enjoy our coverage as much as we enjoyed checking out this marathon!

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Ocarina of Time in Minecraft 1.0.1 (Any%) by Sajiki

Our time with Zelda in Sweden begins with a run that’s not quite exactly the Ocarina of Time we know and love. This is why the first Zelda run of the 2024 ESA Summer Marathon stands out so much as we visit this unique world of Hyrule thanks to Sajiki’s Any% run of Ocarina of Time in Minecraft. This notable game comes to us from Rivero7462 and is a near 1:1 recreation of the N64 classic fully realized using the power of Minecraft.

While this run is fascinating to watch due to its striking resemblance to Ocarina of Time, it’s certainly not the way to enjoy this Minecraft mod. Though the first real trick in the run is Sajiki wrong-warping (glitch used where the player performs certain actions to take them somewhere else than initially designed) out of the Gohma’s boss room, it’s when he makes it to the Hyrule Castle Courtyard that it gets interesting. After multiple attempts to jump over the fence leading to the castle grounds, he eventually gets the trick done!

This leads into the most broken part of the run as Sajiki is now able to jump on to the hillside and make a long trek through the world outside of the creation. Eventually, he winds up in an area that not only has the final section of the game just sitting there, but in that same section, a collection of boxes with all the possible pieces of equipment you could obtain.

Grabbing all the equipment he’ll need to finish the run, Sajiki makes his way into the Ganon Castle escape portion of the game using a combination of the mirror shield and a Creeper just lurking about outside. The finale comes when he’s able to defeat a very well-designed Minecraft version of Ganon with a final time of 16m 5s.

Overall, while you will not be able to exactly enjoy the hard work and splendor that Rivero7462 did with his Minecraft mod, it was still unbelievable how quickly Sajiki was able to get through a very well-recreated Hyrule. You can try your hands at the Ocarina of Time in Minecraft mod by clicking the link right here.

Interview with Sajiki

Connor got a chance to ask Sajiki some questions about discovering Ocarina of Time in Minecraft, as well as the differences in which version to run.

How did you come across this Minecraft Ocarina of Time map and start running this game?

Sajiki: I believe I found that map while browsing Speedrun.com. We have a marathon called Hekathon which features a lot of obscure, unknown and funny runs (the next edition is in approximately one month from Oct 24-26) and when I checked out this run, it seemed to fit in perfectly. Also, as Ocarina of Time is my first speedrun game, it fits my speedrunning story arc. I went full circle so to say.

You performed some very notable skips during your run. Was there any skip that was difficult to learn when preparing for this run?

Sajiki: No, not really. You can see me struggle with one of the jumps during the run but that was mainly due to some weird keyboard delay that was caused by external software that somebody had installed on the ESA computers. The jump that I was struggling with is not easy, but the real problem about it is that you have exactly one attempt at it per run. If you fail it, your server is hardlocked as you fall into a hole you cannot get out of anymore.

The current version of this Ocarina of Time Minecraft map is 1.0.4, while you play the 1.0.1 version for your run. What are the most notable differences between running that version and the most recent one?

Sajiki:: As a matter of fact I gave the ESA game committee the choice between the two versions. The main difference is that in 1.0.1 you do a route that is very similar to the old Defeat Ganon Ocarina of Time runs: You go to the Deku Tree and then straight to Ganon. However, the way you do it otherwise is quite different. I guess you have to watch the ESA run in order to find out how we do it in Minecraft. In 1.0.4 on the other hand, the glitch was fixed, so you essentially have to complete all dungeons and trials in order to beat the game. So you do an MST run which is about 1h 20m long compared to the 15 minutes of 1.0.1.

Ocarina of Time: Beta Quest (Battleship Bingo) by Runnerguy2489 & BaalNocturno

Runnerguy2489:

BaalNocturno:

Summary and Reactions

Ocarina of Time: Beta Quest stands out from other Zelda randomizers by having every transition entrance/exit lead to an intentional wrong warp, which puts Link in a completely different section or room in Hyrule. Runnerguy2489 and BaalNocturno got to demonstrate how challenging this randomizer is at the ESA Summer Marathon.

To start off with, the competition between these two runners was done on individual streams. The reason for this is because they were playing a specific Beta Quest category known as “Battleship Bingo.” The way this works is similar to the board game Battleship: each player is given the exact same 5×5 grid filled with random challenges, as well as three different “ships” to place on the board. The runner’s goal is to either destroy all their opponent’s ships by correctly guessing which challenges their competitor put their ships on, or for this specific bout, they simply need the most hits on the opponent before the end of the 3h 30m estimate.

While the first attempted hit happens roughly 31 minutes into the run by Runnerguy, it isn’t until roughly 18 minutes later that they achieve their first hit on one of Baal’s ships by completing the “Ganon’s Castle Boss Key” challenge. Runnerguy didn’t stop there either as 15 minutes later, they were able to complete four more challenges within the span of just under 30 minutes. Fortunately for Baal, those all wound up being misses.

As for Baal, they weren’t having the same luck at the beginning. On top of taking an hour to make their first attempted hit on Runnerguy, it’s not until the fifth attempt by finishing the “Longshot” challenge that Baal finally gets a hit. By this point though, Runnerguy achieved another hit on Baal, but there’s now less than one hour to go in Battleship Bingo. Regardless of how close the deadline is, this competition is far from over.

Baal does miss a hit just after his successful one by completing the “9 Hearts” challenge, but Runnerguy manages to finish four challenges within three minutes that fail to hit their targets. The next hit doesn’t happen until roughly 16 minutes later where Runnerguy gets their third hit on Baal by completing the “Frog’s Heart Piece” challenge. The same can’t be said for the next attempt as Runnerguy misses with a finished “Exactly 30 Deku Sticks” challenge.

With now 17 minutes left to go, this is where Baal started to make a bit of a comeback. Runnerguy managed to score a fourth hit on Baal with the “Fire Temple Boss Key” challenge, but Baal gets two successful hits on Runnerguy within three minutes by finishing up the “Frog’s Heart Piece” and “Lens of Truth” challenges. Baal even manages to score a fourth hit by completing the “5 Small Key Chests in Spirit Temple” challenge.

Unfortunately, it is not enough as two minutes before the end of Battleship Bingo, Runnerguy gets a fifth hit on Baal by completing the “6 Ice Trap Chests” challenge. Runnerguy wins with five hits, beating Baal’s four. It certainly came down to the wire.

Both Baal and Runnerguy showed how crazy Beta Quest can get with its randomizer-qualities. During one point in the run, Baal discovers that Kaepora Gaebora in Lake Hylia takes Link right back to Gerudo’s Fortress, which does eventually lead them to the King Dodongo boss fight. Early on in Runnerguy’s part of the competition, they stumble upon the Escape Ganon’s Tower segment right after finding a path that leads to the Spirit Temple. Overall this bout showed how much fun a game like Beta Quest can be.

A Link to the Past Randomizer (Pilot Spoiler Keysanity) by Jem & clearmouse

Summary and Reactions

Pilot Spoiler Keysanity is a unique way to format an A Link to the Past randomizer run. In the “Pilot Spoiler” version of this category, the speedrunner (Jem) works alongside a pilot, in this case, clearmouse. The pilot has the spoilers for the seed in front of them, so it’s their job to craft the most optimized run, without revealing anything ahead of time to the runner. Also, clearmouse must do this with no preparation. To make circumstances even more complex, this was a keysanity run, which means all dungeon key types are scattered throughout the entire overworld.

Since Jem is a second place record holder in a standard A Link to the Past randomizer, their knowledge carries them throughout this run. The randomizer was particularly fascinating to watch because Jem had to trust clearmouse’s route recommendations. The two clearly had practiced relaying information in a precise manner, prioritizing item retrieval based on both Jem’s skill and the item’s utility/placement.

Many times throughout the run, accessible chest “checks” were left unopened, which felt unintuitive for a randomizer. However, the surprises made it more exciting to watch, especially as Jem had to invent solutions on how to get to clearmouse’s suggested locations. In lieu of not grabbing a sword for a good portion of the run, they used the Bow, Hookshot, and Bombs in creative and resourceful ways to clear bosses within seconds, as well as clip through blocks, or Damage Boost through unnecessary sections.

The two finished the run in 56m 34s, celebrating a clean playthrough and quality execution of speedrun techniques.

Ocarina of Time (100%, No SRM) by axellarsen

Summary and Reactions

The most interesting news going into AxelLarsen’s 100% run of Ocarina of Time was the fact that as of a week prior, his world record was broken for this category. So, this run wasn’t just about crossing the finish line, it was practice to help get the crown back. And Axel was practicing in style as he was cosplaying Link for his ESA Summer Marathon run.

As the run gets under way, Axel explains why the go-to platform for those running the Japanese N64 version of Ocarina of Time is the Nintendo Wii. This is because the Virtual Console version has the least amount of lag and even lets you use a GCN controller without crashing. He also points out how height convenience is the key reason all dungeons in this category are done with Adult Link.

A donation incentive had Axel running Ocarina of Time with the filename “McNugget” which even caught him a bit off-guard. His run was pretty solid as Axel definitely showed why he was able to get a world record in the first place. He first tried the Bottom of the Well clip trick, successfully pulled off the Jabu Wrong Warp, achieved multiple death cutscene skips throughout, and even showed how quick on the draw he could play the Ocarina songs using the C-stick on his controller.

The run wasn’t perfect, however, as Axel faced a few major hurdles during his time with the game. It took him a few tries to get the Master Sword room skip, the Shadow Temple skip was a bit of a struggle for Axel, and it even took eight tries to get Dampé to unearth the heart piece in the Kakariko Graveyard. Nevertheless, there was a silver lining for all those attempts as Axel would donate $200 USD for trying past a set number of times which he did.

In the end though, Axel manages to stab Ganon in the head with the Master Sword with a final time of 4h 8m 15s. Overall, while his run did have some hiccups here and there, Axel still managed to show why he’s one of the best runners of this Ocarina of Time category around. Here’s wishing him the best as he goes for the crown once more.

Interview with AxelLarsen

Kristen was fortunate enough to ask AxelLarsen some questions about his time running in the Ocarina of Time 100% category, including why he started running it and even the hurdles for a world record run.

You mentioned at the beginning of your run that you started running this category back in late 2018. What drew you towards running it?

AxelLarsen: When I first started watching speedrunning around 2014 it was always the old childhood games that piqued my interest, specifically Ocarina of Time since it was so broken and blew my mind. I watched many Ocarina of Time runners throughout the years such as ZFG, ClintStevens, JodenStone, and many more, however I couldn’t find the time to try it myself until end of 2018 when I had finished high school that summer and had nothing to do as I was taking a break for a year before continuing my studies.

My first category was 100%, I think it is the absolute most fun and most interesting category with so many unique tricks, the whole run is a glitch exhibition in a way! I believe I was drawn to 100% the most because I’ve always been a completionist, and watching top runners such as ZFG do it for years definitely had a big influence.

Is there any specific trick or skip during a world record run that always stresses you out?

AxelLarsen: At the very end of the run, within the last ten minutes, there is a wrong warp from the Fire Temple which takes you to the collapse sequence, specifically the first room you enter during the escape with Zelda. The wrong warp is scary in-itself, with multiple frame perfects, however it is the trick we do after that which is terrifying.

A  Bombchu hover with specifics to Link’s stance and which frame you do the hover on, a trick with precision down to the thousandth unit of Link’s coordinates, and to top it off you usually only have enough Bombchus for one attempt and if you miss it you lose close to five minutes which is run over in every case. All this, with the nervousness that it brings makes it universally agreed between runners that it’s the most stressful part of the run.

Any tips for those trying to get into a 100% Ocarina of Time run?

AxelLarsen: The best tip I can give is head to speedrun.com/oot and click the link to join the Ocarina of Time speedrun Discord! There’s a huge community always ready to help and tons of resources all in one place!

When originally learning to run this category, were there any techniques you had to learn that surprised you?

AxelLarsen: The 100% category was my first category and experience I had with Ocarina of Time speedrunning. What surprised me the most was the difficulty in a trick called HESS (hyper extended super slide). It took me years to get to a point where I felt comfortably good at it and in my opinion it is the hardest trick to get down to a consistent level which is crucial in 100% as we do HESS’ing everywhere, multiple times throughout a single segment typically.

Nailing those will really put you on the map as a skilled runner and take you to the next level, but it takes a lot of hard work and grinding to get there so it’s important to not be discouraged and trust the process. Practice, practice, practice!

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Thanks for checking out our ESA Summer wrap-up! What did you think of this year’s runs? Did you have any favorites, and what moments impressed you the most? Let us know in the comments below!