One of my favorite events of the year is taking place right now: Awesome Games Done Quick. We've mentioned it numerous times over the years, but if this is the first time you've heard of it, here's the basic gist- There's a massive community of speed runners on the internet who individually have laser-focus on playing specific games and beating them as quickly as humanly possible. Different categories for speed runs exist, and range from reaching 100% completion with no glitches in its most "pure" sense and then on the complete opposite end of that spectrum is "any%" where you just blast through a game as quick as possible, skipping anything you can.

There's a big Twitch scene of these speed runners, but what makes Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) so captivating is the speed runs during the marathon are accompanied by commentators on the couch behind the player. These guys explain what the speed runner is doing, the history of the game, when specific exploits were discovered, and the theory behind why certain shortcuts (often called "skips") exist. These can be fantastic history lessons, and it's really captivating watching someone absolutely obliterate a game that you spend months trying to beat as a kid in (sometimes) 20 minutes or less. Better yet, the whole thing is for charity, and there's loads of donation incentives to funnel cash into the Prevent Cancer Foundation. The schedule can be found here, and while you can go back and watch any...