A few days ago, one Super Mario 64 speedrunner was on pace for a world record that could've stood for years - until he went for one legendary trick that ended up dooming the run.
That runner goes by Weegee, and he's a former world record holder in the 120 Star category for Super Mario 64. His time of 1:37:35 stood from the end of 2022 through much of 2023, until a trick that the community once thought was impossible was finally made viable in real runs. This trick, dubbed carpetless, could theoretically knock around 50 seconds off of a run, but that all depended on a given runner's ability to execute the trick while under the pressure of a good pace throughout the rest of the game.
The first carpetless world record beat Weegee's time by just a single second, and in the months that followed, runners have been chipping away at that time bit by bit. By the end of 2023, the record had gotten as low as 1:36:48, basically making good on the promise of the potential time save with carpetless. But with better performance elsewhere in the game, the community knew there was room to take the record even lower.
This past weekend, Weegee was on pace for just such a record. He'd managed an incredible pace through most of the game, and was over a full minute ahead of the split for the existing world record. Then, near the end of the run, it came time for carpetless - and Weegee failed to execute on it. Repeatedly. What should've been a 50 second time save instead fell apart into a two minute time loss. After the result of the failed trick became clear, Weegee simply said "I don't know if I want to finish this."
He did end up finishing the run, but it was well outside of world record territory. The sad twist on all this is that this run still would've taken the record even if Weegee had avoided the new trick. In fact, the pace was so good that it could conceivably have been the very first 120 Star run to get into 1:35:XX territory. That'd be nigh-unbeatable on its own, but a successful carpetless would've elevated the run to legendary status. As one Reddit commenter puts it, "This could have legitimately killed the category for years. So insane."
Just a few days later, Weegee did manage to set a new world record - with just a few small stumbles before a successful execution of carpetless. (Weegee asked aloud during the stream, "Why is that so fucking hard when you're nervous?") The new record of 1:36:21 is "clutch, but lots to improve," as Weegee puts it. No doubt those improvements will start happening soon.
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