Here’s Where, When, And How To Watch Awesome Games Done Quick 2019

Can it really be that time again? Awesome Games Done Quick is upon us once more, showcasing the very best and very fastest of speedrunners in a week-long marathon of Personal Bests and ridiculous glitch manipulations.

Update: All times displayed are UTC-5. Check the schedule to find out the times in your own timezone.

AGDQ is a yearly charity event, raising money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Last year’s AGDQ raised over $2 million dollars for the Foundation, and this year will hopefully exceed that. Occasionally, donations—the total of which is displayed on-screen—are read out live, so if you’ve got stacks of money to burn, this might be your time to get your message to the world for a good cause.

The best place to watch the livestream is on the official GDQ Twitch page, where you can see all the information on each stream: the current time of the run, the aim of the run and a little view of the conference room, so you can celebrate amazing tricks along with the audience.

If it’s past speedruns you want to see, or runs you missed while you were at school/work/on the toilet, you can access videos-on-demand on GDQ’s official YouTube channel, or on the speedrunning subreddit.

It’s well worth checking out the AGDQ 2019 schedule to make sure you’re around for the most exciting speedruns. Personally, I’ll be watching out for the Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask speedrun at 6:52PM, because I love anything Zelda and glitchy, but here are some highlights for today (January 6):

12PM: Hollow Knight. A fairly recent game, with a “no major glitches” speedrun, which has been involved in a battle over who can be first in the world on this particular run. Hollow Knight is a bit Dark Souls-y, so it’ll be fun (and devastating) to see pros blaze through a boss fight that took you two hours.

2:42PM: Donkey Kong Country. Mario’s large frenemy races to the end of the best Kong game with the help of V0oid and stew_, who will be duelling for first place. The last record for DK Country was set by V0oid on Christmas Eve. No rest for the speedy.

8:32PM: Portal. It’s a speedrunning classic, and one that’s always fun to watch, as the professionals know exactly where to place a portal that sends them zipping across the screen. GLaDOS has met her match in speedrunner duelists, alex_sr and ConnorAce.

10:47PM: Shadow of the Colossus. Ever wanted to see someone take down a bunch of giants like they were nothing more than gnats? Tune in to this late-night stream to watch ChurchNEOH’s Boss Rush and feel bad that you gave up after falling off the bird too many times.

For the rest of the week, keep an eye on the schedule and watch whichever ones appeal to you (or whichever ones aren’t at ridiculous times). My only other recommendation is that you might want to catch the Sonic block on Tuesday, January 8, from 2:36PM to 7:08PM. It’s time to find out what happens when you gotta go fast, faster.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the technical speedrunning jargon, make sure to have this speedrunning glossary open—it’ll explain everything from Save Warps to Frame-Perfect maneuvers, and you’ll be a speedrunning expert in no time.