If you’re looking for a sporting event to watch that’s exciting, makes you feel good as a human being, offers an awesome, inclusive global community, and, critically, remains untouched by naked corruption, then Summer Games Done Quick is exactly what you need. Going on right now and running until Saturday, July 11th, Summer Games Done Quick is an annual speedrunning charity event raising money for Doctors Without Borders.
The beauty of Summer Games Done Quick, or SGDQ, is that there’s something for everyone. Do you like JRPGs? There’s a Dragon Quest XI run taking place right now. Are the kinetic and frantic movement techniques of platformers more to your taste? A run of Super Mario Odyssey starts at 7:15 PM Eastern today. Are you bored of well-known video games, and want to discover something more obscure? Maybe try Don’t Stop, Girlypop! And that’s all just from today. You can plan your viewing schedule by checking out the full list of games here. I’m looking forward to the Hollow Knight: Silksong run that takes place early Tuesday evening, a Mass Effect 3 run later in the week, and the final run of the show, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
When scouring the schedule for a game you might like to watch, also pay attention to the listed category, as it might indicate that the game is being played in a way that you’ve never seen before. I’ve seen plenty of Kingdom Hearts runs in my decade-plus of watching the show, but this year there’s a randomizer run of Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix. I have no idea quite what that will mean for the run and I’m excited to find out. Every Games Done Quick also blocks out chunks of time during the week to focus on games within a specific theme. For this event, there’s the “silly block” that starts on Thursday morning, during which runners play weird, charmingly janky games.
But honestly, the best way to experience any of the Games Done Quick events is to just turn on the Twitch or YouTube livestream and let the thing run 24/7. The best, most entertaining runs happen at odd hours with odd games, birthing memes and in-jokes that bring you into the event’s amazing community. It’s hard to find something positive in the video game community right now, but every year Games Done Quick reminds me that though the business of gaming sucks ass, the community, the people, will never let me down.
