Games Done Quick’s speedrunning summer marathon kicks off Sunday

Games Done Quick’s weeklong summer speedrunning event for charity begins on Sunday, and looks to have a whole bunch of good runs to look forward to. Things kick off for Summer Games Done Quick (SGDQ) Online 2021 at 12PM ET on the Games Done Quick Twitch channel.

You can see the full schedule here, and it’s packed with a treasure trove of interesting-looking runs. There’s a lot I want to check out, but I think I’m most interested in the blindfolded 70-star run of Super Mario 64 on Saturday.

SGDQ and its wintertime counterpart, Awesome Games Done Quick, are two of my favorite weeks of the year. I love watching players absolutely dismantle some of my favorite games, such as in this run of Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, or pulling off superhuman stunts, like beating the hardest levels of the already-hard platformer Celeste using a dance pad.

But since the marathon runs every hour of every day until it’s over, I also love checking the stream at random times of the day and just watching what’s on. Often, I’ll be introduced to a game that I’ve never heard of before, and it’s fun to learn all about it from people who are masters of the game.

As the name of the event implies, SGDQ Online 2021 will take place entirely online (which was also the case last year). Donations will benefit Doctors Without Borders, and in 2020, SGDQ raised more than $2.3 million for the charity.