When I started speedrunning Pokémon 4 years ago, my hopes were to eventually become competent in a large variety of games over multiple generations. 2020 was a good year in that sense, as I completed runs of many different Pokémon games, mostly thanks to the gen 1-8 challenge I did with my good friend and colleague speedrunner wartab. Here an overview of my speedrunning activity in 2020 in chronological order (not mentioning most obsolete runs):

- Pokémon Sword - Any% (4:08:54, 7th):
Pokémon Sword and Shield coming out at the end of 2019 felt like an amazing period of time in PSR. Many people were trying out routes, and the fact that both Sword and Shield were competitive with each completely unique optimal routes was awesome as fuck. I was most occupied with Pokémon Sword instead of Shield as I was in close contact with the main router of this version (wartab), and tested a lot of his stuff out in runs. After weeks of optimizations I had set my eyes on a sub 4:10, which I achieved in February 2020.

- Pokémon Moon - Any% (5:11:18, 6th):
Honestly, never expected I would ever do a run of Sun/Moon. The games have never been very appealing to me casually, and the fact that the games is over 5 hours long due to cutscenes was even less appealing to me as a speedgame. Yet, for the gen 1-8 challenge I tried to learn it, and it went increasingly well in the week that I played this game. The route is way more fun than I expected. Big shoutouts to wartab for the work he has done for this, and also to GarfieldTheLightning as I think he has worked a good bit on these games too. It is extremely underrated as, Sun/Moon for obvious reasons doesn't get much interest. The route is really well put together though, and actually fun to play. I don't think I will return however as my brain usually explodes after more than 4 hours of gaming.

- Pokémon X - Any% (3:54:53, 12th):
Pokémon X is obviously a very interesting speedgame as it has many main switches throughout the run, which is very different from most games. Despite it being an interesting game, it is not really attractive to improve in and grind for me. I am glad I have done a run of this, but that will be all for me.

- Pokémon Pearl - Any% Glitchless (3:46:54, 4th):
I was extremely excited to learn Gen 4 glitchless. Casually these have been my favorite games by far, and speedrunning wise I always thought these games were extremely challenging with how the RNG manipulation works, both the no encounter manips and the lucky egg manip. I played Pearl a lot for a month straight and am very very happy with the 3:46 I eventually pulled off. Thanks to GarfieldTheLightning who wrote the guide I used and taught me a shitton about this game. Also thanks to Crafted who also helped me a very good bit. I also got to do a marathon run where both men commentated.

- Pokémon SoulSilver - Any% Glitchless (3:45:16, 7th):
Pokémon HGSS was similarly interesting and challenging to me as it is also a Gen 4 game, and RNG manipulation works roughly the same. Wasn't as much of a fan as with Pearl, but still a really fun category. It has some ResidentSleeper sections just like the gen2 games, but looking past that it's quite fun. The route I used last year is outdated by now. Many thanks to Retrotato for helping me a lot learning the game. My run ended up beating his run by 1 full second, which I still feel guilty about :). 

- Pokémon Black - Any% (3:14:26, 8th):
Pokémon Black has been rather interesting this year. I started out learning the game when Tepig route was a thing. I settled for a 3:19 and didn't think the game was as interesting or challenging. Suddenly Buster created an entirely new route with Lillipup as main poke. I picked up the game again and thought it was much more fun this time around. I think mainly because a lot of people started playing the game at this period of time. I wasn't quite sure what the limits of the puppy route were. I was extremely happy with the 3:14 I got, especially because many other runs on similar pace died and had to revive in E4. Big shoutout to Scoagogo for helping me understand finding seeds for Lillipup. By now we know the limits of puppy route go much further. Wh0misDS achieved a world record with a 3:12 out of the blue. Currently minnowsr is going for a time faster than that, and already has a 3:12 as well. Make sure to watch him. His progress has been great and he had revolutionairy impact on DS Pokémon games by figuring out a lot about spinners in those games.

Pokémon Red - Any% Glitchless (1:46:33, 10th):
Pokémon Red has to be my favorite speedgame of all time. Mainly because of Red racing and because of the EU friends I found through Red back in the day. Grinding Red has always been a pain for me though. The standard in this game is very high, as the game has a lot of runners, and because of the fact that risky plays pay off big time compared to most other Pokémon games. Last year, in preperation of the Red tournament, I started playing Red again to get back in shape. I am really happy I got to finish a 1:46 (no silph bar), and I don't think I will be going for a better time unless something major changes in the route.

Pokémon Red Tournament 2020 (eliminated in Round 3):
I felt very good about the Red tournament this year. I was doing a lot of casual races with very good results. My rivalry with Pinkish_princess in daily races was especially really fun, and I think we pushed each other a lot to improve. For the tournament, I had even more backup strats prepared than in 2019. Safety seemed to be the winning formula for the most part. Getting eliminated in Round 3 felt bad, mainly because I had lost a lot of time to an unnecessary risk I took that I normally wouldn't take. I would have had prefered going out while playing more of my normal style, but it is what it is. The rest of the run was rather unlucky anyway. Crafted ended up winning the tournament, which in my opinion was very deserved with how consistent he played all those weeks. Him winning, also meant that the ideology of safety had won.

Break period:
After the tournament, I took a very long break from speedrunning. I felt quite burned out. I jumped into many games last year, and racing a lot of Red afterwards got me quite exhausted. I also started my first 'serious' job last year, and I had a looot of issues throughout the year charging up for my work days with how much I ran games. It was hard for me finding a good balance, and by the end of the 2020 tournament I felt like it was enough for a while. I also been having a lot of stress and worries about work. Upcoming year I will most likely try to find something else that hopefully motivates me more. I will most likely not be able to invest a lot in speedrunning again until I feel like I am in a happy place within my work and private life. 

Pokémon Platinum - Any% Glitchless (3:47:38, 6th)
During my Christmas holidays, I slowly felt like trying some speedrunning again. Crafted had been working on an alternative route in Pokémon Platinum with Chimchar. This obviously had me really interested. It's been really fun playing this game a bit, and seeing the route evolve. Very huge shoutout to Crafted with all the work he has done. Hopefully I will PB again once or twice, but I won't hard force it, as my holidays are over. I mainly am hoping that Crafted and perhaps others (pokeguy mentioned he's interested) keep playing and contest werster's Piplup WR.

2021 plans:
No real plans. As I mentioned, I need to figure some stuff out for myself in both my career and private life. I will just do a bit of speedrunning when I feel like it and when I have time, and try to keep following the scene as much as I can. I'm also hoping on-site marathon events can happen again later this year. I miss my speedrunning friends. Lots of good memories, hopefully more to come!

Love you all