This past year has been a challenge at times with school and work, balancing my time between friends and responsibilities. Trying to keep up with friends from college while living 300 miles away now because of Covid hasn't been easy, and neither has this past year of grinding online courses. There's a lot about my life and myself that I wish I could change, but beyond that I really have a lot to be thankful for as well. Streaming has really become my new hobby/escape in 2021, and between streaming and getting to know so many different people this year, I have found a place, friends, and community (PSR) that's brought me so much joy. I'm looking forward to what 2022 will bring and what I find I can achieve.

2021 in Review
Jan/Feb - Emerald Any% Glitchless
I told myself I needed to stop grinding FRLG and actually play different games, and learning Emerald was so much fun. Took my time down from 3:13? -> 3:01 -> 2:54 -> 2:48 -> 2:42 - 2:40 -> 2:36 (11th at the time) before I decided to move on, but learning and progressing in this game was so much fun. Knew I was coming back for at least 2:33

Late Feb/May - FRLG Any% Tourney (+bonus game)
I did one Gold Glitchless run w/ manip and got a 3:28, was fun to play a Gen I wasn’t familiar with but I didn’t plan on grinding it further at the time. Not sure when I’ll come back to it but I plan to for 3:16

I decided to grind out Any% while the Tourney was getting going and was able to PB after 2 days (2:03:12, 10th currently). Felt nice but still don’t have the time I think reflects my skill in this game. When I comeback for the 2022 tourney I’m leaving with 2:01

The tourney was a lot of fun and I had a blast doing races all the time with people in the FRLG Racing discord. I reached the semifinals in the tourney but some disastrous misplays led to my elimination. Still happy with how everything went, plus I still have the best Squirtle in a race on record LMAO

June/July - Back to Emerald
I came back to Emerald originally to get 2:33/32 and got a 2:34 within about 2 weeks. I was finally starting to feel like I was going from good to great in this game, and my first chance came when I was sick on 4th of July and took 2:31/32 to Ray manip, but missed manip and blizz crits happen. Two weeks later I would get my chance again, and holy shit. 2:31:43, my best run in any game up to that point, still current 5th place, and compared to my expectations a dream come true. I stuck around a little while longer to see if I could improve again but left after a bit since I still had a time I was incredibly proud of.

August/September - Char R2 and Red Glitchless
I wasn’t really feeling any strong motivation to play a particular category so I decided to grind a month of Char R2. It was the R2 cat I knew the most about and doing an alt route made it feel more fun. I never got a spectacular time (3:51) but I did get a spectacular run (at least to Champ 1). 3:3x pace after Lance, 2 minutes behind Exarions Char PB. E4’s for Char are notoriously bad, and my PB is a prime example of this. This was my last run of the category, but it was fun playing fire instead of water.

I decided to join the Red Tourney this year to avenge my 20 minutes stuck in mt moon last year. I didn’t win my race or advance, but I did hit every manip first try and got an unsubmitted PB out of the practice leading up to it (2:01:51). Don’t know when but i will improve this time to at least 1:50

October/November - FRLG Any% and R2
Wasn’t sure what to play after the Red Tourney so after seeing so many people grind it I decided to hop back to Any% to see if I could get the PB I had been searching for. However as Any% grinding goes, nothing came of it. 
Got tired so tired of the Any% deaths I decided it was finally time to give the Squirtle - Mewtwo R2 run a try and decided I would give it a month. A lot of my PB’s were offline for this grind but on the very last day I hit my goal, 3:34:14. The run wasn’t all that spectacular and really if not for some silly mistakes should’ve easily been mid 3:33. I absolutely plan to come back to this category, as it’s the one that first got me into speed running Pokémon. Sometime in 2022 I’m gonna finish a R2 run in sub 3:30

Looking back I’m really proud of what I accomplished as a speed runner in 2021. I feel like my skill level took a big jump from where I was at the beginning of the year, but I’m still not content with where I’m at. There’s a lot of things I want to run and get good times in, but the only goal I’m going to have for 2022 for now is to become the next Gen 3 King. 

Thank you to everyone who’s watched or interacted with me this past year, it’s really meant everything. Here’s to 2022 and what’s to come, I hope you all enjoy it