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How Summer Games Done Quick is going 'Online' for 2020

Summer Games Done Quick begins in two weeks. We talk to Kasumi 'Sumichu' Yogi about how the team has prepared for a virtual speedrunning week in this exclusive interview.

Ozzie Mejia

August 3, 2020 1:30 PM

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Summer Games Done Quick is set to begin in just two weeks. The top speedrunners in the world will come together to run through some of the top games of the past and present. However, for this year, they'll be coming together on a virtual stage. The continuing COVID-19 pandemic means that the biannual event will not be held in Bloomington, MN, as was originally planned. However, the show will go on and continue to raise money for Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres). To learn more about what will go into this year's unique presentation and how the Games Done Quick team has adjusted to these changing circumstances, Shacknews spoke with GDQ Event Manager Kasumi "Sumichu" Yogi.

"It had been several months, probably since earlier this year when all of the information about coronavirus started spreading and we became more informed about the severity of the coronavirus," Yogi told Shacknews. "It was at that point where we kind of decided that we might need to consider alternate options for Summer Games Done Quick, because we do have a lot of people attending our events and it's basically a big place for speedrunners to get together in person, and meet, and hang out. But we were thinking about what might happen if someone ended up getting coronavirus at our event and, because of that, we decided to keep the safety of all of our attendees, our staff, our volunteers in mind and we decided to move it to an online event fairly recently. But we had been thinking about it and following the information for a pretty long time."

We also talked to Sumichu about the logistics involved in having every speedrunner go online, how Games Done Quick is handling the event on their end, and how the recent Corona Relief Done Quick event helped the team prepare for the upcoming week. We even asked a few questions about how the event as a whole is organized, such as how the team decided on the event's final game, Pokemon Shield.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the pandemic is ending soon. In fact, the end looks to be farther away with each passing day. So for our parting shot, we asked about whether January's Awesome Games Done Quick might also have to go virtual.

"For Awesome Games Done Quick 2021, we really can't say what we are and aren't going to do," Yogi added. "But we'll always keep the safety of our attendees in mind and that will always be number one to us. So if we have to make that decision, we will."

Summer Games Done Quick 2020 Online will run from August 16-23 with all proceeds benefitting Doctors Without Borders. The full schedule can be found on the Games Done Quick website. You can catch all of the action live on Twitch. For more interviews and content, be sure to follow Shacknews and GamerHub.TV on YouTube. And if you want the full, ad-free Shacknews experience, be sure to subscribe to Mercury.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?