Marble Blast Gold - World Record Rampage #5

Well done Kalle, and thanks for the explanation. Glad you got Matan's permission first, and given that it was only six hours I doubt it slowed down the process at all.

Comments for levels:

Platform Training 5.721 - I have no idea how that got WR other than the fact that I might've built extra momentum by curving out and in the level at the start. The start pad jump looked pretty bad and off center. I'll take it I guess.

Air Movement 3.121 - I wasn't even going for WR, just a PB. It took less than 10 mins to get surprisingly. We could probably save 0.10 if someone lucky enough manages to perform the sign hit, avoid the trimmed edge at the same time and hit the finish on the way down, no bounce. But good luck.

Super Bounce 2.907 - The 2nd 2.90 I achieved. I believe 2.89 is humanly possible on vanilla MBG with a grind. It's all about a 1-2f release on the natural bounce anyways. Kind of hard to time properly. I also have a 2.900 on MBP 1.14 (I think that's the version?) but it's not the original MBG so it doesn't count. Marble size is very slightly modified in MBP/PQ.

Gravity Helix 5.099 - I've rewatched my run multiple times and tried to figure out exactly when I rotated the camera but the camera rotations happen at the same time as the gravity changes. It makes it impossible to tell when to change angle. No idea. Got 5.099 twice too...

Platform Party 7.250 - I had to do a natural bounce on the finish platform since I wasn't sure if I was going to slide jump off the platform or not had I not NB'd. Pretty sure sub-7 is possible at 64 FPS with a proper angle and a slide jump.

Hoops 9.309 - That run was epic. The edge hit was super low, the recoil stop from the purple post was perfect and the final edge hit was as good as it can possibly get. Okay, the last jump can probably be done 0.10 faster but no thanks. Kalle, Cobalt and myself have messed around with a few different paths that might make sub-9 possible. Like most WR paths in this game, they're pretty stupid to execute.

Marble Playground 27.919 - I wasn't expecting this path to get sub-28 at all. The path is ''easy'' to perform compared to the previous one, but kind of unimpressive to watch. Regislian posted a TAS path (for now) that could give you a 27.4x or 27.3x and it's ridiculously hard to pull off...

Hop Skip & a Jump 7.777 - Lucky 7's. I wasn't going for WR at first, but my first finish on my most recent grind session was 7.889 and the run looked really slow. I kept grinding and got 7.77 with one of the best edge hits I've ever seen on that level. The gyrocopter flight can probably be improved by 0.05 to 0.10 at best I'd say?

Great Divide 16.609 - I messed up landing on the first Time Travel and lost around 0.12 - 0.15... Oh well, whatever. The second traplaunch was basically perfect, the final part of the run as well. I was lucky to hit that time with under 10 hours of gameplay. Shoutouts to Storminorman who will eventually get this WR.

Fan Lift 7.757 - I would never have grinded for WR on this level had it not been for Regislian losing the original recording of his 7.78 run. The initial fan jump is absolutely terrible and inconsistent to pull off and it doesn't help that for some reason, I can't use any jump setups on this computer... Like what? I had to time all of my starts manually and it was a pain in the butt. Also, this run doesn't perform any edge hit before the 3rd fan. I'm not sure which strategy is faster there. They're pretty close. One thing for sure is that you can get a much faster final corner clear if you skip the edge hit prior.

A-Maze-Ing 2.484 - This can probably go down to 2.45 with some insane speed between the 2 edge hits. Yes, there are 2 edge hits in this run and they're pretty annoying to go for even though they look like regular jumps for the untrained eye.

Trap Door Madness 3.310 - I've never gotten an ending like that ever again. It looks like a double edge hit with an edge slide right before catching the 3rd gem. DKman00 and myself found a similar tweak on the same day (April 1st 2019) although his was setting down a different trapdoor than me.

Whirl 4.287 - My best catch on this level is 4.282. At first, my best was 4.39 and I didn't understand how runners could get 4.30 catches. Then I watched Nature Freak's run and he was doing the quick double jump higher up on the half pipe than me. Actually, it's a quick bounce+jump instead of jump+jump. So...they helped me figure it out and I got 4.287 soon after.

Battlements 7.518 - At first I was kind of memeing about doing an edge hit on that trapdoor to get over the block. Ends up, it's like 1.30 second faster than the WRR2 traplaunch path. It even beats the log traplaunch path. All that's left is pulling off the infamous gate trap for a low 5.xx or high 4.xx time.

Pinball Wizard 3.002 - It's a little frustrating to be so close to the sub knowing it's very well possible. Best catches are 1x 2.98 and 1x 2.99, the only two recorded sub-3 catches so far. But I mean, who would want to grind this level anyways. It's so boring and difficult. Oh by the way, that 2.98 catch failed by missing the gem on the trapdoor. Yeah...

These are great, thank you!

If everyone was willing, we could also do an audio commentary at some point. I don't know when or if people would want to, but I thought it would be worth bringing up in case anyone wanted to plan for that.

Nature Freak wrote:
These are great, thank you!

If everyone was willing, we could also do an audio commentary at some point. I don't know when or if people would want to, but I thought it would be worth bringing up in case anyone wanted to plan for that.

I would love to participate in an audio commentary, great idea

Wowwww well done Kalle! I totally understand the mental block that this game can put on you—I had that pretty hard on Money Tree and King of the Mountain. Again, as long as you got permission from Matan, that's completely fine. He has the final say on these things. Congratulations on finally getting this run, can't wait to see it in the rampage!

That makes sense for picking who should take part. It also makes sense that HiGuy was in the previous commentary, even though he didn't have any runs, because he knew the most about the game mechanics. So I'm assuming that those of us who did run levels would send any significant details to the audio commentary people (if we're not in the commentary ourselves)?

Like for example, in WRR 4 for Hop Skip and a Jump, Xelna wasn't in the audio commentary, so you mentioned how it took Xelna 8 hours whereas it took Kalle only 1. So I assume you're just talking about little snippets of trivia like that? (Plus mechanics and stuff.)

The thing is if we do audio commentary, we really need to have every single comment written down for each level exactly how we want it. Reason is because the levels go by so quickly you only have time to say one sentence (especially true for beginner) so you can't go into deep explanation. There's a lot of cool info we could drop for each individual level. I'd like to suggest a level-by-level commentary instead that way the runners could take the time to think about their commentary, no pressure from watching WRR5 flying by and messing up.

I actually have a lot to say about a few levels and obviously you have no time to do so if you only have 6 seconds to talk.

That's why I liked the idea of the text comments for each level, so that we could provide more in-depth explanations that we wouldn't have time to in an audio commentary. And yeah, I agree that we should absolutely plan it beforehand, with who says what for which level. Maybe we could say the more interesting/important bits from the text commentary in the audio commentary? Or just say different things altogether? Lots of options here, but I would definitely like to do an audio commentary in addition to the text comments.

I think we'd need to coordinate our short comments in the audio commentary, because I'd imagine that people could bring up specific mechanics about other levels, and so if they're brought up twice that's not the best. I guess I'll work on notes for individual levels and if I am included in the audio commentary, because I have some things to add to my respective records.

Also I guess I'll add my Pathways time to this thread, Matan gave me an extension because I found a potential setup for the cycle skip, but I never managed to get it in the time he gave me since it is still incredibly difficult, but maybe some day someone will pull it off. Instead I was left with getting a faster run for the current cycle, still incredibly smooth and optimized for what it is

Pathways 19.133 - May 11

Well that's why the audio commentary would have to be relatively scripted, only including the most interesting bits of level trivia for the few seconds that each level is on the screen. I guess if you didn't end up in the audio commentary then either someone else who is in the commentary could say what you want to say, or they'll just say what comes to mind for general information about that level.

Fantastic work so far, basically perfection at this point in the game, lots of WTF times in here.

Elevator has been completely maxed out, the fact that DK and Xelna's runs are literally the exact same thing definitely shows that lol
Shock Absorber the first of many sub 3 times for this rampage...nice stuff
TaBA nearly a half-second improvement on a level that Dushine grinded like crazy and owned for several years...incredibly impressive.
Mine Field has an ultra-low edge hit and I can't even imagine grinding that level for more than one finish, so good stuff Nature Freak
Of course, as usual, the final 4 levels in beginner are where stuff gets really insane, Cobalt's edge hit tweaks on Pitfalls and Winding Road are awesome, as well as the new find on Grand Finale, replacing the hardest part of the run with...the hardest part of the run.

(also damn you Xelna for pulling a Nockess and leaving Super Bounce as a surprise sub...lmao)

Fantastic start to the rampage overall.

First of all, well done to everyone who participated, and to everyone who put in so much effort to this game in the last five years!

Thoughts on individual levels:

Collect the Gems: That was ridiculously tight. Seriously good start from Xedron! My 8.620 was a little sloppy at the end because I didn't trust myself to turn the camera the right amount, so I'm glad you fixed that in your run!
Jump Training: No idea how that was so low since he hit the edge on the way down and didn't do a natural bounce. Great job though!
Platform Training: Also no idea how that was so low, Xelna is as confused as I am.
Super Bounce: Such a satisfying sub 2.9, and at the last second too!
Gravity Helix: Okay even after years of seeing that 5.10 and 5.09 were possible I still just don't get it.
There and Back Again: A little off-center at the end but it will have to do.
Breezeway: The oldest run in this section, this was actually an accident. I was trying to do what Regislian did but got a bad start and this happened instead.
Pitfalls: I thought it must be something like that! But since there's a gap right after that hill I didn't think it would be viable. Good job!
Platform Party: A well deserved record from Xelna. Just enough height, super satisfying to watch!
Winding Road: Finally the backwards finish is back!
Grand Finale: Also very well deserved. Cobalt's tweak is amazing and one of the highlights of this whole video! Great way to wrap it up and I can't wait for Intermediate!

(Also Xedron: Mine Field isn't as hard as Learning to Roll or Bumper Training, because you don't actually need a frame perfect jump on the edge... well now that I think about it you do need a frame perfect jump at the very beginning so it's still kind of annoying.)

This section was absolutely amazing! There were so many highlights, and I can't wait for Advanced! Such a good job to everyone so far.

Jump Jump Jump: I love that we finally get a run which only uses five out of the six time travels.
Monster Speedway Qualifying: This path actually looks easier than the 14.80 path did.
Skate Park: Those minor-looking improvements helped save a whole lot of time, and that edge hit at the end was what we all deserve.
Ramp Matrix: It isn't a WR on Ramp Matrix without a ramp matrix or two.
Hoops: Soooo clean, one of the best runs to watch, and used a tweak that was over 10 years old!
Tri Twist: Okay that edge hit was crazy. Haven't seen much like it in this game before! Was the very last jump from the 12th gem to the finish a natural bounce?
Marbletris: I'll have to try this soon. Such a fast path, and incredibly well executed! I don't think Regislian gets enough credit here.
Space Slide: Loved the mine hit, although did it go below 30 FPS before it? I couldn't tell.
Skee Ball Bonus: The time travel catches were so clean. Great to see Regislian here again!
Marble Playground: I'd seen this one before but I'm still so impressed by this path, especially the upside down gems.
Hop Skip and a Jump: This is such a clean run and this is probably the lowest it can go without a different start or another method entirely. So satisfying to watch!
Take the High Road: No idea how you got that low. Whenever I did something similar the marble always slid off the second gem platform. Maybe it involves a natural bounce.
Half-Pipe: I laughed out loud at the ending—that was fantastic! Also I don't know how I didn't think of delaying the spin at the start in order to use the super speed more effectively—I'll have to try that out.
Gauntlet: Either this run is really good or this level is really annoying because this is the oldest record in the whole rampage, achieved on 2015-09-02. I'm still pretty proud of this, and surprised it never got beaten. Maybe one day.
Moto-Marblecross: I still can't see how that start pad jump is even possible. How do you go so low? The rest of the path looks a lot harder than the previous one as well.
Shock Drop: Crazy precise. I don't think I'll ever get 4.13.
Spork in the Road: The only possible improvement I can see to this is a bounce on the platform before falling down to the super jump rather than a jump. Unless it was a bounce, in which case I doubt anyone will ever beat this. This was insanely optimized, and even a better jump pattern at the end!
Great Divide: The hours of patience paid off for Xelna with a perfect second traplaunch, but I hope one day someone can improve this to go sub 16 (hopefully Storminorman—that would be well deserved).
The Wave: I was not expecting something like this. I'll have to try it myself and see if I can get any lower, although it looks pretty precise and finicky.
Monster Speedway: Holy crap hPerks absolutely destroyed this level! Even though I had seen this run months ago, it still amazes me just as much every time I see it. The precision required for all those natural bounces is mind-blowing, and I'd be very surprised to see this beaten any time soon. Definitely a highlight of the rampage so far, and it's close between this, Hoops, and Tri Twist for my favorite runs of this section!
Upward Spiral: Another super precise run. Cobalt's efforts paid off here. That edge hit is so satisfying to watch!

Overall, this section was outstanding! I've never been great at the intermediate levels myself but I'm sure this will motivate me to lower my times. I can't wait for Advanced on Tuesday—it's going to be wild!

Nature Freak wrote:
Moto-Marblecross: I still can't see how that start pad jump is even possible. How do you go so low? The rest of the path looks a lot harder than the previous one as well.

You have to jump at the edge of the start pad. The literal edge. It works for this level because the start pad is floating, but I didn't realize this until long after the fact. So it isn't luck-based, just extremely difficult. It is the hardest part of the run, bar none. I don't know if that is what hPerks did, though.

The rest of the path is fairly easy to do, but the hardest part is going fast enough to prevent time from restarting. I had 0.10 seconds of time bonus left when I finished. There were some changes I made to the path to ensure that I kept the time bonus, like going from a slide on the brick fence to a wall-hit on the green mountain as seen in the final video.

Before the rampage I was charged with the task of recording all the runs that had been done on Macs, which included all of mine, hPerks', and Eguy's Siege. So I had seen hPerks' Moto-Marblecross and he doesn't jump on the edge like you did. That makes sense that it's faster though—it's the same situation with Mine Field, where you jump on the absolute corner/edge of the pad in order to save time, and it's only possible because the start pad is floating very slightly. Sounds super precise, good job!

A wonderful closure to such a big project! Huge congratulations to everyone involved. Your hard work has paid off immensely.

Comments on individual levels:
Thrill Ride: Great new tweak! It's a lot more precise to get sub 3 now.
Money Tree: One of my proudest runs ever, taking around 83 hours to record. I'll go back to it at some point to try and get that perfect finish.
Fan Lift: I had no idea 7 seconds was possible without an edge hit! I think I can improve this by 0.1 with the edge hit once I get back to the Windows computers at school.
Leap of Faith: No idea how that went so much faster than the previous record. Apparently the tweak is "go left". I'll have to try it out myself.
Three-Fold Maze: Such a satisfying run to watch!
Tube Treasure: Genius tweaks and a perfect finish made this one of the best runs to watch. Congratulations Kalle on finally getting the sub 22, and a fantastic run!
Skyscraper: Catching that second platform cycle was so tight. What an amazing ending too!
Half Pipe Elite: I'll definitely try jumping directly down to the super speed on this one.
Block Party: Most obvious tweak ever. This will be an easy improvement to my own PB.
Escher's Race: This is the only one that actually caused me to pause in the middle of the rampage first time and go back to watch it again. Amazing stuff Cobalt, that edge hit at the beginning was perfect!
Will o' the Wisp: Such a tight ending that was so satisfying to see.
Survival of the Fittest: So happy to see such a low traplaunch, but the start alone can easily be improved by at least 0.15. This is beatable, but just barely.
Plumber's Portal: Is jumping directly to the second gem actually faster? I'd like to try this one again and see if it works!
Siege: Such a beautiful run, holy crap. It's been a longterm goal of mine to improve my PB which is currently garbage, so I'll definitely use some of these tweaks!
Ramps Reloaded: Also a beautiful run. hPerks really has a way with those super speeds.
Tower Maze: I will keep trying.
Acrobat: Subtle jump on the edge saves a bit of time, but this can still be improved by a few hundredths by going diagonally for the ending bit. Really proud of this one otherwise.
Mudslide: Ughhhh I really didn't want to have to play this one again but I might have to try that new start. Excellent work!
Pipe Dreams: Okay what the crap was that? That looked like a TAS it was so good! Maybe if I'm reeeeally bored one day I'll try it, but certainly not soon.
Airwalk: Honestly this just looks ridiculously lucky but it's Regislian so we know it's pure skill. I doubt I'll be doing this any time soon...
Path of Least Resistance: Finally! I didn't want my 2.83 with time starting back up to end up here... Glad it was beaten by Regislian who had it first!
Daedalus: This starting trick looks so precise... And the ending trick too... Actually the whole run is so precise, no wonder Xedron could do it.
Ordeal: Honestly I'm not sure why this is better than Xelna's 7.95 because it ends up higher on the finish pad. I'm probably thinking about it the wrong way because I only got this trick once and never again so I don't know much about the mechanics behind it.
Battlements: Fair play to Xelna for finding a faster route than the one I used. I'm still proud of the 7.980 log traplaunch even though it didn't get in.
Dive!: What an incredible time! Such a precise finish is required for anything below 12.1... That's incredibly impressive, nice work!
Tightrope: To quote the audio commentary for WRR #4:

HiGuy: If you loved Tightrope, you really will love edge hits on Tightrope... But if you loved just one edge hit on Tightrope, well hey, we got news for you—
Dushine: Another one. [...] We used to think that second edge hit was impossible to do.

Well if you loved just two edge hits on Tightrope... we got more news for you.
Natural Selection: This run held up well.
Tango: Same here. This was probably one of the shortest times I took to record any records: only a single afternoon.
Icarus: TAS tier once again! I don't even understand how that edge hit before the fourth gem is possible...
Pathways: Soooo smooth. Can't wait to see if a 17 second run happens!
Darwin's Dilemma: I could feel my heart rate increasing just from watching this. How you can get everything to go right in one run is absolutely beyond me.
King of the Mountain: Sub Nockess and I'm so proud. It feels great to end the rampage off with this. Might go back to it at some point because it is possible to go 0.2 faster but if I don't get it I'm very happy with this.

Overall, amazing video! I'm so proud of everyone who participated and made this a real actual thing.
My rating: 9/10, too many blue marbles. No I'm not being sarcastic because I have terrible eyes and couldn't tell some of them apart at first glance

I think I'll organize my comments in awards style rather than going level by level and explaining why things in this rampage are awesome since it looks like we won't be doing MBG WRR 5 awards like MBP WRR 3.

Most optimized run: Time Trial - this is hard because it is basically picking out of 50% of the runs in this rampage that appear to be at their limits, but this level is completely dead, nobody besides NF understands how this low of a catch is possible. Honorable mentions: Collect The Gems, Shock Drop, Thrill Ride, Pinball Wizard, Elevator

Best run under 5s (changed from 20s to 5s lol): King Of The Mountain - Optimized like crazy, too many annoying tricks in this level to count. This was also maybe Nockess's best cheated time, and the fact that it was beaten is insane. Honorable mentions: Darwin's Dilemma, Trapdoor Madness, Skee Ball Bonus, Daedalus

Best Tweak: Grand Finale - Tough between this and a couple of others, but this tweak takes away the most annoying part of the path, the ugly turnaround after getting the farthest gem. Looks really cool and saves a load of time. Honorable mentions: Tube Treasure, Pipe Dreams, Daedalus, Money Tree, Acrobat

Best New Path: Marbletris - Not narcissism because this path is 100% Regi being insane at the game. Everything goes by so fast you can barely even register what is happening before you finish. Really happy that this path was able to make its way into the rampage. Honorable mentions: Escher's Race, Monster Speedway, Ramps Reloaded, To The Moon, Skyscraper

Best Run: Tightrope - It isn't really close in my opinion, there hasn't been an example of a level so difficult being basically maxed out, as least from what I can see. Insanely clean run for having 4 edge hits. Honorable mentions: Hoops, Grand Finale, Monster Speedway, Money Tree, Tri Twist

Best Blooper: Idk we'll see. Thursday hype. I'll update then.

Rampage MVP: Nature Freak - I've seen some people make arguments that it should be me, but I didn't get 2/3 of the MBG WRs over the span of my playtime. Absolutely baffling. Well deserved in my opinion.

tl;dr the rampage was a solid effort, and the players are decent at the game.

Hi all! Just thought I would drop by and congratulate everyone on all their runs!

PS: Fork in the Road was the worst run

good job pressing 7 buttons with the correct order and timing guys

Okay so I'd really like to do an audio commentary. If anyone is interested please let me know—all I know for sure right now is that Matan, Mazik, and me would be potentially interested, but it would be good to get some more people in there who contributed more to the rampage as well. Also, what would the format be? Like the last ones where we talk over the rampage as it's playing, or would it be more in-depth than that? I'd want to plan it beforehand either way because I'm rubbish at talking spontaneously in groups.

My text comments on all my runs for WRR #5, formatted in the same way as the ones from WRR #2 (let me know if they should be changed to match a different formatting convention):

Learning to Roll (Nature Freak): The first of the three beginner levels to use the edge hit shortcut. This 2.287 was a surprisingly large improvement from the previous record, given how short the level is. The jump is frame perfect, and even so the final time is essentially random between around 2.26 and around 2.46, so this run is very well optimized.

Learn the Super Jump (Nature Freak): Due to the higher frame rate allowed in this rampage, the old way to start this level sent me a little too far, and so I just timed the jump to the sign manually in order to hit it at the right angle. It actually took a long time to get 2.909 because I was doing the trick wrong for a while before I got this.

Learn the Super Speed (Nature Freak): This time was improved millisecond by millisecond until I couldn't improve it any further. It requires very precise direction changes which were a pain to deal with, but this 2.755 could be slightly better.

Gyrocopter (Nature Freak): One of the shorter beginner levels. I used the natural bounce start to get a time of 2.743 after many hours of trying.

Time Trial (Nature Freak): By locking the frame rate at the default value instead of playing with unlimited frame rate, I was able to get a very low natural bounce and catch the time travel from the side. After a few 2.17s, it took less than an hour to get 2.168.

Shock Absorber (Nature Freak): Spent so many hours on this level, trying to get 2.87, but it never happened. I used Regislian’s method of waiting as long as I could before starting to move forward, in order to build up more backwards spin and finish much faster than the previous record. This 2.880 is extremely optimized.

There and Back Again (Nature Freak): I had a 7.76 that looked a lot better than this, but I knew it could go lower. Since the marble doesn't quite hit the center of the finish pad at the end of this 7.723, it can go very slightly lower, but this is still a very good time, beating the old record by 0.42 with a much faster double sign hit.

Marble Materials Lab (Nature Freak): This one took a lot longer than I thought. I had to lower the frame rate to 60 FPS to successfully use this path, because the jump before the second gem has to be absolutely perfect, or else the marble will go too high and not collect the gem. I tried playing some more at lower frame rates, but I decided to go with this run of 4.436 because 60 FPS is much nicer to look at than the minimum of 30.

Bumper Training (Nature Freak): The second of three levels with the edge hit across. Similarly to Learning to Roll, this time of 2.283 is very close to perfect, and on all three levels it's possible that a few milliseconds were saved by only jumping once on the start pad. Bumper Training is also harder than Learning to Roll because the edge isn't as high, so it's harder to get the shortcut.

Breezeway (Nature Freak): One of the only records from 2015. It's very optimized with this path, but there's another way to complete the level which could save a few hundredths of a second. It requires a corner hit though, so I went with the slightly more consistent sign hit to get a time of 2.552.

Mine Field (Nature Freak): This edge hit is subtly different from either Learning to Roll or Bumper Training. The start pad is raised very slightly in the air, so it's possible to jump on the very corner of it and then hit the edge, as opposed to rolling off the slope of the start pad and having to time the edge jump so precisely. So it was easier to get more finishes on this level, and I was able to bring the time down to 2.204.

Trapdoors! (Nature Freak): This is the shortest level in the game, in terms of elapsed time. It took several hours, but eventually I got a very low natural bounce at the start and finished below 2.2 with a time of 2.196.

Go for the Green (Nature Freak): This path is really fun and satisfying to pull off, but I have no idea how I managed to get this low of a time. If I try any more, I can't get below 3.3, so this 3.266 is definitely the best I can do.

Gauntlet (Nature Freak): The oldest run in the rampage, from all the way back in September 2015. The time of 8.814 barely beats the old record, and I was definitely not expecting such a good time. This is very well optimized, with one of the tightest edge hits in the game, and I'm glad I got it done early because it was super annoying to perfect.

Tornado Alley (Nature Freak): This took many hours to get a 2.68, because the start pad is sunk into the floor so it's much harder to jump off of the sloped edge in this level than in most others. This 2.688 is still my best time, even though it was played on my old computer, so I've given up trying to beat it.

Money Tree (Nature Freak): This level definitely tested my patience more than any other. It has the longest final time in the game of 34.173 seconds, and it took me approximately 83 hours to record, the longest of any of my runs. The first two edge hits have to be almost perfect in order to get to the launcher fast enough, and the third edge hit inside the launcher gave me a lot of trouble, since it took a long time to get the correct height from the launch. It was definitely worth it for the final result, and this is one of my proudest runs. Only a little bit more time could be saved by not having to go around the tree trunk at the very end.

Obstacle Course (Nature Freak): I had the idea to get a lower edge hit and then use the super jump to get up to the finish. This 3.959 only saved a couple hundredths from the previous record, but it’s a lot of fun to watch.

Slip ’n Slide (Nature Freak): I’m quite sure that the only reason this run is faster than the previous record is because I jumped on the edge rather than bouncing, which gave me a bit more forward momentum. This is a really inconsistent trick, very close to optimized with a time of 4.746.

Ski Slopes (Nature Freak): The hardest part about this path is getting from the second time travel to the third. After that it’s easy to finish, but less easy with time still stopped. This was my best time travel catch of 1.947, and it can probably go a few milliseconds lower.

Free Fall (Nature Freak): Another very linear level. For some reason the marble falls faster by sticking to the wall, and the harder it hits the wall before sticking, the faster it falls. I had to hit the wall as hard as I could without bouncing off of it to get this time of 6.613.

Acrobat (Nature Freak): The last run I recorded for this rampage. First I found the edge hit and got a 7.86, then I realized that it’s faster to bounce before the sign hit and jump on the edge before using the super speed. I’m very satisfied with this time of 7.770, and it was a good end to almost five years of recording.

Shimmy (Nature Freak): Not much to say about this one, other than that it took a surprisingly long time to get this 2.345. The wall hit is less consistent than it looks.

Eye of the Storm (Nature Freak): Apparently delaying rolling the marble until just before Go saves a few milliseconds. My best time travel catch was 2.615, but I could never finish in time, because it requires a lot of precision and some luck for the edge hit, so this 2.618 is good enough.

Natural Selection (Nature Freak): My only traplaunch record, and I’m very proud of it! This must be just about as good as it’s possible to get on this level without doing some sort of crazy edge hit, because I just barely stayed in bounds and finished with my best catch of 5.407.

Tango (Nature Freak): Wow, this came out of nowhere! I was just trying to get 2.5 like the old record, and then must have hit the corner towards the finish to get a completely unexpected time of 2.358. I’ve never tried to replicate it, but it looks very optimized.

Under Construction (Nature Freak): I never thought this level could go this low. It’s a bit harder than it looks at the end, because careful control of speed is required in order to collect the second time travel and to not fall off the platform near the end. I was able to get to the first brown platform more quickly due to a manual start, which saved a relatively large amount of time, to finish with a time of 2.449.

King of the Mountain (Nature Freak): This was probably the hardest of all my runs to pull off, and the one I’m the most proud of. It took around 63 hours of hard work to get a good rock jump at the beginning, an almost perfect edge hit, and a perfect finish on top of that, without hitting the wall at the end, all in one run. This could still be improved by around 0.2 with another time save I found near the beginning, but I’m satisfied with 3.590—the result was definitely worth all the time I put in.

Moto-Marblecross (BlastedMarble): This is a late submission, over a month after the initial deadline. The run shown is actually hPerks' path. I found it by envisioning an overhead map of the level and drawing a path outline. I knew what exact Time Travel he got first in his new path even before that time. The initial world record I got was 1.944, and, a few hours later, the host told me to send it, a testament to his leniency. Later still, I played the level more to try to achieve a 1.93 out of recommendation from the host. To get a time that low, you can't just jump on the slope of the pad like you normally would. You actually have to jump at the exact edge of the start pad. It is a similar case to Mine Field. In both levels, the start pad is raised slightly, allowing the start to be possible in specific levels like these. It is the hardest part of the entire path, without a doubt. The rest of it is fairly easy, but you may mess up at certain parts; And if you aren't fast enough, time will restart, but there were times where I had more than 0.30 seconds left on the clock bonus. There were also some changes made to the path between the 1.944 .rec and the 1.938 .rec to allow for more smoothness. Examples include going from sliding on the side of the brick fence to wall-hitting on the green mountain before grabbing gem 1 and not jumping on the mini mountain before gem 6 like everyone else who discovered the path evidently did. The funny thing is, I wasn't the first to discover the path independently, but that doesn't really matter now. It is a great path. Nifty one, too, as hPerks himself suggested. I wouldn't have figured it out sooner besides the first Time Travel.

For my Siege run:

"First off, I’d consider this to be one of the greatest paths of all time, and the fact it has remained for nearly nine years is telling. It uses the super bounce in ways never seen before or since, yet every “WHAT THE JEEF” moment makes complete sense. And it’s just SO. HARD. Countless times I fudged the final edge hit by getting stuck to the wall. Xelna, you bastard. It started one morning in 2017 when I realized that Xelna’s run just missed out on an earlier launch-pad cycle, and began looking for ways to eliminate unnecessary bounces amongst the first four gems. That shaved off a cycle, and then, thanks to Xedron’s 5000 IQ idea of trying the other launcher, another cycle. All while using the exact same path. Cycle-based levels amirite?"

Feel free to paraphrase if you need; I'd love to have time to hear the commentators' thoughts as well as my own. If you don't have time for any of it here's an alternate version:

"I went fast"