Break the Record: LIVE 5 – Meet d_tea 
What is your greatest achievement in speedrunning Spelunky 2?
It’s hard to pick my best achievement, but the first thing that comes to mind is being Ranked 1 overall on [the platform] MossRanking. Out of my current WRs, the one I’m most proud of is my 3:00 min No Teleporter Any%!
Why exactly did you choose to run Spelunky?
What made me choose Spelunky was the random nature of the game. With every run being different, being good at speedrunning the game is mostly about recognizing familiar patterns and reacting to what the game throws at you, which I prefer over honing and repeating the same
Are you going to play it safe or are you going for the first place?
For [the category] All Shortcuts I’ll be going all in with speed since it’s a shorter category where I’m confident in being able to finish at least one run with a strong time, but for [the category] Cosmic Ocean I’ll be playing much safer until I get at least one clear. After getting a clear one that’s when the faster play will come out!
What do you think you need to do better? In other words, what tricks or optimisations are missing from your current performance?
Any improvements I need to make are going to be focused in the Cosmic Ocean category. Since it’s such a long category compared to how the game is usually played, safety becomes much more important and that requires a completely different mindset to how I usually approach the game. Instead of focusing on speed I need to instead tackle the levels in a way that minimizes the possibility of any run-ending event from happening.
What makes you stand-out from the other runners?
The main thing that sets me apart from other runners is how consistent I am at the game while still maintaining a fast pace. It’s no surprise that going faster involves more risks, and I think I have the best balance between playing fast and playing safe.
