ZSRMarathon 2021 benefitting PancOne Network - Oct 22 - 24!

Dear Speedrunning, Randomizer, Bingo, Challenge Run enthusiasts all over the planet: ZeldaSpeedRuns is thrilled to announce the latest installment of our charity marathon series - we're FINALLY back with the ZSRMarathon 2021.

This year, we want to bring our community together from the most classic Zelda experience all the way to the funkiest side game classics one can imagine to join forces for an amazing cause: To gather funds for the PancOne Network, an initiative by Pancreatic Cancer Canada to create a network of scientists and medics to fight pancreatic cancer the best way possible.

What is the ZSRMarathon?

The ZSRMarathon is an online gathering of every Zelda speedrunning community for 3 days of nonstop speedruns, races, randomizers, and everything that makes our community special. We're looking for YOU - a runner of any Zelda game, be it the classic TLoZ, a later game, a remake, an offshoot like CD-i, Link's Crossbow Training, Cadence of Hyrule or the Tingle games. If you think you have something that you want to show the world, we want to see it - to come together for the biggest ever Zelda speedrunning marathon.
Last time, back in 2018, we managed a runtime of over 62 hours, and this time, we want to take it even further. The event will take place live from October 22, 4PM UTC all the way until sunday night, October 24th (or maybe even 25th, depending on runtime).

The Charity: PancOne Network

PancOne Network is an international network of research institution including Johns Hopkins and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre who are working together to share ideas, data and findings related to pancreatic cancer. This initiative aims to better understand this disease to accelerate diagnosis, explore new treatment options for patients and ultimately save more lives.

We here at ZSR had the fortune to work with PancOne multiple times before, and they always have been supportive, grateful, and fascinated about what we do and about the support we can bring together as a community. Picking the charity for this marathon turned into a no-brainer, because we could not imagine a better partner than them. If you want to learn more about the network or Pancreatic Cancer Canada in general, make sure to check out their website!

Submissions

To submit a game, race, randomizer, or something else that you think is interesting, head to our Oengus Page. There, you will be able to submit to your heart's content. During the event, we will feature incentives, prizes, and choices for the audience to donate to, so if you have any ideas on how to involve our viewers, please make sure to include them with your submission.

Submissions are open RIGHT NOW and will close Oct 3rd at 11:59PM ET (4AM UTC). Note that not every run can be included in the marathon.
The picks will be announced on Oct 5th.

What else do I need to know?

The marathon will be streamed live on our main Twitch channel.

Commentary and everything else will be handled through the ZeldaSpeedRuns Discord server. During the event, you will stream to a dedicated streaming host instead of your own channel. However, we will advertise your own private channel through the layouts and the chatbot to give you the exposure you deserve for being a part of this.

For more information on the marathon, the rules for submission and during the event, head to our ZSRM rules page.

We couldn't be more excited to be back with ZSRM, and we hope you feel the same amount of hype. Let's make this something amazing together, for a great cause, for charity, and also, for our community: the ZSRFamily. Let's make this the biggest hurrah of Zelda speedrunning, to celebrate everything we stand for.

Please spread this announcement and invite people to submit their runs as much as you can, in your community, on Discord, Twitch, Twitter, or whereever you come together. It will help us to create something great!