SpeedRay 2024 - Speedrun Rayman 2 and win $100!

[Hunchman801]

Hi everyone!

We announce SpeedRay 2024, the fourth edition of our yearly speedrunning contest. After celebrating the 20-year anniversary of Rayman 3 in 2023, we have decided to go for a Rayman 2-themed competition this time, and given the success of last year's edition, we are happy to propose a similar format.

This time, the goal will be to complete the Sanctuary of Stone and Fire as fast as possible, but with all cages and yellow Lums collected! The run will have to follow the rules of the Any% NMG category, and the platform must be PC. Timing starts on first movement, and ends upon triggering the last cutscene. You may not enter the level with a Power Fist, and your life bar cannot be longer than normally possible at this stage of the game.

As for the reward, the winner will get a $100 Amazon gift card, and there's also Tings and a special rank for the others:

• First prize: $100 Amazon gift card
• Second prize: 2500 Tings and a special rank
• Third prize: 1000 Tings
• Consolation prize: 500 Tings

How to participate

All you have to do is record your playthrough of the level and send it to us by PM. Once the contest is over, you will be allowed to post it publicly if you like, but it should be kept private before that so as to make it more exciting by not revealing who is in the lead before the end.

Note that you may not submit older runs. The contest will run from March 1st to March 31st, and all runs must be recorded and submitted during this period. Submissions are not final, and you are more than welcome to keep posting better runs: we will only consider your best time.

Any questions?

Just post them here! And may the fastest win.

[hoodlumsworld]

Very cool! Some Lums are easy to miss in that level, I hope I won't have to restart too many times.

[EricZen]

Really cool that SpeedRay returns and that with a nice challenge imo. I think you wanna have Ray2Fix installed for that?

[Hunchman801]

Thanks, glad you like it! And yes, Ray2Fix is probably going to make everyone's life easier, and it might be needed in cases where the game does not function properly, such as a frame rate issues

[Croboculous]

Exciting! Would it be acceptable to use the Load Remover mod instead of using an autosplitter to get the loadless time? I don't know if that mod affects anything else. And that's assuming we are using loadless times.

[Hunchman801]

Yes, that's totally acceptable if it doesn't affect anything else, which I don't think it does.

[Niknud2005]

Boi I thought this would be easier...

[hoodlumsworld]

Tell me about it...

[aulos]

My right arm will remember it

[Hunchman801]

Thanks everyone for participating, I hope it was fun despite the challenge!

Please allow a few days for us to go through the runs and announce the final results. We'll be in touch very soon!

[hoodlumsworld]

Spoiler alert: I'm not winning this. But it was fun!

[PluMGMK]

I considered telling everyone I'd won for April Fools' Day But given the effort I put in, it's more likely I'll come last

[Hunchman801]

Just a heads-up that I hope to announce the results on Monday as I'm currently on holiday and traveling. Sorry for the delay!

[RaymanSpeedio]

I considered telling everyone I'd won for April Fools' Day But given the effort I put in, it's more likely I'll come last

THOU SHALL COMPETE WITH ME THEN.

[Hunchman801]

Thank you for your patience! It is now time to announce the results of this year's contest:

1. Torsinn: 14:27
2. EricZen: 14:49
3. Torcnein: 14:57
4. aulos: 16:49
5. DaveRattlehead: 21:08
6. PluMGMK: 22:52
7. hoodlumsworld: 24:33
8. Niknud2005: 24:48
9. RaymanSpeedio: 25:01

Congratulations everyone, and thanks for participating! The competition was intense this time, with some really impressive performances from our seasoned speedrunners. A true showcase of flawless execution and ballsy strats, but let's not forget our less experienced contestants, who came up with better adapted, safer strats that yielded more than commendable results.

I encourage you all to share your runs in this topic now, comment on the strategy you used, and how things went for you.

I've just distributed the Tings to everyone, and I'll be in touch with the winners for the other prizes.

[DaveRattlehead]

Congrats to the winners! Can't wait to see what you guys have been doing to complete the level in 14-16 minutes.
I would also like to congratulate the less experienced who at least tried. At least we got 500 tings! Should I feel proud to be the best of the mortals?

[Torsinn]

Thank you for organizing this, it was a lot of fun! And gg everyone who finished a run, it was not an easy challenge.
Here is my run: https://youtu.be/DC_pvRLpv0k
I used almost all the strats I knew and found, except 2: at the start of the extra temple, you can go straight forward to the bridge with a very VERY stupid jump, and to get to the secret entrance for the last cage you can jump over the lava with a precise plum bounce that was too inconsistent for me.
Now for a more detailed explanation of my strats:
The first 3 minutes are by far the hardest, with a lot of tricks that you have to get 1st try for a competitive time.
- The first damage boost to get the 1st lum is not too bad
- The 2nd damage boost with the pirate is maybe the most inconsistent strat, the pirate is very random on his movements and number of shots, so I used a kind of setup that's a bit slower but more consistent.
- The 3rd damage boost on the gorilla pirate is bad (found by accident by Thextera on his casual playthrough), the collision for the jump is really weird so you have to get used to it.
- The last jump to get to the 2nd cage without the plum is very annoying, you need a ledge boost which is kinda random
- You can see me being careful when getting on plums over lava because you can get trolled very easily, so I probably lose some time there
- The extra temple is very jank but if you know what you're doing it should be fine... Most of the time...
Afterward there is no big trick, some small skips here and there, a lot of things that can make you lose time but it mostly went well during my run.
Also the movement is very important, with the use of rollboosts for example.

[EricZen]

GG as well to every Participant and thx for organizing this contest. You can watch my run here https://youtu.be/LPlHmLtIzbY. It was a nice and fun challenge even though Stone and Fie can be very anoying as well. I basically used the strats Torsinn used as well besides the gorilla damage boost since i couldnt find a consintent setup for this. Basically my timeloss came from bad movement and the funny thing that happend to me at the end of the shell ride where i couldnt leave Part2. Sub 15 is definitly not a bad time but i think i could have done better.

[hoodlumsworld]

Congrats to the winners and thanks humch for organizing this!

Here is my run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CliScx2RxAE (sorry for the bad quality, I did not realize when recording)

As one of the mortals too, I did not go for crazy strats. Here is a breakdown of what happened:
- On the metal tower, I get the yellow lum the normal way using the sparadrap, not with a damage boost.
- Then I access the gorilla pirate cave the normal way too, with the plum and not the damage boost. But first, I get the yellow lum on the web because I won't be using it again (the plum is faster to travel to the next section). Committing suicide in the lava sends me back to the green lum by the plum faster than by running there.
- I ride the plum again to the optional underground section. Because I'm doing things the normal way here, I have to get the green lum there which means I'm losing well over a minute as committing suicide in the hot lava will not take me back to the first plum but rather to the entrance of the optional section. It's bad, but I can't make those jumps. Also, I was stupid and tried to use the use the plum I traveled on on the first post, something we all know does not work. I think this cost me a good 10s.
- It's pretty straightforward after that. I struggled to get the cage from the stone bridge at the beginning of the optional temple. The second one I also missed at first. Later, I grab the purple lum from the uppermost step because I couldn't consistently do it from the lower ones.
- I lost 20s due to dying in the lava section just before the spider room.
- I beat the walking shell ride on my first try, that was a first.
- This means I beat the mini Jano relatively fast thanks to the power fist despite that one-eyed idiot showing up late.
- THEN MY NIGHTMARE BEGINS.
- I died THREE TIMES in the plum riding section after that. That's over 1m30s lost. I really struggled to get that stupid yellow lum and almost died a fourth time.
- I go for the easy strat after that on helicopter to the super yellow lum. I alway miss it otherwise. I died when trying to land on the plum but it's only 5s lost.
- The yellow sphere section was sub-optimal and I threw it into the void twice. That's probably another 5s lost to stupid mistakes.
- FINALLY, THE NAIL IN MY COFFIN.
- I died at the VERY END of the slide where you're chasing the purple lums, just before the exit. Then of course, on my second attempt, I died on an earlier section on the slide. Another 54s lost to stupidity.
- Nothing notable after that, I'm just not sure why I almost jumped in the lava after catching the last yellow lum.

In conclusion, I lost almost 3 full minutes to stupid deaths, mostly in the late part of the level. I didn't have it in me to try again after that because the early level had been relatively OK, and beating the shell riding section on the first try felt like a gift from heaven. Maybe I'll do better next year!

[DaveRattlehead]

Time to share mine, I guess

I didn't have much time, but I finally managed to try this challenge a couple of times. I improved my initial time by a minute (I'd still have been 5th with my first try). It wasn't enough to win, but I don't think I could have done it much better, I don't know any of the speedrunning tips used in this game. Here's how I did it using a "normal" strat.

-Just like hoodlumsworld, I got the yellow lump using the sparadrap, I didn't use the damage boost. I tried not to waste much time fighting the pirate, I just waited to get the power first to kill it quickly.
-I get in the cave where the gorilla pirate is protecting the cage. I try to break the cage as fastest as I can and I kill myself falling into the lava to respawn next to the plum again.
-Then, here's probably the most complicated part of the run. There's a green lum inside the underground section. What's key here is not to get close to this green lum. I've probably lost 10 seconds here as I couldn't do it how I really wanted, but I managed to do it. I complete the rest of the underground section as usual, I break the cage and I immediately fall into the lava to respawn next to the plum. Even if this plan wasn't executed 100% correctly, I didn't lose much time here. Here's where I believe I gained some crucial seconds to become the best of the mortals
-I get the yellow lum located in the web and I immediately get on the plum again, it's faster to complete this section using the plum.
-I ride on the plum to the optional temple. I lose around 10 seconds collecting the 4th cage (bad aiming ) and getting killed in the dumbest way possible. The rest of the section was very smooth. I completed the walking shell section without dying.
-As I kept the power fist, killing the mini Jano was an easy task. Not much to say about this.
-I probably lose time collecting the super lum (I always use the helicopter; there's probably a faster way, but I just wanted to make sure I could collect it, let's say I lose around 5 seconds here).
-Collecting the 40th lum may cause you to lose A LOT of time! Luckily my jump was clear and I could collect it at my very first jump.
-Here's where I lost around 30 seconds... And it was probably the easiest section! When you collect the yellow sphere, there's a section where you have to shoot the plum. I got a bit impatient, so I threw the sphere as I thought it could reach the other edge. Unfortunately, it fell into the lava . I had to go back, collect the sphere again, shoot the plum again... What a mess in one of the easiest sections!

But hey, I gotta say I'll never be this precise in my life ever again

-Not much to say about the rest, I completed it as you would do in a normal run.

In the end, my optimal run would have been around 20 minutes (or maybe 19min50seconds), but I didn't have much time to try.
It was a fun challenge and surely a very interesting way to play Rayman 2. Just like it happened last year, SpeedRay made me discover optimal ways to complete a level

Thanks for organizing this Hunch, and many congratulations to the winners!