Ironically, the way to complete a game the most quickly is in fact to complete it very slowly.

This video is a lie TAS is just the greatest Speedrunner alive. Trying to be brought down by the haters.

As a TASer myself, I cannot thank you enough for making this video, Gymnast. I'm sure you know, like me, how many times we get asked "what's a TAS?", or even get bashed at because people think we are "cheating". I've always had some problems explaing in the comments under my TAS videos what a TAS is, now I got this perfect video to link to anyone who's curious, like I was back in the days. Thank you again, Gymnast.

"We need to get rid of mistakes" Aight peace out homies

I swear to god I thought you guys might have just been done with the channel and I was so bummed. PLEASE keep this going. You guys are literally the perfect culmination of people to show ANYONE something cool from a speedrun. Aka y’all are gonna bring soooo many people into the speedrunning community in such a positive and incredibly knowledgeable way. And you guys make things I may have even known before interesting. it’s sick. There’s so much I love about this channel. You guys deserve the views/love.

I thought that you were joking with the title but then I realized it was a real TAS lol

Really good look into TAS as an art! I was personally dismissive of it until seeing pannenkoek's work on Super Mario 64. The amount of knowledge he'd learned in this game just blew me away

One of the greatest phrases in speedrunning is when a runner shouts out "i beat the tas!!!"

the thing i didn't expect out of the speedrunning phenomenon is the sheer quantity of high-quality educational videos about computer science (and adjacent disciplines, like problem solving and designing solutions) presented in a way that's meant to be understandable to casual audiences.

I never like it when someone refers to TAS as a "cheated" speedrun. If it's openly advertised as TAS, there is no cheating. Cheating is when you try to use TAS to get ahead in the leaderboards.

All the respect to the people who put all that effort into TAS. Without them, speedrunning wouldn't be the same, so many things would never have happened. So many discoveries unmade.

I really like that you mentioned how a TAS is only as close to perfect as the TASer is willing to push it. Aside from incredibly short runs, it's basically impossible to make an entire speedrun that is actually optimal because you reach a point of diminishing returns. Your initial time investment of an hour might save you 7 frames on a section, but another hour could potentially only save you 1 more, and at that point the work is so tedious that it's not worth the headache for most people.

I love all of these videos but I gotta say the Livesplit example without decimals was cursed beyond belief.

A few days ago I thought about this channel and it being like a month since the last upload, so it's nice to know this channel is still going.

And here I thought TAS was the worlds greatest speedrunner :(

A bit outside of the actual scope of the video, but I feel it's noteworthy to point out that Sum of Best isn't always going to point to an achievable time. Occasionally you get situations where a mandatory action that takes some time can be in one segment in one run but a different segment in another run depending on what is fastest at the moment, and so a sum of best shows an imaginary run where that action never takes place.

I'm constantly impressed by the work of speedrunners.

I couldn't understand what the game in the intro was, then I realised it was link fucking gyrating back and forth

Been a while since we've had a Lowest Percent video! Looking forward to this.

It's so insane how different a game can look from an RTA run to a TAS. In Battle for Bikini Bottom (the speedgame I personally run), the any% TAS and the any% World Record almost look like entirely different games. The funniest part is, the TAS can only be done of the gamecube version of the game (Dolphin), while the fastest version of the game is on original Xbox, which means the TAS loses over 7 minutes in load times alone over an RTA run on Xbox, but it's still 6 minutes faster than the current record. In terms of gameplay the TAS is theoretically ~13 minutes faster than RTA (WR is 45:07 as of writing this, was in the 47:XX range when the TAS was made, and the TAS is a 39:20) Was just wondering when a new lowest percent video would come out too, very happy to see another great video :)

There are also many TASses whose objective isn't to beat a game the fastest possible, but instead to showcase unusual technical aspects of it. That Pokemon Yellow TAS that makes you go through several different games comes to mind

I started watching other speedrun stuff cause I was like "hey they haven't done a vid in a while" and boom here we are

As a longtime fan of TAS runs, I was so excited to see a TAS-focused video in my subbox. This channel has been a gateway drug to various aspects of speedrunning and I love how accessible these videos are for people like me who don't actively follow all the major speedrunning scenes.

I really enjoyed this! I see the word TAS get thrown around in the speedrunning community, but I only had a nebulous idea of what it entailed. I thought gymnast did a very good job of explaining how it works to an outsider like me and even showing the appeal of being a TASer. Nice work!

still the best speedrunning channel on yt

Been looking forward to this! Thanks for the hard work.

Another great video! Always love seeing new uploads from this channel.

There is another reason to TAS, vengeance! I am told that one of the early MM2 TASers got into it as he'd never been able to beat it as a kid. The other interesting thing with TASs is in some cases they aren't very interesting to watch, but the explanations of how they work can be fascinating.

All explanations and analogies were on point. The editing was also spetacular, it illustrated the narration perfectly

I've been aware of the basic concepts of TASes for a few years now, but I've always been hazy on the details. Thanks for giving such an informative and comprehensive summary! This feels like a great primer on the subject.

I absolutely adore this channel. I've only a passing interest in watching speedruns but these kind of information deep dives I love! Keep it up.

I love the editing on your contributed vids on this channel man, it's concise and funny without losing any information.

I've been waiting with much anticipation for the next vid. You guys got me more interested in speedruns than just watching them.

Another hit from Gymnast 👍 It would be cool to see an episode on how the concept of splits evolved, and the development of livesplit and how it entered widespread use

Even as a long time Speedrun watcher and enthusiast since 2005ish, listening to you cover the basics was somehow still very entertaining. You're very good at this job. Awesome work man. Please keep making these videos!

the smb3 tas that lasted literally under a second is the coolest thing i found out about from this

God I love this channel, please don't stop uploading! Don't be afraid to bring more creators on board if necessary, it'd absolutely be worth it

This is a great breakdown on many aspects of TAS-ing. It's not as entertaining as real-time speedrunning, but it's still great to see the product of your hard work replayable, preserved and most importantly, entertaining to watch. Many kudos to all TAS-ers and programmers who made it possible.

FINALLY new LP video!! Amazing work, love it!

Gymnast video let's gooo. Great as always, this channel's content is amazing. Keep up the good work!

I love this channel I've been watching speedruns of various Mario and Zelda games since ganondoor was found, so I know all of what you're talking about, but I always learn something new, even though these videos pace like an introduction to speedruns

Great video. Finally, I understand a lot of TAS related stuff. Thank you.

Props for pointing out the limit of knowledge for TASing; that's something I'm not sure some people realise, and is why TASes become obsolete. It's like RTA runs are the human limit of execution: you can have all the big brain strats, but do you have the fine motor skills, reaction time, and endurance to pull them off consistently? Whereas TASes are the human limit of knowledge: motor skills are out the door, but do you know every mechanic, glitch, and level layout inside out to find the optimal route?

Gymnast is straight carrying this channel. Love you buddy, Your grinding is much appreciated by many people.

I always think your videos are the best and I look forward to them

excellent video, really made me appreciate the art of TAS creation

This was an amazing video, I missed these videos and I’m excited for more!

Incredible video Gym. I think that's the first video that I've seen that actually explains how a tas works.

Every video this channel puts out is of the utmost quality. Congrats on getting 225k subs so quickly!

yessss gym is my favorite collaborator on this channel 👏 so excited to watch

Came here to see the 0.78 second SMB TAS in the thumbnail, never have it explained.

got me fucked up that I checked your channel right now to see if you updated after weeks of not checking and you did 6 hours ago. Blessed

8:12 IN WHAT PINNED COMMENT?

Dude you are a poet. Such eloquence. Weaving captivation into words.

I've never quite understood how TAS runs can account for RNG but you explained it so perfectly!

I asked this question on a kosmic video a couple weeks ago. This was a satisfying answer!

5:44 I'm always happy when someone knows about a hat in time

Thanks for this great video!

I just subscribed last night, woke up now, seeing the new video, I sure didn't expect this :)

Thanks for introducing the concept of a TAS to me. Very entertaining indeed ❤

Shoutouts to that dude DyllonStej that is making another Super Smash Bros Brawl Subspace Emissary TAS

I really love the Videos here! The best by far are the one from Gymnast!

The closest thing to a solution to that dreadful sensation: "If only I would have ..."

I’ve been wondering how people do this for years

I love watching TAS runs, but I could never stand making one. Mad props to all TASers!

Every narrator on this channel does a great job, but gymnast is my favorite.

new lowest percent vid hell yeah! love what yall do with this channel!

awesome video gymnast ! great to see a new lowest percent video from you !!! 😀

Very well-made video. Thanks

A new Lowest Percent video is always exciting

Rewatching this video today, I love how the strat used to showcase "adding a few TAS-only skips" at 7:52 is now done RTA in the world record.

Great video gym (as always!)

"This inspires people to find setups for glitches that people thought were tas only" *Cough Cough, Super Mario Bros*

Great vid guys, keep it up.

TASs are amazing technical achievements, but show some love to their little brother, LOTAD - Low Optimized Tool-Assisted Demonstration (which happens to be my favorite niche speedrunning acronym, lol). Basically, "We found some new speedtech that's (maybe?) TAS-only, but aren't going to write an entire new, perfect TAS just to show this one cool new thing off. We'll just focus on getting the cool new thing right; the rest isn't particularly optimized."

Ok why are not alot of vids are made you guys are soooo good it makes me intrested in the history of speed running and the glitches involved

Love this collab channel

YAY THEY POSTED AGAIN! I LOVE THIS CHANNEL

I wish I can meet this TAS guy. Seems like he has a lot to teach!

Okay video! Thanks for uploading!

this channel is amazing

If we discover interstellar travel, it might be a speedrunner discovering the glitch in the matrix we need to do so.

It finally just clicked for me. Gymnast86's voice reminds me of the main narrator of TED-Ed, Addison Anderson.

This was a really great video!!!

This was great. you should do more how-to-creation videos, it's good for the community.

Love the videos this channel puts out. Thanks guys!

Gymnast is such a great narrator

while the episode upload is so spiritic, the videos are always so goooood!

I hope this channel uploads more often in the future

The legend has returned!

I love this channel

Something I didn’t need to know, but now I am glad I’ve learned

The S in TAS can also mean Superplay, without the intention of going fast. Examples of these can be "random route" TASes which complete a goal whilst going out of their way to show off cool stuff in the game, or "freeruns" which has the sole purpose of entertainment

yessssss they're back

Yeah Baby. You can play like TAS. Very Impressive. Back in 2004 I held the 16 Star Record for several years. Holy Moly

It's ironic you showed my Metroid Prime TAS during the "TAS Input" section of the video, when that TAS was actually made controller + keyboard hahaha

As a TASer of Super Mario 64, this is a great overview.

Whenever I watch a TAS I feel as if anything is possible-

zayloo killin' it

I like this because I feel like it's often considered that TASes are the 'no effort' speedrun. Like yeah they're cute to look at, but it's not done by a skilled runner and is basically just a computer playing a game. But that's just... wrong! Not only are _tons_ of TASes made by people who also do regular speedruns anyway, the amount of work is insane. It often takes a group of multiple people over multiple months just slowly crafting out something that exists solely for the sake of our entertainment and a community's research. I'm really glad they do what they do, because the relationship between speedruns and tool-assisted speedruns is a very fun one.