The Switch is the one console with a controller that splits in two, but these AGDQ speedrunners still cuddled up to break Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Player5 and mikeysgone make speedrunning look so cozy
AGDQ is underway, and among its usual fare of unbelievable gaming moments, it's also had one that was unusually heartwarming: Breath of the Wild speedrunners Player5 and mikeysgone shared the same controller while completely obliterating Nintendo's open-world game. An any% run has never looked so friendly.
Of course, Switch controllers have the unique ability to split their Joy-Cons into two remotes, but that was too easy for Player5 and mikeysgone.
Sharing one solid Switch Pro controller instead adds "unique challenges to the run," Player5 astutely acknowledged during Games Done Quick. Though, it's difficult to ascertain any struggle from the way he and mikeysgone immediately and wordlessly manipulate their sides of the controller at the start of the run, accomplishing their first glitch – which skipped cutscenes and deactivated Breath of the Wild's 24-hour cycle as well as its elemental changes – in under 50 seconds.
For the most part, the rest of the run continues with similar, butter slickness.
"You might have noticed that they didn't even use [...] talking to coordinate," commentator RequiemOfSpirit said at one point, after the speedrunners silently executed a flawless mid-air windbomb, a tricky glitch. "That's because they can tell based on each other's movements and inputs what to do."
The two speedrunners seemed completely in-tune with each other – Player5 buttonmashing, and mikeysgone swiveling the left joystick like it was life-or-death. Finally, after just under 29 minutes, Player5 and mikeysgone delivered a devastating arrow to final boss Ganon's big yellow eyeball, and the any% run was completed, two guys, one controller style.
"That was crazy," mikeysgone managed to say after a few seconds of stunned silence.
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Ashley is a Senior Writer at 12DOVE. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.
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