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Shacknews E5 - Exclusive SGDQ 2021 interview with Kasumi 'Sumichu' Yogi

Summer Games Done Quick 2021 begins in just a few weeks and we get hyped for the event by chatting with GDQ's Kasumi 'Sumichu' Yogi.

Ozzie Mejia

June 16, 2021 6:15 PM

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Summer Games Done Quick is just a few weeks away. The week-long speedrunning marathon has become a seasonal staple, where the world's best runners come together to raise money for charity. While the event is at its best when everybody's together under the same roof, the continuing COVID-19 pandemic means Summer Games Done Quick 2021 will once again be an online event. To talk about the challenges of going online, the growth of Games Done Quick as a whole, some of the most exciting runs to watch for, and the potential timetable for returning to a live GDQ, we spoke with Games Done Quick Director Kasumi "Sumichu" Yogi.

Summer Games Done Quick will be the third of the core GDQ events to go online, following last year's SGDQ and January's Awesome Games Done Quick. The team also got some practice in with a special weekend event called Corona Relief Done Quick, back when the COVID-19 pandemic first started. Sumichu discusses the ways in which the events have pivoted to the online-only format, going into the challenges that have gone into running them. She also talked about how everybody has grown throughout the pandemic, whether as runners or as GDQ hosts.

Those who follow GDQ events are still holding out hope of an eventual return to a live venue. Even with vaccination rates increasing across the United States, there may still be some challenges that lie ahead. We ask Sumichu about that, the possibility that Awesome Games Done Quick will be a live event, and also talk about the hypothetical of what would happen if TwitchCon went on as normal and gave the GDQ team a call for a potential Games Done Quick Express.

There are some incredibly exciting runs coming to Summer Games Done Quick 2021. You can find the full schedule over on the Games Done Quick website. Summer Games Done Quick 2021 will run from July 4-11. We'll have interviews just like this one all week, so make sure to follow Shacknews E5 on Twitch and also be sure to follow our videos on demand over on the Shacknews YouTube channel.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?