Last weekend, Couriway hosted the Free 4 All tournament in partnership with Evil Geniuses. The open sign-ups meant that casual players and top runners alike were able to compete. We spoke to Couriway and some of the “underdog” runners to discuss how the event brought the entire Minecraft speedrunning community closer together…
“When I saw Couriway announce it, I got the impression pretty quickly that most of the community was going to be there, and that it was going to be the start of something even bigger,” streamer drainedxbrain, who also goes by DB, tells us. “I was excited by the opportunity to be a part of that.” DB has competed in a few lower-level tournaments in the past like Scuffed%, an All Advancements tournament for lower ranked runners, as well as more casual events with some of his friends. This was the first high-stakes event he has been a part of.
“I was nervous, but I also had so many of my friends there in my chat, just hanging out, so it was nerve wracking but fun,” DB explains. “It felt like I was in something like Mid-offs or Playoffs, the kinds of events that I got into speedrunning by watching. I would love to get to do more high-comp stuff that feels like there are real stakes.
Most tournaments are created with top runners in mind, with the expectation that viewers want to see high levels of mechanical skill and incredibly fast times – but the Free 4 All gave everyone a chance to compete when they might never have had the opportunity otherwise.
The audience also loved seeing the new players wouldn’t usually be in popular tournaments, latching on to the players who went up against runners far better than them and still managed to come out on top. “A lot of people ended up rooting for all of the underdogs as they were watching,” DB says. “For most of the people there, it was exposure to new people in the community.”
One of the most notable underdogs in the tournament was GlorpGaming, a.k.a. Jamie, a Coal-ranked player who made it to round four of the tournament. “My initial thoughts when signing up were: Screw it, I won’t get very far but I’ll have a good time,” Jamie tells us, “and so I decided to go ahead and sign up without any expectations for how I’d do.”
“I was matched up against an Emerald 2 player in round three, and at that point truly believed that was the end of the run,” Jamie explains. “I then proceeded to put up the best pace I’ve ever been on.” They ended up getting a personal best on that seed and moving on to the next round. After the tournament, the match was calculated to be one of the biggest upsets in the tournament. “The amount of support I got from the main stream chat was incredible, and the reaction Couri and Fulham had to my round three victory is something I’ll remember for a long time.”
“The pressure of having to play in a setting where you’re putting yourself up against the best in the world, let alone where you’re putting yourself up to lose against someone who’s just an average player or slightly above average when you’re a crazy good Netherite demon, it takes a lot,” Couriway, the organiser of the tournament says. Everyone is taking a risk and putting themselves out there to make the tournament as good as it possibly can be. “You want Coal people to play in it for upsets. You want top players to play in it to show that top speed. Every single person is important to have.”
“It was really awesome to see so many members of the community – not just the top players that you see in all the other tournaments,” one of the players, Mistralta, explains. She has been following the MCSR community for several years but only recently started playing MCSR Ranked seriously. She found that the Free 4 All tournament was a great way to be able to interact with the community more than she usually did. “Just being in that Discord server with a thousand other people who are just really into MCSR, chatting and asking questions about the tournament, was really cool.”
Many people – including DB, Jamie, and Mistralta – took the opportunity to reach out to their round one opponents after the bracket was first announced. “I was originally meant to go up against someone named Pplazzz in round one,” Mistralta says. “I looked them up on the Ranked website and they were Netherite. It was a little bit disappointing at first, because I feel like I have a good chance of beating most of the people in the tournament, so I felt like I got a little unlucky there.”
After getting in touch with her opponent, Mistralta explains that Pplazzz offered to coach her after the tournament, and how that turned the situation around for her. “I had been thinking about reaching out and trying to get coached by a top player, but I wasn’t going to do it quite yet. It actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise.”
“There are quite a few people I’ve met through the tournament, either by playing them or otherwise, that I hope I can continue to be friends with,” Jamie explains. “I’ve also seen first-hand how much the people watching the event really got behind the people playing.” Free 4 All highlighted how welcoming and supportive the MCSR community can be, and how driven the runners are at every level.
Couriway has expressed how happy he was that the community liked the event, and focused on the importance of creating a healthy community. “It’s really important to be supportive as a community to everyone playing in this, because that’s how these crazy moments can happen,” he tells us. “Hopefully there’s more of them in the future!”
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