Yesterday, the top two Super Mario Bros 3 speedrunners faced off for a race that ran into problems - including game crashes. Despite the hurdles, speedrunners Mitchflowerpower and GrandPOObear bounced back and showed sportsmanship and skill under stress.

Summer Games Done Quick returns for its eighth year today with speedrunning performances across a number of classics, starting with Banjo-Tooie.

A lot of people played video games very quickly last week, raising $US1.7 million ($2.2 million) for charity in the process. All of the speedruns at Summer Games Done Quick 2017 were entertaining, but if you don't have time to catch up on them all, here were some of my favourites.

Seven days later, this year's Summer Games Done Quick speedrunning marathon has come to an end, but not before raising $2.236 million for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).

The first week of July means it's time to get ready for the annual Summer Games Done Quick speedrunning marathon. The event is now in its fifth year, and SGDQ 2017 has an especially stellar line-up of games.

Six years ago, Awesome Games Done Quick started as a small outfit of speedrunners who played games to raise money for cancer prevention. Since then, AGDQ has ballooned into a big event: this year alone, viewers donated $US2.2 ($3) million dollars for a good cause. The added visibility has brought new challenges, as runners and organisers butt heads over rules that dictate what is banned from the event.

There were some remarkable speedruns at Summer Games Done Quick 2016, but this might be the most impressive: Rezephos blazing through Super Mario World without getting a single mushroom, fire flower, cape, star, or Yoshi.

Video: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is one of the best -- maybe even the best Zelda game, so it's a treat to watch speedrunner ZorlaxSeven blaze through it all in just under an hour and a half.

Video: Eeveespiritt's Summer Games Done Quick speedrun of New Super Mario Bros. 2 had almost reached the final boss, when everything went black.

Some people play video games to relax or have fun. Others try to go as fast as humanly possible, spending hours and hours finding tricks and battling against the clock of their favourite games.

You may have missed the Chrono Trigger speedrun at Summer Games Done Quick, mostly because it took place on a late Saturday night and we all have better things to do on late Saturday nights, like play Chrono Trigger.

Did you know that you can beat the original Legend of Zelda without using a sword? No, you did not know that, because it's not true. But you can beat almost all of it -- up until the very last battle.

One of the best video game series to speedrun is Mega Man, a set of platformers about a blue robot who must fight against the evil entity who created him, Capcom.

Did you know that if you press the right buttons in the right order, you can manipulate Earthbound's random enemies into doing whatever you'd like? No? Now you know.

On the left we have aspiring voice actor Patrick "Patty" Cullens, aka PCULL, whose mother may or may not have been murdered by a windmill. On the right is MrWeables, who possibly lives in a rustic castle with Will Ferrell. They're playing a game you've probably never heard of, and they're hilarious.

You may have heard of the Summer Games Done Quick livestream -- it's an annual charity even to raise money for Doctors Without Borders. It also plays host to some of the most insane gaming moments I have ever seen. Last year one of the highlights was the Tetris section. Players were doing things with Tetris that I literally couldn't believe.

Well, the guys are about to livestream Tetris. Consider this a public service announcement.

Forget the sun. Forget the beach. The only island you need concern yourself is Yoshi's Island, the first of more than 140 video games being speedrun to benefit Doctors Without Borders during the 2015 Summer Games Done Quick Marathon.

Summer Games Done Quick is over, but the crazy speedruns and insane moves will live on forever. Here are six awesome runs, all from the SGDQ speedrunning marathon last week.

I've been watching Summer Games Done Quick all week, and although there have been a whole lot of great moments -- Zelda: Oracle of Seasons was awesome! -- my favourite runs so far are the Mega Mans.