Speedrunner Jhay has been dominating theSuper Mario Galaxyscene, including both the original game and its sequel. Over the years, he has managed to grab most of all available world records, with only two not in his name currently. However, he is far from done with the games, andeven the recent world record at speedrunning event Games Done Quickdidn’t quench his thirst.
He’s only 21 years old and has been more seriously speedrunning games since he switched fromSuper Mario Odysseyand others toSuper Mario Galaxyin 2020. In three years, he’s turned froma fan of speedrunninginto a well-known competitor. Game Rant recently spoke with Jhay about speedrunning, his community, and his future ambitions.
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Journey From a Fan to a World Record Holder
Like everyone at the top of any profession, discipline, or game, Jhay wasn’t superhuman when he started to run games. In fact, it took a while for him to find his way into speedrunning, and even more to find himself at the top of the leaderboards for his now-favoriteMariotitles. He was always a number-oriented person and was competing against himself, timing everyday activities. It only made sense that he would eventuallyfind his way into speedrunning games.
“Even when I was younger, I was always trying to just do things as fast as possible, even just in regular life. Even when I was younger, like going around on my bike, I’d always time myself.”
Right after theintroduction ofSuper Mario Odysseyin 2017, Jhay wanted to try his hand at speedrunning the newly released game. However, the spark didn’t last and Jhay could run the game for only a couple of months before looking at other opportunities. For years, Jhay would try different games without really committing to any one of them.
Around three years had passed since Jhay had done his first speedruns inOdyssey, and he met community members that were looking to change scenery, too. One of his friends, a speedrunner by the name of Sailo,suggested the older Wii titlesfrom 2007 and 2010,Super Mario GalaxyandSuper Mario Galaxy 2. Jhay began speedrunning these games, which launched him on a path that not many would have expected.
Dominating Super Mario Galaxy
Jhay had found a game that he really liked, but he was still far away from the greats inGalaxy. He was enamored by the skill and determination of some of the best in the discipline, and couldn’t imagineperforming speedruns with such speedand accuracy. He kept watching Mr.CloudKirby, a world record holder at the time, for hours with his friends. He was admiring the runs, but certainly learning tricks, too.
Years of dedication, or addiction as he puts it, led to him becoming one of the more dominant players in any speedrunning game. He’s now holding world records in six out of nine main categories in bothSuper Mario GalaxyandSuper Mario Galaxy 2. Moreover, he just recently managed to perform a world record run live on the most prestigious speedrunning challenge,the charity event Games Done Quick. Even though he was preparing for it, he couldn’t imagine how the live event would unfold. Speaking to breaking that world record live, Jhay stated,
“I didn’t think it would actually happen. I would be too nervous for that. But for it to actually happen, it just completely blew my mind. I don’t think anything like that’ll happen to me again.”
Jhay isn’t done with speedrunning, not at all. Even after admittedly fulfilling one of his dreams with the world record atthis year’s Games Done Quick, he wants more. While he had been focusing recently onSuper Mario Galaxy 2runs and managed to take the cake, he’s now ready to switch back to the original title. Fortunately for Jhay, the two games he runs are not too dissimilar, which makes the switching easier, but maps still need to be somewhat relearned.
Nine months ago, speedrunner xzRockin took one of the world records from Jhay. This Mario Any% record is the most competitive of theSuper Mario Galaxyspeedrun categories, and Jhay is dedicated to getting it back into his name. As he is focused on this specific record, he also has an ultimate goal of having every single WR in bothGalaxygames under his belt. However, even he doesn’t know if it’s possible, which speaks to the competitive nature of speedrunning in the industry.
I’ve been spending a lot of my time recently re-learningSuper Mario Galaxy 1, the original game, so I want to try and get some of my old records back on that one. And my main goal is to try and get all nineGalaxy 1andGalaxy 2categories at once. But I don’t know about that. That’s a rough one.
