If there's one thing gamers enjoy, it's a challenge. If a fan has finished a title and wants to play it again, sometimes they'll use an alternate playstyle challenge for themselves in order to prove their skills. Two of the most well-known challenges players enjoy are Pokemon Nuzlocke challenges and speedrunning. Sometimes, however, speedrunning poses some serious risk to players' health, such as in the case of Linkus7, who just had a health scare live on Twitch.
Speedrunning is when a gamer decides to go through and try to beat a game as fast as possible, using many methods such as glitches and in-game skips. While several memes have come out of the challenge, including a ton about Super Mario 64, the intensity some challenges require can even cause physical distress.
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Linkus7 was attempting his latest speedrun challenge on Twitch, which deals with beating The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in under 20 hours. He was making good progress when suddenly he had trouble breathing. He quickly stopped the clock and told his viewers, out of breath, that he had a blood clot in his leg recently, and suddenly felt heart palpitations. Knowing it wasn't a good sign, Linkus7 ended the stream to call an ambulance. The moment was made into a clip, but it has since been deleted.
According to fans who kept each other updated on the situation, he stayed around in his chat on his phone waiting for the ambulance to come and get him. He was given an all-clear a few hours later and came back to continue the stream, before failing the run for not finding a Korok in time. Linkus7 once was a nurse, so fans say that he knew that the symptoms he was having could have been a sign that the blood clot in his leg may have dislodged and moved to a fatal location such as his lungs. Fans are also saying that being aware of the symptoms may have pushed him into a panic attack instead, since the signs he shows on camera resemble that more.
Regardless, it's things like this why many speedrunners attempting longer runs such as this include timed breaks, and Linkus7 made sure to do the same. It's unhealthy to sit for an extended amount of time without getting up and stretching every so often, and can lead to many health problems.
Speedrunning may be a difficult challenge that requires a fair amount of players' time and incredible knowledge on certain titles to pull off, but games should never come before fans' personal health. Hopefully, Linkus7's situation serves to remind people of just how important that is.