Zfg

Zfg (stylised as ZFG and zfg, previously known as ZeldaFreakGlitcha) is an American speedrunner and Twitch video game live streamer. He is known for his The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask gameplay. He has held various records in speedrunning categories of the game and its alternative version Master Quest, most notably the 100% completion category for the original game, which he had held the record for since mid-2015. He is also known for playing through randomised versions of the game.

Zfg was the first speedrunner to utilise the "Ganondoor" skip in Ocarina of Time—a glitch that warped the player from the first dungeon of the game to the final boss. He was able to record and perform an early instance of a glitch that allowed players to equip child-only items as an adult. He became the first person to complete the 100% category of Ocarina of Time in under four hours. Zfg constructed a "Human Theory" tool-assisted speedrun of Ocarina of Time, which showcased the best humanly-possible time for the 100% category.

Zfg is known for his commentary during speedruns: He joined TaylorTotFTW to commentate on a tool-assisted speedrun of Ocarina of Time that beat all of the game's dungeons without opening any doors. He has performed and commentated speedruns at the annual event Awesome Games Done Quick; he ran the 100% category in 2015, 2018, and 2020. He also showcased various glitches found in the game after his runs.

In 2012, Zfg, then-known as ZeldaFreakGlitcha, was the first to use the "Ganondoor" exploit to set a world record in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's Any% speedrun category; the exploit allowed the player to teleport from Inside the Deku Tree, the first dungeon, to Ganon's Castle, the last. His record was timed at thirty-four minutes and fifty-nine seconds, cutting off almost 12 minutes off of the previous record. He and runners Sva, Chocopoptart, Narcissa Wright, Pydoyks, and Makaron continued to lower the record time with constant improvements to the Ganondoor route. He later optimised his time to be under 35 minutes. He lowered his time further down to twenty-five minutes and thirty-two seconds, reducing it to twenty-three minutes and twenty-nine seconds later on.

In August 2017, Zfg was one of the few players to record a successful attempt at a glitch in Ocarina of Time that would allow players to equip child-only items as adult Link and adult-only items as child Link. He was streaming his attempts live on Twitch, being able to pull-off the exploit after some effort. As it was frame-perfect however, it may be frustrating to perform by inexperienced speedrunners.

In September 2017, Zfg joined TaylorTotFTW to commentate on a speedrun of Ocarina of Time that completed an "All Dungeon, No Doors" run; beating the game and its dungeons without opening any doors. TaylorTotFTW created it using tool-assisted speedrun (TAS) software, which allows runners to play a game as perfectly as possible. It debuted live on Zfg's Twitch channel and was the first "all dungeons" run of the game to be completed by not opening a single door.

In late-2018, Zfg helped construct a list of lesser-known secrets and interactions in Ocarina of Time for the gaming website IGN. It was put together to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the game and featured techniques and mechanics known to speedrunners of the game.

Zfg has completed randomised 100% runs Ocarina of Time in 2018; a modified version of the original game that unpredictably adjust variables and create special world-states. Randomised runs can change where doors and exits lead and which items are in chests.

In May 2019, Zfg produced and released a TAS of Ocarina of Time. He did so to showcase what a humanly-perfect run of the 100% completion category would be. He performed it in isolated segments on an emulator and grouped the best of each to construct and splice it together. On its live debut, the run finished nearly 15 minutes faster than Zfg's then-current record of three hours, fifty-three minutes, thirty-three seconds.

Sub-four hour speedrun

In early-August 2018, Zfg accomplished the first sub-four hour 100% speedrun of Ocarina of Time. His record was recorded at three hours, fifty-eight minutes, and forty-five seconds, beating the then-second place runner Marco by nearly ten minutes. It was the first sub-hour run in five years, after Sva's sub-five run timed at four hours, fifty-seven minutes, and thirty-six seconds. For the previous two months, Zfg lowered the record time nine different times before dropping it to under four hours. In total, there were sixteen runs each by him and five other runners within three weeks. At the time, Zfg had held the 100% record since March 19, 2015.

Zfg was able to lower the time to under four hours with newly-discovered glitches and shortcuts discovered within a month of the record. One glitch streamlined the game's "Big Poes" sidequest, where you need to give someone 10 Big Poes in a bottle. By using an item duplication glitch discovered by Seedborn, runners can skip collecting Poes and save up to a minute on average. An indirect result of Seedborn's glitch is obtaining the Biggoron's Sword much earlier than intended, which skips some of the game's trading quest. An exploit to clip through Ganon's castle at the end of the run and skipping the following cutscene was found around the same time, saving a significant amount of time. In total, Zfg stated that the discovered glitches and exploits lowered five minutes off of the run.

Zfg posted a video on YouTube explaining the discovered breakthroughs in further detail. In an interview with Kotaku, Zfg wrote that before the shortcuts, achieving a run under four hours was "the dream but was just barely out of reach" and breaking that barrier "was going to be a big deal". Zfg went on further to explain that the optimal route is continually changing because of the number of possibilities.

Arbitrary code execution

In January 2020, Zfg showcased an example of arbitrary code execution (ACE) in Ocarina of Time by spawning in Arwings from Star Fox 64 into the game without the use of mods or cheating devices. He used an unedited ROM cartridge of the game, playing on a standard Nintendo 64 console. The Arwings were used by the game developers to test the Z-targeting mechanics and flight patterns of the Fire Temple boss Volvagia. The developers subsequently left the Arwings in the game code, only being able to be spawned back in with cheat devices such as the Gameshark.

The method used to spawn them in, arbitrary code execution, allows speedrunners to force the game to load filenames as game code. Runners also used ACE to complete the game in under 13-minutes by warping to the end credits, load items into treasure chests, or change their physical positions. Zfg explained that by performing ACE three times, each with different specific filenames, runners can remove the character limit of the file name. Without it, they can type in any payload; allowing them to do practically anything. This method is known as "Total Control". Zfg used it to turn all doors in Kakariko Village into Arwings, which swarm and attack the player.

As of March 2020, a clip of Zfg interacting with Arwings has accumulated over 383,000 views on Twitch.

Awesome Games Done Quick

Zfg ran the any% completion category of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and competed against Moltov in an "All Dungeons" race of Ocarina of Time at Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) 2014. He returned to AGDQ the next year, speedrunning Ocarina of Time on January 10, 2015. In 2016, he ran Ocarina of Time's alternative version Master Quest, running the All Dungeons category. For ADGQ 2018, he ran the 100% completion category of Ocarina of Time with a time estimate of nearly five hours. Zfg speedran the '100% No Source Requirement' category of Ocarina of Time at AGDQ 2020; Matthew Owen of A 90s Kid listed it as one of the best runs for day four of the event.

Zfg has performed a Glitch Exhibition—a showcase of glitches found within Ocarina of Time— after most of his speedruns at AGDQ. He had done these exhibitions in 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2020.

Zfg is one of the most well-known speedrunners. Writing for GQ, David Levesley noted him as "one of the big names in [speedrunning]" and as a "[speedrun] titan." While covering his Human Theory TAS, Kotaku's Heather Alexandra stated that he was "one of the most accomplished Ocarina of Time speedrunners." Adam Newell of Dot Esports included Zfg in his list of the ten best speedrunners on Twitch, noting him as a "technical streamer" who often gives viewers insight into how he thinks and what is going on in a speedrun. A 90s Kid's Matthew Owen called him a "god-tier Zelda runner" and "an absolute madman at Ocarina of Time."