Andrew Gardikis
American speedrunner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Andrew Gardikis (born January 22, 1990[1]), better known as AndrewG, is a speedrunner who was the first player known to have beaten Super Mario Bros. in under 5 minutes.
Speedrunning career
Prior to speedrunning, Gardikis was a runner, but he had to stop due to lung issues.[2]
In 2004, as a 14 year old, Gardikis had set a goal to beat the game as fast as possible after watching a speedrun on G4TV.[3][2] He played on the Nintendo Entertainment System his older sister had bought in the early 1990s.[4]
Gardikis uploaded a VHS recording of his world record on March 23, 2006, beating prior record holder Scott Kessler. [5] Gardikis held the record for seven years, his tenure itself a record. He broke the 5 minute barrier during that time, in 2011.[6] Over 9 years of speedrunning, he improved his time by seven seconds.[5]
Due to his success in speedrunning Super Mario Bros., he was invited to meet with Shigeru Miyamoto.[6] Miyamoto watched him play live at the Nintendo World Store during the game's 25th anniversary celebration.[7] At the event, Gardikis played on the Wii Virtual Console while wearing a Super Mario Bros. 2 shirt.[2]
Gardikis was a member of Team Ludendi, a team of speedrunners.[2]
Gardikis has also held other records, including for Track & Field,[4] and Super Mario Bros 2.[8]
Legacy
According to Oliver Roeder of FiveThirtyEight, Gardikis is credited with pioneering or perfecting certain techniques of the Super Mario Bros. speedrun, including level 8-4's wall jump and level 4-2's wrong warp.[9]
While holding the record in 2016, speedrunner Darbian recalled Gardikis' dominance, also remembering a time he had juggled while playing with his feet.[9]