Russell Jones

Russell Jones

Russell "SadisticMystic" Jones (often called Sad for short) has been a key figure in developing the speedrunning scene for many Sonic games.

After familiarizing himself with various Sonic titles and their techniques, his first real speed run came with Sonic Adventure 2 in mid-2003. Finding the optimized Cannon's Core warp and the Eternal Engine wall clip would set the pace for what was to come.

It was his vision that would give rise to the plans for the Sonic Center. While Jay "Rolken" Yri would be the one to do most of the coding, Russell was drafted as a junior manager for the site, and continues to hold that position along with occasional coding contributions. Most notable recently is an IRC liaison that performs site information lookups from the comfort of its chatroom.

Russell has openly stated that he doesn't care about being atop a game's overall charts, but rather that he picks his spots, and does so with exceeding efficiency. Perhaps his most visible and widespread legacy is the optimizing of SA2 (and to a lesser extent SA) hunting stages, where at one point he held every world record, and where he continues to provide the occasional new discovery (usually involving the ability to go out of bounds and reemerge anywhere someone could want to go). However, his discoveries are so spontaneous and almost unimaginable at times, you can never count anything in or out.

Russell can also be found playing the role of Pokémon announcer or discussing Magic: the Gathering, usually on the subjects of zany interactions and unconventional formats.

External Links

• Russell's Pokemon announcing 1
• Russell's Pokemon announcing 2
• Russell's Pokemon announcing 3
• Russell's TSC videos page