In the world of speedrunning, resetting is a common way to end a bad run and try again instead of wasting time finishing a run that isn’t worthwhile. One runner by the name of xxB00b!eL0v3rxx told us “it’s just common sense, if you are trying to get a world record, and you fall significantly behind world record pace, there’s no reason to continue with the run.” For the most part, this makes sense, but recently there has been a surge for the “Every run is a Miracle” movement by the Christian speedrunning community.

    “Every run is a Miracle” started out with just one man and his dream: to see each run to completion. On the surface, JonnieRedBallsV is just like any other speedrunner, a kid who just likes completing games quickly, but when you look a little deeper, you discover there is so much more.

    Growing up in Spearville, Kansas, Jonnie was obsessed with video games from a young age, something that has been a part of himself ever since then. In an interview with him, we learned more about his history with video games and his passion for them. He told us “I remember being in second grade when “Exalted IV: Prodigy” came out. My parents said if I had straight A’s, then I could get it the day it was released. Needless to say, I spent every waking moment of my life making absolutely sure that my grades were near perfect.” Ever since then, his love for video games only grew, leading him to discover the speedrunning community.

    He told us about the first time he ever saw a speedrun of a video game “The Exalted series was my childhood, by the time I was in 5th grade I must have played each game in the series at least ten times each. One day after school I was watching some YouTube and I saw a video of this guy playing “Exalted II: Second Wind” but he also had a timer in the corner of the screen. At first I was confused as to how anyone could enjoy playing these games in a high stress environment like competing for a world record. After all, I understood video games as something to play the intended way, and there was a lot going on that I didn’t understand.” There was a reason he barely understood the run for Exalted II, it was not only the most broken game in the series, with endless niche, frame perfect exploits, but it was also being run by one of the all-time greats of Exalted speedrunning. Spitfire53 is a legend among the Exalted speedrunning community, a man who rarely talks on stream, never shows his face, but possesses an inhuman ability to execute world records in this game series. He was Jonnie’s hero, role model, and inspiration.

    When he was in 6th grade, Jonnie finally started to take speedrunning somewhat seriously, mostly running the recently released “Exalted V: Crescendo” as he said something about the game just “felt right.” He told us “Exalted V was just a better speedrun experience, the UI felt more intuitive, the combat was faster paced, and although RNG could mess you up, as long as you keep your head and think about things logically, there is always a way forward, even with the worst luck. I know a lot of people will argue Exalted II is better for speedruns because of the skill ceiling, or ‘Exalted VI: Icarus Complex’ is better for running because of the complete overhaul of the combat system, but Exalted V always leaves you with a way forward and I think that’s more important to me.”

    Jonnie’s unpopular opinion about the Exalted series would stir a little controversy, but it mostly just ended up getting more people into the series and trying out the games for themselves, so he considers it a win. But as he would gain popularity, his unorthodox stance on resetting in speedruns would become more widely known. Growing up in a Christian household, he firmly believes that every run, no matter how bad it is going, should be finished before starting another one. In one of his streams during his Sophomore year of High School, he would explain to viewers “I don’t really get what’s so hard to understand. First of all, people should always strive to finish what they started, and a logical extension of that would be video game speedruns. Another thing is that every time you start a run, it is a miracle to the characters on your screen, they are given another chance to grow and develop as people, given another chance at living. I can’t take that away prematurely. Also, even if you don’t care about that, think about this: If you reset before the end, you are guaranteeing that you don’t get a world record. Even if your pace is garbage, as long as you haven’t already exceeded the time for a WR, you still have a chance. And even if time is up and you’re still far away from the end, you can treat it as practice for the next run.”

    After realizing this was an unpopular opinion for the speedrunning community to embrace, he decided to do something about it. He would explain “I want to raise awareness to the world of speedrunning that every run is a miracle” and he believes that he can really make an impact in the world of speedrunning. In his Sophomore year of High School, he would start seeing more and more views on his YouTube channel, and in Junior year, it took off.

    Jonnie had been steadily getting subscribers on his YouTube channel thanks in part to his rivalry with JessLegoLass4, where they would often trade world records for the “Exalted V Any%” category. Commenting on their relationship, Jonnie noted that “I think my relationship with Jess really helped my popularity skyrocket, we have a similar style of humor that the audience can really connect with. I like to think that whenever I gain a new subscriber, there’s a good chance that they’ll also subscribe to her and vice versa. It’s really cool to be friends with someone I also compete against. We know the main reason we try to beat each other is really just motivation to get the best possible times for ourselves.”

    Thanks to the popularity afforded to Jonnie by 50,000 subscribers, he had a larger platform to voice his views. A clip of him saying “Every run is a miracle” uploaded by anonymous user RillAndDill would go on to get massive attention, getting over 500,000 views in the first 48 hours. When that happened, Jonnie knew it was finally time to use the momentum following the clip’s popularity. On March 16th of the very same year, only a day after the clip blew up, Jonnie would finally realize his dream and create the “Every Run is a Miracle” foundation. Jonnie intended for the acronym to be ERM, but eventually his viewers would start to call it the ERAM foundation (pronounced Ē-ram). There is no credible source to trace where the extra A comes from, and it is a common misconception that the user DarkSaturn99 started it, as it is the oldest YouTube comment today that mentions the extra A in the name. However, when we reached out to him, he said that he already saw the acronym being used in another comment. A visit on the Internet Time Teleporter shows that at least a couple of other comments were made ten minutes before DarkSaturn99’s that involved the extra A, backing up his claims. Unfortunately, due to privacy limitations, we were unable to see the accounts and all of those other comments were either deleted or the accounts were deactivated. It seems like this will simply remain another unsolved mystery.

    Back to the topic at hand, the ERAM foundation was starting off strong, as many of Jonnie’s loyal fans already agreed with his notions, and were more than willing to dedicate themselves to growing the cause. Exactly a year later, the first in person event was arranged to celebrate the Anniversary. For the first time ever, Jonnie would interact with fans in person, he remembers “I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous. Okay, I was very nervous. I mean, all of these people don’t just believe in my idea, they also believe in me. I don’t want to let them down.” However Jonnie had nothing to be worried about, as the meetup was a huge success. People out for a stroll saw the flyers and tents had decided to check it out, and Jonnie was able to talk to plenty of people who hadn’t yet heard of this problem to educate them on the issue. During his closing speech he talked about why this issue meant so much to him, saying “A run is not dead when you fall behind pace. A run is only well and truly dead when you reset. And when a run dies that way, a part of me dies as well.”

    The first meetup was run in Jonnie’s Senior year of High School, today he is a Freshman in college who has built a name for himself on The Exalted series speedrunning and his foundation. And in his own words “I have no plans on stopping anytime soon.”