Full transcript
0:00I want to tell you a story about Super
0:02Mario Maker, the classic game where you
0:04can make your own Mario levels. The
0:06original Wii U version came out in
0:08September 2015, and over the next 6
0:10years, players would upload 68 million
0:13levels. Some were easy, some were hard,
0:16and many were stupid, but they all
0:18followed one rule. In order to upload a
0:21level, you had to clear it yourself
0:23first. Once it was uploaded, others
0:25could try and clear it. In December
0:282017, a player named Jeffy created the
0:30Team 0% Discord server. Their goal,
0:34clear every single level ever uploaded
0:36with a 0% clear rate. In other words,
0:39levels that have been cleared by their
0:41creator, but nobody else. Over the next
0:44few years, this group tackled some of
0:45the hardest levels that Super Mario
0:47Maker players had ever created. Fast
0:50forward 3 years later. In March 2021,
0:53Nintendo announced they were shutting
0:55down uploads in Super Mario Maker. You
0:57could still play and clear existing
0:59levels, but nothing new could be
1:01uploaded. There was now a finite number
1:03of remaining uncleared levels for Team
1:050%. They kept chugging along for the
1:08next couple years, clearing hard levels
1:10and making good progress. But then, in
1:13October 2023, Doomsday arrived for Team
1:160%.
1:19>> [music]
1:23>> Nintendo said they'd be closing the Wii
1:25U's online services on April 8th, 2024.
1:29Team 0% had just 6 months to clear all
1:32remaining levels before they'd be
1:35physically unable to do [music] so
1:36anymore. How many were left? 26,486.
1:42That's [music] what stood between Team
1:440% and their ultimate goal. And well,
1:48this is the story of what unfolded over
1:51the next 6 months.
1:53[music]
2:09Hey everyone, Summoning Salt here with
2:11two quick announcements. First off, now
2:13available is the next entry in the
2:15Summoning Salt VHS collection, Cuphead.
2:19And second, it's also coming out [music]
2:21on DVD.
2:24Now, the VHS tapes have been a huge
2:26[music] success, but due to popular
2:28demand, we're also expanding to a more
2:30modern format. So, now you have options.
2:33First, the VHS tape. [music]
2:35It's the third entry in our series and
2:37features beautiful, professionally
2:39designed artwork. [music] The first
2:402,000 tapes sold will be yellow, the
2:43rest black, and they're fully playable.
2:45They contain my video, The History of
2:47Cuphead World Records. And now the DVD.
2:51It features the same artwork in the same
2:53video, but also comes with a bonus
2:55feature, audio commentary from me and a
2:58few Cuphead speedrunners. [music] We
3:00talk about stories I couldn't cover in
3:01the video, what went into the video's
3:03production, and more. It's pretty fun
3:06and only available on the DVD. [music]
3:08We're also offering a signed bundle.
3:11You'll get both the VHS and the DVD at a
3:14discounted price, and I'll sign the VHS
3:17sleeve, only an option as part of the
3:19bundle. The Summoning Salt physical
3:21media library is [music] growing. You
3:24can start yours now or add to your
3:26existing collection. To order, go to
3:28summoningssalt.com
3:30or click [music] the link down below.
3:32Press view full description for the full
3:34description and pictures. Pick if you
3:36want the VHS, the DVD, or the signed
3:39bundle. They're available for the next 3
3:42weeks. [music] And act fast. Only the
3:44first 2,000 tapes are yellow. That's
3:47summonings.com to start or expand your
3:49collection today.
3:53So, it's October 2023. Team 0% has to
3:57find a way to clear 26,000 levels in 6
4:00months. How do you even begin to tackle
4:02something like that? Well, they needed
4:05help. [music] As many people trying to
4:07clear levels as possible, so they
4:09sounded the alarm and hoped something
4:11would go viral.
4:12>> Some people started playing again and
4:15clearing the levels, but it never really
4:16caught on until that video.
4:19>> On October 9th, Team 0% member, the
4:22Riley C, put out a video explaining the
4:25situation and saying, "We need your help
4:27to complete Mario Maker. So, please, if
4:29you own a Wii U and Mario Maker, boot up
4:32the game and try to beat just one or two
4:34levels. [music] He hoped it would go
4:36viral, and it actually did. To be
4:39honest, I did not believe at all when I
4:43put out that video, and I I was like,
4:44"Oh, this this will be fun, but like
4:46it's probably not going to happen." And
4:47then it just kept climbing and [music]
4:48climbing to like 200,000.
4:51And then things started to snowball.
4:53Social media posts blew up. News
4:55articles were written. There was a flood
4:58of activity like the game hadn't seen in
5:00years. People fell in love with the idea
5:02of clearing every last level before the
5:05shutdown and they wanted to be a part of
5:07it. The whole community, anyone who had
5:09touched Mario Maker in the past was like
5:11coming back to come [music] into the
5:13community and see how the progress was
5:14going for it.
5:16>> I would sit around like 300 400 [music]
5:18viewers and I would just play Maker 1
5:20and suddenly I have like a thousand plus
5:22people [music] watching my stream.
5:24Seeing the flood of people rush into the
5:26Discord was the most exciting part for
5:28me. It was kind of inspiring right from
5:30that moment that we might have a shot.
5:33So, Team 0% had the momentum with an
5:36army willing to pitch in and help. The
5:38problem is that the remaining levels
5:40were uncleared for a reason. They were
5:43really, really hard. Some had a
5:45multitude of tricks in rapid succession,
5:48usually known as Kao levels. Others had
5:51a gimmick that made them super
5:52difficult. typically doing a hard trick
5:54over and over. But of all these levels,
5:57there was one that Team 0% identified as
6:00a problem very early on. A stage simply
6:04called Beast Needle. Buckle up, folks.
6:19>> [music]
6:22>> Beast Needle is a Mario one level
6:24[music] where you make near impossible
6:26jump after near impossible jump and it
6:29goes on for a full 7 minutes. It doesn't
6:33relent. [music] It never backs off. It's
6:36absolute brutality from start to finish.
6:39Many of these jumps are frame perfect.
6:41Some of them require pressing jump for
6:43exactly one frame. [music] And if
6:45anything is imperfect, you're dead and
6:48have to start over. One mechanic you
6:51must master is the float jump. By
6:53repressing A in the air, you float
6:55slightly longer [music] before landing.
6:57Toward the end of the level, you have to
6:59do 11 of these impossible looking float
7:02[music] jumps back and forth to
7:04repeatedly hit a POW block. Mess up any
7:07of them and it's over. And at the very
7:09end, the cherry on top of Beast Needle
7:12is one final brutal jump to the door and
7:16then another to the flag pole for
7:17[music] good measure. This is what Team
7:190% was up against. Even the greatest
7:22Mario Maker players on Earth stood
7:24little chance against Beast Needle.
7:27There was only one person who had hopes
7:28of beating it.
7:30>> Yeah, King Buu is an insane player.
7:32>> King Buu, he's he's crazy. He very much
7:35enjoys the difficult level grinds.
7:37[music] Wow, this guy is incredible at
7:40this game.
7:40>> It was all up to King Buu, the former
7:43world record holder in Super Mario 3D
7:45World, the individual level speedrunner,
7:48[music] the player who'd already cleared
7:50some of the hardest levels in Mario
7:51Maker history. King Buu loved this sort
7:54of thing and practiced the level for
7:56weeks. He found a couple cool
7:58strategies. For instance, on some jumps,
8:01he paused and looked for a visual cue.
8:03If he was on the correct frame, then he
8:05could simply unpause and hold the
8:07direction to guarantee [music] he made
8:08it. But for most of the level, there was
8:11nothing to help. He just had to get good
8:13and build his consistency. [music] And
8:15after a month of playing and so many
8:18promising attempts, King Buu managed to
8:21pull it off. Seeing how some of the best
8:24players in the world reacted is pretty
8:26telling. One of the hardest remaining
8:28levels was now out of the way early. But
8:31if Beast Needle was a sign of things to
8:33come, Team 0% had their work cut out for
8:36them. As the weeks passed, the group
8:38made some good progress, clearing
8:40hundreds of levels every single day. If
8:43this continued, they were on pace to
8:45clear every level by the deadline. But
8:47as they played, they kept encountering
8:49rather unique levels from one particular
8:52uploader, Conan. Conan's levels weren't
8:55the most impossible, but they were
8:57sadistic. They usually involved doing a
9:00difficult trick over [music] and over
9:02and over while you waited for an item to
9:05slowly make its way along a track. In
9:08general, team 0% hated Conan's levels.
9:11>> What? What is wrong with this person?
9:13Why [music] are they just uploading
9:15these levels?
9:16>> But thankfully, one player disagreed.
9:18Budoko. According to Bodoko himself, he
9:21wasn't good enough to tackle the really
9:23difficult levels, but he had both the
9:25skill and patience to take on these
9:27levels that nobody else wanted to play.
9:29>> The top players, if we wanted to really
9:32grind it out, we could beat them, but
9:35it's more can somebody else deal with
9:37this? Like, I don't I don't want to.
9:39>> Booko being willing to [music] waste his
9:42time honestly with how stupid some of
9:45those levels were was very appreciated.
9:47The last Conan level was an insane one
9:50where you had to build a bridge for a
9:51gloomba using nothing but two P switches
9:54over and over. There were many failures
9:56along the way, but after a long grind,
9:59Budoko was able to take out that level,
10:01too. Another step on the long journey of
10:04Team 0%. As monotonous as they were,
10:08even these levels took a fair amount of
10:10skill to complete. But every now and
10:12then, Team 0% would run into a level on
10:14the complete opposite end of the
10:16spectrum. Meet Lucky Draw. This level
10:20was made by a player named Phenotype,
10:22who is known for making some weird ones.
10:24As you can see, Mario is in block jail
10:26and can't move as he gets pushed toward
10:28the goal. Above, there are three P
10:30switches. If any of them activate, the
10:33blocks turn into coins and Mario
10:34instantly dies. [music] So, Mario needs
10:37to make it to the end before any P
10:39switches activate. Simple enough, right?
10:42Well, up high are six magic hoopas that
10:44will turn their question mark block into
10:46[music] something. This has a six in
10:48seven chance of being an enemy or
10:50mushroom, which will fall on the music
10:51note block [music] and activate the P
10:53switch. 17th of the time, it'll instead
10:56turn into a coin, [music] which half the
10:58time will move left and still activate
11:00the P switch. To not activate a P
11:03switch, you need a coin that [music]
11:05moves right, meaning a 1 in4 chance
11:09overall for all six Magikoopas.
11:12Total odds of 1 in 7.5 [music] million.
11:17The level was first allegedly cleared by
11:19Pasty White MF in May 2019, but he
11:22[music] didn't record it, so it couldn't
11:23be verified as legit. There was then a
11:26big push to clear Lucky Draw on video. I
11:29mean, at that point, I think we just had
11:30people like leaving on their Wii Us to
11:33try and beat it cuz you don't have to
11:34play anything.
11:35>> Fortunately, it doesn't take any skill.
11:37So, it was just a bunch of people
11:39putting their Wii Us on overnight and
11:41coming back and checking clears.
11:43>> After many months of this, one player
11:45took things a step further. Electronic
11:47Logic. He set up a 24/7 stream on a new
11:51account and left it on endlessly through
11:532020 and 2021. Finally, after more than
11:575,000 hours, this happened.
12:08This was the sort of thing Team 0% had
12:10to deal with. Nobody wanted to play
12:12Lucky Draw, but since someone years ago
12:15had the patience to design it and then
12:17spend months uploading it, it now had to
12:19be cleared. Levels like Lucky Draw were
12:22just as much of a problem as levels like
12:24Beast Needle. But now, thankfully, both
12:27were out of the way. By early 2024, it
12:30was clear team 0% was crushing this.
12:34Many, many around the world had joined
12:36in, and the number of unclearared levels
12:38was dwindling. [music] A few of the best
12:41players had really committed, clearing
12:43several hundred levels each.
12:45>> Fritzf was a huge contributor at the
12:48[music] very end. He was a huge
12:49contributor throughout. He definitely
12:52took out some really good, really
12:54difficult levels. Fly, who cleared a lot
12:57of levels at the end, too. Fly was
12:59extremely good at figuring out, I think
13:02you need to do [music] this or sometimes
13:04I'd be on my stream and be like, I don't
13:06know that I can beat this one. [music]
13:08Do you want to try it, Fly? And they
13:09would clear it a couple days later.
13:12March 8th, 2024 marked 1 month to go
13:15until the deadline. and team 0% had
13:18exactly [music] 100 levels left to
13:21clear. Things were certainly looking
13:23good. With each cleared level, the
13:25community got more excited.
13:28[laughter]
13:30But for all the optimism, there remained
13:32one fear. What if they ran into some
13:35impossible level they couldn't figure
13:37out? What was out there in these final
13:39100 levels? After all, they'd survived
13:43this far. We're eventually going to run
13:45into some that are really, really,
13:47really hard. Can we beat those? The
13:50closer we get to the goal, the less
13:51people who can help. I don't know. Is
13:54there something horrible out there that
13:55we don't know about? As team 0% began
13:58playing the final 100 levels, they found
14:01that they were certainly a step up in
14:02difficulty, but they weren't
14:04encountering that one impossible level
14:06they feared. Even though their pace
14:09slowed, they gradually [music] worked
14:10through the toughest levels Mario Maker
14:121 had to offer. like one called Wasted
14:15Summer, cleared by Megan Narwhal. Oh,
14:19cool. But shortly thereafter, Team 0%
14:23stumbled upon a pretty unique level, the
14:26last standing uncleared water level, the
14:29hardest muncher stairs. We've seen
14:31precise levels, and we've seen
14:33repetitive levels, but this one took
14:37things a step further.
14:42>> [music]
14:43>> It's pretty visually obvious why this
14:45one is difficult. Then factor in once
14:48you reach the top, you're [music] sent
14:50right back to the bottom of the next
14:52staircase. Finish four staircases and
14:55you've completed one [music] lap. Finish
14:58four laps and the level is over. 16
15:01staircases and one slip up means you're
15:04done. you have the tiniest little bit of
15:08wiggle room to kind of swim [music] in
15:10place. So, it's not so much about being
15:13absolutely frame perfect every time, but
15:16it's about being frame perfect enough
15:18and doing it quickly. The tedious,
15:22boring, same swimming motion for 8
15:26minutes 20 seconds straight. Imagine
15:29getting 8 minutes in and then dying and
15:32just feeling horrible. Serious efforts
15:35to beat the hardest muncher stairs began
15:37in February with a player named Noble
15:39D4. On the 18th, he became the first
15:42person to clear two staircases, 1/8 of
15:45the way there. A week later, he managed
15:48to complete a lap before dying midway
15:50through the fifth staircase. All that
15:53effort and he was only a quarter of the
15:55way done. He stopped playing after this.
15:58As other levels were cleared, attention
16:00begrudgingly [music] turned back to the
16:01hardest muncher stairs. On March 7th, a
16:04player named Kill a Dragon became the
16:07first to reach the sixth staircase. 2
16:09days later, Noble D4 came back and made
16:12it to the seventh staircase. Later that
16:15day, Kill a Dragon reached the eighth
16:17staircase. They were building
16:19consistency, but there was a long way to
16:21go. You can go through it. anyone can
16:24[music] do each individual jump, but to
16:27do that I mean what was it like a seven
16:29eight minute long level to where you're
16:31just going through the entire thing and
16:32it's a consistency based level around
16:35then a third player joined in Cap. There
16:38were now three highlevel players all
16:40going for this on March 10th Killer
16:43Dragon became the first to reach lap
16:45three. A short while later Noble and Cap
16:48made it there too. They were all pushing
16:51each other, but they were still only a
16:53little over halfway there. One of them
16:55would have to take their best effort so
16:57far, then duplicate it on the very same
17:00attempt. Well, on March 11th, Cap once
17:03again made it to lap three and this time
17:06set a new personal best by reaching the
17:0810th staircase. But he didn't die there.
17:11He cleared staircase 10 and set the
17:13furthest mark anyone had ever reached in
17:16the level. But he still didn't die
17:18there. He cleared the 11th staircase and
17:21then the 12th. This was the first time
17:24anybody had ever reached lap four of the
17:26hardest muncher [music] stairs. With
17:29nothing to lose, Cap figured he might as
17:31well try and see how far he could make
17:33it on lap four.
17:54>> [music]
17:59>> You have the tiniest [music] little bit
18:01of wiggle room to kind of swim in place.
18:04But to do that, I mean, what was it like
18:06a 7 8 minute long level? Imagine getting
18:108 minutes in and then dying and just
18:12feeling [music] horrible.
18:25Can y'all hear me right now? Can y can
18:27y'all hear me? Get the [music]
18:30>> I really appreciated how the other two
18:33were kind of also there in the chat, you
18:35know, shouting [music] just as loud as
18:36the as the rest of us. Cuz the goal is
18:39not personal glory here. It's that we
18:41beat the level.
18:42>> The other people weren't like mad. and
18:44they were happy that this is done and we
18:47actually are closer to the goal.
18:50>> The Hardest Muncher Stairs is one of my
18:52favorite chapters in the Team 0% saga.
18:54While Cap crossed the finish line, all
18:57three competitors deserve a ton of
18:58credit. They'd taken out one of the most
19:00brutal levels remaining, and there were
19:03now only a handful left. When Team 0%
19:06first sounded the alarm in October,
19:08there were doubts about how far they'd
19:10make it. We had been concerned about, we
19:13called it the wall. We thought
19:15eventually we're going to hit a wall and
19:16our progress is going to slow down, but
19:19the numbers just kept dwindling and
19:22people just kept joining the Discord and
19:23kept joining the effort. And the wall
19:26never really came. When we were down to
19:28the final four, it was just, yeah, it's
19:31only a matter of time for for all of
19:32these levels. It felt like by March
19:3514th, 3 and 1/2 weeks until the
19:37deadline, there remained just four
19:40unclear levels in all of Super Mario
19:42Maker. Their names were Phantom
19:45Oddworld, The Last Dance, Welcome
19:48Extreme, and Trimming the Herbs. It went
19:51without saying that these were four of
19:53the toughest levels ever made. But would
19:56any of them get in the way of Team 0%?
19:59They were feeling awfully confident.
20:06This level was created by MW65536,
20:09who would go on to be the first player
20:11from Japan to get a 454 in Super Mario
20:14Bros., his level was an NSMB style Kaiso
20:18level, a common sight for uncleared
20:20levels down the stretch. So, what was
20:22special about this one? Why had it
20:24lasted so long?
20:26>> I remember watching and not not really
20:28even being able to process what was
20:30going on half the time. It's centered
20:32around [music] throwing POW blocks, just
20:34very high APM, like grabbing the run
20:37button, releasing the run button to
20:38throw the POWs, but doing it while also
20:42avoiding all of the spikes and
20:44especially the podos in [music] the
20:46ground pound stall section. Very rapid
20:50inputs. You don't hold on to a pal for
20:52more than, [music] I don't know, like
20:53five or six frames. At any point in the
20:55level, you're constantly throwing them.
20:57When you [music] have to do so many
20:59inputs in such a short time frame, even
21:01being blocked for just a moment or two
21:04is [music] enough to kind of throw you
21:05off. The hardest parts are the triple
21:07ground pound stall section and the very
21:10end. Both require an incredible amount
21:13of inputs in a small window. Attempts to
21:15clear Phantom Mod World were dominated
21:17by two players, Applesauce Fiona and
21:20Yamada. Fiona is a world record holder
21:23in Yoshi's Island, a very input heavy
21:26speedrun, so she was a great candidate
21:28for this level. And Yamada is one of the
21:30best Mario Maker 2 players around. He'd
21:34also already cleared two of the final 15
21:36unclearared levels, now going for his
21:38third. Fiona and Yamada each put many
21:41hours into clearing it and came close on
21:43several occasions, but in the end,
21:45Yamada was the first to clear Phantom
21:47Oddworld World. His skills were
21:49intimidating to even the best members of
21:51team 0%.
21:53>> He was one of those players that just
21:54would pick a level and if he picked the
21:56level you were grinding, that's bad luck
21:58for you cuz he's going to beat it before
22:00you. One level down, three to go. Next
22:04up was Welcome Extreme. [music] A unique
22:06level in that it was in the Mario 1
22:08style. There are plenty of difficult
22:10jumps, but the real problem here is the
22:12timer. You only have 50 seconds to
22:15complete three laps. This meant you had
22:17no time to waste. For instance, this
22:20first offscreen jump, you have to land
22:22on this block since the one to the left
22:24is too slow. If there are any
22:26hesitations anywhere, you run out of
22:29time. Then at the end of each lap is an
22:31RNG section. Piranha plants are shot
22:34around on springs and spit fireballs at
22:36random [music] times. There's no time to
22:38wait for a safe moment. You have to just
22:40send it and pray you make it through
22:42unscathed. There's an estimated 1 in3
22:45chance of surviving, but there's three
22:48laps, so overall odds of 1 in 27. That's
22:52a 3.7% chance just to have the
22:55opportunity to do the [music] rest of
22:56the level perfectly. Many players
22:58streamed Welcome Extreme in its final
23:00days, trying to string together the
23:02execution and the RNG. But the one who
23:05was best was named Herobbo. He became
23:08the first player to reach the lap three
23:10RNG section. And although it took a few
23:13tries to get the luck, he cleared the
23:15level on March 14th. Welcome Extreme was
23:19done. Two levels to go. Excitement was
23:23building. Everyone could feel what was
23:25coming. As long as one of these last two
23:28levels didn't get in the way, Team 0%'s
23:30long journey was about to be over.
23:33First, they had to deal with the Last
23:36[music] Dance. This is another NSMBB
23:38style Kaiso level. It was fairly long
23:41with plenty of harder tricks, [music]
23:43but at this point, team 0% was not
23:46intimidated.
23:48There's there's some definitely cool
23:49sections with shells and, [music] you
23:51know, some wall jumps, but like you
23:53said, it's it's nothing revolutionary in
23:55terms of the tricks, nothing we [music]
23:57hadn't seen before.
23:58>> And it's very, very difficult, but there
24:01had been certainly much harder levels
24:03cleared [music] prior to it. The actual
24:06levels that last the end are not the
24:08hardest of the hard necessarily, but the
24:10ones that are not noticeably hard. They
24:13are the right balance of [music]
24:15difficult enough that nobody wants to
24:16play them, but also average enough that
24:19nobody takes notice of them. Obviously,
24:22clearing the last dance would be a huge
24:24deal, [music] and there was a massive
24:25race to be the first. The biggest player
24:28tackling this level was the beast 721.
24:31He certainly had the track record as a
24:34big Twitch streamer who'd cleared many
24:35hard levels [music] before. He put about
24:37a dozen hours into the level when it was
24:40one of the only ones remaining. But then
24:42he got word that Yamada, who had just
24:45[music] cleared Phantom Oddworld, was
24:47now focusing his efforts on The Last
24:49Dance.
24:50>> Yeah. So, I had no idea who he was until
24:54he had beaten Phantom Oddworld and
24:56everybody was saying how good he is.
24:58When he beat Phantom Oddworld, I was
25:00like, "Oh no. I I hope he doesn't start
25:03playing The Last Dance cuz I'm playing
25:05it." I think I don't know. I was like 10
25:07hours [music] in or something. The Beast
25:09still had hopes that he could clear it
25:11first. Late on March 14th, he got an
25:14attempt deep into the level. The chat
25:16got excited as he entered the final pipe
25:19of The Last Dance. One of the last
25:22challenges of the [music] level is right
25:24here. You're running at full speed and
25:26must enter the second door. If you go
25:29even slightly too far, [music] you hit
25:31the spikes and die.
25:37No.
25:42Oh no.
25:45This was the beast's one chance. A few
25:48hours later, Yamada posted to Twitter
25:50that he had done it. He entered the
25:53correct door, finished the level, and
25:55cleared the last stance. Unbelievably,
25:59Yamada had now cleared the fourth to
26:01last [music] and the second to last
26:03levels in Super Mario Maker. All these
26:06amazing players, [music] yet he was the
26:08one to get both. I wasn't surprised that
26:11he beat it before me, but I definitely I
26:14had like a 10 or 11 hour head start
26:15[music] and that he still did it. That
26:17was a little This guy's definitely a
26:20tier above me. So, he's just he's
26:24incredible. Team 0% had done it. They
26:27had rallied the troops, inspired an
26:30entire community, and cleared the
26:32hardest levels humans had ever created.
26:35One by one, they all went down. as that
26:38impossible level that they feared never
26:40arrived. Now on March 15th, well before
26:44the April 8th deadline, there was one
26:47final level remaining. Trimming the
26:50herbs after all they'd been through.
26:53Clearly it was just a matter of time
26:55until this one fell, too, right?
27:02[music]
27:18It looked [music] very precise. Um, but
27:20it didn't have any like weird new
27:23unknown tricks. It didn't have any
27:26completely unrecognizable tech.
27:28>> As a casual viewer, the level looks
27:30really easy. If you just look at it,
27:32it's like, oh, you just do this, this,
27:34this, you go through, and [music] then
27:35you're done. It's 12 seconds. It's super
27:37short.
27:37>> It was no, you know, it was no beast
27:40needle. It was no [music] um it didn't
27:42even look like it stacked up to like the
27:44last dance, right?
27:45>> All right, no problem. Trimming the
27:48herbs was going to [music] be a breeze.
27:50And then they started actually playing
27:52it.
27:57>> [music]
28:01>> Oh, this level's much more of a [music]
28:03problem than we thought. More difficult
28:06than anything we've ever done. So, at
28:08the time I had tried the level, I
28:10couldn't get past the first piranha. I'm
28:12like, "Oh, okay. That is actually really
28:15difficult." [music] Just the amount of
28:17pixel perfect positions you have to be
28:19in, the number of frame perfect inputs
28:22you [music] have to input in such a
28:24short amount of time. It's really hard
28:27to describe. Like this is one of the
28:29hardest things I've ever tried to do.
28:32And I I didn't think I had the ability
28:34to do it if I put in a,000 hours.
28:37>> I I think part of the hidden difficulty
28:40of that level is the momentum control.
28:43The Frame Perfect's input was really
28:45just scratching the surface. The
28:47momentum [music] control in such a tight
28:49space all while perfectly dropping the
28:52bomb just does not translate [music]
28:55visually.
29:03Team 0% had gotten through hard levels
29:06before. [music]
29:07Surely they could push through this one
29:08too, right? But as days passed by, very
29:12little progress was made. How had this
29:14level slipped under everyone's radar for
29:17so long?
29:18>> So, I think a few people had like pulled
29:20up the level, been like, "Yeah, I'll try
29:21it there." Like, [music] "Ah, this is
29:23too hard. Move on to something else."
29:25You don't really think much of it.
29:26>> The player who was primarily grinding it
29:29out at the time, goes by Yoshi. His big
29:31conclusion was that this is far too
29:33difficult.
29:34>> He had been grinding trimming the herbs
29:36for weeks, if not months. During his
29:39grinding, he kind of came to the
29:41conclusion that this level's so
29:43ridiculous.
29:44>> Days passed. All eyes were on trimming
29:47the herbs, but there was no progress.
29:50[music] Nobody got even close. This was
29:52a hard level. Too hard. There was
29:56something suspicious about it. Trimming
29:58the herbs was uploaded back in 2017 by a
30:01player named Ahoyo. He was a known
30:04skilled player, having previously made
30:06and cleared the incredibly difficult
30:08level Bombs 5. But was he this good? Had
30:12a Hoyo really cleared trimming the herbs
30:14all on his own back in 2017 while nobody
30:18out of thousands could clear it in 2024?
30:22Or had he somehow cheated to upload it?
30:26Two camps formed. Some thought the level
30:28was cheated and some thought it was
30:30legit. So, it became kind of public
30:33discourse and unfortunately sort of
30:35toxic at times within the community of
30:37people going, "It's fake. We're not even
30:39worried about it. It's stupid." And then
30:41other people going, "You have no proof
30:43of that. Why would you accuse a trusted
30:46player with like such a good
30:47reputation?" So, half the community is
30:51saying, "This is obviously way too hard.
30:53He must have cheated." And then the
30:54other half of the community is saying,
30:56"Well, okay, that may be, but he could
30:59not possibly have cheated. the tools
31:01didn't exist.
31:03>> Like, oh, maybe the clear video is
31:05spliced. Maybe he wasn't recording,
31:07[music] but we looked at the video and
31:09there was no splices.
31:11Watching the debate, that was not my
31:13favorite moment uh of the community.
31:16>> Team 0% had long decided that only
31:19legitimate uploads were part of their
31:21criteria. In other words, if trimming
31:24the herbs was cheated, then Team 0% was
31:27already done. all legit uploads had been
31:29cleared. But while some disagreed, the
31:32majority thought that there probably was
31:34no cheating, and that meant the level
31:37had to be cleared. The best players in
31:39the world kept pushing to try and beat
31:42it. And their efforts were going
31:44nowhere.
31:45If you're like a skilled player [music]
31:47who thinks you actually have a chance of
31:49beating it, you're like, "Okay, I' I've
31:51been playing [music] for six hours and
31:53I've gotten past the second piranha
31:55plant zero times, you know?" So, I would
31:58have I don't know 2,000 plus people in
32:01my stream watching me die in the first
32:04second of the level for 3 hours. I think
32:06as soon as influential people started
32:09saying, "I don't think I have a shot at
32:12this ever," that's when people started
32:15to really wonder like, "Maybe we're not
32:17going to do it."
32:22Out of the blue, I'm on my stream
32:24playing Trimming the Herbs and I get a
32:26Discord message from a Hoyo and it says,
32:28"Hey, I want you to come here and listen
32:30to what I have to say."
32:33>> [music]
32:34>> I got invited to a a server by a Hoyo
32:37and it was like, "Okay, lay it out.
32:39Here's what happened."
32:40>> Myself, Riley, Low Curbs were in there.
32:43I We were kind of shocked. He told us,
32:46"Yes, it was Tas."
32:48>> When Mario Maker first came out, like
32:50the internet was kind of going crazy a
32:52little bit when they saw people having
32:53difficulty on levels, but like that
32:56intensity of like, you know, outsider
32:59viewers never returned to the game
33:01really. and I thought it might never
33:02return unless there was like some crazy
33:04[music] level and I wanted that kind of
33:06like experience to come back to the
33:08community again.
33:09>> So in June 2017, in an effort to get
33:12eyes back on the game, Aoyo designed a
33:15practically impossible level, trimming
33:18the herbs. He cleared it by secretly
33:20using a tool that his friend reverse
33:22engineered. He made all the perfect
33:24inputs on a computer ahead of time, then
33:27played it back on console to clear the
33:29level. This is known as a task clear or
33:32tool assisted speedrun. A Hoyo then
33:35waited for people to notice his
33:37impossible level, but they never did. I
33:40I suggested people should play it. I
33:43like went in the 0% Discord, like posted
33:45myself. I I streamed a little bit of the
33:48level from observing from simply
33:50observing it. People didn't think much
33:51of it. And then from playing it, it
33:54wasn't fun the beginning. The beginning
33:55is awful. If I were to do it over, I
33:58would have been way way way more direct
34:01in challenging people and like telling
34:03people, hey, try this level, you know,
34:06wink wink.
34:07It was supposed to be, I guess, what
34:10you'd call a white lie. And just off the
34:12top of my head, like thinking about it,
34:14probably the difference between a white
34:16lie and a lie is time. Ohoyo moved on
34:19with his life, forgot about the level,
34:21and for the next 6 years, trimming the
34:24herbs remained on the Mario Maker
34:26servers in obscurity. When Team 0%
34:29rediscovered it at the end of their
34:31journey in 2024, Aoyo was alerted to
34:34what was going on and then had to decide
34:37what to do.
34:38>> Like, I know I I was like with a monles
34:41twirling the mustache, you know, seeing
34:43how they would go in the in the last
34:44week. I think I was still not satisfied
34:47with no with the lack of attention on
34:49TTH. So I, you know, clearly I did
34:53nothing for a little while longer. But
34:54as soon as it, as soon as it turned to
34:56infighting amongst the group members,
34:58that's when real really shortly after
35:00that, then it's that's when it's like,
35:01hey guys, you you got to know about
35:03this. Truth be told, it has haunted me
35:06like a ghost of a pixelated house plant,
35:09you know? Hey kids, don't do what I did.
35:12Well, now this was the reality of the
35:15situation. Trimming the herbs was
35:17invalid. And so team 0% was done.
35:23They didn't know it at the time, but the
35:25moment Yamada cleared the last dance,
35:28they had cleared every legit upload in
35:30Super Mario Maker. Thousands and
35:33thousands of clears across many months,
35:36and it had all built up to this. It felt
35:39so hollow. It was more I don't know how
35:44to feel about this.
35:45>> Some people were upset that we didn't
35:46get to have a proper celebration of
35:48beating all the levels. They felt as
35:50though the mission kind of went out with
35:52a whimper instead of a bang.
35:54>> As underwhelming as this all was, there
35:56was one obvious way it could be
35:58salvaged. There was still about 2 weeks
36:01until the April 8th deadline. They had
36:03time to try and clear trimming the herbs
36:06legitimately. Team 0% could say they won
36:09all they wanted, but since there had
36:11been so much attention on this one
36:13level, people still felt like there was
36:15unfinished business. But of course,
36:18Trimming the Herbs was literally
36:20designed to be unbeatable by humans. All
36:23the best players in the world, Lil
36:25Curbs, the Beast, and more, they poured
36:28hours into it and gave up. So, I wanted
36:32to be optimistic, but having seen these
36:34people who conquered all these previous
36:35levels kind of thrown in the towel, I
36:39you know, in my heart of hearts, I
36:40didn't think that anyone was capable of
36:42beating it. Team 0% needed another hero.
36:46Much like how King Buu cleared Beast
36:48Needle, they needed a specialist to even
36:51have a chance of clearing trimming the
36:53herbs in the next 2 weeks. They needed
36:57sanics.
36:59[music]
37:01Sanx is one of the best Mario Maker 2
37:04players on Earth, clearing some of that
37:06game's most difficult levels, but he
37:09hadn't paid nearly as much attention to
37:11Mario Maker 1. But when the Mario Maker
37:151 shutdown was announced, I started
37:17paying attention to it. And when I saw
37:19TTH and the hype around it, I I thought
37:23we would be my chance to be part of the
37:25team 0% story. Sanx was the chosen one.
37:29He was unbelievably talented and had the
37:32thousands of hours of experience needed
37:34to even attempt to beat trimming the
37:36herbs. Progress on the level quickly
37:39followed. I was getting a lot of runs to
37:42the third stack. Uh usually players
37:44would reach it maybe once [music] or
37:46twice per session, but somehow I was
37:50getting uh there much [music] more
37:52often. sometime up to around 20 times
37:57per hour. That's that's when I realized
38:00that I might actually have a chance to
38:02beat the level before the server shut
38:04down.
38:06>> I guess the more proof he showed that
38:07I'm getting pretty close to this. Like
38:09we started thinking, "Wow, maybe he
38:11can."
38:13>> Sanax was in a race against time. 2
38:16weeks turned into one week and then just
38:19a few days. And then on April 5th, just
38:233 days before the shutdown, Sanx did
38:27this.
38:42[music]
38:48[snorts]
38:49No way.
38:50and beat his
38:53god. [panting]
38:55>> He had done something that was literally
38:57never designed for any human to do. And
38:59then just the complete elation that came
39:01after from not only him but from the
39:04chat and from everyone in the community.
39:05It went like completely viral again
39:08within the gaming space. While this was
39:11the perfect end for team 0%, this story
39:14isn't just about the top dogs. This was
39:16a communitywide effort. Thousands of
39:20players pitched [music] in to clear
39:21levels. They came together to give Super
39:24Mario Maker the final sendoff it
39:26deserved. And this is just the
39:28beginning. Team 0% is hard at work on
39:31Super Mario Maker 2. When those servers
39:34eventually shut down, we'll probably see
39:36a similar push to complete that game.
39:39Who knows what stories will one day be
39:41written. As for Ahoyo, who caused the
39:44drama at the end, on the one hand, maybe
39:47he didn't go about things the right way.
39:49But remember, the whole reason he made
39:52Trimming the Herbs was to try and put
39:53the spotlight back on Super Mario Maker.
39:57And well, it may have taken 7 years, but
40:00I would say, mission accomplished.
40:04Thanks for watching.
40:07[music] Don't forget to click the link
40:08below to purchase your DVD or VHS tape.
40:16>> [music]
40:22[music]