David Clemens
David Clemens (born February 3rd 1987) is an American GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, Super Metroid speedrunner, twitch streamer, and one of the iconic figures of the-elite.net
Clemens is widely considered to be one of the greatest GoldenEye players of all time.
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Clemens' debuts in The Elite (November 2006 - September 2007)
Clemens first learned about GoldenEye speedrunning in 2006 after watching World Record videos on Speed Demos Archive, he later joined the forums under the pseudonym "eliteSAMEDI" on November 3rd 2006 and claimed that he had achieved the World Record Depot Agent 0:26 after ~12 hours of attempts.
He later provided endscreen pictures of that time on November 10th. Proof that was not sufficient for the time not to be backrolled, but Clemens would then duplicate his 0:26 on tape on November 11th.
In the following months Clemens would rapidly improve and fill up his timespage, getting all the most commonly achieved World Records in the game as well, such as Runway SA 0:23, the Archives World Record Sweep, Surface 1 World Record Sweep, Bunker 1 Sweep and other World Records. Later in March 2007 Clemens would also meet the then GoldenEye Champion Bryan Bosshardt, this would be the first of many meetups they would have together troughout the years.
Clemens achieved his first Untied World Record on April 29th 2007, Surface 2 00 Agent 1:28 after skipping the World Record of 1:29 set by Dan Cervone from 1:30 to 1:28. By that point, Clemens had already started to go for other Untied World Records, most obvious example being Surface 1 Agent 1:02 that he had been grinding during that month, having duped 1:03 ~70 times by the end of April 2007.
Clemens' first major breakthrough was in June 2007 after testing different strategies improvements for lowering the Bunker 1 00 Agent World Record of 1:07 found by Eddie Lovins in late March of that year, Clemens, unsatisfied from the little time Lovins' strategies were saving, decided to be the first player to use the Boris running strategy on the level.
After first failing a 1:07, three 1:06's, and a 1:04, Clemens Untied Bunker 1 00 Agent 1:06 on June 9th 2007 on the first run ever that used the Boris running strategy, every subsequent Bunker 1 00 Agent World Records would also make use of it.
Clemens' fast rise up the rankings continued as he entered the Top 10 in early September 2007, he also achieved Bunker 1 00 Agent 1:04 roughly at the same time, a 3 second Untied World Record.
The rise to Champion and proof controversy (October 2007 - February 2008)
In late 2007, Clemens would play GoldenEye and started to pile up top 5 times (at worst, most of them were higher ranked) on numerous levels at an unrivaled rate.
From early October 2007 to late December 2007, Clemens achieved 31 times across different levels, including 16 World Records, 5 of them being Untied when set.
During that rise, in October 2007, as he was reaching 2nd place Clemens was subject to extra scrutiny from the proof moderation team, after Clemens failed to provide proof for some of his times and claimed a fake time, Bunker 2 Secret Agent 0:47 as a joke, Clemens' profile was frozen and he was then unable to post any times.
As stated by then staff member Ryan Dwyer : "Someone ranked 2nd should have proof for every single one of his times, regardless of whether he's lied or not. Once all of this times are proven, the only difference is that he won't be able to update his own page. This right may eventually be returned to him. I requested a list of all proven times that Clemens had. Clemens also gave me a list of times he had on tape and were about to be proven (Bunker 1 00 included). All of these times were put on his page. Silo 00A was not on either of these lists. If a time is missing from the lists, he's welcome to let me know and I'll add it to his page. Any times on his page that aren't proven by the 27th of October will be removed." (13 October 2007)
Despite that decision, the moderation team re-considered their decision and Clemens was unfrozen on October 15th 2007.
On October 23rd 2007, some of Clemens' times seems to have been removed and were reinstated some time after (unknown when), this was kinda of an obscure and forgotten incident and there aren't too many informations about it, apart from a thread about it
Meanwhile Clemens would continue to play and during the month of January 2008, achieved 17 PRs, all of them being at least 3rd place, including 10 World Records, 5 of them being Untied when set.
During that month, Clemens sent out VHS tapes to prove his times, the situation improved as he would prove all of his time except 5 of them according to the January 2008 Proof Call.
As Clemens' situation regarding his proven times improved, Bryan Bosshardt's (the GoldenEye Champion at the time) situation was getting worse as he was stuggling to upload VHS of his times online and had to sent them out to other players to upload them online.
As stated in the January 2008 Proof Call, all of Bosshardt's times that wouldn't have a video would be removed from the rankings until they would be proven, this included 5 different times that were indeed removed on January 31st 2008, along with other times later on. This action was upopular since the timing of this incident was very unfortunate, as Clemens was getting very close to passing Bosshardt and becoming champion of the game, this removal of Bosshardt's time lead to the rankings being inaccurate, the general conscensus was that Bosshard't deserved to have his times removed as had been asked to prove them for almost two months by that time, but the times shouldn't have been removed right away, especially at that moment as Clemens was very close to passing Bosshardt. But the times were indeed removed.
Despite all of that, then proof moderator Phil McCanna kept track of the Clemens' and Bosshardt' points while including their removed times (that they would both later all prove by sending their VHS)
And so on February 7th 2008, (not considering the proof issues from both players) Clemens becamed the GoldenEye Champion for the first time, after achieving Facility 00 Agent 0:55, two days later on February 9th, Bryan Bosshardt would make a post congratulating Clemens on passing him for first place.
When Clemens became champion of GoldenEye, he had around ~ 5930 points and was also first place in World Records Leaders, simultaniously holding 40 World Records, 6 of them being Untied.
David Clemens VS Rayan Isran Part 1 (2008)
Clemens' career is inseparable from Rayan as both players are considered the two best players ever to have played the game and shared rivalries for years to come.
When Clemens became Chamion in February 2008, Rayan had just became the Perfect Dark Champion in December 2007 and had switched to GoldenEye after that, by this point it was widely believed that Rayan was the only player who could rival Clemens' skill but he had yet to prove that he could top him.
In the following months (February 2008 - June 2008) both players would fight for first place, Clemens trying to stay at the top, and Rayan catching up, one would often achieved an Untied World Record far ahead of the competition, some of the best Untieds in the game, and the other would immidiately tie it in the following months, weeks and sometimes days.
By April 2008 as Clemens was lowering the World Records on Control Secret Agent and 00 Agent and Rayan kept following behind and tying them, both of them were in their own league ahead of Bosshardt, who was himself very far ahead of the rest of the competition. Both Clemens and Rayan were holding more than 40 World Records and both of them were the only players sitting at 5900+ points.
On June 16th 2007, after achieving the World Record Caverns 00A 1:37, Rayan became GoldenEye Champion and Dual Champion, dethroning Clemens, however the battle was not over yet as Clemens continued to play for the following months and passed Rayan again on October 31st 2008 after achieving the World Record Silo Secret Agent 1:10, after Rayan has stopped playing GoldenEye since late June.
Clemens stayed first for the rest of the year as Rayan wouldn't seriously play GoldenEye for a long time to come.
In December 2008 Clemens' started playing Liscence To Kill mode, achieving 6 World Records with 4 of them being Untied when set.
After that he took a long break from GoldenEye and switched to mainly playing Perfect Dark as he had started to do so since November.
GoldenEye and Perfect Dark (Late 2008 - 2009)
In November 2008 Clemens' attention started to shift towards Perfect Dark, and troughout January to February 2009 he would only play that game.The way he played Perfect Dark was very different than GoldenEye as Clemens' only focused on the early stages of the game and optimised them as much as possible, adopting a "World Record or bust" mentality, with his personal timespage of Perfect Dark time either showing World Records and Untieds or N/A.
Clemens would achieve multiple World Records and often Untieds on all of the stages that he played on, by December 2009 he was even ranked first in World Record leaders with 24 World Records held simultaniously (including 11 Untieds) his point rankings placement was nowhere near as good (~47th) as he had only played a third of the game.
As for GoldenEye Clemens didn't start to play again until March.
2009 was a pretty quiet year that Clemens spent passing back Rayan Isran for first place in World Record Leaders, and focusing less on achieving many World Records but achieving extremely optimised Untieds that would stand for years to come (including on Liscence To Kill that he spent more time playing that year), some notable Untied World Records from that era being :
Control Agent 3:58 - (21 April 2009)
Caverns 00A 1:35 - (30 April 2009)
Frigate 00A 1:07 - (19 May 2009)
Frigate LTK 1:16 - (28 May 2009) - This time became the longest standing GoldenEye Untied World Record, and stood untouched until June X. beat it on March 8th 2019
Frigate Secret Agent 1:01 - (19 October 2009)
David Clemens VS Rayan Isran Part 2 / 2.x beginnings / Dominant Era (2010)
After the quiet year of 2009, The Elite and most of it's competitors would greet a new era of optimisation, as 2010 would be a particularily active year at the top level.The year began with Clemens' achieving one of his best times ever, Aztec Agent 1:26, a 4 second Untied World Record that he achieved using a difficult fast glass strategy that he invented.
This would set the tone for Clemens' year as in 2010, every single time that Clemens' achieved would either be a World Record or an Untied World Record (a feat never replicated by anyone, at least to this scale).
After the Aztec Agent 1:26, Clemens took a long break from GoldenEye to play a bit of Perfect Dark in January and February before stopping to play entirely.
Clemens' came back to GoldenEye in the middle of April 2010 after Rayan Isran came back and tied his Bunker 1 00 Agent 1:04 along with many other records.
Rayan would tie Clemens for first place in points on April 28th 2010, Clemens answered by taking back first place the next day on the 29th by achieving the World Record Surface 2 Secret Agent 0:50.
After that in late April - early May the lure start strategy was discovered on Facility and both players spent a lot of time going for the Untied World Record, Rayan ended up Untying Facility Agent 0:44 and Clemens Untied both Secret and 00 Agent 53s, by May 25th, both of them would hold the 0:44 / 0:53 / 0:54 World Record sweep on the stage, Clemens then Untied Facility 00Agent 0:53 only for Rayan to tie it 9 hours later.
Two days after the Facility battle, on May 27th 2010 Rayan Isran tied Clemens again for 1st in points, 5 days later on June 1st, Clemens would lose points after Marc Rützou Untied Aztec Secret Agent 1:35, leaving Rayan alone in 1st place this time.
At this point 2.x control style had started to make it's effect on the rankings, and both Clemens and Rayan would try to use it to their advantage.
Clemens would catch up to Rayan by achieving numerous World Records and Untied on 2.x, he first achieved the Depot World Record sweep, untying Secret Agent 0:41 and 00Agent 0:49 in the process, and after using 2.x to achieve the World Record Streets Secret Agent 1:55 as well, Clemens tied Rayan for 1st place again after slaying the Untied Surface 2 Secret Agent 0:49 (using 2.x).
On that very same day, Clemens later played Train Agent in an attempt to improve his 1:03 and build a lead over Rayan, despite playing the most disdvantaged version (NTSC), Clemens achieved another one of his best speedruns ever, skipping from 1:03 all the way to the Untied World Record Train Agent 1:00 ! Beating Rayan's 1:01 which was the longest standing Untied in history at the time (standing since February 2007), at the sight of the endscreen Clemens then reported being in medical shock.
This battle for Champion ended up being won by Clemens as Rayan Isran would take another extended break from GoldenEye.
Clemens continued to play GoldenEye and Perfect Dark troughout the rest of the year, he achieved Untieds in both games but the one he got in GoldenEye late in the year were particularly great :
Dam 00Agent 1:56 - (22 September 2010)
Bunker 2 00Agent 0:55 - (06 October 2010)
Bunker 2 Secret Agent 0:44 - (11 October 2010) - A two second untied.
Caverns Secret Agent 1:19 - (11 December 2010) - This is still the strategy World Record today
After achieving that 1:19, David Clemens reached the highest point of dominance of his career over the rest of the competition.
From November 8th December 30th 2010, Clemens was sitting at ~5960 points in 1st place and simultaniously held 52 World Records, 9 of them being Untied.
Clemens also reached peak performance in Perfect Dark World Records Leaders after achieving Defection Special Agent 0:32 on November 28th 2010.
Putting him far ahead in Leader's 1st place at 26 World Records including 12 Untieds held simultaneously.
David Clemens VS Marc Rützou (2011)
In 2011 Rayan Isran would not play GoldenEye at all, but Marc Rützou was starting to get closer to the the skill level of Clemens and Rayan.
Marc would become Clemens' main rival that year as in 2011 only Clemens and Marc achieved Untied World Records (5 for Clemens, and 7 for Marc), Clemens would still easily have the advantage as Marc only reached ~20th place in points and 3rd place in World Record Leaders that year. Clemens would definetly suffer from Rützou's rise as the untieds Marc got made Clemens finish the year 2011 with less World Records that he had started it with, despite the fact that he had again exclusively achieved either World Records or Untieds as personal best.
In late May 2011, Clemens, along with Alex Anderson, travelled to Sweden to meet other Eliters, including Ilari Pekkala, Henning Blom, Marc Rützou, Eise Smit and Patrik Nilsson. During the meet, Clemens played on the Japanese version of GoldenEye for the first time and took that opportunity to play Caverns 00Agent, he achieved a 1:34 at the meet, a 2nd place time when set that later became Untied when set as Henning's Caverns 00Agent 1:33 was removed from the rankings after the Henning Cheating Scandal.
A 1V1 multiplayer tournament was also held, with Clemens ending up winning the tournament. This tournament was well documented, thanks to Ilari uploading most of it online as it went.
1st - David Clemens
2nd - Patrik Nilsson
3rd - Ilari Pekkala
4th - Eise Smit
5th - unknwon
6th - unknown
7th - Alex Anderson
Clemens brought home a Japanese cartridge of GoldenEye 007 from that meet and kept playing Caverns 00Agent after coming back.
In June 14th 2011 after achieving a low Chicago Agent 0:15 dupe, Clemens decided to grind for Chicago Agent 0:14, he would also play Caverns 00Agent during the grind and Untied a 1:32 on June 19th, and after that the Chicago Agent grind continued, Clemens documented some of the grind himself, after 11 days of playing Clemens achieved Chicago Agent 0:14 on June 25th 2011, beating Randy Buikema's Chicago Agent 0:15 which was the oldest standing World Record in Perfect Dark (set in July 2002), and setting one of the earliest instances of a maxed speedrun in The Elite, 0:14 is still the record to this day and will remain so likely forever. Unfortunately that run was impacted by a problem that had been growing with Clemens' VHS, the tape was damaged, this problem started to affect the quality of some of his recordings in 2011, including his Silo Agent 1:01 achieved a few months later.
David Clemens VS Rayan Isran Part 3 / Recording issues (2012 - 2014)
Clemens began the year by achieving the Untied World Record Surface 2 00Agent 1:25 on February 2nd 2012, he then switched over to Perfect Dark and took an important role during the Investigation goldrush in May 2012, shortly after the laser skip was discovered by Ryan Dwyer, Clemens played on Agent and Untied 1:25, 1:20, 1:16 and 1:11 from May 7th to May 18th.That 1:16 was the last run ever recorded on VHS from Clemens, after this run Clemens would struggle for years to record runs that would pass proof standards, as for unknown reasons he couldn't record his run the was he was until now anymore.
In August 2012 Clemens attended the VA2012 meet along with 30+ other speedrunners from GoldenEye, Perfect Dark and Mario Kart 64
During the VA meet, a 250$ money match of GoldenEye multiplayers was held, the 4 contestants were Adam Matis, Eddie Lovins, David Clemens and Karl Jobst.
Clemens won the match and covered his traveling expenses with the money he won.
A few days later The Virginia 2012 GoldenEye Multiplayer Championship was also held, the 3 finalist, Clemens, Karl Jobst and Jim Barrett faced each other in multiple 1 Vs 1 Vs 1 matches, with the winner being the one to win the most matches.
Match 1 - Winner : David Clemens
Match 2 - Winner : Karl Jobst
Match 3 - Winner : David Clemens
Match 4 - Winner : David Clemens
Match 5 - Winner : David Clemens
Clemens ended up winning the Championship and was rewarded with a custom controller made for that occasion by Shawn Johnson.
Clemens' style of play
This page is under construction...
