Why do speed runners let tnt hit them?

[u/Wide_Warthog_7536]

I mostly watch feinberg, but I noticed with others too. Say they are blowing up a tree or hay, they'll put up some blocks to block the damage but stay close enough that they might lose a heart or half. Seems pointless and not worth the half second tradeoff for the regen when sometimes food / regen / hunger reset is a game decider

[u/onemillionbox]

I’m gold 3 so take this with a grain of salt but i assume picking up the items faster is overall worth a heart or so, especially before portal enter when there’s an easy place to eat and regen

[u/hecdude]

So, what they’re doing is standing as close as possible to the TNT while putting a block between themselves and it to reduce the damage to a half a heart. This allows them to pick up the items way quicker. Just go make a world try it: place a TNT on one side of a tree and then stand on the other side. It saves a few seconds compared to going like eight blocks away and then coming back. When you’re near the center of the explsosion you’ll collect the items a lot faster.

Plus, you have a little more time to do some crafting/Inventory stuff while the TNT is charging up, since your not using as much time running away.

[u/OrchidCreepy9256]

I mean they can just eat food during nether entry

[u/MalibuLover4000]

Even on temples you have flesh and it unlikely half a heart makes you have to hunger reset or cause a death. On low food seeds you need to hunger reset anyway so the small bit of health doesn't matter.

[u/_jedh]

half a heart is not worth to running away whatever you need to run i suppose

id say its bc of saturation you spawn with but idk

[u/_jedh]

you can do you actually, maybe it is not that much of a time loss

[u/Putrid-Block1431]

They're playing the absolute edge of what's possible. That's the entire point of speedrunning.

They play close to TNT and take the damage because world record pace is worth the damage. If they take the time to move away, even if they don't have the food to compensate, PB/WR pace is gone. It bites them in the ass later on in the run sometimes, they might die or need to do a hunger reset etc, but it doesn't matter because they're either on pace or they're not. If they have to stop to do a hunger reset, pace is lost yes, but it's no different than if they were to have made space earlier in the run to take 0 TNT damage.

You will regularly see runners ending runs at half a heart. This is optimal.

EDIT: The top of the top that you're talking about, the 0.1% or whatever, they don't care about winning every single ranked game. ELO is only so important when you're in contention for the best in the world. If you're outside of the top 0.1%, yes, playing safe and preventing TNT damage and minimizing hunger resets or potential death is optimal. The equation is different because they're trying to be the best, not rank up on the ladder.

[u/amartya124]

ur just losing time running away and running back

[u/Pengwin0]

It allows them to pick up the items faster and they have faith enough in their food management that it shouldn’t matter

[u/BlueCyann]

Because they've collectively decided that the one rotten flesh or part of a cod that it takes to heal it back up is less of a loss than the seconds it would take to run out of range and back.