¶ FFR Presents: Rando Marathon
The Rando Marathon is a biannual weekend event celebrating all the great and wonderful video game randomizers (and more). The event is held on the first weekend of June and December, each year. The marathons raise money for charity with 100% of all proceeds going to the charity. All video game communities are invited to join these events.
Winter Marathon 2026
December 3-6, 2026
In support of South Carolina Firefighters' Burned Children's Fund
Summer Marathon 2027
June 3-6, 2027
In support of the Liam Foundation
¶ Current Donation Drive:
¶ About the Marathon
Each marathon is a four-day showcase of randomizers. The focus is on randomizers of all shapes and sizes, from RPGs to platformers. If your game can be randomized we invite you to submit it. Once all the submissions are in, the marathon committee will go over the list and will watch the various submitted runs. A schedule will be created from there, filling in the various time slots from 10:00 AM on Thursday all the way through to 11:59 PM Sunday night (all times EST/EDT).
Summer Marathon 2026 Links:
Important Dates:
- September 20, 2026: Marathon submissions open, prize submissions open
- October 24, 2026 (11:59 PM EST): Marathon submissions close
- November 1, 2026: Marathon schedule released, volunteer submissions open
- December 3, 2026: Marathon Preshow
- December 3-6, 2026: Marathon
- December 8, 2026: Prizes drawn
- December 10, 2026: Prizes sent out
Marathon submissions are not yet open. Check back soon.
Donations:
All donations to the Marathon will go to the charity. The FFR community does not handle any of the monetary donations for the foundation and 100% of the proceeds from the Marathon go directly to the foundation.
Prizes:
Daily prizes will be offered during the marathons. A full list of prizes is made available before each event.
¶ Requirements for Participants:
- All runs must be streamed live. Online players should arrive in the “Marathon Waiting Room” voice channel on the FFR discord at least 30 minutes before their run. On-site runners should be in the event room at least 30 minutes before their run.
- Although the runners are not required to hang out in chat and see what people are saying, it is encouraged that comms (and the marathon host) keep an eye on chat so they can interact and explain the randomizers being played.
- Players must have a timer on screen for syncing and timing (especially during any scheduled races).
- While on stream, and in interviews afterwards, players must comport themselves and act to the expected standards for on-air behavior. This includes, but is not limited to: no cussing (including epithets and slurs of any kind), no rants about the other player, no rants about the marathon, no rants about the format, no rants about the streaming service. This extends not only to the on-air portion of the event but to Twitch chat and public-facing Discord as well. Anyone that acts in a manner counter to the professional attitude and bearing we expect from our participants at this event will be removed from air and barred from future events.
- All participants must be on the FFR discord for the duration of the event.
If you do not want to follow these rules do not volunteer for the event.
¶ Frequently Asked Questions:
I saw your post in a community I frequent. While I like that game, there are other randomizers I'd much rather submit to the marathon. Is that okay?
Yes. We would love to see any and all randomizers get submitted to run in the marathon. If there's a game you'd like to run, please fill out our submission form!
What happens if I submit a game that someone else has already put in for the marathon?
Well, there are a few ways we could handle it. Depending on the runs:
- If the runs are different enough, even though they're for the same game, both runs might make it into the marathon separately. Think ALttPR where one player could run Open Boots Standard while the other could play Inverted Crosskeys Glitched. Those are very different runs while still both playing in A Link to the Past. There's a solid chance both would be viable on their own.
- If the runs are similar enough, or the marathon schedule is very cramped, we may talk to certain runners and see if they'd like to find a shared flagset they could play and run it together as a race. This would allow both players to participate while still putting a good run on the schedule.
- If we have a great number of submissions we'll have to pick and choose what runs can get in. This could be based on length of the run, content of the run, and/or any number of factors. That doesn't mean one run was better than another, just that one fit the schedule (and the games around it) better. While one run makes it in, other runs could be kept on "standby", that way if we end up with a large gap in the schedule (due to other runs finishing early, or a runner having to cancel), we can swap a standby run in (assuming that backup runner is still available).
I made a submission to the marathon but didn’t hear back yet on whether mine was accepted or not. Was it?
This specifically pertains to runs submitted before the deadline. If you've put in a run, you won't hear back from us (unless we had questions about your submission) until we put together the schedule, and we honestly can't do that until we have all the submissions from players. We won't begin the process of arranging the schedule until after the deadline, and that's because we need to see:
- What runs were submitted.
- What times players are available.
- How we can fit it all together.
A schedule like this is a puzzle and we have to have all the pieces before we can assemble it. Worry not, though: we will send out a ping on the FFR discord to all @marathon supporters once the schedule is arranged to let the whole group know when everything is official.
If you are curious if your submission went through, though, you can ping the @marathon staff to confirm. We're happy to check for you at any time.
Are we able to submit more than one game? If we did, would only one of our submissions get chosen?
You can submit more than one game. When you submit you can say "please only choose one" and list your preference, if you have one, or you can simply leave it open and let the marathon staff choose runs as they desire. Plus, if you submit more than one with open availability there's a chance all your runs could get in.
How do marathon prizes work?
Getting entered for a prize is easy: donate during a block when a prize is offered (and those blocks / prizes are generally listed on the marathon schedule for the event), and get in the minimum total donation required for that block. Some prizes are only available at certain times on certain days, while others are available for donations across the whole of the marathon.
After the marathon ends, wheels will be spun and a random winner for each prize will be selected. If you come up as a winner, the marathon team will contact you to arrange shipping.
Please note: to be eligible for a prize you must be a member of the FFR Discord so that we can contact you.
Where do the profits from the merch store go?
The FFR Rando Marathon merch store is handled by Tantrum Merch. All money brought in by merch sales is split 75/25 between Tantrum (75%) to cover their costs of product, time, and handling, with the rest (25%) going directly to the charity. FFR does not directly handle any of the money made from merchandise and FFR in no way profits from the merch sales.
¶ About Final Fantasy Randomizer
Marathon Staff:
If you have any questions, feel free to shoot them at the @marathon staff on the FFR discord.
FFR Links:
¶ Marathon History
| Event | Dates | Location | In Support Of | Preshow | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Merch Sales | Grand Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summer 2022 | June 17-19, 2022 | Online Only | The Liam Foundation | $1,943.00 | $2,660.00 | $4,035.00 | $4,285.00 | |||
| Winter 2022 | December 9-11, 2022 | Online Only | MUSC Children's Health and SC Firefighters' Burned Children's Fund | $2,050.10 | $3,645.00 | $5,848.00 | $5,903.00 | |||
| Summer 2023 | June 16-18, 2023 | Online Only | The Liam Foundation | $1,651.00 | $3,419.88 | $5,114.00 | $5,114.00 | |||
| Winter 2023 | December 8-10, 2023 | Online Only | MUSC Children's Health and SC Firefighters' Burned Children's Fund | $1,720.17 | $2,935.01 | $3,680.00 | $3,725.00 | |||
| Summer 2024 | June 14-16, 2024 | Online Only | The Liam Foundation | $2,095.00 | $2,820.00 | $4,295.00 | $4,500.00 | |||
| Winter 2024 | December 5-8, 2024 | Online Only | South Carolina Firefighters' Burned Children's Fund | $1,095.00 | $3,175.00 | $4,550.00 | $6,250.00 | $6,350.00 | ||
| Summer 2025 | June 13-15, 2025 | Live from Charleston, WV | The Liam Foundation | $692.22 | $3,998.76 | $7,448.76 | $10,178.18 | $10,467.79 | ||
| Winter 2025 | December 4-7, 2025 | Online Only | South Carolina Firefighters' Burned Children's Fund | $1,000.00 | $2,150.00 | $4,067.00 | $6,490.00 | $10,506.07 | $10,567.67 | |
| Summer 2026 | June 4-7, 2026 | Live from Charleston, WV | The Liam Foundation | $1,630.01 | $2,035.00 | $4,802.00 | $8,027.77 | $12,774.65 | $377.36 | $13,152.01 |
¶ Milestones:
- Summer 2022 was the first ever FFR hosted marathon.
- Winter 2022 was the first event to break $5,000 raised during a marathon. Total marathon donations broke $10,000.
- Winter 2024 was the first event to feature a preshow for the marathon. Total marathon donations broke $25,000.
- Summer 2025 was the first event to break $10,000 raised during a marathon, and was also the very first live, in-person event.
- Winter 2025 was the first event to expand to a full four days, and also the first to feature a special bonus event before the marathon. First to earn $1,000 before the marathon even officially started. Total marathon donations broke $50,000.
- Summer 2026 was the first event to feature merch sales, adding additional funds to the charity.