Why is Forsen speedrunning Minecraft? The streamer's rivalry with xQc explained

Sebastian "Forsen" and Felix "xQc" have a history of Minecraft speedrunning against each other to see who can finish the game faster. Earlier this year, after many tries, Felix managed to beat his rival's time, prompting Sebastian to once again start playing the game seriously in an effort to win his crown back.

Twitch Tracker notes that Forsen has spent a considerable amount of his streaming hours playing Minecraft, having devoted over 3/4th of the time in the last month to trying to beat xQc. The two Twitch stars have had an on-stream rivalry since 2020, and the recent shift in who has the fastest time has rekindled the popular Minecraft beef once again.

With the speedrunning rivalry gaining more and more eyeballs in recent months, let's take a deep dive into how the two streamers got into competing against each other in the first place.

---

Tracing Forsen and xQc's Minecraft rivalry

Both Forsen and xQc are big content creators with massive followings. Their on-screen bromance and other interactions have frequently brought the two communities together in the past. The Minecraft beef started almost three years ago and is fondly remembered by many of their fans. With the competition heating up once more, it's time to look back at the speedrunning saga.

With the advent of content creators such as Dream and GeorgeNotFound popularizing Minecraft challenge streams in 2019, other streamers on Twitch began to take notice of this otherwise niche content.

While many tried their hand at the game, Forsen and xQc quickly became the top two contenders for the title of best speedrunner on Twitch, and the rivalry intensified throughout 2020, as both frequently broke each other's records in an attempt to get the fastest time. Both reached sub-30-minute times by the end of the year, making fast progress. Other streamers, such as Mizkif and Ludwig, tried their hands at Minecraft speedrunning too, but could never really catch up to the duo's level.

However, things cooled off considerably the following year when Forsen set a record of 20 minutes and 38 seconds in April 2021, which his Canadian counterpart had considerable difficulty surpassing. The numbers would allow the Swedish streamer to remain on top for almost two years until xQc finally beat the time in January 2023, with reports of him using coaching to get better at Minecraft speedrunning doing the rounds on the internet.

The former Overwatch pro's celebration after getting a better time than his rivals speaks volumes about the pair's commitment to their competition. He said:

"Yes! It's over! It's done! Time? Oh my god! Boom! I am done with this sh*t. F*ck yes, man! Oh my god! I am f*cking shaking, dude. I don't even know. Brother, it's been two f*cking years with this sh*t, man."

As the title changed hands earlier this year, Forsen reacted to the win by saying that he has to once again take up learning how to speedrun in Minecraft.

Since then, the Swede has made beating xQc's time his life's mission and has been streaming the game non-stop as he gradually gets better at it. At this rate, it's only a matter of time before he once again comes out on top to continue their Twitch rivalry for the foreseeable future.