I can't believe this thread hasn't been created yet. I mean, it's been a whole friggin day!

Share your love, your shoutouts and your best wishes to your fellow ESA visitors so that we may remember our fond memories of the awesome week.

(And try to snipe me between writing the opening and writing up my shoutouts xD)

There is no particular order in this thread. If you find one, consider it your treasure under the rainbow 😜

Shoutouts to the mafia team! Naegleria, Tyr, Pac, Dave, Eidgod, Mash (bet moar, pls xp), Don't-toss-a-coin-ever-again Moro, Mafiabelly Spike, Robo, Ladour, Sonicku, CL (gotta get that thesis done!), Shiek, awesome mute godfather Pottoww, Soezee, best shittalker Fingers, Pog, Kazzadan, E-Dragon, Cop-dog-lover Mergy, Kotti, Josh, Tezuro, Freddeh, Mr I'm-the-parity-cop (sorry, don't know your name, but the guy who always came out as him on day 2). And if you played Mafia with me and I forgot you (and I actually remember your name, because I'm bad at that), feel yourself added to the list. Also awesome props for the awesome cards, and Wolver confirmed new best role.

Thanks to all the supporters of the Gem-esis block (ooh, that's a nice pun, innit?): Robo for the Flash, James Pond and hosting (Cursed for helping!), Fingers for thatguy-%, Pog and Fingers for the Ooze couch, Kruskader for bestmusic- and bestdancing-Phantasy Star and everyone who danced for most awesome ESA dancing-%

Shoutouts to Maral for stepping up and taking care of hosting when I had disappeared from the face of the Earth. Shoutouts to my fellow hosters, especially Curseddolls for showing me the beauty of a game I never would have watched. Shoutouts to tech for doing their best to set up games quickly in spite of all the issues with capture, sound and whatnot. And to Twitch chat for #freekarl xD

Shoutouts and big thanks to the main organisers Edenal, Oasiz, Bangerra, flicky, Planks! The event was awesome! You have deserved your holidays! Shoutouts to Northern Sky, even though I would have loved a baguette once or twice …
Also shoutouts to the behind-the-scenes organisers, especially game selection crew.

Shoutouts to everybody on site who played FFIX!

Shoutouts and thanks to everybody who joined bumperball and made it such a whooping success! Allez les bleus !

Shoutouts to the Beethoven challenge. Although I failed to collect my cheeseburger. Great speedgame =3
Also shoutouts to F-Zero GX, even though the game was stronger than me (as I expected).

Shoutouts to the Germench on-site crew and all the others who sat around in that area. That includes but is not limited to FPaul, Matse, Aura … and once again my name memory fails me YY You know who you are, right?

Shoutouts to Team Wiiaboo/Bad Idea Saturday Crew, that is Gio (<3), Pink (<3, thanks for the discord invite), Legrand, Chfou (11/10, would share sleeping bag again), AcidWorm (<3), Baffan (totally subsuming you under this just because <3), and again whoever I forgot.

Thanks to all the people who made Friday night drinking so memorable: Adam (geen Heineken!), Bang, Soezee (Flemish for behinners <3), Oasiz, Eidgot, Tezuro & gf, Gio, Robo, and my memory went fuzzy. Double thanks to AcidWorm here btway 😉 ❤️.

Shoutouts to the Swedes of all ESAs: Tompa, Niss3, Crippe.

And finally shoutouts to the random other people that don't fit into these categories. First ones I can think of are Kanjo, S (or did I play mafia with you?) and Dizzy.

(And Tingle, make sure you don't stay away with a lame excuse next year again! D=)

I want to give shoutouts to Maral for doing everything in her power to help me get a visa. It did not work out and I was incredibly disappointed, but the fact that you trusted me with your private information just so I could get a visa means a lot to me. Thank you for being an amazing person.

Also I wanna thank every single one of my friends at the event, for skyping me, sending me photos, telling me about the things that were happening. You guys not only did help me feel better about the visa issue again, but made me feel like I was there. I love you all and I'm really thankful.

This was the fourth ESA I watched, second ESA I ¤tried¤ to attend. Third time's the charm, I'll see you all at #ESA17 and hug you people 24/7.

Just want to give a short shoutout to everyone i interacted/talked with/to this year. Without the people this event would be nothing and i would never bother for even a second to attend it. Stay awesome everyone!

shoutouts to the swamp

thered be more but i'm heckin lazy

NOTE: that includes just about everyone who came up and hung out for a bit + people I played guilty gear/blazblue/other fighting games with + those who came by and hung out in the swamp 2.0 on last few days

Obvious shoutout to everyone from the Asylum crew: flicky, oasiz, bang and Suzy, Adam, Pipe, Kotti, Dave, Shrimp, Robo. You guys are practically the reason I started going to ESAs and I haven't had a bad time so far when you guys were around. Thanks for all the amazing moments throughout the years.

Shoutout to the Mafia and Chess 3 guys, who were basically the same people: Naeg, eidgod, Alko, cfb, Spike, Noobest, Pottow, Moro, Mash, Kazzadin, Pac, Shiek, Fingers, Mergy, Freddeh, E-Dragon, Josh, CL, Vassko, Sonicku, CL, and everyone else that I forgot the name because I'm garbage.

The SRG/Swamp crew for being awesome. I don't know everyone but consider yourself included anyway!

The #gta crew. A lot of newer faces so I don't know everyone and I'm old and washed out as everyone knows. Still, it's amazing being part of such a cool community, as seen in the Pizza place. Thanks so much to everyone for making #gta be what it is.

Thanks to all the tech guys, especially the senior techs and my french tech team partner Gael for the awesome work.

And some random shoutouts to finish this up:

Tezur0 and his girlfriend, you guys were cool. I'm sorry my russian is garbage even though I try. I hope you will consider coming back next year. I enjoyed hanging out with you both.

Maral. We didn't hang out much this year but I suppose that was to be expected. Still, the times we had this year were a lot of fun. I look forward to seeing you again next time.

All the people aside from the Asylum guys that watched DEATH RAAAAAAACE and especially Pod People: I enjoyed watching some of the great movies Leigh Scott made with you people. I'm sure we can find something suitable for next year.

The MTG crew.. Thanks for teaching me and all the great times. I really enjoyed it. Count me in next year.

The french guys that I hang out with. You guys like baguettes so you're obviously cool.

Melis. I'll get you your cups of tea sometime. I hope you enjoyed your shoutout during social eating.

Fatzke, on top of all the other categories you're in. You're great. You'd be greater with your moustache though so yea ..

Lysteria, my partner in crime.

All the people that watched my run and stuck with me despite the awkward time slot. I hope you enjoyed it.

And everyone else I guess because I'm running out of ideas.
See you all next year.

Well, I don't really know if I want to shout out individuals and make anyone I don't shout out feel bad, or shout out a large group of people and make it feel less special. Here goes, in any case.

oasiz is fucking based cause he let us play DOS games on his laptop.

I think it was Omega who showed us Jones in the Fast Lane, which we played the fuck out of.

Pitpo was in charge of modding Jones to be much more memey than it already was. Also we got GTAVC co-op WR and Jones co-op WR because we could. It would be a crime to not mention that he also enlightened me with arcade laser-gun games with windows ports (if that's the right way to describe them). Mad Dog McCree is so bad that it's good, and it should be a good time to race all the ones in existence.

Shoutouts to myself for making demonic noises in my sleep. AdamAK, BubbleBobbler, and PeteThePlayer definitely enjoyed that. Speaking of Adam, he purchased Old Village Simulator 1962, which I've yet to try on an actual decent PC but I'm assuming it's still bad.

I probably had more "real talk" with Bubble than anyone else, which is a nice break from whole days of memeage.

On one of the afternoons, I inexplicably felt like complete trash, and Melis helped me feel better before I made myself go to bed.

MizterConfuzing let #gta bois party in his room, which was an absolute great time. It's really nice that he put up with everything just for fun.

I could go on and on but these are some names that stand out to me the most. I've said this to a few people already, but I fucking love all of my friends that I've met through this speedrunning thing. It's a shame that I only get to see some of them once a year, but it's fantastic that I get to see them at all.
Also, although this may not be the right thread to say this, I'm slightly regretting the fact that I mostly hung out with the same people I always do and didn't do too much with other peeps. Next year, though.

Thank you Jazzy, T1g3r_94, joelnir and RandomPinkBunny for Tarzan, good races! Shame we didn't hang out more outside of that

Thanks to soe, cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooookie and kukkye for being the best roommates

Thank you Legend spelbutik, for letting us play games, being approachable, enthusiastic, friendly and awesome.
Thanks to Chucat, Henjo, Yva, Trineas, Shrimp, Laml, Therio and probably some I forgot, for playing boardgames.

Thanks /srg/ for being the awesome gang that you are (in person). Suicide jokes are best with you around.

Thank you Qlex and Burb for letting me interrupt your practice and for allowing me to play the games that I love. I promise to improve my S5 until we meet again.
Also shoutouts to the group of people that occasionally congregated around the TGM station, for asking me if I wanted to try it out, sorry about obviously not being a beginner.

Thank you again, Shrimp, for being caring and understanding. Some of the things you said really made an impact on me, even if that wasn't your intention. I'll come to Scotland again soon enough.

Shoutouts to Adam_AK for constantly pretending I'm a big shot, it made me feel included this year as it did last year.

Thanks to SoeZee and bangerra for the hugs in the hotel hallway on your final night, it convinced me that not going back to my room was the right choice. I had a good night with friends as a result, and I got to properly say goodbye to a few people that I wouldn't have had the chance to say bye to otherwise.

Thanks to the Finnish guy for half of his microwave pizza, I secretly really like that brand even though everyone in the kitchen shit talked it.

Thank you Flicky, for being approachable, fun, and apparently appreciative of my absolutely terrible sense humour.

Thanks to everyone I talked to, you're all great people. I'll probably edit this thread when I inevitably remember some people that I obviously should have namedropped.

He lives.

As I was sweeping the false floor on Sunday afternoon while packing up, S asked me if I was having fun. Clearly this was a sarcastic question, because as a rule, noone who voluntarily takes up the task of sweeping an arena floor is having fun.

But, you know what? I was.

If someone had told me that discovering GTA speedruns on YouTube from ESA's and GDQ's gone by, then discovering Twitch a few months later, then downloading OBS and starting to broadcast myself, then a bunch of other things, that it would eventually lead me to the middle of Sweden, I would have told them they're as stupid as Jones in the Fast Lane speedruns.

The event for me was just surreal. Meeting all the #GTA crew, and many others besides was great. Hosting and doing tech was all great, despite my shortcomings at both.

The event is what you make it. If you're cool just hanging on the couches watching the stream all day, then that's all good. If you're more into getting to know others, the Mafia crew was looking for players approximately 99% of the time. The challenges (F-Zero and Beethovens 2nd) were there to be beaten and the sweet sweet McNuggets(TM) to be enjoyed. I had a go on a HTC Vive, which I would not have been able to do.

Just hanging with like minded people is great. My IRL friends don't play games much thesedays, let alone speedrun them. I'm sure there are a few of you in a similar position, so being able to talk nerd stuff and not have peoples eyes glaze over is pretty cool.

No specific shoutouts, because we'd be here all day, so just a general one to everyone I talked to at some point. You're all, just great.

ESA - I'll be back again next year.

Shoutouts to Therio for repping the Vape Nation.

Every time I went outside I saw him ripping a fat cloud.

Keep on vaping brother. \/ /\

goddamnit shrimp

Now, #GTA crew already know that me and my gf had a blast at ESA this year.
But I want to shout out the people that made a makeshift cooler by filling the trashcan in my hotel room with ice and placing it in the shower. Everyone who helped get that party started while I was busy driving back and forth from the venue to the hotel to get people there. And to the people who just showed up at my hotel room cause they heard we were having a good time.
Shoutouts to the staff at the hotel for just asking us to close the window while partying instead of stopping the whole party. Even though I'm pretty sure 18 people in a 2 man room is a fire hazard. That day will probably be my highlight of the year.
Pitpo, I want to thank you for helping me and Nozlar on our way back to venue when we were drunk, You are awesome!
And general shout out to everyone who came to the party!

Shout outs to Ryedawg, Nozlar, PeteThePlayer, Tezur0 & his gf for joining us at the beach that one day. So many good laughs that day. That bee in the car was fucking scary, he wanted the bananas really bad.

Shout out to my hosting partner CrazyCharlieH for being just as cool to hang out with in real life.

There are too many people to mention, but I want you all to know that I had a blast this year.

I love you ❤️

I'll likely forget a bunch but I'll try to something something...

Alko Nice seeing you again, sorry for introducing you to ooze!
Eidgod Good to meet again, although why didn't you stay to pet the cat? 🙁
Therio This fucking music has been stuck in my head. Makes me want to play it
Tyr Thanks for helping out, was awesome to see you again
MH/Pitpo/etc.. Fun times with Jones, gave me a laugh when I played against ultima on the boat and Max burger popped in.
Pjoxt Montezorro, fun times.. "Would you please fuck off already!"
Shrimp The Hoven keeps on going.. Maybe we can find some shit dos game as a challenge.
Ultima Ultima!
Adam Golfclap, was nice seeing you again!
Pipe What a true twitch sellout! Nah, ❤️ U
Spikevegeta For enduring the TRUE rayman for 45min
bangerra Awesome time again!
Suzy HÖÖKS!
Fatzke I should totally visit you in germany some day!
flicky Thanks for keeping me sane and for the company, ❤️ U
AMVX #2 I met this AMVX #2 guy who is so much better than AMVX, he actually comes to events and everything!
Pac Was awesome seeing you again!
LotsofS ES ES ES ES ES ES. Really should've hung around more !

Was awesome seeing #gta again after a long time !
Shoutouts to the rest of the asylum crew that I didn't list here.
Swamp was comfy as hell, thanks to Yva/Chucat/Theio/etc.. for setting it up, Ehrgeiz (god bless the ring) is such a shit game.
I'm terribly sorry for the asylum night but at least people got to drink free cola.
Also hugs to the other tech guys /staff/volunteers who helped out and keeped company.
People who joined for town trips/alcohol, etc.. (Tezuro/crippe/nisse etc..)
❤️ anyone I met and hung around with since I'd be listing for a long time.

Also making this topic sticky..

Since Oasiz didn't use the asocial Finnish card this year (confusingly), I'm going to play it instead (despite not being Finnish).

Shoutouts to everyone I met at ESA, be it for the first time or for the second, third or even fourth. You're the only reason it was worth going! You made this event fun.