So. Im gonna keep this short just give us any feedback that you have for us about the first ESA Germany here.

5/7

Alright, time to leave some feedback.
So I had one run in the event, I arrived Thurday in the evening and left sunday around 6pm.

Tech :
Really good. The setup were fast and easy even if we were using our own computer (my case). The headset was great and the sound good. Since I didn't do a run on console, I can't talk about the CRT. Unfortunately, sometimes we weren't able to hear the runner well but that's normal I guess.

Stream room :
Really big. The chairs were good enough and the couch was comfy.

Practice room :
Good. A lot of space and table for us to practice, a couch to take a nap or just to sit in a comfy position and a lot of plugs. We were able to see the stream in this room and this was a big + 🙂

Venue itself :
Close to the station so it was perfect.

Masshousing :
I didn't slept there so I can't judge.

Misc :
The only trouble I saw was about the "backup run". Sometimes it was unclear about the schedule because of it.
But in the end everything was alright since the runners were able to show them (I think for all the backup run but I'm not sure) + we were ahead of the schedule sunday so it's was good at the end.

A lot of positive things that make me want to come back next year 😃

(Now I need to go to sleep)

Yoho, I will give my Feedback aswell! 😃

Tech /Hosting :
++ Mostly on Schedule with some minor changes, that is well done!
+ I was running games on PC only and so far there were no issues, just smaller problems while setting up but since we were setting things up it was alright especially when there is enough time before the run or during a console run.
+ Hosting was done very well, software used seemed to be good too with all the proper information given.
+/- Now since I did not "needed" a practice PC or room I did not use it so I was not sure how many or if there was even a practice computer. But all in all, it was good!
+/- Wifi was working and sometimes not, just a "smaller" issue since I needed to use steamguard
to login and had no access until onestay gave it to me over his phone, could have otherwise lead to issues while setting up.
- The game audio was just sometimes way too high and the mic had some cracking voice when I did my run which was abit uncomfortable, still managable though.

Streamroom :
+ Streamroom was having space, good light and setups, stream was able to watch from the back row even and it was really cool! Reminded me alot of ESA 2014 of the small stream setup! 😃

Location :
++ Location was not too far from the mainstation which was nice
++ KITCHEN! Seriously I'm missing that since ESA14, wish more placed had that for a marathon.
+ Stores / Restaurants etc were all reachable and not far for a walk
+ Babyhuenchens map which gave a lot of intel before the event already!
+ Masshousing was good! Not too cold with a blanket, toilets were clean.

And now that I listed most of the things here the big negativ thing which I had during the marathon...

The event is too short! Next time for atleast a week! Enjoyed meeting up with everyone again but since not everyone was available all the time it was hard to do something with everyone! But all in all a good first impression and I would love to see more in the future! Hopefully with more volunteers helping out.

Otherwise thanks to everyone who was there! It was nice meeting everyone again after awhile and I can't wait to see you next time! 😃

Cheers Heinki

Abusing the FlixBus WiFi for writing some feedback. Kappa

I'm a friend of long words, but I'm trying to keep it short:

As an attendee:

Honestly, I liked the location. I even regretted a bit I stayed in Berlin and not in Potsdam, that gave me about 1 hour travel time each day to and from the venue. The internet problems suck of course and if the event grows - what we all hope it does - there needs to be space for more people!

As a runner:

As far as I'm concerned, things went smooth. Of course it's bummer we couldn't download the larger games via Steam on site; for me that wasn't a problem since the games I run are all fairly small and I just brought them on a USB stick. Being ahead of schedule was something I wasn't used to before but then again, I have only visited ESA16 so far and there the schedule... well, I guess everyone knows. 😃 Cool we could do Bonus games and honestly, having me run spontaneously 140 was a dream come true as I always wanted to run this game at marathon from the moment I started speedrunning it. 🙂
There was a bit of a lack of decent practice pcs, but I understand that these are not cheap to get. If there is the opportunity however, would be cool, since not every runner of pc game also has a gaming laptop.

As a host:

Hosting was a new experience for me and I hope I did a good enough job. Sorry to all runners I might have interrupted by trying to read a donation. Speaking of donation: Would it be possible to give donators who don't have an SRC account the ability to enter a name as well? Also please fix if somebody else writes "ZEEEE~EEEEET" in the donation text that the site layout will freak out again. 😃 Over my three shifts I think, my hosting abilities did improve and I really enjoyed getting to do the finale! For future events, it would be cool if we'd have some kind of cheat sheet, maybe as a laminated piece of paper, where a view standard sentences about our partners stand on. At my first hosting shift I really didn't know what to say about our partners most of the time. I'd be willing to help out with such a sheet for next time. I'd definitely like to be a host again at another event. 🙂

As a viewer:

I think the stream went smooth after initial connectivity problems, but for next time: Please check spelling errors beforehand ("Safe" instead of "Save the Children"). What people suggested could actually be a good idea: A local time clock on stream so viewers know why it's empty at 4am in the morning local time. Also I saw chat asking a few times who was hosting at the moment, without trying to get any benefit out of it, but maybe that could be faded in and out of the stream every once in a while? ALSO: Titles of the music tracks which are played during setup!!!

I ¤think¤ that's about what I have to say. Good luck on future events and see you all hopefully at ESA17! 😃

Right, back at home in front of my own computer, so I can give some more detailed feedback.

Venue: A very good choice of venue, and from what I've been told the owners were really supportive throughout. Right next to a pizza shop (and, for a crappy pizza shop it was actually decent) and close to the shopping centre/train station, so that was good. The streaming room was a good size (I'd say the perfect size for an event of this scale) and the practice room was a good spot too. I didn't use the kitchen at all, so I can't really say anything about that. Overall, good place.

As a runner: I had plenty of opportunities to practice Metal Gear 2 thanks to the abundance of CRTs, which was really helpful. There weren't a lot of opportunities to practice Prince of Persia since there weren't a lot of PCs and I didn't have a gaming laptop, but that's completely understandable considering how much PCs cost these days. When it came time to do the runs, setup went really smoothly for both of my games. The tech organizers were really helpful and made everything absolutely clear. My only real complaint was how close together my two runs were (I believe it was less than 3 hours apart between the end of my first run and the start of my second), and combined with the time of day (bloody night shifts) I felt it had a very slight effect on my 2nd run (thankfully both runs went really well, going under estimate).

As a host: Surprise! I had to host at the last minute to cover for someone. It was a 4am-8am shift so it was pretty quiet, but I did manage to catch some good runs as a result from that. Speaking of runs...

As a viewer: The runs were very hype (no surprises there, considering it's ESA)! A very good selection of games that showcase a variety of different games and playstyles. Whether the runs are glitchfests (like the Prince of Persia runs) or just simply a showcase of skill (Quake, F-Zero etc.), each of them were entertaining in their own right. Congrats to all the runners of ESA Germany!

Overall: ESA Germany was everything I would expect from an ESA, just on a smaller scale and also in Germany. Thanks to all the organizers for having me over, it's been a blast!

Hopefully I'll see you guys in ESA17

This was my first on-site speedrun marathon.
I attended from Thursday evening to Sunday noon.

Location:
I love the freiland for its accepting and open-minded environment.
Great atmosphere with friendly and interesting people everywhere.
The rooms and hallways are spacious and I simply enjoyed being in the building.
The short distance to the train station where all important stores are is excellent.
Can't say anything about masshousing since I stayed at a hotel.
Overall I would certainly come back there for another event.

Streaming room:
Had enough chairs for anyone who wanted to watch from there.
Good viewing experience thanks to lighting and multiple screens.
The atmosphere was laid-back, which is a big plus personally.
Sitting on the couch was rather rough though; really uncomfortable after a while. I am glad I only sat on it for ~40 minutes.
The chairs for the runners were comfortable and there was enough space around them (important for me because I had to get up and switch controllers many times during the run).
Overall felt pretty comfy up there while running.
The music during setups was very pleasing. Great arrangements! Whoever chose them has an exquisite taste.
The open window was necessary to avoid dying to the heat but at least I could not sit in the back rows due to the draught.
Would have caught a cold immediately.

Practice room:
Had 8 CRTs I believe, which was sufficient when I was around. Big thanks to the people offering them!
Also 2 devices for HDMI I think?
Being able to watch the stream from here was super cool.
At times it got a bit crowded; mainly when a group of people would just camp near the entrance.
But I was always able to practice when I wanted to.

The kitchen:
A tranquil domain of peace far away from the crowd.
Not many people found their way here, which is one reason why the Practice room was rather crowded and was seen as the "main" room.
However, I cannot complain about that since I enjoyed chilling here, especially after my run when I needed an isolated place to recharge my battery.
I didn't end up actually cooking, but the equipment seemed sufficient to make some meals. Hopefully I'll do that next time!

The toilets:
The women's restroom was clean and nice overall.
Very important!

Stream&Tech:
The stream looked pretty good to me; I liked the layouts. Audio level and quality seemed fine from what I could tell.
There were a few typos which probably aren't a big deal to many but personally it gives off a sense of unprofessionalism.
Same with the main forumthread. Would be nice to have someone for proof-reading next time. I'd volunteer (if I can I will help out more in general. Taking care of all the pizzaboxes and bringing out the trash was fun for example).
Being able to see the stream while running was really helpful; feels like being at home taking a look at my OBSpreview window from time to time.
The CRTs were good. I usually play off AmaRec so I don't exactly have high standards though haha.
The headset fit perfectly on my ears. Only issue I had was that I couldn't decrease the output volume which was kinda loud personally.
I didn't mind hearing myself because it gave me a good idea of how I spoke and what sounds I made.
Communication with my partner, the host and tech worked flawlessly.
The amount of gear the tech-crew had was impressive to me. Looked pretty professional and was functional most of the time.
There was an issue during our setup because the GC wasn't displayed on stream so it took us a bit to finally get started (but we finished way ahead of our estimate so it wasn't a problem).
The schedule was fine most of the time, with acceptable changes (as far as I know, anyway).

Overall I am really glad that I attended this event as it was an enriching experience.
I had a great time meeting people and showing FSA together with Toad.

I'll be looking forward to the next one!

This is my third on-site marathon, after ESA 2015 and 2016. Here's my feedback:

Location:
The city of Potsdam was easy to access, being so close to Berlin. This is a big advantage over the more remote locations used by regular ESA. The venue was close enough to the train station, which is always nice. Although for people like me that stayed at the hotel, it was a bit frustrating that there wasn't any other convenient way to get past the railway tracks except for the station. This made the walking distance from the hotel longer than it needed to be.

Venue:
I just LOVED this place.The two main rooms were really nice to hang out, there were always enough chairs available and it was great that you easily watch the stream from the practice room. I also liked the kitchen a lot, it was very clean and calm and you could sometimes even get to meet some people from outside the event. The whole area of the venue was a great place to be, so I sometimes just went out to get some fresh air.

Practice room:
As mentioned earlier, it was great that you could watch the stream from this room too. Something that should be improved next year is the number of TVs and the capacity of the practice area. It was barely enough for this time, but with just a tiny bit more people, it would have been a problem. It was a bit unfortunate that out of the small number of CRTs, one died immediately and like 3 were PAL only, but I'll blame that to bad RNG. As a sidenote: Please, ASK before using someone elses N64 controller!

Stream as a viewer:
Watching the stream was quite comfortable. I found myself preferring to look at the actual screen of the runner instead of the big LCD at the corner, but that's because I'm short-sighted and somewhat sensitive to strong light. Overall, I only really have one complaint about the stream, the fact that it was somewhat hard to hear the commentary. For a first marathon, there were surprisingly few tech issues.

Stream as a runner:
I had a great experience as a runner (well, ok, getting a PB with my run definitely helped). Setting things up was simple, I was able to run the game exactly as I wanted. At first, it felt weird to hear my own voice through the headset, but I quickly got used to it. I even think that it actually made my voice sound better on stream. Also, it was great that there was an s-video cable available for my N64, since I had only brought a composite one with me.

So all in all, it was a fantastic event, I made the right decision when signed up for it! I met so many great people and had a lot of fun 🙂

ESA Germany 2018 hype!

I thought it would be nice to read feedback from someone who wasn't on-site, but watched like 3/4 of the marathon. 😃

Schedule:
I liked the schedule and the games you decided to put into the marathon (biggest surprise was Hollow Knight and I loved it). It was a really good mix and fun to watch.
Although I'm glad you decided to cut one of the PoP runs (almost no-one realised it, lol) to fix the delay, it caused a lot of confusion when you put it back on the next day. I'm not sure if you even mentioned that the run was cut the day before. The information about showing Hollow Knight as a bonus was way better then.

Setups:
Most of the setups were done quick - except one or two, but there were music and you always told everyone what's going on. Also thank you for putting the blurr filter away after the first games. It was way easier to watch then.
If possible, please try to put the music info on screen next time, because a lot of people liked the music and wanted to know what the current song was.

Donations:
It was a little bit sad that some of the donations didn't get read because of the currency conversion, but most of them got read and since the donators were very creative, the messages were fun to listen to. Shoutout to the host who had to read the tongue twister. 😃

Chat:
As part of the mod team, I always had my eyes on the chat and I had so much fun reading it and moderate. The chat itself was mostly chill (with stressful phases) and I think it was a great compliment that people in chat mentioned that they enjoy their chat experience, that they are actually able to have conversations, that the mods have found a way to be strict, but also likeable, and that the chat doesn't consist of only memes.

I'm really happy how the event went and I hope there will be an ESA Germany next year as well. ♥

This was the first time I ever got to attend a speedrun marathon.

My experience as an attendee:

The location was easy to find and had good pizza nearby. It was right next to the main station, so getting there was never a problem. The venue itself was sufficient, the 2 main rooms were big enough and I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Next time, maybe get a big sign that says "KITCHEN THIS WAY", so that the practice room is a little less crowded at times, but overall I don't have anything to complain about.

As a runner:

First of all, thank you again for letting me and Yadra show off Four Swords Adventures! The game really deserves to be shown to people, and I never thought a co-op playtrough would ever have a chance at a marathon.
Regarding the run itself: The setup took a while, which honestly isn't a problem/too surprising, as the run does require a somewhat interesting setup. After the setup though, everything was pretty flawless. Sometimes, the game audio was a bit too loud when a lot was going on, but I got used to it quickly. Communicating with Yadra, the host and tech worked perfectly. I really enjoyed the high-quality headsets, they were very comfy and the mic was really good. I'm not used to equipment of such quality, so it was a nice treat for me. The chairs were comfortable as well.
At times, people were talking quite loudly in the streaming room, which was a little bit irritating, but that's just a minor complaint. The headset usually made it so that I couldn't hear anything that was going on outside.
We finished about 30 minutes earlier than expected, as the run was quite good. Luckily, this didn't turn out to be a problem, as we even got a bonus run in for zet.
Being able to see the the actual stream and timer was also nice, I didn't think we were going to be able to see those.

The practice room was equipped with enough CRTs, I was always able to practice when I wanted to. Sometimes, the room got a little bit too crowded, as people were also using it as a room to talk about their lives and other stuff, which made it a bit difficult to concentrate/hear the game audio.
I liked that we were able to see the stream from there as well, also let know us when our run was about to start.
Apparently, people brought water/lemoade and other things, but no one actually knew if we could just take and drink them. This is just something very minor, but when I ran out of stuff to drink, I would've liked to know if I could just take something without feeling bad lol.
Overall a really nice experience, all the complaints I have are just very minor.

As a viewer:

The stream seemed fine to me, but apparently people were complaining about the mods being a bit too harsh. I personally can't say much about that, though. The chat seemed mostly chill and was always down to meme when a donation comment wanted them to.
From what I can tell, the audio levels were good. Only really during our run I noticed that it was difficult to hear me sometimes, but that's mostly my fault since I have a very quiet voice in general.
The schedule offered a variety of games, some more known as others of course, but there was always something interesting to look forward to.
As I've mentioned, it was nice that I could also watch the stream in the practice room, as it also allowed me to talk to other people while watching.

Overall, I'm really happy to see that the event went well, and I'll definitely try to attend the next one as well. I had a lot of fun and met so many cool people.
I don't know how the bigger marathons handle the anonymity, but maybe try to have name tags next time? Apparently I met a lot of people that I actually know without noticing.

Thank you for the amazing experience, I'm looking forward to the next one!

Something I might want to add (and not just edit my post because it might get overlooked otherwise):

As a host:

For future events it might be cool to have a nice overview about the schedule and their donation incentives as a host. While we might not want to overdo it like at certain other events, it's nice to let viewers know for which upcoming games incentives do exist.

The incentive list was a bit hard to get a clear overview from and as such presenting it as a host - which I thankfully didn't have to do myself - was pretty hard. I don't want to say, we hosts are lazy idiots who don't want to do some thinking of their own, but let's face it: We need to tell the audience as clear and precise as possible what's going on, if we have to think about it every few words, our communication with the viewers will be worse. Especially for those with less experience!

I'd be willing to help out on the hosting issues for next year's event.

Edit: Okay, I edit this time, this is something very minor but should imo actually be considered for an international event - on the pc the games are played on, Steam should be set to English as the default language, then most games will have English as their main language as well. I think some viewers were confused about the games having German text on screen.