Hey guys!

We were thinking about all the stuff that's been happening in ESA land and all the cool announcements and one thing we thought about was, why not have a feedback thread BEFORE the event starts so we can get feedback on announcements and so on?!

In order not to duplicate information or anything, we will not be copying information into this thread, but if you hear about something happening that you want to respond to but there isn't a good place to do it (for example, if you have an opinion about cloth bracelets or layouts) then this is a general catch-all thread for that sort of thing! We will be responding to it every chance we get!

Any general criticism, piece of feedback or suggestion is welcome here so feel free to share anything you want.

For specific game selection feedback, please use the [First Round Cuts](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/9fbt0) thread.

Insomnia 55
28th-31st August

Alrighty, so I (flicky) have been asked to sort out a speedrun event at the upcoming insomnia festival on the second August bank holiday! It will be similar in style to the Dreamhack events but as it is only our first outing, it will be considerably smaller in scale initially. Here’s the key information:

Free entry and camping spot for attendees
Scheduled speedrun stream from 10am-12am each day
Our own area with space for sofas and casual setup
At the Ricoh Arena, Coventry.
Free parking?
You don’t have to run something to come!

As it’s small, there’s not a whole lot to it. I need to get interest from you if you wish to come so I can give your information to the ticketing people who will give us free entry (assuming that will be on arrival). Simply give us a game, estimate and your information (real name, id, etc) and that’s all we really need. If you don’t know how to contact me otherwise, just email me: flicky@europeanspeedsterassembly.com

We can capture basically everything single screen. We won’t be able to do races or anything that’s more than one setup. Planks is doing tech and we only have one setup for that.

As we have our own space for the casual setup, please bring CRTs, screens, consoles etc so we can have our fun on the side.

Please pass this around through word of mouth and send it on to anyone who may be interested in coming! This is open to anyone from any country (even Wales).

Ask as many questions as you want. I will be keeping all of them in this document. (I’ll admit I have no idea what people need from these docs anymore, so forgive the bare bones nature of it. This is absolutely happening and much more serious than my blasé doc makes it seem!) You can post in this thread too.

Confirmed People
flicky
Planks
Shrimp
Chrno
Pallidus
Tyzerra
Geurge
Christosowen
Robosparkle
Coooooooookie
Puppermaster
JohnUK89
Twiggy
JackOfHearts
Len
slabhammer
Cerberus
bangerra
Noobest
Fuzzyness
ergkjr
SuccintAndPunchy
Henneko
Lee Rawlin (didn't get an ID)


Almosts - joshimuz, kitty,(need to confirm or I need your names)

Going to keep this short and simple: As ESA is such a big even with people visiting from all over, I've often taken this as a chance to try and get people to bring beer I would otherwise not get to try. This year is no different and I thought that posting about it to maximise exposure would be a good idea.

Basically, I'm looking for people from certain countries (who are interested) to bring beer that I will either reimburse them for, or just share with them or whatever. There's a lot of great beer out there that I'll miss otherwise. I have a few simple examples, but if you're interested in helping out, respond with where abouts you're from or with a recommendation and I'll let you know! 

Probably worth noting that it's quite easy for me to get beers from certain countries, which is why they're missing from the list:

Austria - Bevog
Czech Republic - Kout na Šumavě
Ireland - Galway Bay Two Hundred Fathoms
Italy - Birra Baladin Xyauyu, Loverbeer
Spain - Edge Brewing, Cerveses La Pirata
Switzerland - 523, Brasserie BFM, Brasserie Trois Dames

If anyone is coming from the US and keen on beer, please let me know! There's a lot from there I'd love to try!

Good beer only please.

http://i.imgur.com/TWjNVY6.png
*ESA 2015 will be open from the afternoon of June 26th until noon July 7th 2015. Click [here](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/t8x4w) to visit the master thread!*

The Game submission and scheduling team are flicky, bangerra and joka. We will also reach out to individuals and game communities regarding runs, rules and so on to help us make our decisions.

**[centre][big]Game Submissions are over![/big]**
View completed submissions [here](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/submissions) (temporary)[/centre]

**This year Game Submissions will be using a form that will be linked here, do not suggest games in a post!**
Submissions this year will once again include second-stream content including talks.
Not complying with the rules will cause your submission to be ignored. 
This thread is for listing the rules and is open for game discussion!
**Game submissions will open on Monday the 9th of February and close on Sunday the 22nd of March at 23:59 CET.** 

**Our Philosophy**
When deciding whether a suggested game will fit into the final schedule, we will consider the following: Length, entertainment value and commentary quality. We will be looking at these three qualities over others such as game popularity.

For example, long games (4 hours or more) are harder to put in the schedule due to how many games could be put in their place. Long games can and still will make it in, but have a disadvantage compared to shorter games.

Additionally, the entertainment value of runners, games and commentary is taken into consideration. if you're running a game that was only released in Guam, but is incredibly entertaining or has fantastic commentary, your game is still likely to get in.

**Rules for Submissions**
This year, we are setting a limit of 5 different games for submission. You can submit multiple categories for a single game, but no more than 5 different games can be listed. Non-complete game categories will be allowed provided they are accepted by the individual communities. Any additional games over the five will be ignored.

Submitted games must adhere to [Twitch's streaming policy](http://en-gb.twitch.tv/p/rules-of-conduct). Pitching games that you have not yet learnt or mastered is OK. But you need to show steady (weekly) progress after the point that your suggestion passes the first cut.

When you submit your game, you should provide a short blurb about the game and video link such as those seen [here](http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/general/391044-event-awesome-games-done-quick-2013#about) as well information about your progress in the game. We suggest adding your times to the speedrun.com leaderboards for your game (or making your own!) so we can more easily keep track of times. If your community uses other leaderboards, please link them in your comments!

If you are submitting races, relays, co-op games or anything else with multiple people, all involved runners must submit a form including a list of the other participants.

Games should be submitted with a reasonable estimate not including setup time. The estimate should consider everything that can go wrong as well as any additional content that you may wish to show off. Remember that you may have been awake for forty hours having fun before your run! 

We will be having a second stream once again, but our exact balance of speedrunning to additional content has not been decided on. Content will be slightly shifted in favour of the first stream while attempting to balance runners. Content on the first stream will be speedruns only. The second stream will complement the first stream and include live talks, tas:ing, backseat runs, backstage interview and genres like rhythm games, arcade games, shmups etc. We are also aiming to capture the feeling of the event more accurately here with more backstage cameras and tournaments on stream.

There will be three rounds of selections:
The first will pick out all the games we're interested in, regardless of current skill of the runners.
The second round will be done nearer the event after we have gauged the run quality.
The third round will be the final selection to work to within our time limit before being fit into the schedule.

Due to a large number of drop-outs last year, runners that get accepted into the final round will be required to pay a €5 deposit to discourage suggestions from those who don't intend to come. This €5 will be taken off your entry fee. Those who have not paid the deposit will be contacted about resolving any problems. If we cannot sort it out, the runner will risk having their run(s) replaced. This rule was agreed upon unanimously in a vote held for attendees last ESA. Due to this, the deadline for dropping out will be one week before the final games are decided. More information about the deposit and how to pay will be available after the first round of cuts. Kept deposits will go towards funding the marathon itself (as the money would have if the person was an attendee)

http://i.imgur.com/TWjNVY6.png
*ESA 2015 will be open from the afternoon of June 26th until noon July 7th 2015. Click [here](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/t8x4w) to visit the master thread!*

The Game submission and scheduling team are flicky, bangerra and joka. We will also reach out to individuals and game communities regarding runs, rules and so on to help us make our decisions.

**[centre][big][Final Schedule!](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NKsccAhxV7NJy0AB7xKfHcpf19X4mQ1iOxY1GUZ1mq0/edit#gid=148072937)[/big]**
[/centre]

This is mostly fixed. We will change things we messed up so let us know of any weird choices and so on.

This one was really hard to make. Please don't drop out ever again - our two streams have really suffered from lost runs. Stream B is likely to become a much more loose stream with on-site bonus content and so on. We should have it imported into a speedrun.com format in the next few weeks. Please keep checking the forums/twitter and your email for more information about adding game information and sorting commentary.

¤We have more to add but Joka is hungover, bang is gone and flicky has to work¤

*#keeponsaxing*

http://i.imgur.com/TWjNVY6.png
*ESA 2015 will be open from the afternoon of June 26th until noon July 7th 2015. Click [here](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/t8x4w) to visit the master thread!*

The Game submission and scheduling team are flicky, bangerra and joka. We will also reach out to individuals and game communities regarding runs, rules and so on to help us make our decisions.

Edit: After some scheduling conflicts between the runners, we have revised our choices. The updated cuts list is below.

**[centre][big][Round One of Cuts are now Public!](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XvHpQ7xJe1elXHmGOiPNDPIThehNepzo1OP-YSY7pw4/edit#gid=1212696926)[/big]**
[/centre]


**Not Easy**
It's never easy doing cuts, but we feel like we've done a really good job this year. All the cuts are evenly spread out amongst runners, so hopefully no-one feels targeted. If you feel like your game was cut unduly, just let us know.

We feel like we have a really balanced selection of great runs by the best European runners still in the schedule and we hope you're looking forward to it.

**More to Come** 
Unfortunately, there will be more cuts to come. From this point on, we will be looking at runner skill more heavily, so from this point, if we deem that your skill isn't up to standard, we may have to cut your games. 
**We will be giving you until the 13th of May 2015** to optimise your runs! We will be checking Speedrun.com primarily so please update the leaderboards there if possible. Additionally, if you have an improved time, you can post in this thread with updates. If you want to change your estimate, please try to only do this **once** as we approach the 13th of May deadline!

Feel free to discuss any of the cuts here. If you're like to contact any of us privately to talk about cuts, please check our contact info in the master thread linked at the post of this post!

http://i.imgur.com/TWjNVY6.png
*ESA 2015 will be open from the afternoon of June 26th until noon July 7th 2015. Click [here](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/t8x4w) to visit the master thread!*

Since many other threads have already started popping up, it is now high time for a travel thread—and here it is! This post is organised into different sections: 

- Getting into Sweden from abroad
- Getting to Skövde and the event
- General marathon information
- Places of Interest in Skövde.

For the sake of transparency, this post was written by flicky with Alko's assistance. For those of you trying to budget the event, we estimate that accommodation and entry fees should total similar amounts to last year (€40-50 for entry fee and mass housing for the whole event.)

**==========================
Getting into Sweden from Abroad
==========================**

**By Air**
For those of you travelling from Europe, you will likely be taking a plane to Gothenburg Landvetter (GOT), Stockholm Arlanda (ARN), Copenhagen Kastrup (CPH) and possibly Stockholm Skavsta (NYO) and then taking a train or bus onwards. Your best option for finding prices is [skyscanner.com](http://skyscanner.com) or similar sites based in your home country. Browse this is in incognito/private mode to avoid cookies messing with your prices.

For those of you travelling from North America, Australia or any other continents, your best bet is still with the above airports. For Americans, Norwegian run budget flights in and out of Stockholm which can cost as little as $450 from Oakland or $350 from New York to Stockholm. Please note that you'll get charged for hold luggage on this route. You should however, expect your flights to cost around $900 and you should book them ASAP as they are unlikely to get any cheaper.

If you're travelling from Asia, it might be worth checking flights into Helsinki (HEL) as that's a big travel hub for those travelling from Japan, South Korea etc. 

If you're struggling to find direct flights to the above airports, other major airports in Europe to consider are (in order of my knowledge about connections) London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam Schiphol and Frankfurt. There are other airports, but these will likely have your best options to the airports in Scandinavia.

Gothenburg City airport has shut down this year, so you will no longer be able to travel there.

Arlanda and Kastrup are both located conveniently on or close to train stations (look for Arlanda C and Kastrup, respectively) and you can continue on your journey by train (see "Getting to Skövde"). There are many buses from Landvetter to Gothenburg central station.  Remember that even if there are no trains running at certain early/late hours, you can still take a flight bus (flygbussarna) from Arlanda to Stockholm city centre. You might even be able to still catch trains onwards to Skövde, as the last train to Skövde departs later than the last train from Arlanda arrives.

Every airport is serviced by long-distance buses, if you prefer that mode of travel. Of course, you can always bribe people to drive you on, or rent a car and take people with you from each of them.

**By Boat**
If you're planning on arriving by **water**, you're probably a Finn coming from Helsinki or Turku and will know your way to a train station from Stockholm's harbour. If not, do please post in this thread and I'll provide with additional assistance ;)

**By Car**
If you're taking the **driving** route, see the section below. And remember to post in this thread if you're able and willing to pick up people (and equipment?) on your way. Driving is a valid option from Denmark but people are planning on driving from further afield if you wish to ROAD TRIP. Parking will likely be at Nyeport as they have a large, empty and free car park or at the Hotel if you are staying there.

**By Train**
Finally, there are people who chose to enter Sweden by **train**. Assuming that you're coming from Denmark or further South, the most convenient option is probably an X2000 from Copenhagen to Nässjö C, followed by a Västtågen train directly to Skövde C. You can get to Copenhagen either conveniently  EuroCity/IntercityExpress trains from Hamburg. Unfortunately, the night train services from Amsterdam, Basel and Prague have been withdrawn as of the 14th December 2014. Note that you cannot (for whatever reason) buy a through ticket from Germany directly to Skövde; you will need to buy one to Nässjö C and purchase the last part of the ticket in Sweden (or via sj.se, as posted above).
Again, this option is usually cheapest if bought ~90 days ahead of the marathon (remember your return journey!). 

Using [interrail](http://interrail.eu) (a five-out-of-ten days global pass costs 184 € for adolescents or 281 € for the poor souls older than 27; a ten-out-of-22 days global pass is 269/399 €) might also be an option, especially if you're planning on travelling further before or after the marathon.

¤¤¤¤¤¤ If you are having particular trouble finding affordable travel, please contact either flicky or Alko and we can assist you personally!

**=================
Getting to Skövde and the event
=================**

As is the rule all over the world, there are three means of transportation that you can use to get from where ever you set out to where you want to go:
(1) Take a train;
(2) Take a bus;
(3) Drive or carpool.

**Train** tickets can be found and bought on [sj.se](http://sj.se). It is generally a good idea in Sweden to pre-order tickets approximately 90 days ahead of the travel date for discounts. You can also buy tickets in many train stations or onboard some trains. Buying at the station is not recommended, because the tickets are more expensive there. It varies between companies whether you can buy your train tickets on-board. You can with some (Västtågen (e.g. Nässjö–Skövde)); while others (Skånetrafiken) do not allow so. (The companies that do not allow buying on-board will supply ticket machines at the station.) **Especially note that SJ will not allow you to buy tickets on-board!** If you plan on buying on-board, you will need SEK or a debit/credit card. The Västtågen will accept 'basically any card that isn't American Express' (quoted from the conductor on said train)

If you are under 26, please note you qualify for a youth ticket, which will save you money on the train.

Taking a train is by far the most recommended means of travel, as Skövde station is located very conveniently between the House of Culture, Nyeport and the hotel.

Long-distance **buses**, the second most comfortable option. You can either book tickets via [swebus.se](http://swebus.se) or on the site of the region you're departing from (Skånetrafiken ([skanetrafiken.se](http://skanetrafiken.se)) for the Malmö region, Stockholms länstrafik ([sl.se](http://sl.se)) for the Stockholm region and Västtrafik ([vasttrafik.se](http://vasttrafik.se)) for the Gothenburg region).

Finally, of course, if you're **driving**, you can offer to take people with you on your way, making the journey along the large, empty and slow Swedish motorways (flicky and the gang know what I'm talking about ;) ) more enjoyable. Skövde is located somewhat close-ish to the E20 Göteborg–Stockholm, if you're coming from either of those directions. From the South (Malmö, Denmark), the most convenient route is probably along E4 to Jönköping, taking route 26 from there. If you're coming from the North … seriously?

If you are offering carpools, please post saying so in this thread. I'll collect all offers and confirmed passengers in the second post. If you want to include a map of your route, that's much appreciated. Brits, remember that these guys drive on the wrong side of the road. Parking will likely be at Nyeport as they have a large, empty and free car park or at the Hotel if you are staying there.

**Once at the station, getting to the House of Culture is as simple as crossing the road. Look for the Valhall entrance and walk in!**

http://i.imgur.com/NuVHZ7C.jpg


**A Note About Money**
Finally, when in Sweden, remember that they pay using their very own **moneys**. Getting Swedish crowns is possible in a variety of ways:
(1) just paying by card where ever you're going
(2) using your debit/credit card in any Swedish ATM to withdraw Swedish banknotes
(3) asking any bank in your country of origin nicely
(4) using a bureau de change
(5) if you are willing to pay in Euros, asking Alko, who will again open a mini exchange booth ;)

Options 1 and 2 will usually cost you some kind of being-abroad fee (1.5 % of the value paid/withdrawn for me). Option 3 can or can not cost you money, depending on your bank. Option 4 is generally the most expensive (to quote Poxnor: They'll charge you your left nut). For more information on option 5 open the spoiler ;)

*My (Alko) bank is nice enough to me to give me Swedish Crowns without requiring an additional fee (however requiring me to exchange at least 150 € every time I do so). So if you have Euros and want Swedish Crowns, I'll be very happy to exchange some more moneys and pass them on to you (not restricted to more than 150 €; can also be less). Please shoot me a PM, if you are interested. Please note the deadline: Contact me by the 27th of May (one month before the event). Of course, I can only give you the money at the event itself, unless by chance we're taking the same train ;) )*


=======================
Places of Interest in Skövde
=======================

We have an updated map for 2015 courtesy of [Icedpingu](http://i.imgur.com/KykxXWV.png) x3

Explanation of Icedpingu's map:
This should actually be pretty self-explanatory. Most importantly, it notes the Quality Hotel Prisma, the one we have our hotel deal with.
Again note pizzas and knifes and forks are places where you can get food.

[centre]http://i.imgur.com/NneENhL.png[/centre]

*ESA 2016 will be open from Saturday the 23rd of July at 8am until Monday the 1st of August at noon. Click [here](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2016/thread/t0kfo) to visit the master thread!*

*This post was written by flicky*

The Game submission and scheduling team are flicky, bangerra, Fatzke (new!). We will also reach out to individuals and game communities regarding runs, rules and so on to help us make our decisions as we have done in previous years. Currently we want to talk to the communities for Resident Evil, Sonic the Hedgehog (2d), Harry Potter, Kingdom Hearts, GTA and 2d Disney.

**[centre][big][Round One of Cuts are now Public!](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1B0mH5ZjXvhhgpsiR-PsIB2fxo8WXyH4VX_t529KX9nc/edit#gid=456283554)[/big]**
[/centre]


**First Cuts**
Hopefully we've done a decent job of cuts. We legitimately think that this is the best list of games we've had yet for ESA. As usual, we made these cuts based on the games only and not the runner or run quality.

We now have to make the decision on whether a second stream is required to house these things and so we'll be discussing that over the next few days and will announce our decision on the **27th of March**.

**Second round of cuts...** 
From this point on, we'll be looking at runners, runner skill and all of that stuff, so now you have to get to work! **We will be giving you until the 1st of May 2016** to optimise your runs! Please update your speedrun.com leader-boards and pages with things as we'll be checking those for times and videos. You can also ask questions in this thread and post here, if you so wish.

If you want to change your estimates, please post only **once** in this thread before the deadline. We don't need to know every time you want to adjust the estimate, just once!

Feel free to discuss any of the cuts here. If you're like to contact any of us privately to talk about cuts, please check our contact info in the master thread linked at the post of this post! We can give any reasoning on request. We will be giving detailed reasons for the second round of cuts.

**Expected date for final schedule: 29th of May 2016**

[centre]http://i.imgur.com/NneENhL.png[/centre]

*ESA 2016 will be open from Saturday the 23rd of July at 8am until Monday the 1st of August at noon. Click [here](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2016/thread/t0kfo) to visit the master thread!*

*This post was written by flicky*

The Game submission and scheduling team are flicky (great dancer), bangerra (pukey), Fatzke (sleepy).

**[centre][big][Round 3 - "I Mean, The Cuts Themselves Are Done... Why Not Post Them Early?"](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FhE9rZSimvl-1N9E6wT_P368eAGgG9aDJwSGQC7vXY4/edit#gid=1031275071)[/big]**
[/centre]

We were early on this so thought we'd get them out today. Schedule will be sometime in the next 72 hours, give or take 72 hours.

http://i.imgur.com/TWjNVY6.png
*ESA 2015 will be open from the afternoon of June 26th until noon July 7th 2015. Click [here](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/t8x4w) to visit the master thread!*

Alrighty, volunteering stuff at ESA is getting organised and we're getting our information out there! We have five guides for five different jobs (two aren't finished yet, but bear with us!) and we're good to start to take on interest!

For our volunteering, we want to be more open about it and allow people to offer to help out while at the event. Not every job is going to have strict blocks that must be abided by, some will be, but not everything will require four+ hour chunks of time. However, we do ask that if you do volunteer and get given a scheduled block, that you fulfill your duty to it and make sure you're available - please don't sign up if you're not 100% ready and willing to help out at the event. Volunteers are really important for us to be able to keep running (I mean technically, all of us are volunteers). It's a fun experience so please give it a shot!

Each guide is self-contained, so read them below and post here with what you're willing to do! Note that for some of these, you don't necessarily have to be on site!

[Chat Moderating](https://docs.google.com/document/d/18OUAhtmDkX4iNC-eHHTs04xwFOZ-03HFEPKN3cYLRuc/edit)

[General Tasks](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Pq2_eVkLzTiIVJ7sABYrnWk6hTtmpZJK3epP4bYHnj4/edit)

[Hosting](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S_GDdyOkf3MmpdGhjWlWJ2bCWGOUdaxkHUGJVaGQa04/edit)

[Tech (separate thread)](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/1dwtr)

[Video Creation & Editing](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F7X6Q31opqVOz_LPDkbmohEykNtz6Kk1vgOceQroz84/edit)

Everything needed will be listed in these guides! If you have any questions, please ask here!

Hosting and Tech guides will be done in the next few days! You can volunteer now before reading them.

[centre]http://i.imgur.com/NneENhL.png[/centre]

ESA 2017 is a speedrunning centred community meetup and marathon. The doors are open from **Friday the 21st of July until Sunday the 30th of July at 11:59pm** The stream is planned to run from the evening of the 22nd of July the evening of the 29th of July. Mass Housing with cover this entire period and close on Monday the 31st at 10am.

--
Submission status: Open until 1st of March
First cuts: 20th of March 
Final cuts & schedule: [big]**1st of May **[/big]
--

*This post was written by flicky*

The Game submission and scheduling team are flicky, bangerra, Fatzke. We will be once again reaching out to individuals and game communities regarding runs, rules and so on to help us make our decisions as we have done in previous years.

The stream will run from Saturday the 22nd until Saturday the 29th of July 2017. Please let us know in your submission comments if you will be unavailable on any of these dates. The second stream will start later and finish earlier than the first (exact time frame still being decided).

**Once again, this year's Game Submissions will be using a form that will be linked here, do not suggest games in a post!**
The form should be very self-explanatory and will contain every option from donation incentives to commentators and so on. We will have a preview for you available so you know what you will be working with!
Submissions this year will be for all content, including non-gaming (second stream talks or demonstrations) and non-speedrun content (points runs, rhythm games).
Not complying with the rules will cause your submission to be ignored.
This thread is for listing the rules and is open for game discussion!
**Game submissions will open on Tuesday the 14th of February and close on Wednesday the 1st of March at 23:59 CET.**

**Our Philosophy**
When deciding whether a suggested game will fit into the final schedule, we will consider the following: Length, entertainment value and commentary quality. We will be looking at these three qualities over others such as game popularity.

For example, long games (4 hours or more) are harder to put in the schedule due to how many games could be put in their place. Long games can and still will make it in, but will require more consideration than a shorter game. There should be more space for longer games this year with the return of the second stream.

Additionally, the entertainment value of runners, games and commentary is taken into consideration. If you're running a game that had a limited release, but is incredibly entertaining or has fantastic commentary, your game is still likely to get in. We also place stock in the scenes and communities around these games and previous marathon runs and runner behaviour (if appropriate).

**Rules for Submissions**
There will be a limit of 5 different games for submission. You can submit multiple categories for a single game (please don’t abuse this system), but no more than 5 different games can be listed. Non-complete game categories will be allowed provided they are accepted by the individual communities. Any additional games over the five will be ignored. If you are playing one game as part of a relay, the other relay games do not count towards your personal total.

Submitted games must adhere to [Twitch's streaming policy](http://en-gb.twitch.tv/p/rules-of-conduct). Pitching games that you have not yet learnt or mastered is OK. But you need to show significant (weekly) progress after the point that your suggestion passes the first cut. Please note that this year, you will have less time to get to a good enough level as the window for cuts are smaller.

When you submit your game, you should provide a short blurb about the game and video link such as those seen [here](http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/general/391044-event-awesome-games-done-quick-2013#about) as well information about your progress in the game. We suggest adding your times to the speedrun.com leaderboards for your game (or making your own!) so we can more easily keep track of times. If your community uses other leaderboards, please link them in your comments.

If you are submitting races, relays, co-op games or anything else with multiple people, one runner will be required to submit the run and list the other runners. The other runners will be required to confirm that they are willing to run the game through speedrun.com. This should be easy to do through the form. If you suggest a race and your race partner does not, then we will make it a single player run.

Games should be submitted with a reasonable estimate **not including setup time**. The estimate should consider everything that can go wrong as well as any additional content that you may wish to show off. Remember that you may have been awake for forty hours having fun before your run! It is much better to err on the side of caution and overestimate. You will be able to adjust your estimate time later on and you are advised to do so! Don’t add an inaccurate time in the hope that it will appear more impressive and increase the chance that you are accepted!

There will be two rounds of selections:
The first will pick out all the games we're interested in, mostly regardless of runner skill.
The second round will cut down to the games we want in the marathon and will be placed in the schedule on the 1st of May.

**Second Stream?**
The second stream will not run 24/7 and will start a few days into the event and end slightly earlier. We’re excited to fill this with really great runs and the quality for the runs and runners is no lower than the first stream. We will not be moving runs from the first to the second stream or leapfrog new runs straight to the first stream prior to the event starting.
During the event, we may need to move runs between the streams to keep time, but we will only do this if absolutely required.
If you do not want your game to appear on the second stream, please state so in your submission. This will affect your chances at getting the game into the marathon.

**Only Two Weeks?**
While two weeks for submissions may seem small, we have realised over the years that a vast majority of the submissions take place in the first few days and there's a huge drought in the middle. The extra time is often filled with extra games submitted by runners who already have other games. In the interest of just making the whole process more efficient, we are just giving two weeks for submissions so please spread the word! Tell everyone well in advance about submissions! Remember to #blameflicky.

**Deposit?**
Once again there is no deposit, but make sure you [buy your tickets!](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2017/thread/kosad). Runners without tickets by the time the schedule is due will be chased up.

__**Schedule Organiser Information**__:

If you have any questions, post in this thread or PM either flicky, bangerra or Fatzke on the __[ ESA Discord](https://discord.gg/0TZ2NlveujtasAqb)__. Non-private PMs may be posted in this thread if we feel they would be helpful to others.

[centre]http://i.imgur.com/NneENhL.png[/centre]

*ESA 2016 will be open from Saturday the 23rd of July at 8am until Monday the 1st of August at noon. Click [here](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2016/thread/t0kfo) to visit the master thread!*

*This post was written by flicky*

The Game submission and scheduling team are flicky, bangerra, Fatzke.

**[centre][big][Final Schedule](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10pDzvMt-RmudFO1E9hN0mPx58PRBevPqH4zhPxYyFB0/edit?usp=sharing)[/big]**
[/centre]

**This is draft 1**, we will be tweaking the schedule until we're happy with it. Please let us know about **any** problems you have. Generally the changes won't be too huge, but we will move games around to make things more cohesive for viewers and for tech. Making this can really jar the brain and stop you seeing things too clearly, so if you see anything in the schedule that seems stupid, just say so in this thread, we might've missed something.

**¤edit¤Prime Time**
With only a single stream and more quality submissions than ever, we tweaked our approach this year to extend "prime time" until about 4am, hopefully allowing some people in US timezones to catch more runs they might be interested in than usual. While it sounds strange for 4am to be called prime time, we've decided to give it a shot this year and see if it keep viewing figures higher through typically quiet shifts. 

**What about drop-outs?**
We're having a slightly different approach for drop outs this year. We will not be replacing them until we have reached a maximum for additional setup buffers. Currently we're confident we can stay on schedule, but instead of replacing all cut games, we will instead increase certain setup buffers. If we get to approximately 20 hours of setup windows (we're currently at 12.5) then we will start replacing any additional games. 

Now this may sound like a strange choice, but we're opting to approach it this way so that we can hopefully (but not necessarily) run early while on site and put in extra runners there and then without messing up the approach of the marathon too much in advance and without needing to chase up runners who were rejected to see if they are still going etc. 

(If you attend ESA and your game got past the second round of cuts but rejected in the third, please let us know when at the venue so we know we can add your game if necessary).

Sorry for being a minute late.

http://i.imgur.com/TWjNVY6.png

European Speedster Assembly 2015 is a speedrunning centered community meetup and marathon. The doors are open from the afternoon of **June 26th until noon July 7th.** The stream will be running between June 28th until July 5th.

This thread serves to collect all key information and threads into one place.

**Attendee Guide**

In order to make the event easier for new and experienced people we have written out a simple guide for our attendees once you are at the event. For all pre-event information, please check everything in the [Master Thread](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/izx1g/1#7k9yv).

**Venue Information**

The first and most important thing is once you've arrived at the train station, is getting to the House of Culture. All you have to do, is cross the round and enter the Valhall entrance. There is a picture below. It is literally opposite the main entrance/exit of the train station.

http://i.imgur.com/NuVHZ7C.jpg

Once inside, head down the hallway, take your first left  then a right and you will be in the main hall. You can practice your route to the main hall on [Street View](https://www.google.com/maps/@58.389714,13.851584,3a,75y,6.13h,76.79t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1saLuW6ziLfLkAAAQfCUuEqA!2e0!3e2!7i13312!8i6656) - Turn left at the bench.

Find one of the following people who will hand you an entry and, if applicable, a mass housing bracelet and give you any extra info about the venue, surrounding area and anything else! If you can't find one of them, ask someone else there. Everyone in the building will be part of ESA, so don't worry about it.

These people will be: [flicky](http://i.imgur.com/g9U1NC4.jpg), [Alko](http://i.imgur.com/vrniFwa.jpg), [MLSTRM](http://i.imgur.com/VQUXNsz.jpg) and [Suzy](http://lerppu.net/SUZY/PICTURE.JPEG)

If you are running a game or volunteering at this point you will be given information about that too. We will also take a photo of you or take a phone number in case we need to find you. Please ask as many questions at this point as you want to. We're happy to help out!

Aside from that for general attendees, you should put a copy of this [map](http://i.imgur.com/KykxXWV.png) on your phone, just in case. 

**Runners and Commentators**

As said above, you will be given extra information at the event itself, but you should also make sure you're at least somewhat familiar with the process before you get there.

As runners you are free to take priority over others on any setup you need. If people are playing casual games on a setup that you need for practice, you have the right to kick them off. If you don't feel comfortable doing so, just ask one of the staff above and they can happily do it for you. People know you have priority so don't feel bad about it!

For your runs, you should be available 45 minutes before your run with your console, controller and game! (we are being strict on this!). Make sure you have contacted the tech in the streaming areas in plenty of time. They will explain what is required of you - we will be directing you around with goal of keeping on schedule, so don't expect to show the credits. Once your run is done, you will have a very small window to wrap up anything and shout out to friends before we will move you on. If you have a special donation incentive to show off, please make sure tech are aware of this beforehand and reset quickly before showing it off. **Feel free to ask tech if they need any help and to keep checking if you are ready to go with them. Be active! If you see a run has ended or you are waiting for a run to start, please approach the crew and make sure they know you are ready to go. Don't go and sit in the crowd or leave!**

If your game times until after credits, we will have to regrettably cut the timer before then and finish on final hit, in the interests of saving time. If your game times from console on, what's wrong with you? Wow, time from start of the game like everyone else.

**Mass Housing**

Those of you in mass-housing will be shown to the venue in a group at some point shortly after arriving. You will be free to leave clothes and such items at the mass-housing. Gaming equipment and so on can be safely left at the House of Culture. We suggest you mark such items.

The mass housing for a majority of the event will be at Kavelbro Gym, [here](https://www.google.fi/maps/place/Gymnasium+Sk%C3%B6vde+Kavelbro/@58.3855192,13.8701887,15z/data=!4m5!1m2!2m1!1skavelbro+gymnasium+sk%C3%B6vde!3m1!1s0x0000000000000000:0x2c3fac307c7244d2).

We'd like to remind everyone that the mass housing will be open to all attendees for the first two days and will be at the House of Culture. As we had no requests for female-only areas, there will be no area for that.

Aside from that, everything you need should be explained to you at the venue. You will be introduced to all the staff and so on who will be able to help you. Feel free to bug any of them at anytime. You may get passed on to a different one (breaks are important!) but don't worry about it!

http://i.imgur.com/TWjNVY6.png

European Speedster Assembly 2015 is a speedrunning centered community meetup and marathon. The doors are open from the afternoon of **June 26th until noon July 7th.** The stream will be running between June 28th until July 5th.

This thread serves to collect all key information and threads into one place.

__**Hotel & Venue Information**__:
[Skövde Kulturhus](http://goo.gl/U31URy)
Trädgårdsgatan 9,
541 30 Skövde
Sweden

[Quality Hotel Prisma](https://www.nordicchoicehotels.com/quality/quality-hotel-prisma/?_ga=1.166877626.587964382.1421662334)
Ekedalsgatan 2
54124 Skövde
Sweden
Phone: +46 500 48 80 00
q.prisma@choice.se

Hotel Reservations will be made by emailing the hotel or calling them. To get the discounted rate you need to make your reservation under the booking number/reference 92465. The discounted rate is 535 SEK / night for a double bedroom. Prices includes tax and gratuity. 
The hotel is not reserving any rooms, it's first come, first serve basis. Get your reservations in now.

__**Accommodation and Travel resources**__:
- [Hotel and Room Sharing](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/e3w1d)
- [Mass housing thread](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/vfkig) - posted 2015-06-07
- [Travel](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/izx1g/1#7k9yv)

__**Event Information and Resources**__:
- [Payment](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/f6kbr) - posted 2015-05-03
- [First Round Cuts](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/9fbt0) - posted 2015-04-01
- [Second Round Cuts](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/ui64k) - posted 2015-05-15
- [Schedule](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/7l8id) - posted 2015-05-30
- [Sign-Up Information](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/uy95k) - posted 2015-03-16
- [Game submission and Rules](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/4bugk) - posted 2015-02-05
- [Pricing and Budget Thread](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/o8kwn) - posted 2015-02-13

__**Equipment Information and Resources**__:
- [Equipment](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/1awyg) - posted 2015-06-05

__**Volunteer Information and Resources**__:
- [Volunteering](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/p1zbh/) - posted 2015-05-29
- [Tech Volunteering](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/1dwtr) - posted 2015-06-09

__**Misc. Information**__:
- [Clarification About the State of ESA and Ludendi](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/whg8e/1#lyrpx) - posted 2015-02-10

__**Lead Organiser's Information**__:

If you have questions about the event, please contact any of us and make sure to follow ESA's [twitter account](https://twitter.com/esamarathon)!

**Name:** Edenal
**Job:** Admin, Payment & Purchases
**Best contact option:** Skype (fredrik.lidholt) / Twitter (@edenalsda) / Email: edenal@europeanspeedsterassembly.com

**Name:** Oasiz
**Job:** Main tech
**Best contact option:** SRL IRC (oasiz)

**Name:** flicky
**Job:** Producer (!), Game & Schedule
**Best contact option:** Twitter (@flickyish) / SRL IRC (flicky) / Email (flicky@europeanspeedsterassembly.com) / Twitch (flickyish)

**Name:** bangerra
**Job:** Games & Schedule
**Best contact option:** Skype (bangerra) / Twitter (@bangerrasrl) / SRL IRC (bangerra) / Twitch (bangerra)

**Name:** Grukk
**Job:** Promotion & Website
**Best contact option:** Skype (jonas.akered1) / Twitter (@Grukk_)


We have a number of others helping us as listed below! (May not be up to date). If you have questions about anything listed here, please contact the bolded person (for example, hosting questions, ask flicky)

**Working with Edenal**
Crippe - Venue reservations, On site storage + more
Niss3 - On site events (Melon gaming), On site storage + more

**Working with Oasiz**
Ontwoplanks - Tech + Audio + Video
AMVX - Tech + Audio + Hardware
MaxieTheHatter - Tech + Video

**Working with flicky & bangerra**
joka - Game + Schedule

**Working with flicky**
Alko - Donations, travel
Tompa - Donations

Robosparkle - Hosting
Suzy - Hosting
Phhillu - Hosting

MLSTRM - Underling
Adam - Underling

**Working with Grukk**
tdawg - Promotion
Pac - Website + Promotion
SpeedPainter - Graphical stuff
Cronikeys - Game submission form


Also, we have to think of things for the following to do:
Neviutz, Lotblind, Fatzke

(Dates - 25th-28th March)

There should be a full information thread here soon. I just thought I'd explain where we're at.

As Planks can't make it, we're just looking at how much tech we can use and setup for the event and who can run tech. Once this has been sorted, we're going to get full details from Multiplay and all will be posted here.

[centre]http://i.imgur.com/NneENhL.png[/centre]

ESA 2017 is a speedrunning centred community meetup and marathon. The doors are open from **Friday the 21st of July until Sunday the 30th of July at 11:59pm** The stream is planned to run from the evening of the 22nd of July the evening of the 29th of July. Mass Housing with cover this entire period and close on Monday the 31st at 10am.

--
Submission status: Open until 1st of March
First cuts: 20th of March 
Final cuts & schedule: [big]**1st of May **[/big]
--

[center]**[big][Round 1 Cuts!](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2017/submissions)**[/big][/center]

As you've noticed, the format for cuts is a little different this year. We're keeping all the information on that page so that you can see all the runs if required. If a game is listed under "Phase 1" it means your game is still being considered. If it is left behind in "Phase 0" then your game will not be at ESA.

Up to this point we considered all facets of the run: skill, times, entertainment value, the runner themself and so on. Now we will go through all that again with a finer comb.

For many runners there is still a lot of work to be done on improving times and we actively encourage you to start on that now - we'll be looking at times from now until the schedule is out and taking that into account. Keep updating your speedrun.com times, leaderboards, estimates and practice hard for the event.  Feel free to post about progress here and discuss new things found - this helps us a lot with keeping up with each game. 

A few games (Breath of the Wild, Yooka-Laylee and NieR: Automata etc.) were submitted before the games were released. We will need to see a lot of hard work going into these games and good times being posted by the runners. We understand that they may be large draws to the marathon, but we will hold these runs to the same quality standard as any other. At the moment they are through on the chance that they make great runs.

Please continue to share any limitations for when your run can be. We would like to get these before the 28th of April.

Finally, we have not given individual reasons for each cut purely because of the sheer amount of time it takes. We will have a second post below this one where we can edit in responses. If you want to know why your game was cut, please ask and we'll share our answers.

http://i.imgur.com/TWjNVY6.png
*ESA 2015 will be open from the afternoon of June 26th until noon July 7th 2015. Click [here](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/t8x4w) to visit the master thread!*

The Game submission and scheduling team are flicky, bangerra and joka. We will also reach out to individuals and game communities regarding runs, rules and so on to help us make our decisions.

**[centre][big][Round Two of Cuts are now Public!](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ol03AKJsoE7afv2rW5Byxs6yGFfnsGIU6koTlONfWe4/edit#gid=0)[/big]**
[/centre]


**Cuts**
These are the cuts. There's not a lot more to say, but they're there. We based it on personal knowledge the runners and the current known times we have. We also checked if runners were signed up or had paid if we had no other information to go on.

If your game is yellow, it means that we'd like it and we know and the trust the runner, but we haven't heard from you at all. Please contact us with info ASAP.

**My game was cut =(**
Unfortunately we have to cut stuff. We can reconsider but you'll need to let us know about why we should. If we have genuinely made a mistake, we can change our minds.

**What's next? Is my game safe?** 
All that's left is to trytry and build a schedule with the remaining games. Games from this second cut will either be given a schedule slot or will be kept as standby games and used to fill gaps from any last minute drop-outs or subbed into the marathon as bonus games. None of those second round games will be cut completely unless the runner cannot make it.

Please note that we will be looking at who has and hasn't made the deposit while making the schedule. Runners who haven't made the [50 SEK Deposit](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/f6kbr) will have their games either cut or left as backup.  We understand that this can come off as a bit harsh or strict but we have made this known from the start. The deadline for the deposit payment is the 31st of May. To hopefully make this a bit easier for those on the fence, **we will be publishing this schedule on the 30th of May**. If you are in the schedule but fail to meet the deposit deadline, we will cut your game. It is a lot more work for us to post the schedule before the deadline, but we are doing it this way to act more in the interest of our attendees.

Feel free to discuss any of the cuts here. If you're like to contact any of us privately to talk about cuts, please check our contact info in the master thread linked at the post of this post! If any information is wrong, please let us know ASAP!

ALSO GIVE US YOUR UPDATED ESTIMATES. YOU GUYS SUCK AT LETTING US KNOW. SILLY YOU PEOPLE. UPDATED ESTIMATES MEAN MORE GAMES.

http://i.imgur.com/TWjNVY6.png
*ESA 2015 will be open from the afternoon of June 26th until noon July 7th 2015. Click [here](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/t8x4w) to visit the master thread!*

After feedback from various members of the speedrunning community, it has come to our attention that the resolution of the problems surrounding ESA were never publicly revealed, leaving many people confused as to what the state of ESA is right now. As you can see, the 2015 event is still very much going to happen, this post simply aims to clear things up here. This post was written by flicky with help from the rest of the ESA staff - Edenal, oasiz, bangerra and Grukk. 

**What Happened**
As was [aired publicly](https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/the_future_of_european_speedster_assembly.html), there were problems between the current organisers of ESA and Ludendi which resulted in questions as to how ESA would proceed as an event.  

This was resolved after discussion between Crippe (acting as a middle man), Edenal and Svenne in which accusations between the two groups were dropped and steps made to verify the truth of the claims made. Posts from respective people can be found [here](https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/the_future_of_european_speedster_assembly_79.html) and [here](https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/the_future_of_european_speedster_assembly_80.html#the_future_of_european_speedster_assembly_80)


**Clarification on Further Points**
In order to clear up any problems and confusion, we are aiming to make sure that the layout and organisation of ESA is easy to find. As such, you can find the complete list of organisers and volunteers in our master thread [here.](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2015/thread/t8x4w) Additionally, all information regarding the event will be available there, or from there.

**ESA is not a Ludendi event and is not being run by Ludendi**. It is an independent event being run by the organisers listed above. The event may be supported by Ludendi as it is by other groups (such as NLG, #gta and so on) in order to make the event better and more accessible to members of all communities. Naturally, members of Ludendi will be welcomed to the event like any other.

Additionally, no one outside the group of Edenal, oasiz, flicky, bangerra or Grukk is seen as an organiser and any information or content presented by others should checked against what is in the master thread or threads made by the five of us regarding ESA 2015. If you are contacted by someone else regarding ESA, you should double check with one of us that what the person is offering is genuine before proceeding. This is true for both companies and individuals on either side of the conversation. We're happy to help out!

If there are any further questions, please ask here.

[centre]http://i.imgur.com/NneENhL.png[/centre]

*ESA 2016 will be open from Saturday the 23rd of July at 8am until Monday the 1st of August at noon. Click [here](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2016/thread/t0kfo) to visit the master thread!*

*This post was written by flicky*

The Game submission and scheduling team are flicky, bangerra, Fatzke (new!). We will also reach out to individuals and game communities regarding runs, rules and so on to help us make our decisions as we have done in previous years. 

**[centre][big][Round 2 (aka the horrific slaughter) cuts are live!](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-W6FEoFJc9DoVUQvtnPwJ_j1V1WZoD0fcc3FT2GeTjQ/edit#gid=395872361)[/big]**
[/centre]

**Second Round Cuts**
So it turns out that it's brutally difficult to cut down our runs this year. Last year we cut down to 229 hours of runs for two streams after round two. This year we could only manage to cut to 297 hours with a single stream. We planned to cut down more substantially here, but it turns out the run quality was too high, so really it's your fault...

**Final Cuts and Schedule** 
We will be cutting down to the final schedule on the **5th of June 2016**. You may have noticed that we didn't write out complete reasons for each cut. It turns out that was a bit ambitious, but we will strive to add them over the next few days (so check back!). We thought it was more important that the cuts were published on time, than to delay for the reasoning to be added. If you would like reasoning sooner, just post here.

Now is the time to **practice super hard** as we will be really skimming the top for the best runners and runs. Please keep your sr.com leaderboards up to date!

Feel free to discuss any of the cuts here. If you'd like to contact any of us privately to talk about cuts, please check our contact info in the master thread linked at the post of this post!

[centre]http://i.imgur.com/NneENhL.png[/centre]

ESA 2017 is a speedrunning centred community meetup and marathon. The doors are open from **Friday the 21st of July until Sunday the 30th of July at 11:59pm** The stream is planned to run from the evening of the 22nd of July the evening of the 29th of July. Mass Housing with cover this entire period and close on Monday the 31st at 10am.

__**Venue**__:
[Fortnox Arena](http://fortnoxarena.se/)
Hejaregatan 5,
352 46 Växjö
Sweden

This thread serves to collect all key information and threads into one place. At least it will when more is around.

__**Visitor guide**__
We have a visitor guide for all attendees. Please check it out! 

**[ESA 2017 visitor guide](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VtZ4GZt0PTgx_gWXQG_fawZaLB-OBel0YQXUneapIzo/edit)**

__**Submission & Schedule Dates__**
Submissions open: 14th-28th of February
First cuts: 20th of March
Final cuts & schedule: 1st of May

Schedules can be located at:
https://horaro.org/esa/2017-one
https://horaro.org/esa/2017-two

__**Streams__**
Stream 1 will be on the ESA twitch channel, https://www.twitch.tv/esa. It runs from 18:00 on Saturday 22 July to approx 2200 on Saturday 29 July, 24 hours a day.

Stream 2 will be produced by GeekyGoonSquad and hosted on their channel, https://www.twitch.tv/geekygoonsquad. It runs from 10am to late evening, Monday 24 July to Saturday 29 July.

__**Hotels**__
Once again, we have promotional rates with the Scandic and the Quality Hotel Royal Corner, and mass housing available in Tipshallen

[Hotels thread](https://www.speedrun.com/esa2017/thread/i649d)

We have a bicycle hire scheme available for all attendees

[Bike Hire thread](http://www.speedrun.com/esa2017/thread/mr58y/1)

__**Registration and Payment**__
This year you can buy either a full week or a final weekend ticket.

[Registration thread](https://www.speedrun.com/esa2017/thread/kosad)

__**Lead Organiser's Information**__:

If you have questions about the event, please contact any of us on the __[ ESA Discord](https://discord.gg/0TZ2NlveujtasAqb)__ and make sure to follow ESA's [twitter account](https://twitter.com/esamarathon)!

**Name:** Edenal (Head Organiser)
**Name:** oasiz (Tek God)
**Name:** flicky (Games & People)
**Name:** bangerra (Games)
**Name:** Ontwoplanks (Tech Laird)
**Name:** KrazyRasmus (Event Space Man)