https://www.speedrun.com/poptb

I have a bunch of IL runs awaiting verification and the only moderator hasn't been online for over 27 days. Also tried to contact the moderator via twitter DM the day i submitted, because i saw that he was already offline for a while, but have not gotten a response until now.

edit: nvm got active after i wrote this

I would start with some, but as some of you may know my phone is dead :D Don't know how much interest there is for this but i am sure there are at least a few people out there who would enjoy to see a lot of different pictures from different people here.

@EmeraldAly Times are/should all be in Sweden time aka central Europe summer timezone (cest)

runners, orga, pets, chairs, everyone. literally everyone has to pay

I want to start this by saying that i feel that a lot of these feedbacks are a bit too nice considering this years ESA. I completely understand the effort, that everyone who is involved in organizing has to put in, but at the end of the day it is important to communicate clearly what went wrong. What are bad developments and what are good ones. Because i fear that ESA started to go on a path that would lead to a very different ESA from what we learned to love. For me personally this years ESA felt a lot worse in quality than for example 2014 and 2015 for a various amount of reasons. I also spoke to many people who have attended previous ESAs, who feel the same. I will not call out any names because they might still give a feedback. I strongly encourage everyone to do so even if you disagree with me.

I will start by listing a few things i feel would improve a lot of things that went wrong this year:

• Layouts: simple layouts are okay but it is not okay that most of the layout is taken up by the camera, game title and timer. All things that could be way smaller without compromising anything, while the game play is the important thing and thus should be as big as possible while still including the other necessities.

• Setup: I feel that a longer time to setup everything stream wise and all around it would be very beneficial. Also as an attendee it is nice to have a day to settle before everything starts. I am aware that unofficially it was possible to be there a day early but it was never a "real" option for many people. I also think that a longer setup time would solve a lot of the problems that showed up right away when the stream started. (the audio problems both on stream and hosting, tracker, layout problems, etc)

• Stream PCs: since i personally only run shitty games i usually don't have any problems with this but i heard a lot of things by multiple people about how the PCs are either barely good enough or not good enough to run their modern PC games. I understand why Etholon did not want to bring his PC this year, like the last ones, but i feel that at least one killer PC is necessary for all the modern games.

• Communication: A direct communication between Runner - Tech - Host would be very beneficial. This year the first connection was established a few days into the event and i was told about plans of the last one. Some poor unmentioned heroes tried to solve this by constantly being around Tech/Hosts to communicate between them, but it really is a terrible solution. I do want to emphasis this because a communication at all times between all three of these would solve a lot of silly small issues that also appeared this year. Additionally it would eliminate the need for "Donation!" and "Tech ready" light signs if used properly.

• Hosting: Hosting will definitely switch to Timeslots rather than Gameslots. Additionally it needs to be made a lot clearer that anyone can host a game they want to, especially if they are familiar with the game and/or the runner, since familiarity usually leads to a better hosting. Besides that it needs to be communicated clearer before the event that every runner has the option (not requirement) to do a post run interview. In general having an actual schedule for it is a very good improvement, since last year there were many times where nobody was at the hosting station at all.

• Venue: while the arena in itself is an acceptable venue, i think the venue if one takes location into account was a poor choice overall. Last year convinced with a 1 Minute walking distance between venue and train station, while this year it was closer to 30 minutes if walking with luggage. (i am aware of the busconnection but they are not always an option, for example Noobest arrived later on Sunday and there were no buses driving at that time) This also means that if one wants to go into the city for proper food, lake or just to see whats there, they have to walk about 20 minutes.

• Mass housing: a big step up in terms of distance to the venue compared to last year. Originally it was supposed to be in Hall B and ended up being in another location close by. In hindsight i agree that this was the right decision but not for safety reasons and rather for space reasons. The venue just doesn't have enough rooms if hall b was used for it.

• Price: I always felt that ESA tried its very best to make the event affordable as possible and thus trying to negate the fact that it already is in quite a poor location in Sweden. Which leads to an increase in traveling costs. This year however the Price for the event, if one also chose to stay at mass housing straight up doubled compared to last year. Roughly 50 Euro to 100 Euro. While this is still fairly affordable, i see it as an alarming development. I also hope that the income and spending overview of this year gets published soon, since i don't want to speculate about certain things costing certain amounts.

• Last days: I am glad Chucat already mentioned this, because this was a big annoyance. It is not acceptable that once again people where kicked out multiple hours before the venue was supposed to be closed. Both in the Arena (4 hours) and even in the mass housing (1 hour). I think these kind of things can and should be correctly communicated way before the event. For next year i would never consider to stay the last day again simply because of this.

I also want to highlight what i thought were really good developments compared to last year and should (if possible) be kept:

• Couches: the couches behind the stream were an extremely good idea and led me to actually watch a few runs for once since it was possible to comfortably sit on them.

• Bonus Stream: The bonus stream has finally returned again. While only being slightly more than 24 hours it certainly was at least something. Both Attendees and Viewers seemed to greatly appreciate this.

• Cleaning: Having cleaning staff at the venue is definitely an upside.

• Lanyards and T-shirts: Lanyards are a decent idea but were poorly executed. Starting with the requirement of real pictures and names all the way to arriving way to late. T-shirts were available from the start and are always a nice memorabilia. Not the biggest fan of the design but still nice.

To Summarize this giant wall of opinions i want to say: Find better/new venue, increase communication in every aspect and try to keep what makes ESA great at heart, the people.

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!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/m3manbcnblp8o1j/AABIdWcsfUZVWCO_899wpFeJa?dl=0

@succinctandpunchy save the children: http://www.savethechildren.org/ @Akisto you gotta click ont he part where it says "your answer" and then type :D

Yes there will be, that is why this post exists. In case this sounds in any way interesting to you, you are more than welcome to join for some games!

www.savethechildren.org/

For the people who have never played in person, this is how it will roughly look like:

It is very good fun and should be even more fun than last time.

Guys if there is nothing in your comment the assumed standard is "you are available the whole event"

@Samtastic: the pcs that are used to play on do not do the streaming. there are seperate streaming pcs

Well yeah but the circulation time for 20s and 50s considering that is only about 2 and 5 euros should be extremely small anyways... so no real reason to enforce such a small changeover.

It is quite weird that the old notes are straight up invalid. They recently started replacing the old Euro notes and none of those go invalid :( edit for edenal: i know its just weird that the stores won't accept them anymore

if your community uses sr.com LB then just submit your PB there and the schedule team will see that when the time comes. No need to update here about every improvement you made.

DanJTKT if you run a PC game there is a PC you can run your game on. But if you really wanna play on your own setup, if that is a laptop, you usually can. But no need.

Submitted GTA 3 since i plan on going. Not 100% sure yet but should know around the time the deadline. Will let you guys know as soon as i know.

Requesting a more personalized shout out from you S.

Considering the fact that i was extremely close to not going this year, for multiple reasons like the mass housing situation and the date for example, i was very surprised when this event turned out to be a lot more fun than last year. Although i have to say that that was mostly the case because of all the people i met, new and old, rather than how well organized ESA was. Because it wasn't as well organized as last year in my opinion. Before i get to the negative part big shout out to anyone who i played Mafia with, to anyone who i had great conversations with and last but not least fuck you to anyone who killed me in the 1st or 2nd round of Mafia!

Mass Housing starting on Sunday, when the 1st stream started, was straight up shit. I do appreciate the fact that something like this gets provided, because otherwise i would probably not attend at all, since the cost would be way to high to justify it, but a good 20 minutes walk is just way too long. I can understand everyone who took naps or even tried to sneak in full sleeps at the venue, like Heinki mentioned, and i even did it myself one time when i had to wait for a run. What i mostly did instead though, was staying up for up to 40 hours straight, because fuck taking that walk multiple times. This really killed a lot of fun!

Hosting is something i tried for the first time this year and it turned out to be a bit more fun than i expected it to be. Obviously shameless self promotion is something that should not happen but calling for "professional" hosts and a hosting schedule is stupid. I would have most likely not hosted at all if something like that was in place. So all i have to say in regards to that is keep it as it is.

Stream/Venue/anything else didn't really get to run anything (thanks flicky and bangerra), so i don't have too much to say about the two streams besides what most people already mentioned in here. The venue is pretty nice and big but it lacks the "cozy" feeling of Nyeport. The lack of couches and comfortable chairs especially. Big plus though is the fact that the Venue was a lot closer to city center.

All in all nice event with lots of great people.