Support NeoGAF

[LordAlu]

• Live Stream #1 - Watch the main ESA event here.
• Live Stream #2 - Watch the secondary stream here.
• Schedule - List of runs across both streams, shown in your local timezone.
• Reddit VoD List - Full VoD List from Reddit.
• ESA YouTube Playlist - 2 new runs uploaded every day (8AM + 8PM CEST)
• Donate - Donate to Save the Children.
• Bid Goals - Bid for certain runs for exhibitions or showing off glitches.
• Bid Wars - You can bid on certain runs for things like character names.
• Donation List - List of all donations made during the event.
• ESA Twitter - Follow the ESA Twitter to get updates throughout the event.
• Inside ESA Twitter - Tweets and retweets from inside the venue.

ESA is a speedrunning-centred community meetup and marathon. The event features speedruns of classic and modern games, raising
money for Save the Children during a full week of gaming.​

For the second time, the event is hosted in Växjö, Sweden with over 400 attendees. This summer, there will also be a major Smash Tournament,
board game tournaments and a LAN party during the final weekend. Overall, the event is expected to reach over 1,000 attendees.​

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. Around the world, they give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn
and protection from harm.​

They do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.​

This year there are 191 runs spread across two separate streams all week, ranging from the ever popular Mario, Metroid and Zelda series, through
one time classics such as World of Illusion and Crusader of Centy, to the completely random Mort the Chicken and Samurai Pizza Cats.​

The event is now over - Please check the Reddit VoD list to see the full list of games.​

The entire event will be live-streamed on Twitch.TV for your viewing pleasure. You'll be able to watch on any device that supports Twitch, so most
mobile phones and tablets, PS4, XBox One, PC and even some TVs.​

The event is now over - You can watch the VoDs via the Reddit VoD list, or use the YouTube Playlist.​

If you've missed any of the runs so far, or just want to go back and watch a run again, you can catch up with the VoDs. There's a full Reddit Twitch VoD
list (with Chat Replay), or a YouTube playlist with 2 runs per day being uploaded at 8AM and 8PM CEST!​

​

​

Marathon chats are unfortunately notoriously spammy (especially GDQ), making it extremely difficult to interact in any meaningful way. As such,
we have our own dedicated Twitch GAF channel on Discord that we used for the recent SGDQ marathon and will be using again for ESA.​

In order to join the Discord, simply quote this post to reveal a link - click the link and come join us!​

Twitch GAF Discord -> ​

I'll be adding more information to the thread as the event continues, including merchandise and VoDs of previous runs.​

I hope everyone enjoys the event and have a great week watching awesome speedruns!​

 

[MaxiLive]

Thanks for this! Great OP I always look forward to the unique runs and general awkwardness that GDQ lacks these days.

 

[jmartoine]

Whats up with the two separate streams?

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Whats up with the two separate streams?

Looks like a massive amount of games are going to be ran. Note that the second stream runs for less days and isn't going 24/7.

Wow. There are so many niche titles. This is going to be awesome!

 

[jmartoine]

Looks like a massive amount of games are going to be ran. Note that the second stream runs for less days and isn't going 24/7.

Wow. There are so many niche titles. This is going to be awesome!

Cool. Looking through the schedule I can see so many games I want to see while SGDQ's lineup felt stale for me.

 

[TheMink]

Do they have a YouTube channel? Won't be able to watch live.

 

[LordAlu]

Do they have a YouTube channel? Won't be able to watch live.

They do, although whether they'll upload to it during the event remains to be seen. If they do, I'll add it to the VoD section.

 

[SuomiDude]

Just when the previous speedrun event hype has slowed down, we get another one! Will watch lots of games for sure. Still watching SGDQ videos on YouTube that I missed on the live streams.

 

[TUSR]

Thanks for the thread Alu, good lineup during the week.

 

[LordAlu]

Just over two and a half hours to go!

• Updated "Important Links" section to remove two separate schedule links and replace with one link for side-by-side schedule.
• Updated "Games!" section section for the same reason.

 

[Hamster Plugin]

Dishonored (the good one) started now. This one got some weird glitches, should be fun to watch.

 

[LordAlu]

$7,500 so far, not bad for ESA!

 

[Dingens]

Kinda reminds me of how GDQ used to be before they outlawed all the fun.
Last year the esa marathon felt kinda sterile and empty (or was that 2 or 3 years ago?), but so far the event seems vastly improved

 

[thejpfin]

That was a fun San Andreas run, even though it went over estimate.

 

[Foundling]

You'd think Trackmania would make for a dull run, but it's actually been cool. I really want to know what "I Wanna Run the Marathon" ends up being.

 

[Durante]

Just like in the GDQ thread, I'd like to plug StreamLink (https://streamlink.github.io/). Lets you stream twitch to your favourite media player in high quality, and without interacting with the annoying/flaky Twitch interface (or its chat ).

E.g. like this:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Streamlink\bin>streamlink.exe twitch.tv/esamarathon best

 

[Dingens]

Just like in the GDQ thread, I'd like to plug StreamLink (https://streamlink.github.io/). Lets you stream twitch to your favourite media player in high quality, and without interacting with the annoying/flaky Twitch interface (or its chat ).

E.g. like this:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Streamlink\bin>streamlink.exe twitch.tv/esamarathon best

I'd really love to use it... but just with 90% of open source software, its usability is borderline painful. I realize that there are certain perks in using command but having to do this every time just to watch a stream seems incredibly counter intuitive and represents a large hurdle most normal users will not even bother with.
Why is it so hard to just present the user with a simple graphic interface? The spread of open software would greatly increase if this was the case. I know I wouldn't have given up after 5 minutes if this was the case... I simply don't know enough about command to use the program and honestly don't feel like reading pages of instructions.

Spoiler

streamlink told me that it couldn't find vlc... and the instructions didn't give a hint on how to tell streamlink where to look -_-

 

[Durante]

I'd really love to use it... but just with 90% of open source software, its usability is borderline painful. I realize that there are certain perks in using command but having to do this every time just to watch a stream seems incredibly counter intuitive and represents a large hurdle most normal users will not even bother with.
Why is it so hard to just present the user with a simple graphic interface? The spread of open software would greatly increase if this was the case. I know I wouldn't have given up after 5 minutes if this was the case... I simply don't know enough about command to use the program and honestly don't feel like reading pages of instructions.

UIs take time. Generally, people who create free software (for free) aren't interested in spending time on features they aren't personally going to use. If the choice is between improving some core aspect or extending functionality towards something you personally want, and implementing a UI for doing something you can already do, the choice will usually be the former.

Spoiler

streamlink told me that it couldn't find vlc... and the instructions didn't give a hint on how to tell streamlink where to look -_-

For me, what happens if I remove my player configuration from the stemlinkrc file is this:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Streamlink\bin>streamlink.exe twitch.tv/esamarathon best
[cli][info] Found matching plugin twitch for URL twitch.tv/esamarathon
[cli][info] Available streams: audio_only, 160p (worst), 360p, 480p, 720p60, 1080p60 (best)
[cli][info] Opening stream: 1080p60 (hls)
[B]error: The default player (VLC) does not seem to be installed. You must specify the path to a player executable with --player.[/B]
[cli][info] Closing currently open stream...

I'd call that a hint, since it even contains instructions on what to do (well, one option of what to do, in the long term configuring the player i nsteamlinkrc is more convenient):

C:\Program Files (x86)\Streamlink\bin>streamlink.exe twitch.tv/esamarathon best [B]--player "C:\Program Files\Combined Community Codec Pack 64bit\MPC\mpc-hc64.exe"[/B]
[cli][info] Found matching plugin twitch for URL twitch.tv/esamarathon
[cli][info] Available streams: audio_only, 160p (worst), 360p, 480p, 720p60, 1080p60 (best)
[cli][info] Opening stream: 1080p60 (hls)
[cli][info] Starting player: C:\Program Files\Combined Community Codec Pack 64bit\MPC\mpc-hc64.exe
...

 

[petethepanda]

This Rise of the Tomb Raider run is pretty fun.

 

[Envelope]

My Summer Car is amazing

 

[thejpfin]

Meanwhile on second stream:

lol

 

[TheDanger]

the gta iv run was pretty fun

wow GAF really doesn't give a fuck about esa, insane how much more popular gdq is.

 

[sinxtanx]

how have I never seen the DKCR ending

 

[Amirnol]

Really enjoyed the marathon this year. Also genuinely curious as to why so few people care about this event in comparison to GDQ? Both are solidly entertaining and are dedicated to great causes.

 

[Dingens]

Really enjoyed the marathon this year. Also genuinely curious as to why so few people care about this event in comparison to GDQ? Both are solidly entertaining and are dedicated to great causes.

I was wondering the same thing...
Is it because it's too close to SGDQ? or a bad month/week in general? is it still too unknown due to a lack of advertising? Is it because people don't care as much for "save the children" as they do for cancer? Is it because it's European and most people have some sort of accent?

Whatever the case I really enjoyed this year's marathon, more so than sgdq. Something about ESA just feels different... like it seems more relaxed, it's not as commercialized yet, you're not pressured into donating every 2 minutes and the amount of niche games you'd NEVER see at a GDQ is through the roof. Also I kinda liked the idea with the second stream. I usually don't watch runs longer than 2 hours. Having an alternative with more but shorter runs going on at the same time was great - especially if that meant that the event could fit in even more niche titles.
Still gotta catch up on a few runs like Pandoras tower

 

[LordAlu]

Yeah, it's a little disappointing to see how dead this has been. Possibly too close to SGDQ, or maybe it's the more casual nature of the event. Never mind though, it was great to watch!

• Added links to the Reddit VoD Thread to the OP and "Important Links" section.
• Added links to the YouTube Playlist to the OP and the "Important Links" section.
• Crossed through some stuff in "Important Links" now that the event is over.
• Changed the Schedule section to point it to the Reddit VoDs.
• Changed the How do I watch? section to point to VoDs/YouTube as the event is over.
• Removed the Donation section as the event is over.
• Removed the Merchandise section as there wasn't any!