European Speedster Assembly 2016 - Gotta go fort

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > European Speedster Assembly 2016 - Gotta go fort

KennyMan666: May 27, 2010; The Saga

(no I don't know either why they're calling it Speedrunner Assembly now)

Hot on the heels of SGDQ2016 comes the marathon from the other side of the pond, ESA2016! Starting July 23rd and going on until July 29th, it's the biggest annual speedrunning event after the GDQs and has way more goofy accents. And I'm pretty sure there's more races. That surely won't hurt setup times.

Schedule: Can be found at http://www.esamarathon.com/schedule and actually does adjust to your timezone, I was just an idiot.

Watch it at: http://www.esamarathon.com/ is the main site. http://twitch.tv/esamarathon is the Twitch channel, but the main site is usually better to use.

If you want to watch in your media player of choice, you can use Livestreamer. How to use it:

BloodWulfe posted:

Windows users can grab a precompiled version right here. Here's a quickstart guide. Basically the only thing you need to setup is your video player location. The config file has a bunch of default locations that you can just uncomment. It should look something like this:

# VLC
player=�C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe�

Notice that the pound sign in front of player is removed. Replace VLC with whatever you prefer, but make sure MPC is up-to-date if you use that. Open a command prompt, enter livestreamer.exe twitch.tv/speeddemosarchivesda best, and that's it. You can replace best with low/medium/high if needed.

Mac users can run sudo easy_install livestreamer from a terminal window, and then use the same command as Windows (sans .exe) to launch it. It defaults to using VLC, but you can use --player to specify something else.

Linux users can grab it via pip.

You can also use Livestreamer Twitch GUI, which is, well, a GUI for Livestreamer, if you don't feel comfortable around command lines.

Official recordings will go up eventually, once they have all been processed. There's usually a list of timestamped links to watch the runs in the Twitch VODs, and to minimize people uploading monetized videos on Youtube during the marathon, GDQ staff will try to get at least temporary versions up on Youtube as soon as possible. Watch this space for the links.

Chatting: While ESA does use Twitch chat as its main chat, there's better places to be, such as IRC - and there's an official channel for this, too.
Server: irc.quakenet.org
Channel: #esamarathon
Direct link
Quakenet Webchat (Mibbit will not work)

As always, there's also a SA speedrun channel that you can use to chat with us goons about the marathon, away from all the common folk:
Server: irc.synirc.net
Channel: #speedruns
Direct link
Mibbit Webchat

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The ESA2016 charity drive

One of the elements that has set ESA apart from GDQ in recent years is that while GDQ is first and foremost a charity event consisting of speedruns (and such), ESA is more of a speedrunning event that also accepts donations for charity.

ESA2016 benefits Save the Children, the world's leading independent organization for children in need with programs in over 120 countries.

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The ins and outs of donations

While ESA2016 does not use the same donation system as GDQ, it's quite simple and the donation page can be found here. You will be able to leave a comment with your donation, and as ESA is a lot smaller than GDQ, chances are quite good your donation will be read on air! However, you can't just get anything read - while I don't have the exact ESA rules for it available, it is likely to be similar if not identical to the GDQ guidelines:

quote:

-The program should auto-filter donations that are less than a dollar, but in case if one slips through, filter it out.

-Some people do not want their names read out loud when they donate. There will be an anonymous flag you can check so that the donation reader doesn't read their name by accident (like we have done often in the past).

-Donations insulting someone should be filtered out.

-If a donation is solely twitch faces, hashtags, or just generally spam, then filter it out.

-On that note, if someone donates a small amount of money just to write a mountain of text, then filter it out. We'll be busy enough reading short donation comments. The only exception we should make for mountains of text is...

-Personal stories relating to our cause should be read.

-If a donation comment is creative and funny then it should be read. Just FYI, while some people might find twich faces funny, they're certainly not creative.

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Why donate (if you don't want to save the children)

Incentives. I can't find any evidence for any kinds of prizes being a thing this time around. But, uh, ESA2016 does not to seem to have a tracker of the same kind as GDQ anywhere, so tbh I have no clue at all where to find a list of incentives. Watch this space I guess.

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FAQ:
Q: What runs should I watch?
A: All of them well no actually watch what you're interested in. There'll be recommendations eventually, maybe. Read the thread, I'm going to be away for half of the week so I'll be able to keep up with the thread but not the stream pretty much.

Q: Will ____ be there?
A: Check the schedule. If they're not listed as a runner or commentator, it doesn't really matter if they're there or not. There's some controversial people. Don't bring them up.

Q: So did you hear about that marathon when that one guy-
A: I'm just going to say the exact same thing as in the GDQ thread here and please don't.

Really - please don't. Marathon threads in the past have been plagued by people who think the height of hilarity is to make fun of the people participating in or attending these marathons, in which case you're a dick. Maybe someone did something they didn't think all the way through that then got spread through dubious pastebins circulating on twitter, maybe someone did something awkward on camera that the internet decided to turn into a meme - but that's irrelevant. While talking about things going on at the event is of course fine, this thread is meant to primarily be about the runs and the cause, so try to keep the drama to a minimum. And should you think that bringing up old drama from past marathons or things that just so happened to happen to a runner that's going to SGDQ is a good idea, it's not.

Q: Why isn't ____ on the schedule?
A: Either nobody submitted it or there wasn't room for it on the schedule. That's about it.

Q: Why didn't they read my donation comment?
A: Probably because you didn't say anything of value.

Q: Where is this happening?
A: ESA2016 is taking place in Fortnox Arena, V�xj�, Sweden.

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Aaaaand that's about all of it, there's really not as much to say about ESA as GDQ, but let's enjoy it together anyhow!

KennyMan666 fucked around with this message at 16:54 on Jul 24, 2016