ESA Together is a week-long online marathon that will feature speedrunners and score-attackers from all around the world. We invite everybody, be it ESA regulars or first-timers, to throw their hats into the ring and submit their best showcases to the event. ESA Together will be ran to support ESA and other affiliated events’ increased costs this year connected with the coronavirus outbreak.

Timeline

Submission phase: March 16th – March 21st (including)
Schedule Release: March 29th
Event Dates: April 6th – April 13th

Guidelines

In comparison to an on-site event there are a few changes that need to be made. Please make sure to read this entire post to guarantee that your submission is valid. Due to the nature of ESA Together being an online event there are a number of changes to the submission guidelines that we want everybody to be aware of.

Submissions are open NOW! You can find the submission form at https://submissions.esamarathon.com/

Running a game at ESA Together will not weaken your chances of getting the same run into ESA Summer 2020.

There will be a limit of five submissions per runner. This includes different categories.

In order to maintain the high standards we have established on the ESA channel, we are setting some technical requirements. The following conditions apply:

– Runners should be able to stream to Twitch at a bitrate of at least 2.5 Mbit. Depending on your game and resolution you might be able to get away with less. Submit your video and let us be the judge!
– Runners must use a face camera for their run during the marathon. This is non-negotiable.
– All submissions must be single system only (that means no races). Co-Op runs may be permitted if both runners can be at the same location and on camera, but please don’t jeopardise your own as well as your fellow humans’ health by travelling long distances to meet up. If you want to bring along a co-commentator via Discord, feel free to do so.

When submitting your game, you will be asked to provide a short description about the game as well as the run/showcase/exhibition, a video showcasing it as well as information about your personal progress in the game. Make sure that this video also meets the specifications listed above!
Bonus points for submitting a video with marathon-like commentary!
Please state your availability during the event as clearly as possible (preferrably in CEST) in your submission comment. We will do our best to keep all the different timezones in mind when creating the schedule.
We strongly suggest adding your times to the speedrun.com leaderboards for your game (or making your own if it doesn’t exist yet!) so we can more easily keep track of your times. If your community uses other leaderboards, please link them in the submission form. If there are no leaderboards relevant to your submission, feel free to just provide a meme of your choice instead to fulfill the requirements of the form.

Your estimate should consider everything that can go wrong. Actively practice no-reset runs and have backup strategies (or save files) ready in case something never happened before. It is better to err on the side of caution and overestimate. Don’t add an inaccurate time in the hope that it will appear more impressive and increase the chance that you are accepted.

You are welcome to submit all content including non-speedrun content as long as it has relevance. Non-complete game categories will be allowed provided they are accepted by the individual communities.
We have a similar stance on emulators: presenting the run on the original console is preferred, but if emulators are accepted by the game’s community, they are allowed.

Submitted games must adhere to Twitch’s community guidelines.

Submission Form

If you’re using the new form for the first time, you will need to register and link your Twitch account in order to log in. Additionally we require you to link your Discord account as well as include your username on speedrun.com in your profile.

The speedrun.com account is required to check your leaderboard times. Discord will be the main tool for all forms of communication leading up to the event and will also be the way for the game selection and scheduling team to contact you.
If you don’t have an account yet, please get one HERE and join the ESA Server: https://discord.gg/esamarathon

Possible donation incentives/bid wars can also be entered through the form. Keep in mind that those undergo a review process as well and should not add more than five minutes to your run unless justified. We will reach out to you if we feel like one of your incentives is inappropriate, could work better in a different format or just need some clarification. A list with all the accepted incentives and bid wars will be published after the schedule release.

Your submission will remain uneditable after the submission phase is over. If you need to make changes after that point, please contact us personally.

Our game selection 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.
Additionally, the entertainment value of runners, games and commentary is taken into consideration. If you are 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).

Contact us

If you have any questions, PM either Fatzke#4192, eTho#5871 or Jinny#2406 on the ESA Discord. We’re happy to help.