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: 1st of May

--

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 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!. Runners without tickets by the time the schedule is due will be chased up.

Schedule Organiser Information :