Quick link to the photo gallery, if that’s all you want.

Well, it’s happened again. My second ESA is done, and it confirmed what I learned last year: this is a place I feel like I belong in. And as much as it hurts to not see all of you for a whole year, the magic of getting to spend a week with some of the best people I know makes it absolutely worth the wait. This is the event I’ll always be waiting for just to feel the love of everybody there.

There was a time a few years ago where I genuinely felt like I didn’t really belong anywhere, that I was just this kind of outsider. I started tuning into lumilaura’s streams, and found a little community in this speedrunning space I hadn’t really been active in for years. Laura’s the reason I went to ESA last year, and I felt all the love of being involved in a bigger group for it (see here and here). This year, I wanted to give some of that love back.

I messaged Edenal and asked if ESA needed another event photographer after talking with Smac about it, and Edenal said sure. Asked if I needed to do anything specific for it and the only response I got from Edenal was “nah, just show up.” Weirdly, I think that kinda encompasses the event, in all honesty: if you wanna see something done, just step up and do it. People will thank you for it later.

For anybody new here who really felt that feeling of love and belonging, it’s genuine. People want you here; they’re excited to share their passions with you and vice-versa, and if you’re considering volunteering please do, as the staff at these events work their absolute asses off to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. Make side events, help out with the main event, submit runs, offer whenever you can to give something back; I can promise you it doesn’t take away from how amazing this event really is.

Due to my volunteer work as a photographer, my attempts to grab footage for a documentary that I’m working on (coming soon-ish, hopefully!), 2 speedruns I was running in, 1 I was commentating in, a set during DJ night, and trying to participate in as many events as I possibly can, I was exceedingly busy. I think I sat down to play video games maybe an hour or two during the entire event. But hey, I got to do a lot of other fun stuff and capture some genuinely amazing, once-in-a-lifetime memories. If I didn’t get to say hi to you or talk much, come up and start a convo with me next year!

This was the first event I’ve ever submitted runs to, outside of ESA Jingle Jam back in January, and I was absolutely thrilled to have gotten both of my runs in; I didn’t expect Super Kiwi 64 to get in at all, and DOOM was honestly just a stupid joke I took too far that happened to work out. Thank you to everybody for all the support during my runs, and especially the encouragement to stick with it when I was learning everything. I wouldn’t have done any of this without you guys.

Also shoutout to anybody who recognized me as the event photographer and asked for group pics; I’m happy to help, but if y’all can schedule a bit more than like 2 hours in advance for next year that’d be ideal.

Safety

I don’t want to make this a big thing, and I’m not singling out anybody in particular here, but I do feel like something needs to be said: I know people don’t like the safety team, they keep you from having fun, but the reason they’re there is to make sure everybody feels comfortable and to make sure that we keep getting to do ESAs. The reason most of the rules, including the one on being intoxicated on the event floor, are in place is because:

1. The charities aren’t going to work with ESA if they see a bunch of people getting drunk in the public rooms. It looks bad on the charities and they’ll refuse to work with us in the future. No charities, no ESA.
2. If there’s a bunch of rowdy drunks in the event space, the hotel might refuse to work with ESA in the future. If we have to change hotels it’s going to absolutely suck; the current place in Hyllie is just ideal and I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that I’d be upset if we were forced to move the event.

I’m all for a few drinks, but if you’re going to get wasted please do it in a room and not on the event floor, including if you’re just coming down to support a friend. I know this shit happens every year but the less incidents we can have, the less stress for everybody involved.

Shoutouts

Tbh I could just say shoutout to everybody at the event and it wouldn’t be a wrong statement; I met so many cool people this event for the first time, and saw so many others I met last year. Shoutout to Lozzy, who stepped up to the safety team this year and did a great job as first time Jane Safety in helping Skenmy out. Shoutout to all the people I met and talked to on staff: setbac, ZeddyBear, Skenmy, Toasty_Stoat, Edenal. Shoutout to Ricky, Icen, and SixRock for putting on some great group events as always, including the Mystery Tournament and Jeopardy, and all the people who stepped up to help them run those events as smoothly as they could. Shoutout to the Thursday Copenhagen group for getting me out of the venue for a few hours to chill out, shoutout to bigCHICKENATOR for being an absolutely lovely person, signing my partner’s copy of Haven, and for commentating my Super Kiwi 64 run with basically no prep and 2 days’ warning. Shoutout to Murtag and Lozzy for commentating my runs, and for Murtag for letting me commentate his Doom 2 run.

Massive shoutouts to heny for bringing his DJ gear and letting me play with it, and to nallesounds, serenmew, and foas for bringing absolute heat to their DJ sets. Special shoutout to Noizeeh for some great convos as well. Shoutouts to ApolloSmug and Jkl0ser for doing so many runs this marathon and to Goost for showing me DOOM E1M1 in the Dustforce engine. And huge shoutouts to TeaKanji and bleachfruit_ for taking some more great photos in places I wasn’t able to be. We need more event photographers, come back next year and volunteer!!

It was great to get to meet nat_gamenight, evertyo, Kaspi, tristendo, KingEurope, Skitz, Kolatch, Marthe, Jazzy, HillaryPuff, Tari, TerliManor, ImEliTM, whit_send, hiiri, Nuke_, ZingoChris, Eotena, Xem, and traceeee. I’m still probably missing people but getting to sit and talk with people is always a highlight of my time at the event, every time.

Quick thanks to anybody who took a pic with the panda representing my partner, drmustachecat/Amanda. They and I both really appreciate it, and with any luck they’ll be coming along with me next year.

Anybody who I got to have a good, deep conversation with, thank you so much. If anybody I’ve met at the event ever needs someone to talk to, at the event or in general, just hit me up. Happy to sit and listen whenever I can.

Shoutout Slysonic, big fan.

Runs/Highlights

DJ Sets

• Dralnah (that’s me!)
• Original Baum
• Noizeeh (hasn’t uploaded yet; will update this when he does
• Nallesounds
• Foas
• Serenmew

Runs I Recommend

• DOOM 2 (KEX Port) by Murtag, Commentary By Me: this went really smoothly, Murtag absolutely killed the run. My first time on a camera!
• Super Kiwi 64 by Me: Phenomenal commentary and a fun run, went a tiny bit over estimate but I also let cutscenes play out and had a great time with Lozzy and Chim saying unhinged things on stream.
• DOOM On A Flip Phone by Me: Went absolutely phenomenally. Got choked up at the end seeing all the support, both in chat/donos and in the room. Had a phenomenal time with everything and I couldn’t have asked for a better first “big” run at a marathon on main stage.
• Clone Hero Concert by Xem, WarDrums, Jarvis, and SixRock: I knew this was gonna be fun, but underestimated how fun it would be. Phenomenal showing by everybody involved.
• Budokai 3 Z3 Breakthrough by Ricky: Ho-ly shit, dude. Couldn’t have asked for a better event opener or a pure showing of skill.
• Gordon and Daxter by Jazzy: just straight up a sick run, was very glad it got shown at ESA because it definitely deserves it.
• Escape from Monkey Island by FineAndDanD: I wasn’t expecting the notebook to come out at the end of the run, was great to see how well you handled all of the technical issues!
• MLB Power Pros 2008 by tcbskitz: I knew this was going to be chaotic energy but Skitz kicked it up a notch further. This would have been the most insane run at the event were it not for-
• Raldi’s Crackhouse by Xem: I don’t have words for this. The look of horror and confusion on Chim’s face, Eotena sitting there smiling like a maniac half the time, Xem casually explaining how insane the game really is. Pure cinema.
• F1 25 by sajiki: Insane premise, perfect performance. Things I would never expect to see at a GDQ just show up here without much fanfare and it’s by far a better experience.

To anybody who showed up to this ESA, thank you. Everybody who shows up and brings their energy makes this event as magical as it is. If we didn’t get to talk, feel free to reach out or say hi; I’ll be around next year’s summer event, as well! You all are my family, anybody who shows up to ESA and helps out or just hangs out. Thank you all for being there to support me and my runs, and it’s an honor to show up to support your runs as well.

Take care of yourselves, Dralnah