European Speedster Assembly 2015 Kicks off Its First Day

Today was the first day for the European Speedster Assembly, known as ESA, an annual week long speedrunning event taking place in Skövde, Sweden. This year's ESA promises to be bigger than ever before, with 149 performing speedrunners and 321 hours of gaming content across two dedicated streams (Twitch.tv/ESA and Twitch.tv/ESAMarathon2), as well as both German and French restreams. ESA raises money for an international charity organization called Medecins San Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, last year obtaining over $35,000 for the goal. ESA is a community event, with everything being done openly for the sake of mutual fun by all attendees. The marathon is organized by Edenal, Oasiz, Flicky, Bangerra, and Grukk, as well as several others volunteering their services and time to make sure everything runs smoothly.

The first day showed some amazing runs, such as Crash Bandicoot 3, F-Zero GX, Halo 2, and Dying Light from runners like Willzorss, MartinForslund, and Aphox. A full list, along with category, and runner is below. We apologize for the lack of a final time, as currently this information does not appear to be published and the writer covering this event didn't think about writing the times down while watching. We're working on resolving this for following articles, and will update this page with further information when available.

Runs for the first day are as follows:

• Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, Any %, run by tHmCS
• Shrek 2, Any %, run by los
• Crash: Mind Over Mutant, Co-op Any %, run by BetaM and PeteThePlayer
• Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, An y%, run by MartinForslund
• Wario Land II, Main Story, run by puppetmaster
• Super Mario 3D World, Any %, run by downiebrownie_
• F-Zero GX, All Tracks Time Attack, run by E_Dragon and Naegleria
• Halo 2, Easy, run by willzorss
• God of War, Any % NG+, run by exe
• Darksiders 2, Any %, run by Aphox,
• Dying Light, Any %, run by Nord
• Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City, Any %, run by DhrGR

Tomorrow promises some even more awesome runs, such as Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy V, Mirror's Edge, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and World of Illusion on the purple stream and The Simpsons: Hit & Run, Trials Fusion, Diddy Kong Racing, and Age of Empires I&II on the yellow stream. Of course these and more will be run by players such as Cereth, Adam_AK, and Yvathacal.

Throughout the week we'll be keeping you updated on any big events that happen at the marathon, as well as talking with runners from the event about ESA, the games they play, and the speedrunning community.

If you have anything to add to this article or future ESA topics, or are a speedrunner who wishes to have a chat, let us know in the comments below.