ESA Summer 2021 early highlights

ESA Marathon Summer 2021 kicked off Friday, July 23 with a miniature Break The Record Live event followed by an awesome Pre-Show, all before the main event. Since then (and at the time of publication), ESA has raised an incredible $43,000 for Save The Children!

Friday

Persona 5

True Ending Hard

Ran by neviutz

Commentary by Darkkefka, FOG, Metako, Pottoww, RoboSparkle, TatsuyaAct, Ghoul02, NocFrost, Mulsqi and Darkkefl

The Persona 5 speedrun is among some of the longest speedruns, with True Ending (Hard) being the longest category. Neviutz kicked off ESA Summer 2021 with this incredible feat of endurance, coming in under estimate with a 15:39:07 — yes, that’s FIFTEEN HOURS. 15 hours may sound like a lot, but considering casual playthroughs often taken well over 100 hours, 15 is blazingly fast.

Saturday

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare

Any% New Game+

Ran by TaintedTali

Commentary by Demonic

Kicking off the main event of ESA Summer 2021, TaintedTali got an incredible time of 56:09 getting herself a new personal best. Running at a marathon can be nerve wracking which usually leaves PBs off the table, but TaintedTali conquered those nerves with a run that came just shy of a world record!

Sunday

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic

Any% Relay Race

Ran by Team Duncan VS Team Percy

Commentary by Moonstruck and Xoneris

Never before have I seen a Relay Race at a speedrunning marathon, but boy was I ever missing out. This incredible showcase includes multiple runners from world record holders to brand new runners, alongside the energetic commentary from Moonstruck and Xoneris. Not to mention, Dark Messiah is a hilarious demonstration of a variety of entertaining glitches worth watching on their own. In the end, Team Percy ended up clutching out the Race with a time of 28 minutes 42 seconds.

Monday

Titanfall 2

All Helmets

Ran by Lord Fluffy

Commentary by Bryonato

If you’ve never seen a Titanfall 2 speedrun before, this is a great place to start. Lord Fluffy and Bryonato premiered the All Helmets category at a marathon, showcasing the game's incredible skill ceiling and high octane movement with some of the best commentary at ESA so far.

Tuesday

DOOM 2016

Any%

Ran by Heny

Commentary by Danejerus

DOOM Any% is a brutally difficult speedrun involving a lot of precise skips, navigating out of bounds and flying the Slayer through the air at mach 5 by abusing the mantle mechanic. If you haven’t seen DOOM’s speedtech before, you’re missing out, and this is the perfect introduction from Heny and Danejerus.

Wednesday

Alien Isolation

No Major Glitches Nightmare Steering Wheel Race

Ran by Nikoheart & Drayux

Having met a donation incentive, Nikoheart and Drayux bumped up their race from Novice difficulty up to the max Nightmare difficulty while navigating with a steering wheel. This showcase has MULTIPLE elements combining to make for an extremely entertaining run, but perhaps the most entertaining is Nikoheart’s googly-eyed steering wheel twisting and turning for 3 hours.

Forging Forward

ESA Summer ‘21 has been a blast so far, and if I could write about every single run so far I would’ve because it’s been a non-stop ride of entertainment — but not to worry because ESA is still going on! If you want to see more runs like the ones in this article, head on over to ESA’s Twitch channel, and we’ll see you there!