BSG Annual 2019

So people have been writing up their thoughts on BSG Annual this year, so I'm going to do the awkward thing and write one as well from the perspective of Head organizer. Now before I start, chances are I'll mix up a few small details here and there. Lots of stuff to talk about, so please don't kill me for some small mistakes.

Now, where does one start a Pastebin like this? Well, I think I'll start a little bit before the event, back in December of 2018 (yes, this is going to be a long one). Back in December, we ran into a bit of an issue. We had set up a deal with the BSG Annual 17/18 venue that we'd let them know at the turn of the year whether or not we'd return there again. This was mostly as a back-up for if we wouldn't be able to find a venue. Our plan wasn't to return there, but at least we had an option if we failed at finding anything. Early December we had a venue that looked promising in (iirc) Apeldoorn. I've never been to visit myself, but I do seem to remember there was a visit. Turned out however that a lot of additional costs would be added making the venue way out of budget. So after BSG 27 things were getting a little clutch. We had essentially 2 weeks left to find a venue and we had nothing. This is where I decided to contact a hotel as well, a little known hotel in Venray called Asteria. I knew the hotel since I used to come there for an annual event my mom would attend when I was young and I was once the teacher (and mentor) of one of the kids of the owner. I send them an e-mail, the same one we had send to plenty of hotels before, and wouldn't you know, we got a reply. As a result of the reply I called them and we managed to schedule a meeting. By this point, it was nearly Christmas and our time was nearly up. I wasn't able to visit with any of the other organizers due to how short notice it was, but we managed to find an opening for the hotel and Rasschla was able to come over to join me on the meeting. We discussed with one of the managers what our plans where, what kind of budget we had, what kind of things we would need from them and he gave us a tour of the rooms. Everything sounded very good, but there was still one issue. The hotel normally closes down at night. As such we couldn't get a yes/no right there since the manager would have to discuss with the owners. I explained that we have the deadline and he promised he'd get back to us before that. A week of all of us sitting with our butts clenched later, on December 31st 6:15 pm (so less than 6 hours before our deadline) we got it confirmed, we had a hotel!

From here the scariest part was over, and just 2 weeks later we officially announced BSG Annual 2019 and we opened up the submissions. As per usual with BSG Annuals I submitted most of my games. I think I submitted about 11 in total. Submissions kept coming in pretty quickly. There were a few people concerned about the pricing and we started to look into options for mass housing. I contacted a few places in the neighborhood but sadly none of them were able to help us out. This was a bit of a set-back, but sadly not much we could do there. One thing that had me concerned initially was if we would end up having enough attendees to cover the costs. We assumed that we'd have about the same attendance as the year prior, but with the hotel being more expensive I was worried we wouldn't make that. Luckily as the submissions kept coming in this fear was taken away a little bit.

Anyway, I'll skip forward a bit as a lot of what happened was (semi-)public. The events came and went and the months slowly but steadily kept getting closer to annual. We managed to get a decent amount done, but some things did get left behind a bit. Most notably trying to set up a sponsorship with ViewSonic (like BSG Annual 2018) and the interviews. The latter we managed to get done in the end, the former not so much. This was a bit of an issue as well since less than 2 weeks before the event we still had no monitors to work with. In a bit of a desperate move we decided to contact the EGA to see if we could borrow some there, and wouldn't you know, they were able to help us out. Honestly, I can't thank them enough for coming in with the monitors when they did, making everything significantly easier on us.

Moving on to the actual event, or rather, set-up day. This was quite a good day if I'm being honest. Set-up day was easily the most relaxed I've ever had it at an annual. Jeff and plumber arrived nice and early with the bus, I had already brought the couch down the night before so everything was ready to be loaded in. It took some effort to get this done, but with the three of us, we managed to get it done. We still ended up missing a few small things, but we arrived at the hotel nicely on schedule and we started setting up. The hotel had already put down a bunch of tables and chairs for us in both of the rooms, and though some moving around was still required this saved a good amount of time. We were able to move the van to just behind the stream-room and unload right next to the rooms, getting everything in nice and quickly. Me and Kaethil took our position at the info desk and started working on the badges. The names had to be written in manually so Kaethil did all the writing while I gave the correct color lanyard with the badge (say for a handful of mistakes here and there). Things seemed to run pretty smoothly there as well and once everything at the info desk was done and I had checked in most people it was time to move on to the layout of the room. With some tape in hand me and a few others (sorry, I really don't remember who) taped down which parts of the room were stream and which ones were for everything else, we put up the banners, made notes for the no food, and so on and so forth. Coördinating this was honestly a ton of fun. Everyone worked at it like a well-oiled machine and though we ran into some small things, nothing seemed too bad. That is, until an issue with the internet arose.

Back in December one of the things we had talked about was the internet connection. Now since Venray has optic fiber this wouldn't be an issue, but for some reason, our pc wasn't getting any. We checked with the hotel and they were as surprised as we were. This is honestly one of those moments where the hotel shined in its customer service. The people from the hotel spend (I kid you not) 2 hours trying various ways for the connection to be improved. Personally, I wasn't too involved in this process as Riekelt took charge on this one, but I watched along from the back and tried doing what I could. The flipside of this was that this was already one of those moments where, though the situation was far from ideal, it showed that we made the correct choice in venue. After some time we managed to get the connection to stable and despite the speed not being exactly what we had hoped for, it was more than good enough for us to stream properly (and the 0 dropped frames just show this as well).

With everything being set up, now was some time to relax. I had asked FekkeRules, a good friend of mine since high school, to help me set up a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. We had one at BSG Annual 2018 but due to people getting sick we had barely gotten a chance to play. So that evening me, Fekke and probably about 7 other people played some DnD. We had split the group in 2, I DM'ed one and Fekke DM'ed the other. Initially, it seemed to everyone that I would be a character (as Crrool the guild master) but I was murdered and they had to figure out what had happened to me. The campaign was honestly an absolute blast. Seeing both incredibly experienced players (shoutouts to TinyTim) and new players come together with the way they did and push their way through all the obstacles was fantastic. In the end, I think this already really kicked things off for me.

With set-up day over I can now actually move on the event itself. The stream started basically as scheduled. We decided to cut the opening a little shorter as we didn't exactly have 30 minutes to talk about, so we started the opening 15 minutes later than planned. Me and Frosty got to take our usual spots again this year as the opening hosts. As we were waiting on our cue we (and the crowd) were mostly just messing with the Tetris blocks. Me trying to trigger people and the crowd responding to it left and right. Fantastic interaction right there. Just before actually going live however Rasschla had made us a recap video of the set-up day for on stream and it was really fun to see as well. Even though we had only just begun the event it made things just feel so much more professional. We did our usual spiel, plugged some sponsors and the likes and we moved on to the first run.

The first stream-day went pretty smoothly. We started running ahead pretty quickly and after 3 runs we already got to drop in a back-up run. Once the stream had properly started me and Saito did a practice race to try and warm up a little. I didn't actually have too much time for that since at 4 my mom and grandma came over to see what the event was all about (for those curious, that grandma on stream during Jangles run was my grandma). I gave them a tour of our event, showed them what we did, they sat in on the run for a little bit (mainly as I was called away a couple of times for some small things) and I have now been challenged to a Mario Kart race by my grandmother who was inspired by SansSkill in the practice room. After about an hour or so we went for dinner. My mom had made a reservation at the hotel restaurant and we did a food tasting there. The food was great, we had 7 small meals in total and I was still nicely back in time for my Lufia 2 run. Before the run, I said my goodbyes as I knew they'd watch the opening of the run and then would go home sometime during it.

The race itself was fantastic honestly. Me and Saito always had really close races back in the day and this one was no exception. Several people had made bets on who would win and we managed to keep it close all the way through. In the end, we were only 10 seconds apart going into the final boss fight and I knew then that whatever the outcome would be I was happy with how I had played. Saito, unfortunately, got a very bad final boss and I had a pretty good one, which ended up tipping the race in my favor. Still, though, the race was close all the way through and I can only thank Saito for making it such a good show.

After the race was over I still had to wait around a bit. I would be teaching TinyTim the hosting part since he would take one of my hosting shifts that night. This was honestly very easy seeing as how he's an incredibly experienced host already, so all went well. I played some board games, had some fun and day one came to a close.

Day two was relatively uneventful. I had another teaching shift for WiredWicky and once again this was very easy since he was as experienced as he was. The event itself had been running smoothly throughout so all seemed well. Me and Plumber had set up our sign-up lists for the Kwirk relay on the final day and we now had a GameCube ready for people to practice. I was surprised to see how many people jumped on-board the Kwirk train and so many new runners for the game popped up (one of them now being 2nd place on the leaderboard).

Then when night came around our night guy (Michael) from the hotel came up to us asking if we'd be interested in getting a fridge in the practice room. I had already spoken to him a few times, had shown him what we did, but this was a very cool out of the blue surprise. He had noticed that a lot of what was in the trashcans was cans from drinks, so he figured he'd ask if we wanted a fridge so we could actually keep things cool. In the days that followed this happened a few more times too. He got us the fridge, a microwave and music in the practice-room, all just because. We got to see him quite a lot and he quickly become quite the legend in the BSG community. Michael actually mentioned to me earlier on in the week that he had no idea initially what was going to happen. His boss had asked him if he would be interested in being the "night guard" so to speak during the event since he was actually into games a bit. He also mentioned he had expected it to be fun, but by the end of the event, he said he had definitely not expected it to be this much fun.

Day 3 came around I had my Earthbound run early in the morning. The run itself was a back-up for another runner that had to drop a week or so before the event. The run itself went surprisingly smoothly. With only a week to prepare it, I had only done one practice run so I was a little worried about it, but in the end, everything went alright. My commentary wasn't as smooth during this particular run, but I still feel I was able to do the run justice at least. This was also the first day I actually had a shift myself. I was hosting for Lemma and Rayman 2 and it was quite a fun shift to do. It gave me a nice opportunity as well to start working on the prizes and get things sent out all the while having quite a good time hosting. Especially during the Lemma run things started to run quite quickly and the run really surprised me in how much fun it was. After the 3rd day it was off to bed early though, since Poképark was scheduled for 5 am the next morning.

Wednesday came around and I ended up being way too early for my run. We had started running quite a bit behind and as a result, I had plenty of time left until Poképark would start. Poképark was probably the (solo-)run I was most excited about since it's probably my favorite of all the runs I got in and the run went really well. It was a little bit sad that most people missed out on the random dancing, but the entire host/tech/audio crew came up from behind their desk to join in on the dancing and it was all a good time. After the Poképark run I did a brief interview with Sniper on my role as Head organizer. We had planned the interview in advance and this was quite an interesting one to do. I got to share some things about what this event means to me and on what kind of things matter when running these sort of things and that was quite fun.

From there I got a few hours break before moving on to teaching GreenSnowDog the hosting. My first teaching shift where I actually needed to teach stuff since he was new to the entire thing. He also right away got quite a difficult shift since we were just hours away from the bonus game when he started and we hadn't met it yet. He picked things up pretty quickly though and I think with some coaching he got in the flow of it eventually. The bonus game ended up getting met, but sadly I didn't have a chance to be there when it happened. With things having been moved back a bit I had to change my plans a bit so I went to bed sometime that afternoon. I took a nap for a few hours as I had a hosting shift during the night. The unfortunate part here was that as a result of things having been moved as much as they did, I wouldn't have a chance to get some sleep after my shift and be back up for my interview with Xita and Esch. Luckily we managed to move it to before Yoshi's Island (it was originally planned for afterward) and I was able to get some sleep once that was over.

All the changed in the schedule ended up making this part of the week a little weird for me schedule-wise. I got back during the SM-aLttP rando and pretty much stayed up all the way to my Evoland run. Due to being behind I had asked Nandii to swap our 2 runs as I actually had to leave for work on Friday-morning. This was probably the weirdest part of my week altogether. Being at work, by that point having been up for ~13 hours, fully in BSG Annual mode and then having to introduce myself to new colleagues and whatnot. The flipside was that I can pretty safely say I had the most expanded story of all the people there, as I basically got to explain what I do with BSG and what that all means. The Evoland run itself went well btw. I didn't make any major mistakes and apart from narrowly avoiding death once everything went pretty smooth.

Now from here my week sorta gets back on track. After getting some sleep after work I was essentially done with my shifts, interviews, runs (say for 1, sorta), and I got to enjoy the last few days of the event. I still had some bottles of wine around my place which I decided to bring with me to the hotel. One to give to the manager and one to give to our night guy and legend himself, Michael.

The final day we still had Kwirk left as my final run. With well over 30 people having joined the relay and 2 teams having formed we started the Kwirk relay. I was the coach for my team and Plumber was coaching the other team. The relay was quite an exciting match to do and you could just feel the energy in the room when it happened. So much cheering, joy, and laughter. Michael had actually joined as well for my team and it was an absolute blast. Team Plumber ended up winning, but it was a fantastic match all the same. After the run I got to briefly celebrate with the team and then it was on to co-commentary for Undertale.

And yeah, a few hours later it all came to an end. As Head organizer, I got to do the afterthoughts along with almost all the other orga members and it was an emotional ride. So many people to thank during it and so many memories having been made. Rasschla had made us a recap video and when the song switched to the Lufia 2 credits theme it very nearly got me to tears. I knew it was coming, I had even helped pick the song, but I was not ready for this at all. I saw some people were actually in tears and after stream cut, everyone was just hugging and congratulating each other on a very successful event. Seeing so many happy faces, so many people in joy over what we had managed to do, I honestly can't put into words how that made me feel. Honestly, it had been a fantastic experience and I'm very happy that I got to play the part that I did.

I won't be going into teardown day much as it honestly isn't that interesting a day. There is however one thing I want to mention before going to some shoutouts. After teardown was done me and Boxmeister (the Secretary of BSG) went for lunch at the hotel. Y'know, celebrate the success. As we were heading over to the cashier to pay the manager came up to us and told us that lunch was on the house. I just thought that was very sweet of him <3

Now before signing off, some final shoutouts:
- Riekelt, Boxmeister, CptGMV, and Frosty. Honestly, I wanted to name you guys separately but I'm having a very hard time doing so. The orga crew has become such a well-oiled machine over the many months that we have been working together and I cannot stress how much each of you have contributed to the event. There have been so many things we have run into over time that it would be impossible to have done it without you guys. I think we have had to overcome quite a few hurdles along the way, but in the end, we made it work and I am so proud to be a part of this crew.
- Xita and Sniperwave. And honestly, where do I begin here. From the schedules, getting the volunteers planned out, all their work during the event, having to constantly come up with solutions for new gaps in the schedules, they have done it all. You guys have once again worked their butts off making sure that everything was planned out.
- Rasschla. From the moment you joined me in our first visit to the hotel to help all of the new volunteers and runners make sure what to expect, you've been there. Also fantastic job on the video's you made throughout the event, they have literally managed to make me shed a tear.
- Kinnin. The past few weeks we've seen quite a lot happen with social media. The new Instagram has been in full use and our twitter was more active than ever, fantastic job throughout the event both on-site and on our socials.
- RPGuy. I cannot stress enough that the event wouldn't be possible without you. I know you've hit a bit of a rough patch during the event but you have still done so much for us here. From getting us the van to getting all our VODs up as quick as you did, not to mention all the work of getting stuff in and out of the van on setup/teardown.
- Kaethil. Set-up day especially we've worked together a lot and I couldn't have done that without you. Helping me with the badges, the signs, you name it. The info desk looked fantastic and you've done a great job of helping us streamline that and many other things throughout the event.
- Thextera. Before the event, we've worked a great deal on making sure all the hosting things were ready to go. Getting the texts for all the new sponsors ready was an interesting challenge. On top of that getting all the incentives done, getting the prizes in the system, just making sure everything was ready on the hosting end, fantastic job!
- Badkiara. I know we didn't really get to talk much during the event, but thank you for all the behind the scenes work on moderation!
- Badmeester Mark. Mark, if you're reading this, I know you aren't a staff member but boy you do a lot for us. The trust team, teaching people audio and just, in general, being there when people need you. Thank you so much for all the work you've put into it during the event!
- ThePlumberHimself. Your first round as senior tech and boy was it a ride. You've been there so much throughout the event. From all the heavy lifting at my place to all the work at the event, as well as joining me on the Kwirk relay. I honestly have always appreciated your passion for the events and I'm very happy that you've taken on the job as well as you have :D
- Dutchj. I know we only barely got a chance to speak, and I'm very sad that we didn't get more time, but I was very happy to see you back for this one, even if it was so shortlived. Without you, we wouldn't be in the position we are today and I cannot begin to describe how grateful I am for that.
- All of the volunteers of the event (I'm going to name a few but I just can't go over all of them, sorry). Tinytim, for being an amazing host, fantastic DnD player and just such a source of positive vibes. Wiredwicky, for all your crazy on the fly incentives and fun that you brought to the stream. Nandii, for your cheerful attitude throughout the event. Grump, for the best memes that BSG has ever seen. Joey, for jumping in on audio when we needed you most. Greensnowdog, for all the happy vibes you bring along. Someone and Darksky, for the many hours you guys spend at the moderation desk. And there are so, so many more.
- ZntSaito, for finally coming over to a BSG so we could have our race.
- Michael, for just all-round being the best night-guy we could've ever asked for
- FekkeRules, for helping me set up a DnD campaign just weeks before the event to make the evening of set-up day one to remember.
- The Pokémon crew, I wish I could've spent more time chatting with you guys but I'm very glad that I at least got to when I did. Always a blast seeing you guys!
- All the people that attended, ran, commentated, watched runs, thank you all so much for making this possible
- The hotel for being so supportive of the event and for helping us make it just that much more successful
- ESA, for once again allowing us to stream on their channel helping us reach a much wider audience then we could've on our own.
- The EGA, for coming in clutch with all the monitors making the event a lot less stressful on all of us :3.
- Twitch, for giving us so much time on the frontpage, giving us just that much more of a chance to reach more people
- Nintendocore, for getting us a bunch of prizes to give away throughout the event.

And yeah, I hope I didn't leave anyone out here. I spend about 3 hours writing this so by this point I wouldn't be surprised if I did. BSG Annual 2019 was a phenomenal event and I am so proud that I got to play the part that I did. Both as a runner, a volunteer and an organizer, thank you so much everyone for a week that I will never forget <3