When I started running these tournaments, I handled almost all of the work by myself. In ECS3, Zaia and @@ were the first to join the team when they helped with stepping the marathon that year, and things have grown from there in terms of collaboration-- and I really appreciate all the assistance I now get in trying to make all of this possible.

To start, I'd like to thank everyone who has contributed monetarily by either purchasing merchandise or making a direct donation. Art, original music compositions, marathon mixes, the .5 prizes, and the live events all cost a considerable amount of money, so anything you guys do to help make that hurt less is a huge help (though I never realistically expect I'll be able to fully recoup those expenses). Here's a partial list of those people (this just includes everyone who donated through the RPG site and properly followed the link back to get the Godfather's Token relic):

• Huge thanks to Teejusb for all of his work on the theme once again this year. It wouldn't be possible to run these events without the customizations that drive things, so his work is absolutely essential and extremely appreciated!
• dbk2 of course laid out a lot of the groundwork for the theme back in ECS7, so I want to express my continued gratitude for that.
• Also making another very strong contribution this year is Rems, who once again made three brand new mixes-- one for each normal division!
• Thanks to my Lower Division marathon stepartists: Mango, Xynn, Tuuc, Kyy, and Janus5k! Appreciate the hard work, I think a lot of people are going to enjoy it!
• Thanks to my Mid Division marathon stepartists: Okami, Rems, Archi (yeah I'm thanking myself), Zane, and StarrySergal! Looking forward to trying this one out myself!
• Thanks to my Upper Division marathon stepartists: StoryTime, Chief Skittles, Zaia, and Levitas! Glad we were able to put together another super hard boss song for ECS!
• Aoreo! Synced the marathons! He did a great job! Nice! Thank you!
• Pluto as always gets a huge thanks for her excellent work on the art for SRPG6 and ECS11, but I want to more fully express how thankful I am for her making the effort to contribute in all the ways she does despite how much she's been dealing with in real life. Thanks a lot!
• YourVinished has carried forward his work composing menu music for the ECS11 theme and the SRPG6 visual theme on SL, and it is excellent! Thanks man!
• Appreciate Dom making the time to help me get initial setup stuff squared away on the site!
• My buddy Rawinput wrote the original score automation script way back in ECS7 that I've further adapted in more recent years, and I appreciate it!
• To all the stepartists who are featured in the tournament: I say this (and well, a lot of this stuff, whatever) every year, but I had to spend a considerable amount more time creating chart content back in the day, and now I don't have to, because so many skilled artists are creating stuff I can use. This really lets me focus on other areas where I'm more uniquely able to contribute. Thank you all so much for helping to make these events more successful!
• Everyone who helped with SRPG but wasn't mentioned above-- thank you! A lot of effort went into things this year, and it's probably the most people that have ever been involved.
• ...and finally, to everyone who continues to participate in my events: Thanks for choosing to be a part of things! We all have limited free time to spend, so it means a lot to me that so many people choose to spend it playing in these events.