Another weekend has come and gone, and with it another convention. The first year of what I’d consider a damn good set up was held at the University of Utah. Originally thought to be a tournament only convention, it was really a convention for tournament players, casual players and fans of video games.
Like many first year conventions, the amount of panels, vendors were slim, but the quality of what was there was comparable to any of the big conventions around.
I’m here to tell you what you missed, and hopefully what you’ll have to look forward to next year.
Tournaments were the name of the game with guest competitor Justin Wong coming in for all the competition goodness. Watching Wong play is amazing and seeing his competition was great as well. The big news of the convention was the fact that several local players were able to beat Wong.
Amongst the players there was also commentating talent provided by Twitch.tv famous Brett Young and Alex Jebailey, with occasional commentating by Albert Wesker himself, D.C. Douglas.
Non-competitors could watch live with a projection of the fight on a big screen or you could see it all through Twitch.tv.
The Projector!
The panels there were a mix between amazing and not so good. Some of the local panels had less than 10 people in the room while others were filled to the max.
The best panel or event (not counting tourneys) of the whole night had to be the panel with D.C. Douglas and Quinton Flynn. The two had an 18+ panel that felt more like one of the funniest and most offensive stand ups I’d ever seen. The two answered (or tried to answer) questions by the audience which resulted in some heartfelt conversations about voice actors playing the games they star in, how to pick up chicks, and hilarious dialogue between Wesker (Resident Evil), Axel (Kingdom Hearts), and Raiden (Metal Gear Rising).
If you didn’t know D.C. Douglas voiced Albert Wesker in the most recent Resident Evil games as well Legion from Mass Effect. Quinton Flynn is known for fan favorite character Axel from Kingdom Hearts and Raiden from Metal Gear Rising and MGS4.
The best thing about all the guests was that at any given time you could meet them around the convention floor and have a decent chat with any of them.
Quinton Flynn, D.C. Douglas
For those who had money to burn, there were plenty of options. Hitbox was in attendance selling their arcade controllers, for those that haven’t used a Hitbox before: you could try it out and play on consoles provided at the booth. Worlds Game Store was also there with games, consoles and rarities(they had a virtual boy).
The Vendor Hall
Aside from an empty and spread out first day the convention was a riot. Free to play arcade machines decorated the halls and the casual gaming room was ready for action, it was, however, a bring-your-own-controller setup. A Starcraft 2/computer gaming room was also available. Local dealers were there and willing to chat as well as cosplayers, though there were considerably less than a regular anime or comic book convention.
Overall, it was a blast. I enjoyed seeing a great mix of pro and casual players fight against each other in tournaments. I even participated in a Pokemon tournament and ended up fighting a world tournament participant (and got my ass handed to me).
Conventions that start out this big send a message to conventions like EVO and Comic Con. That though they may be big, they’re not the only conventions around. The size and quality of this convention was top notch and a huge step up for the local gaming community. New con attendees also had fun and didn’t have to participate in tournaments or dress up. Apart from garnering a local crowd there were also attendees from the surrounding states like Idaho, Nevada, California and even as far as Florida.