The team here from Canadian Tabletop Gamer showed up and left. The Wednesday before the show was a whirlwind of activity as folks pilled into the city and found their convention homes and launch pads. Thursday would be early rise, madness, crowds, and plenty of excitement.
That evening after driving the last half of our trip we met up for dinner at Rock Bottom and scouted out the routes into the city and where to park. The food was awesome and welcome after the long drive. Ontos, Jon, Yasha, and CS arrived and joined Burns, Shonty and myself for beer and food. Forgotten and Molotov were still on route and showed up a few hours later.
L-R: Jon, Burns, Shonty, Yasha, Ontos, and CS
Thursday was crazy. Last year Ontos and I showed up and parked in front of the main doors at 0700. The odd person was there and we sat around resting until the doors opened. This year there was already a couple dozen of people sitting in front of the main doors. So we parked ourselves in front of the next set of doors and waited.
Camped out waiting for the doors to open in 1.5 hours
It got busy very quickly and when the doors opened the chanting of "Don't Run" the wave of gamers was epic in size. On the way to pick up a few things I stopped off at the Corvus Belli booth and was greeted by Carlos aka Boistra. After saying hello I picked up a full GENCON bundle and moved on to do some shopping for Garcia. Before meeting up with folks to drop off all of the newly purchased goods at my car. Then it was time to get ready for Legend of the Five Rings. It was eleven am and I signed in for the noon start time. With an hour to kill I stopped by a few booths and checked things out.
My badge with my GENCON exclusive Scorpion Pin
Legend of the Five Rings started out with a big show before the shit show started. Don't get me wrong, I had fun with my three matches. The game is structured but fun, I think I'll be following along for a while.
The problem was the size of the event. We got our boxes at 1pm/1300 and we were all ready to play by 1:45pm/1345. I left the event at 8pm/2000. In the span of 7 hours I built my deck and only played THREE games! The first match they gave you an hour, each match afterwards was 45 minutes. 2.5 hours is pretty good for three rounds of a card game.
I had only played for half of the event and I was pissed off. Not at the game. Not at the players. Not as the event staff. I was pissed at the level of effort and the lack of readiness to meet the need of a 700+ player tournament.
Lucky for me, a quick stop to the Omni Hotel's bar with the wife and Burns calmed my soul. It was filled with stories from Jack the bartender, some good beer, and excellent steak tacos.
The next day was a whirlwind of activity but much less so compared to last year. Friday is the second Infinity tournament and I had a great day of gaming. My first match was against the person who would be the event winner - I set him up for success by rolling over with a 10-1 loss.
Future Event Champion
My second game was against Burns for a close 2-1 match in my favor. It's tied for my favorite game of the event with my third match with Atomic.
Burns
I won a hard fought match where a Lizard held it's ground and had MULTI HMGs do all the talking. I was close a few times but the Lizard held ground allowing my Spektr to come out of the shadows last turn to steal the win.
Atomic
I was really happy with the action shots I got with my game. My Lizard was rocking the board really well.
My last game was me playing Forgotten and I was doing very well before I let go on the first half of the last round. I rushed in and wasted the rounds. I figured we were going to get called for time and in my haste I gave Forgotten too much time to make me pay for sloppy play. Now it was a great game and he earned that win. I was just pissed at myself for not being 100% of an opponent to Forgotten.
Forgotten
We hit Buffalo Wings, filled up on meat and beer before Garcia ordered a round of Tequila. The night ended in room shared by Ontos, Jon, Yasha, and CS. With more drinking, Molotov's copy of Fairy Gloom, drinking, painting, and oh yeah more drinking. This was my favorite part of the whole event.
L-R: Shonty, Forgotten, Garcia, Jon, Yasha, Ian, Molotov
Out of picture: Burns and Ontos
Picture taken by Dozer
We had traveled 12+ hours to come to GENCON and we were all having a great time playing games and meeting folks. That night in the hotel room I watched my friends and family be happy (and a little drunk) and enjoy each other's company. You heard things like "Shit I that's Tequila" as Garcia dipped his brush into the liquor instead of the water cup next to it. You saw folks showing new games and there collected swag. It was an awesome time.
L-R: Ontos, Garcia, Jon, Yasha, Me, Shonty, Forgotten
Out of picture: Molotov and CS (in front of Yasha)
Picture taken by Burns
Saturday was more Corvus Belli as many of us hit the seminar. CB showed off the long awaited Blackjack for Ariadna, an updated scuplt for the Avatar and Szalamandra, and walked us through the creation of Aristeia! Boistra was entertaining as normal making folks cheer and laugh. I met back up with folks from the event before I spent the day with my wife Shonty in the vendors hall.
Here we spent time chatting with folks, shopping, and trying out games. We hung out with a creative director from WETA and chatted about the last Ghost in the Shell movie. We tried out GKR: Giant Killer Robots where Shonty said she had fun. Glad I backed the Kickstarter. It was a whirlwind of of activity as the vendor hall didn't seem any bit less busy since Thursday. It ended with nap back at the Hotel before we hit the D20 Burlesque show - which was awesome!
Shonty (Right) playing a GKR Demo with me at the WETA Booth
Sunday was quiet. We picked up a few more odds and ends, said hello and goodbye to some folks. Collected a special prize for the upcoming Capital Conflict and hit the road.
GENCON 50 was busy as all get out. At times it was simply exhausting. Most of all GENCON was fun. The primary topic of conversation over the 12.5 hours driving back to Ottawa, Ontario was how would we do it next time.
By: Dozer
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