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Active: 26750 users

My PAX East Experience

Blogs > tw!tch
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tw!tch
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States563 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-14 23:46:45
March 14 2011 21:31 GMT
#1
My PAX East Experience


[image loading]

      I first heard about PAX East a few months ahead of time, and a group of my friends from college jumped at the chance to go. Boston is a short drive from where I live right now in the Hudson Valley, and we picked up 3 day passes as soon as possible. This was the first PAX I attended and I was definitely not disappointed with everything I saw, and the great people I met.

Day 1
+ Show Spoiler +
      We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express not far from the convention. If I remember correctly, we took the red line to the green, and then the silver to the convention center. I've never been to Boston before, but the public transit was (in my opinion) much cleaner than NYC transit, and definitely easier to navigate, but it could be because it was a bit smaller.

[image loading]

      The level of excitement I was feeling when I first saw the convention center was extraordinary. First off, the place was huge. Tabletop and the Expo Center were enormous and provided from tons of room for dozens of games and booths. I didn't have any particular plans other than to meet the guys at the Kingston booth, and play the SWTOR demo that my friend Brian was dying to get his hands on.

      The line in the queue room was pretty long when we arrived at around 9 on Friday, but even the little things like the cheers from the crowd, the free Magic decks in the swag bags and the beach ball bouncing around in the crowd made it that much easier to wait and get hyped for what was about to come.

[image loading]

      I headed straight for the Kingston booth when I got in, and met Day[9], IncontroL, JP and djWHEAT who were all extremely nice and personable and signed my pass without a moments hesitation. Geoff in particular was really funny and seemed to be enjoying himself and the multitudes of fans coming to take pictures with him. Alas, I couldn't stay too long with the other Starcraft 2 nerds because their was much to be seen and do before the place really filled up.

[image loading]

      I met with Brian at the SWTOR booth which in itself was totally awesome. They had 4 or 5 TV's around the demo area, each showing a different class being used in the flashpoint (an instance used to demo the game, more about that later) and one showing a screen of origins which is the starting area in the game. Someone from the booth came around and told us that we would have about a three hour wait, which was fairly accurate because we stayed on the line for three and a half hours.

      Once we got in, we were greeted by several marketing people and a cute little video displaying the classes that were going to be used. I really have to applaud the whole set up because they enabled you to jump into level 32 characters knowing their roles, spells, and where to go to maximize your time inside the booth. Our group did really well, managing to take the final boss down to about 10% before we wiped. All in all, the game looks great and I'm looking forward to playing it when it finally releases sometime this year.

[image loading]

      I spent a bit of time after the demo to walk around and take in all the sights and sounds. From Portal 2 to Brink to Battlefield 3, all the heavy hitters were present and accounted for. A note about Portal 2: I heard from someone that the huge line outside the booth fooled a lot of people into believing that they would be able to play the game, but were instead shown a game play video. I could be wrong, but if that's the case it stinks for the people who spent hours trying to get an opportunity to play. Not being much of a tabletop player, I skipped that area the first day and went back to the Kingston booth to see what was happening.

      I'm not sure what time it was when I got back over there, but INcontroL was just starting up his games against anyone who wanted to play him. They offered plenty of chances to play him, but being a shy and lowly diamond player, I didn't raise my hand. I get nervous laddering so you can imagine how nervous I was to think about playing against Geoff and embarrassing myself XD. Props to the first few who got owned though, the games were really entertaining.

[image loading]

      Day[9] spotted Pokebunny in the crowd, and maybe I'm just a huge noob, but I didn't know who he was, having only seen his name on the forums a couple times. Once he stepped forward with his name on his sweatshirt, and I learned that he was 11th in NA, I knew the following match would be sick. A few minutes and many marines later, Pokebunny beat INcontroL (with some help from Day[9] haha) and won some sort of prize from Kingston. He then went on to win the SC2 tournament that night (I didn't get a chance to enter), so grats to him!

[image loading]

      I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around and eating until it was time to go back to the hotel. I thoroughly enjoyed my time and couldn't wait to go back again the next day.

Day 2
+ Show Spoiler +
      We were all pretty hungover from the night before, but the adrenaline was pumping and we got up extra early to try to play SWTOR again. Unfortunately for us though the line was wicked long and we didn't stand a chance. This goes to show you just how lucky we were to play the first day. “So now what?” I thought as I walked away defeated. The PC free play room of course! I split up from a few of my friends and headed up to the first floor to see what was going on. I was greeted by a most wondrous sight:

[image loading]

      The time limit was supposed to be 45 minutes, but somehow I managed to play almost of 2 hours of SC2 and TF2 before I went to the cafeteria to eat. They had great Asian steaks tips, but a pretty poor beer selection and bar staff. I took my food and sat in the catwalk connecting both sides of the convention center and people watched for a little while.

Later, as I was traversing the expo hall, I heard the cries and shouts of a commentator coming from the Alienware booth. Turns out they were having random teams of 6 play each other in TF2 for a chance to win a t-shirt. I entered with 5 other random kids and we ended up winning! A fun addition to the day for sure.

[image loading]

      A bit more traveling led to some crazy encounters with stormtroopers and Morgan Webb. I met up with my friends again and we played this wacky and wonderful game called Gatling Gears. I have no idea what it was about, but you drive these machine gun robot things around shooting at other robots and tanks and rocket launching people. Check it out if you have a chance and want a fun time-wasting Xbox360 game to buy, I know I will.

[image loading]

      All of that was fun, but the real kicker for day two was the TF2 tournament that I really didn't want to miss. I got there extra early too, to practice and make sure I could find a team that needed an extra player. Lucky for me I found just that team with a bunch of guys from TrashedGamers! (www.trashedgamers.org)

Now I need to add a little something about the organization at PAX. We signed up early and were on the line to play wayyy before the tournament started, yet the admins didn't call our name to play until an hour and a half into the tournament. I understand that they split it so that half a bracket was played at a time, but only after asking multiple people. In addition, when we were called we were told we had a bye! That is something that was figured out when they made the brackets, right? Maybe I am way off base here, but the two and a half+ hours spent waiting could have been better spent if we knew we couldn't get in right away.

Once inside it took another half hour to match us up with our opponents and set up our computers (TF2 kept crashing, mouse and voice problems, etc.), but once we were situated the game started.

[image loading]

      We beat the first team we were matched up against pretty badly, and were placed into the group of eight. That's as far as we got though, because whoever we played next totally destroyed us XD. It was great fun and I encourage anyone else who has never done something like that before to give it a shot, even if you don't have a team, because the people I met playing were some of the nicest and most genuine people I've talked to. In fact, it was like that for pretty much everyone there, which was really cool.

      When I got out of the tournament around 11, I went straight for the Cat Theater to catch all the SC2 action, but was met with the “Sorry, Day[9] and Husky is full!” sign. I expected it, but was sad nonetheless. Oh well, there's always next year!

Day 3
+ Show Spoiler +
      Sunday was a short and bittersweet day. The combination of daylight savings time (doh!) and excessive drinking led us to arrive at the convention center at almost 11. It's amazing how much PAX can take out of you. Between the walking, waiting and adrenaline rushes, we were all pretty beat when we arrived.

[image loading]

      We grabbed a bite to eat again in the food court (Italian...mmm) and took full advantage of the chairs in the tabletop section. We used the 30 card MTG decks they gave us to play a couple of games with each other and just relax. There was a long drive ahead for Brian (who had to drop me off and then drive home to New Jersey) so we decided to finally leave at around 3:30.

      We took our lap one last time around the tabletop section and expo hall, scanning the room for anything we could have missed our last two days. On our way out I spotted an awesome show match between JP and djWHEAT, but couldn't watch because my friends wanted to go. Still don't know who won (or how many games they played), but it was cool for the minute I was there anyway ^_^.


When it was all over, I was exhausted. Three days of excitement, cool games and even cooler people. See you at the next PAX East!

[image loading]


*edited for misc corrections

*****
Thrill
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
2599 Posts
March 14 2011 21:42 GMT
#2
Nice writeup and great pictures - i should think you've made many a TL'er wanting to go!
bkrow
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Australia8532 Posts
March 14 2011 21:49 GMT
#3
Cool write up and some really cool photos.. You make me so jealous!!!
In The Rear With The Gear .. *giggle* /////////// cobra-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!!!!
ReketSomething
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
United States6012 Posts
March 14 2011 21:49 GMT
#4
I want a giant pikachu...

+ Show Spoiler +
starcraft is cool too
Jaedong :3
Pokebunny
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
United States10654 Posts
March 14 2011 21:51 GMT
#5
PAX was fantastic ^-^ nice pictures :D
Semipro Terran player | Pokebunny#1710 | twitter.com/Pokebunny | twitch.tv/Pokebunny | facebook.com/PokebunnySC
Freebirdo7
Profile Joined February 2011
United States163 Posts
March 14 2011 22:32 GMT
#6
Had a great time at PAX too.

The last Picture is pretty boss
rolfe
Profile Joined September 2010
United Kingdom1266 Posts
March 14 2011 22:40 GMT
#7
great write-up, this sounds really cool. you've made me very jealous
life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously but there it is. Life finds a way
Jonas :)
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States511 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-14 23:14:07
March 14 2011 23:12 GMT
#8
PAX was awesome, I introduced myself to Day9, iNcontrol, JP, djWheat and Pokebunny, when I recognized him.

I played iNcontrol at the Newegg booth just after 10:00 or so on saturday. It was before the majority of other people got there, so it wasn't very high-profile. I played protoss and he offraced as zerg. The game lasted like 20 minutes or so, which I lost because of sloppy decisions and sloppy play. It was really cool meeting and playing a programer, even if he was offracing and making only zerglings and banelings xD. The trip was a ton of fun, though.


I also played Guildwars 2, which is going to be an amazing game. Definitely buy this game when it comes out
tw!tch
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States563 Posts
March 14 2011 23:36 GMT
#9
On March 15 2011 06:51 Pokebunny wrote:
PAX was fantastic ^-^ nice pictures :D

thanks! gl in the future!
caelym
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
United States6421 Posts
March 14 2011 23:42 GMT
#10
I went to lineup for Day9 and Husky 2 hours beforehand, and the line was at max capacity.
bnet: caelym#1470 | Twitter: @caelym
Crais
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
Canada2136 Posts
March 14 2011 23:43 GMT
#11
Awesome. Looked like a lot of fun!
RIP MBC Game Hero
Lexpar
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
1813 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-15 00:01:15
March 15 2011 00:00 GMT
#12
According to that last photo, the key to being popular in the SC2 scene is being tall. You wouldn't think so, but hey, the proof's right there.
Jonas :)
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States511 Posts
March 15 2011 00:19 GMT
#13
On March 15 2011 09:00 Lexpar wrote:
According to that last photo, the key to being popular in the SC2 scene is being tall. You wouldn't think so, but hey, the proof's right there.


http://stuartbuck.blogspot.com/2003/10/height-and-income.html

^___^
tw!tch
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States563 Posts
March 15 2011 00:23 GMT
#14
nooo i need a job! T_T
LoCaD
Profile Joined August 2010
Germany1634 Posts
March 15 2011 00:34 GMT
#15
wow I was hearing the SotG and the excitement Pax East was overwhelming and seeing it in Pictures makes it soo much real thx
I give up, I just don't know what to write here.
sung_moon
Profile Blog Joined September 2008
United States10110 Posts
March 15 2011 01:00 GMT
#16
sounded like an amazing event

sounds like u had an awesome time
Forever Young
ZidaneTribal
Profile Joined September 2007
United States2800 Posts
March 15 2011 01:24 GMT
#17
are all sc2 commentators 7 foot giants?
fuck lag
Tschis
Profile Joined November 2010
Brazil1511 Posts
March 15 2011 01:26 GMT
#18
amazing pics

i'd love to have one of those with day9 and incontrol

//tx
"A coward is not someone that runs from a battle knowing he will lose. A coward is someone who challenges a weak knowing he will win."
Logo
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States7542 Posts
March 15 2011 01:43 GMT
#19
Hahaha I think I took that final picture if I remember correctly. I definitely remember seeing you at the booth first thing Friday.
Logo
Zim23
Profile Joined August 2010
United States1681 Posts
March 15 2011 02:02 GMT
#20
Last picture is priceless. Nice writeup.
Do an arranged marriage if she's not completely minging, and don't worry about dancing, get a go-kart, cheers.
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