4:00 PM: Don’t Leave Gen Con Without a Nice Souvenir!
And for gaming convention souvenirs, you can’t do better than some nice new dice. Look at these awesome dice I picked up. Some for me and some for my friends.
I always like to pick up the newest and hottest dice available when I visit a convention, and these were so new that they didn’t even have them in stock on Thursday. They had a “Coming Soon! New Dice Colors!” So of course I went back to have a look, and I picked some up. Oooooo look at ‘em. Aren’t you jealous? I wish I had nail polish in these colors.
It’s pretty much the only geeky thing I’ve done all weekend.
3:30 PM: Let’s Go Visit the Upper Deck Booth
It is Gen Con, after all . . . let’s take a little field trip to the Upper Deck Booth and see what’s going on!
Upper Deck has a nice piece of real estate on the exhibit hall floor, easy to see from the doors to Exhibit Hall D, and is one of the largest booths here. There are a lot of brands represented but we’re just going to look at the Yu-Gi-Oh! part of the booth.
One corner of the booth is dedicated to Yu-Gi-Oh! graphics—take a look! I wonder if they’ll need to replace Jaden with Yusei.
The Duel Runner is here! There’s a TV as well, showing scenes from the new show. Looks like a few people are enjoying the free entertainment. Don’t try and sit on the Duel Runner, though, or you’ll get into a lot of trouble. Leighton Kurashima will personally hunt you down and render you into card stock. I’m just sayin’.
Hey everyone, it’s Dan Scheidegger! He’s the R&D lead for Yu-Gi-Oh! He’s done so many demos he’s lost his voice, so he’s going to attempt to communicate with us via hand signals.
. . . I can’t tell what he’s saying, either.
Let’s have a look in the case here by Dan . . . hmm, Hobby League stuff. Check out the new mat, and all the little goodies.
I’d like a closer look at that delicious mini-binder. I love these things. I wonder if the display case is locked.
Nice looking Hobby League poster. I wonder if there’s a Hobby League near me, I kind of want to go and play.
Oooh, a display case full of Yu-Gi-Oh! product. I wish all of this was for sale in the booth . . . I did buy some Premium Packs earlier. I got a Mezuki.
There ought to be some demos going on over here at the Yu-Gi-Oh! tables, and oh look! There’s Javier Casillas . . . teaching Yugi how to play!? What next?! Javier Casillas is the nice guy you talk to if you call Upper Deck about tournament support. He has a two-hour commute to and from work each day, can you believe that? So please don’t call him at a quarter to five and keep him on the phone for an hour and a half. He needs to get home.
Let’s finish up our trip to the booth by checking out the Upper Deck store over in the corner. Looks like they’ve got Premium Pack 2 and some Light of Destruction Special Edition.
Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? Nothing like a trip to the booth! Time to head back to the tournament hall.
2:15 PM: Time for a Yu-Gi-Oh! Style Update
What are this event’s hot trends? What can we expect to see from the shining stars of Duelist Style? The viewers at home want to know!
We’ve certainly got some interesting looks going on here today. Let’s see . . .
If you’re going to brand yourself, it helps to have a logo. If you haven’t got a logo, an airbrushed T-shirt is a nice second choice.
Hair is key. You control your hair, you control the duel. I’m seeing a big future in styling product sponsorship here.
Or you can opt for something out of the ordinary in headgear. It’s a hat! It’s a mascot! It’s certainly distracting!
It is Gen Con, after all, and Gen Con is not Gen Con without people in costumes. Let’s inject some classic Yugi spirit into the era of 5D’s!
12:00 PM: Wow, What a Big Gap in the Blog
Sorry about that, folks, I’m also working on the photo gallery. Let’s see if we can catch up, here—there’s a lot I’d love to cover but time does not appear to be on my side.
10:30 AM: Head Judge Announcements
Today’s event is being head judged by Andrew Bowling. He’s got plenty of things to say to make sure the show runs successfully, so hand him the mike and stand back. Andrew will also be the head judge for the upcoming Baltimore SJC, so if you’re planning to attend that event, expect a great head judge!
10:00 AM: Motivations by Metagame™
Some of you may remember years back, when Simon Choy was featured in an entirely different Motivations by Metagame.™ Today, he’s got his chance in the spotlight as a player, not just another guy in a black and white judge shirt. Good luck, Simon!
9:45—Time for New Branding!It’s officially 5D’s season! Take a look at the new backdrop and pairings station. Looking good, looking good.
And don’t miss out on the gorgeous Synchro cards hanging from the rafters. No, you can’t have one, so don’t bother emailing to beg. They’re a lot bigger than they look.
The new logo is on the trophy, too.
9:30—The Judges Are Prepared
Looks like Jerome McHale and Tim Hartman aren’t worried at all about today’s event.
They’ll handle any crisis the day throws in their path.
9:15—Here They Come
Well, a lot of players had to wait in the line to get their 1-day special Yu-Gi-Oh! event badge, but now they’re ready to register. Look at all those people out there, eager to play in the event.
Looks like we’ll beat the 403 players registered in the World of Warcraft Continental Championships running right next to us!
Now if we could just get some of these other tournaments to stop yelling all the time.