FanExpo Canada: Day 2
Day 2 at FanExpo: seething crowds; shoulder-to-shoulder crush in the trade show - people with one-day passes who weren't able to get into the show until mid-afternoon because the lineups were so long. Thank god we had Premier passes (and in any event, it's fun walking around with a tag that has VIP on it!)
But the crowds didn't bother me too much because I decided to spend the day playing Scrabble in the gaming room, which is on the first level of the convention centre and did not involve taking the escalators up to the Expo itself. The gaming room -- or rooms, because there were several adjoining -- were also crowded, but normal crowding, like a typical gaming con. And the room had a gaming con atmosphere: Settlers in one area, Warhammer in another, a big Munchkin tournament and -- something you don't find at a typical gaming con - Scrabble.
John Chew, Toronto player and co-honcho of NASPA, had planned to hold four three-game mini-tournaments during the Expo, but it seems that the crossover between fandom and Scrabble is less common than between fandom and other games. Only four of us wanted to play in the tournament -- including two players I had encountered at tournaments before, Shan Abbasi and Roger Cullman. As a fourth, John asked his godson, Daniel West, to play -- Daniel is unrated, but has been taking pointers from his godfather. So we had a three-game round-robin tournament which Shan won (undefeated!), and I came in second and won $10, which was interesting because Roger was the highest rated player of the four of us.
I played pretty well throughout -- despite a loss to Shan (520-392) in which he bingoed 4 times to my twice -- and had a nail-biter against Roger which I won 391-390. Poor Daniel was cannon fodder for all of us and I had a lovely 458 against him; but it was the game against Roger I was most proud of.
After the tournament, I played a number of pick-up games and only ventured onto the Expo floor once. That was when I wanted to get something to eat, but the food lines were so long it was impossible. I returned to the gaming room to find that John had bought a few orders of Chinese chicken at the food court across the street, and I purchased one from him -- it was fantastic|!
At 6, Elizabeth, Marcelle, Patti and I met back at the hotel and took a cab to the College Street area, which is full of lovely Italian restaurants. We had an amazing meal and walked around a bit -- got back to the hotel and spent 2 hours playing Facebook Scrabble (in this particular case it was Face-to-Facebook Scrabble, because one of my regular opponents was on line at the same time I was. I got creamed twice (he's an Expert player), but still enjoyed it.
But the crowds didn't bother me too much because I decided to spend the day playing Scrabble in the gaming room, which is on the first level of the convention centre and did not involve taking the escalators up to the Expo itself. The gaming room -- or rooms, because there were several adjoining -- were also crowded, but normal crowding, like a typical gaming con. And the room had a gaming con atmosphere: Settlers in one area, Warhammer in another, a big Munchkin tournament and -- something you don't find at a typical gaming con - Scrabble.
John Chew, Toronto player and co-honcho of NASPA, had planned to hold four three-game mini-tournaments during the Expo, but it seems that the crossover between fandom and Scrabble is less common than between fandom and other games. Only four of us wanted to play in the tournament -- including two players I had encountered at tournaments before, Shan Abbasi and Roger Cullman. As a fourth, John asked his godson, Daniel West, to play -- Daniel is unrated, but has been taking pointers from his godfather. So we had a three-game round-robin tournament which Shan won (undefeated!), and I came in second and won $10, which was interesting because Roger was the highest rated player of the four of us.
I played pretty well throughout -- despite a loss to Shan (520-392) in which he bingoed 4 times to my twice -- and had a nail-biter against Roger which I won 391-390. Poor Daniel was cannon fodder for all of us and I had a lovely 458 against him; but it was the game against Roger I was most proud of.
After the tournament, I played a number of pick-up games and only ventured onto the Expo floor once. That was when I wanted to get something to eat, but the food lines were so long it was impossible. I returned to the gaming room to find that John had bought a few orders of Chinese chicken at the food court across the street, and I purchased one from him -- it was fantastic|!
At 6, Elizabeth, Marcelle, Patti and I met back at the hotel and took a cab to the College Street area, which is full of lovely Italian restaurants. We had an amazing meal and walked around a bit -- got back to the hotel and spent 2 hours playing Facebook Scrabble (in this particular case it was Face-to-Facebook Scrabble, because one of my regular opponents was on line at the same time I was. I got creamed twice (he's an Expert player), but still enjoyed it.