No Brand Con 2009
No Brand Con '09 Summary:
Friday
Went to Ramada Inn at 4:00PM and did my usual routine where I walk to each room to see what goes on inside. Main program room had Vinnk and his panel and Tiffany Grant in another. Vendor room was pretty tight and had a lot of cool things to offer. Went into the Video Game Room and forgot they were going to run a Soul Calibur 4 and Street Figthter 4 tournament. As I recall last year I was in charge of running SC2 but it didn't end so well due to Rock Band rocking the shit out of the VG room and my voice. Luckily the people who were in charge of the VG room this year didn't set up Rock Band during the tournaments and I give them major props. Met up with Spencer and just started walking around the con, meeting up with other friends (Tyler, Crystal, Kelsey, etc.). 8PM rolled around and it was time for the SCIV tournament.
The general consensus is that at NoBrand, there's always something wrong with the format of the tournament. Because they did not post up the rules earlier, I could tell them what they were doing wrong; however, they still managed to do a great job running it. I was disappointed that Vhan and Pat had to face each other in the first round because I wanted them to at least make it to the semi-finals. In the end I managed to get first (Spencer has the video of my playing) and won a Yoshimitsu mask It was kinda funny because I haven't played SCIV in a while but still managed to win. It was so pringles that I just had to wear it for a little while. I then tried to play in the Brawl tournament but I got tired of waiting and just gave up (I couldn't gotten further had I stayed).
When midnight rolled around, the group went up to the main programming room, hearing that they were going to let people do some karaoke. Unfortunately, they guy running it would not let us play our songs for some unknown reason but we still managed to have fun.
Saturday
Picked up Vhan around noonish and went back to NoBrand. SFIV tourney started around 4PM and I have to say this was one of the best moments I had at NoBrand. I met up with some cool cats who agreed with me that SF3S was better than SFIV. The best thing about the tournament was that my matches were probably the best thing about the tournament. My friends and I agreed that they were better than the finals (which were anti-climatic). The finals were really bad because I had to play against time since I had to return to UWEC for an event. I guess the outcome wasn't too bad since I scored a ton of raffle tickets from Pat and Morgan. I received a total of 14 tickets total including my own.
Missed the cosplay contest since there was way too many people in the room. But I did manage to stay for the dance. I don't know what it is but the dance wasn't as great as I thought it would be. I'm not blaming the selection of music but there was just something missing; but I still managed to have a decent time. Eventually I left and went to the VG room to watch Pat play in the Goldeneye tournament. Just when I was about to play some Brawl, Aaron called me, saying that Dancing Queen was playing. When I heard the music playing during our conversation, I dashed up the stairs, went into the dance room, found my friends, and dance the night away (Deja Vu). I stayed at NoBrand until 6am and decided to head back home.
Sunday
Sundays are the days when you realize in about a couple of hours, the con is going to close. I had to make the most out of it by buying a Christmas Piplup plushie and a ton of Hi-Chew candy. Played some more SFIV with random peeps and went upstairs to go to the Raffle. I never really win anything at the raffles but I'd thought to see what prizes they were giving away. However with 14 tickets, I managed to win one thing, a free pass to next year's NoBrand. After that, I talked to a couple of peeps running the VG room about tournament format and I eventually left.
I'll edit this later...
Friday
Went to Ramada Inn at 4:00PM and did my usual routine where I walk to each room to see what goes on inside. Main program room had Vinnk and his panel and Tiffany Grant in another. Vendor room was pretty tight and had a lot of cool things to offer. Went into the Video Game Room and forgot they were going to run a Soul Calibur 4 and Street Figthter 4 tournament. As I recall last year I was in charge of running SC2 but it didn't end so well due to Rock Band rocking the shit out of the VG room and my voice. Luckily the people who were in charge of the VG room this year didn't set up Rock Band during the tournaments and I give them major props. Met up with Spencer and just started walking around the con, meeting up with other friends (Tyler, Crystal, Kelsey, etc.). 8PM rolled around and it was time for the SCIV tournament.
The general consensus is that at NoBrand, there's always something wrong with the format of the tournament. Because they did not post up the rules earlier, I could tell them what they were doing wrong; however, they still managed to do a great job running it. I was disappointed that Vhan and Pat had to face each other in the first round because I wanted them to at least make it to the semi-finals. In the end I managed to get first (Spencer has the video of my playing) and won a Yoshimitsu mask It was kinda funny because I haven't played SCIV in a while but still managed to win. It was so pringles that I just had to wear it for a little while. I then tried to play in the Brawl tournament but I got tired of waiting and just gave up (I couldn't gotten further had I stayed).
When midnight rolled around, the group went up to the main programming room, hearing that they were going to let people do some karaoke. Unfortunately, they guy running it would not let us play our songs for some unknown reason but we still managed to have fun.
Saturday
Picked up Vhan around noonish and went back to NoBrand. SFIV tourney started around 4PM and I have to say this was one of the best moments I had at NoBrand. I met up with some cool cats who agreed with me that SF3S was better than SFIV. The best thing about the tournament was that my matches were probably the best thing about the tournament. My friends and I agreed that they were better than the finals (which were anti-climatic). The finals were really bad because I had to play against time since I had to return to UWEC for an event. I guess the outcome wasn't too bad since I scored a ton of raffle tickets from Pat and Morgan. I received a total of 14 tickets total including my own.
Missed the cosplay contest since there was way too many people in the room. But I did manage to stay for the dance. I don't know what it is but the dance wasn't as great as I thought it would be. I'm not blaming the selection of music but there was just something missing; but I still managed to have a decent time. Eventually I left and went to the VG room to watch Pat play in the Goldeneye tournament. Just when I was about to play some Brawl, Aaron called me, saying that Dancing Queen was playing. When I heard the music playing during our conversation, I dashed up the stairs, went into the dance room, found my friends, and dance the night away (Deja Vu). I stayed at NoBrand until 6am and decided to head back home.
Sunday
Sundays are the days when you realize in about a couple of hours, the con is going to close. I had to make the most out of it by buying a Christmas Piplup plushie and a ton of Hi-Chew candy. Played some more SFIV with random peeps and went upstairs to go to the Raffle. I never really win anything at the raffles but I'd thought to see what prizes they were giving away. However with 14 tickets, I managed to win one thing, a free pass to next year's NoBrand. After that, I talked to a couple of peeps running the VG room about tournament format and I eventually left.
I'll edit this later...