But I'm awake now! Mostly. Kind of. After over a year of building up to the event it feels very odd to have it over. But, I'm moving on and filling up my time with new things. What you ask? I'll get to that later! First I'd like to tell you about how much exhausting fun I had at PAX Unplugged.
After setting up and sitting around for about three hours dreading how slow it was Friday suddenly our tables filled up. After that it was very nonstop. I blame that on my dehydration and not that I simply forgot water existed.
We got to see many returning players, many of whom made it to the finals. We had new faces too so it was a good mix.
There was tension, of course, but good sportsmanship and mainly lots of fun! We learned a lot doing a tournament and really had fun putting it on.
The electricity was absolutely palpable, and often broken by laughter. Many annoyed yells about finding yetis broke the tension. The mountain was positively filled with them, even if there was just one at our booth.
We sold a lot of games, one of our players bought one... and immediately got another copy when they got a booster box from Tabletop Tycoon. A first edition even!
After all the hard calls, rule checking, numerous rounds, and many water breaks, there could only be five winners a day. So, on that note...
OUR WINNERS
CONGRATS TO OUR DAY ONE WINNERS! ANDREW WEBER, ANDREW BROWN, ALEX GROMATSKY, PAUL WERNER, AND MICHAEL SONNENFELT!
Andrew Weber, our grand prize winner was a former contestant at Euroquest! He, some of my crew, and I went out for Dim Sum after and he said he would be wisely spending his money. I believe he may have also mentioned purchasing games though.
CONGRATS TO OUR DAY TWO WINNERS! PHILLIPA KEOSHEYAN, GEORGE HAMILTON, SARAH SHAHCAEL, CAEL ADAMS, AND MICHAEL BANGS.
I went to play games afterward with Flip, (Phillipa) our grand prize winner. She said the money will be going to her wedding next year! Congrats Flip! Michael Bangs was our winner at J1 Con and we got to see him claim 5th place today! Sarah S placed 5th after a really intense semi-final. Check her out at @puffindor on twitter!
CONGRATS TO OUR DAY THREE WINNERS! SHARKEY, SCOTT STAAB, LORIANNA DONOVAN, BOB LAMBERT, LUKE LORAH. Sharkey was another winner at Euroquest and finally won after playing each of the previous days. He now has I believe, ,three copies of the game. One from a raffle, one from the Euroquest tournament, and one from PAX Unplugged. Bob Lambert listed Mr. E's game World as his FLG so they will be getting a case of Annapurna! Congrats!
I didn't get to hang out after because we needed to clean up and then I passed out.
I want to thank our workers, Kiara, Craig, Kaitlin, Skylar, Dan, Megan, without whom we could not have pulled this off. You helped us make sure things ran smoothly and that we had time to eat and drink water and breathe. And of course Mom and Dad! Smooches!
Thanks for helping make this a great PAX Unplugged!
Now that it's over we are onto more games, more Annapurna, and hopefully seeing some of you again! If you enjoyed playing you can check back here for places I might be play testing, playing, or just hanging out. Or you can set up your own places to meet up and play and talk on our discord here https://discord.gg/KPVcNyu
I'm working on expansions, and my new game Maelstrom, so check back in if you want to find out more, maybe even help me playtest!
Thanks for a wonderful year, and keep on climbing!