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So about 2 weeks ago, I get a text message from my friend Ryan asking me if I was interested in going up to Boston to attend PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) convention. He told me that he had already bought a friday pass for himself, and that his two brothers had ordered 3-day passes. One of his brothers had a swanky apartment in Boston near the convention center, which meant free room and board. I thought about it, and decided that I should at least attempt to go. After ebay and stubhub wound up just depressing me with their prices, I did what any normal person would do in a last ditch effort to get help…I posted on Facebook.
Obviously, the first response I got was someone kindly informing me about the fact that it would never work and I'm stupid. Surprisingly enough the second post was none other than National champion, head honcho, and Tichu superstar: Tim Rivera. He simply wrote that he would see what he could do. Being the WoW gangster that he is, within an hour I had an e-mail in my inbox confirming that they had a badge for PAX. This is the point where I would plug his website…but I guess if you're reading this, then…mission accomplished? I know…open a new browser window and log onto this website again, and be sure to give my articles 5-star ratings and all of Corey Burkhart's articles one star.
Sorry, I'm getting sidetracked. Anyway, the only requirements they had for me was to wear some dailymetagame.com swag and do an interview with two of the R&D guys about the new sets and ask some other various questions. Well…apparently joystiq.com decided to ask almost every question I had, as well as jumping the line and posting their article way ahead of me even getting a chance to interview them. Bad Beat I guess. Anyway, I plan on having some really good audio clips for you guys with top players to get everyone prepared for their local realm's championships. But that's in the future, and once again I'm getting sidetracked.
Ok, hopefully a new paragraph will help. So fast forward to a very wet and foggy Thursday night, and Ryan and I are driving through Connecticut on our way up to Boston when nature called. We pull over in Stamford Connecticut, and I joke about how we should go try and unleash our [Wrath] on the toilets of the WWE offices. HHH and Vince were having none of that, so we had to settle with the sketchy motel right next door.
We walk in through the front lobby and the Indian guy behind the bulletproof glass (warning sign 1) yells at us. We inform him we urgently needed to use the powder room to freshen up, and he tells us that there are no such powder and we need to leave immediately. (warning sign 2) I noticed that there was a sign pointing upstairs saying there was a bar, so I inquire if they had a bathroom up there. He stares at us blankly, and tells us if we want to use the bathroom upstairs we can. (warning sign 3) We walk up, and there is spanish music, flashing lights, and about 25 sketchy looking guys and 7 girls wearing bra and panties. (warning sign 4) Being the oblivious fellow I am, I ask every person where the bathroom is, until a security guard pulls me aside and asks me what I was doing here. (warning sign 5) He kindly points myself and my friend in the direction of the bathroom that obviously has no toilet paper or soap. While I'm in the stall, my friend nonchalantly blurts out: "Hey, by the way this is definitely a whore house." I blame Vince McMahon.
Ok..new paragraph this is getting ridiculous. I need to at least talk about the convention. OK! So we get in around 3 am due to awful driving conditions, and of course the first thing we do is pop open the lap-tops and start playing Starcraft. We got some "practice" in, and we finally fall asleep around 5 am. We wake up at the crack of 9:40 am ready to get our game on. After our cabby ran his car into a wall, stalled out 4 times and eventually broke down a block from the convention center (can't make this stuff up), we arrived at the convention center. Now for those of you wondering what PAX East is like, it's kind of like a slightly less nerdy version of Gen-Con. There's slightly more females in the crowd, more booth babes, tons of video games and computer stuff, and of course a lot of awkward people.
The very first thing that we witnessed at the con really set-up our expectations for the weekend. I won't explain exactly what happened, but I will direct you to the website thehoverhand.com, and that should pretty much explain what we saw. There was a big Starcraft tournament there that Ryan planned on cleaning up, and I was kind of just along for the ride since there weren't any WoW tournaments until 4 pm. Now I want to emphasize how lucky we really are to have such well run tournaments at our disposal, because this experience really put things into perspective for me. First, the tournament was limited to exactly 128 players, so if any more or less showed up, we had a problem. We were instructed to return at 2 pm for the tourney. So at 2:45 we were finally forming a large line so that we could speak to the head judge who would instruct us what computer we were supposed to sit at.
Being the stealthy ninja that I am, I snuck towards the front of the line and was assigned my seat. I hopped on, and attempted to log on to my battle.net account. I say attempted, because I couldn't, due to the fact that blizzard had apparently black listed the PAX IP for multiple log-in and log-outs from the same IP address. At 4 pm when everyone was filtered in and waiting we got notice that they had finally gotten un-blacklisted, and we could now begin playing our games. Of course we could only play 16 games at a time, since they were experiencing other technical difficulties. Finally at 5:30 I get back in and I'm ready to battle my first opponent!
Round 1: Bye
-Yea.
Round 2: Some guy that was better than me at starcraft: {Protoss}
-I built some marines, got stimpack, ran to his base, and he killed my guys.
Ok, I promise WoW content is coming. My friend ended up making it to the semi-finals, and did a really good job in the tournament. We are on our way down to the card gaming area when something crosses my mind.
"Wait..aren't you supposed to get some sort of prize?"
"I don't know actually…they didn't even advertise any prizes at all or say anything about it."
"Yeah, but they're running a tournament tomorrow that's giving away like a ton of money and computer products."
We go back to the table, and everyone who was working obviously had no idea. They simply kept telling us the guy who was running the event was somewhere else. Finally we hunt him down, and it actually turns out that the whole tourney was being sponsored by some computer company. Ryan walks away with a brand new video card for his troubles, and we both walk away with a newfound appreciation for tournament organization.
So after that is all done, we walk down to the WoW card area ready to sling some spells. (YES…FINALLY). We chat with some of the players there and I decide to flex my brain muscles by entering the very skill intensive 2-pack format. I actually really enjoy the 2-pack format, and I think it's a great fun format to play when you're opening up boxes of cards from the new sets. One thing I like to do spice up the format is at the beginning of the game to make up a few ridiculous rules that both players have to abide by. For example, I played a game where on odd turns you could lay 2 resources and on even turns you could draw an extra card at the cost of 3 damage. Another set of rules was that every time you attacked you had to say "Here I come!" or else your hero took one damage. I even got to force my opponent to discard a card and destroy a resource, simply because he made a really dumb play. (Rowing a [Ripple] with [earth and moon] out…really?) (Oh, and I lost that game to [Unstable Infusion]) So the first round we are opening icecrown cards!
Round 1: Bye
Really?
Round 2: Leonard Volk: Wrathgate Packs
I actually open a pretty solid 2 packs with double [Drain Essence], [Antyr], [Lesson of the Nether], and other goodies. I end up being able to outrace a [Colossal Skull-Clad Cleaver] in both games, despite attaching a feast of flame that did 0 a turn, and having a [Lesson of the Arcane] that I couldn't play. <3 2-pack.
Round 3: Jim Fleckenstein: Scourgewar Packs
I open a scratch-off [Tuskarr Kite], and I contemplate whether I would rather have the loot or regular tuskarr kite in this position, since I was playing for a spectral kitten. It ended up not mattering, because my packs were absolutely insane. I [Whirlwind Weapon]ed all of Jim's creatures, and I wouldn't let him gain any sort of a board presence in either game. You know your two-pack is good when you can actually plan your next 3 turns ahead of time, while your opponent is looking down at a bunch of do nothing quests and a grip of abilities that they're too embarrassed to play.
I made my Spectral Kitten prize give me a ride back to the apartment from the tournament, and ended up crashing out at 3 or 4 am on a very uncomfortable loveseat while watching "Due Date". Our plan for tomorrow was to wake up at 9:30 am to get a jump start on the convention. So at 10:45 when we woke up, it gave us just enough time to shower (very important feature for conventions), hit up Finagle a Bagel and head over to the WoW tables.
For those of you who didn't attend, WOW! Did you miss out on some big chances at some loots! Those that were there can attest to the insanity that was the [Spectral Tiger] treasure chest. Each person at the convention who stopped in by the Cryptozoic booth was given a chance at a tiger. The Cryptozoic volunteers were clipping badges and giving out keys that had the possibility to unlock a giant treasure chest. If your key was the lucky one, then you won a Spectral Tiger.
Now this all seems fine and fair, but the insanity about it was that if you lost, you still received a random loot. Now by standing right near the box you could see what some of these people were getting, and let's just say that it was not just [paint bomb]s and [slash dance]s being given out. Within one hour, I had seen 4 tiger's be pulled, 10 chicken mounts, and at least 40 other high value cards be given out…and this was in ONE HOUR. By the end of the convention they said they had given out almost 50 spectral tigers at the booth, and I don't even want to know how many other high end loots. The really sick thing about all of this is that almost everyone waiting in line had no idea of the value of these cards, and were simply standing in the line to try and get the free swag. There were stories ranging from people finding [The Red Bearon]s on the floor to dealer booths buying tigers for $50. Let's just say that if Damien were dead, he would be rolling in his grave.
I ended up getting a [Paint Bomb] and [The Red Bearon] in my two pulls, while Ryan and his brother got a pair of [King Mukla]s and a [Pinata]. The event of choice for me on saturday was the lootapalooza, since I figured that I was way overdue to win a door prize. My logic was that I've been playing pre-releases and spectral safaris since the game started, and I've never ever won a door prize ever. The law of averages says I'll win one soon, right? (SPOILER ALERT: I don't win a door prize.)
There was a good showing for this event with 23 or so people of ranging skill levels there to duke it out with the Class Starter decks. I ended up with the Alliance Warlock starter deck, and squeaked my way to a 7-0 on the back of [Marlowe Christophers] flip, and some insane turns. ([Hellfire] with 2 [incinerate]s is good, right?) The really great thing about this tournament was the fact that I finally got to crush Bobby Victory in a rated tournament, which has always been a dream of mine. He'll tell you it's because he got the Alliance Warrior class starter, but we all know that's just a bad case of loseritis.
Instead of setting up a [Grim Campfire] and cooking, Bobby, Andy Farrell, Andy's brother, and myself decided to walk and grab some Spanish food down the street, and finish the night off with a rousing game of pack and stack the board game. Apparently no one told us that Andy's brother was a master packer and stacker, and I was easily out-packed, out-stacked, and even out-racked. Thankfully before the convention began to close up for the night I was able to indulge in my new favorite activity of watching people play the new XBox 360 Kinect dancing video game. If I was allowed to, I would have absolutely spent the entire weekend just watching people play that game. I still think that the people at PAX were conducting some sort of social/psychological experiment, but I can't actually prove that yet.
With day light savings time in mind, I ended up falling asleep around 4 am. The plan was to wake up around 9:45…which gave us enough time to wake up, shower, get some breakfast, and take in the end of the convention. And what's surprising is I did actually wake up at this time! Too bad no one else I was with did, so I just went back to sleep until noon. I will say that when traveling to a convention, it is probably best if you plan out your weekend so that you can potentially maximize your fun intake. However, you also have to be somewhat light-hearted about that strategy, because; 1. you have to understand that eventually you have to sleep. 2. If you get too caught up on keeping a schedule you won't have time to actually enjoy the experience. 3. You want to have time to just sit down, relax, and shoot the breeze with the people you meet there. I can't stress how important #3 is to truly enjoying your time at a convention or DMF. While playing cards and experiencing the convention is great, the reason I do all this is so that I can hang out with a bunch of cool people that have similar passions as me.
I ended up entering the 4-person ipod draft at 2 pm, and got pushed into Hunter when I got passed a [Tesla] in pack 1, and then opened a second [Tesla] and was immediately handed a [Stakethrower]. In drafts I've noticed that I almost always end up in Alliance, since their allies are just straight up better. In this draft I was on the ugly side of a 3-1 split, but I had no trouble getting enough allies for my deck, because there is almost always quite an abundance of good allies in a pack despite that. (Thanks, dragons!)
Another positive for the Alliance side is that their flip powers are in general much better than the horde flips. I had an interesting pick in pack 3 pick 1, when I cracked both [Aileen the Thunderblessed] as well as [Varandas Silverleaf]. Personally I don't think the pick is close, and I take Aileen all day, but I think the pick could be a bit closer when you're not already in Hunter with double [Tesla]. I think 2-drops are way more valuable in this format than 4-drops are, but having such a powerful blow out card especially with the nature theme is just sick. I'm really excited to see what the new set will bring to us for sealed and draft.
Anyhow, first round I played against the Horde bomb-tastic warlock deck. Game 1 he got out [Eranikus] and [Ruby Protector] to protect his hero and his [Kloxx Dedrix] from everything I had, and I wasn't able to draw my [Aileen the Thunderblessed] to at least give myself a chance. Game 2 I was able to get him with the combination of [Bella Wilder], [Tesla]s, and a good aggressive curve. Game 3 was really close until I finally drew my Aileen that was able to clear his board and put the game away. Round 2 I faced off against an Alliance Rogue that was rocking double bully and a strong amount of quests and beaters. Each of the games put me close to death thanks to the Alliance Rogue's flip, but my superior curve of allies and 2 for 1 cards allowed to me eventually gain board and card advantage.
In the end, PAX was a great success. While there wasn't too much competitive WoW to be played on the weekend, I know that Cryptozoic was absolutely killing it with the beginner tournaments. They ran roughly 4 every day, and I never saw one of the beginner tournaments have less than 8 participants in it. It was great to see everyone at the con, and I hope to see more people there next year!
-Andrew Trebing
Andrew Trebing is a regular Darkmoon Faire competitor, having Top 8ed multiple events across the years. Most recently he finished in 4th place at the 2010 North American Continental Championship. Andrew can be found locally in northern New Jersey where he recently graduated with a psychology degree in order to accomplish two things: improving his bluffing skills and tricking the top players into giving him their decklists.
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