PAX - 2005
I once again traveled up to Bellevue, WA for PAX 2005. We learned a lot from our visit in 2004. The first thing we did differently was to skip the West Coast Supertrip (a caravan of cars coming up from California). It just didn't make sense to bog ourselves down with the overhead since we were coming from Portland.
Second, we decided that we had to participate more to fully enjoy it. We signed up for Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) spots, entered a UT2k4 tournament and attended more of the talks/panels/events. This made all the difference in the world. The BYOC spots were pretty good for the gaming aspect, but it seemed like there was really only one game going on (Battlefield 2) and more than half the attendees seemed to be no-shows. But it was amazingly useful as a "home base." It was a restricted area with some security, so you could set your stuff down and not worry too much (though we did have a BF2 CD stolen). Having a place to rest your feet was nice too.
Mark & I played in the UT2k4 tourney. The first round was an 8 man match, I think. I came in first place on my server. Mark passed the first round too. I was surprised at how easy it was to dominate. But the second round instantly turned to a 1v1 style elimination, which I do poorly in. (I need easy access to weapons and for a frenzy of reflexes to be the determining factor.) Fortunately, 1v1 is what Mark excels in. He advanced to the 4th round, I think, but eventually met his match there. The tourney must've been nearly done at that point, so he went pretty far. It was exhilarating! It'd been a long time since I'd played "professionally."
Probably the highlights of the entire weekend were some of the Omegathon rounds. I enjoyed watching them play Quake. That's probably the first game where I really honed my FPS skills. The karaoke round was fantastic too. They had it in the main theater with big displays of the game screen. One of the Omeganauts couldn't hit a note to save his life, going more than half a song without any points. When he finally did score... the crowd erupted! But nothing really beats the final round. Last year, it was Pong... this year was Combat. It was best two out of three between the last two Omeganauts to determine the ultimate winner. The gameplay proceeded as though it was scripted by the hands of the gaming gods themselves. Coreside beat LeRoy in the first round with a crushing score of 15-0. The second round ended in a low scoring tie game. LeRoy seemed to have found his guided-shot and tank driving skills and took the third round. This was it... unless it ended in another tie, this round would determine the winner of the Omegathon... the man who got take home everything ever made for the NES! (Including Rob!) It started off looking like a replay of round 1, with Coreside taking an early lead. But LeRoy started to come back and eventually overtook Coreside! The screen started blinking to indicate time was almost up. They traded the lead a couple times during the tense last seconds until the screen froze with Coreside ahead by 1. The crowd went absolutely batshit loco.
Many thanks to Gabe, Tycho and their hordes of worker bees. Can't wait to return in `06!
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 The second to last round of the Omegathon was Katamari Damacy. |
 This is LeRoy ballin' up some stuff. He made a big enough ball to move on to the final round. |
 Random shot of the line around the outside of the Meydenbauer. It went all the way around. |
 Gabe and Tycho about to unveil the final round. |
 Coreside and LeRoy saddle up to their fate. |
 And the game is... |
 COMBAT! |
Last seconds of
the Combat battle. The video is really bad, but it gives you the sense of intensity that was in the air during the Combat match. It was an experience I won't forget! |
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