Just got back home after a nice vacation out with the wife to Indiana for family and Gencon! Although I only got to spend one day at Gencon to shop for goodies, scout out other games and play some Final Fantasy TCG, wanted to share my experience on how it went. This is less of a FFTCG ruling/critique/news artice, and more of a personal experience at an event journal entry sort of writeup.

Travel Stuff

So coming from Orlando, I basically arrived into Indiana, and then had to drive 1.5 hours to family I was staying with. This made the trip to the convention about 2 hours and some change. I also wasn’t able to physically get my badge early (although it was reserved/paid for), so I had to do that the following morning. And by morning, I mean I had to wake up at around 4:30am, shower, get fancy looking, and drive out, especially if I wanted to get a decent parking spot. 7am, I arrive at the convention, after securing a parking spot about 3/4 mile away. Not only do I have my cards and playmat, but I’m also lugging around my Opus VI inventory for a mile, since people requested I bring it to sell to them. On top of this, I just have a terrible back, through and through. Make it to the convention entrance, and the line to pick up the badge (Even at 7:15am!) looked like it went for miles. And so I joined the merry line, lugging my stuff around, and eventually obtained glorious badge of entry. Hurray! \o/ At this point, with little sleep and lugging stuff around, I am already dead tired, and I have yet to eat. It was unavoidable for this trip, but if I do another visit to this con or another, I am booking a hotel 5-10 minutes from the hotel.

The peeps, the meets, and the greets

So I get into the exhibit hall a bit early (about 1.5 hours before shops and events start), and what a sight to see. Tons of familiar brands, people setting up shop, fans eagerly awaiting, it’s everything I hoped for but on a much larger scale. Notably, I first checked out the Square Enix FFTCG booth, where I met a player (Unfortunately the name slipped me, but he offered to play Mario Kart on his switch while we waited, so if this is you, please comment!) and we had a very a nice time discussing our thoughts on the game and how we looked forward to everyone showing up. Shortly after, 2 additional players introduced themselves, except they had never played the game before, so we invited them to sit down at a table. We discussed our favorite Final Fantasy games, what cards we wanted to see in the future, where we were all visiting from etc. I then proposed that I would buy an Opus 6 booster box, teach them about the particulars in cracking packs, and that I would give them all the Commons / Rares to get them some basic cards to get started with. It pleased me to see how excited they were with this proposal, and off I went! And……. my card was rejected. Apparently, Paypal disabled my account due to thinking it was a scam since I was outside my home state. After 35 minutes of discussing this issue on the phone, I got it worked out, and then we cracked packs! The 4 of us had a lot of fun going over rarities, how booster boxes are more efficient then buying single packs, etc. While this was going on, LOTS of people started pouring in. Some faces I did not recognize, or that were just checking out what all this Square-Enix hub-bub was about, and then some awesome people I definitely did recognize! Handshakes, hugs, and manderville flexes were exchanged, as people I have been talking to via the US Facebook group have finally appeared face to face after over a year, it was wonderful! It was especially funny when someone asked where I was from, and someone shouted across the area “IVALICE, OBVIOUSLY” and then sat back down (LOL). For the first time in a while, I could see the core of an absolutely fantastic gaming community coming together in one place. The Break Zone then showed up, which was an absolute pleasure of mine to meet, as I have been a huge fan of them ever since they started streaming Final Fantasy TCG, which was then followed by official Square Enix staff, including Richard Brady and Kagayama, the creator of FFTCG. This is what it was alllllllllll about folks. I was happy as can be. While all this was going on, and the sealed tournament was being prepared, I got to sit with about 6 different people to thrown down on some constructed skirmishes. I brought along my Mono-Fire deck, and actually did really well! I went up against multiple YRP Opus 6 decks, Ice discard, and a Viking Water deck. The best part was finally getting to play with people from different parts of the country that otherwise I would probably never have an opportunity to do so. I felt really lucky.

Sealed Tournament, $$, and Pain

So the sealed tournament began, and while I paid for participation, I am not a huge fan of sealed, but I wanted the packs and the Firion box, so off we went. We each got 9 packs to open, write down all the cards we got, which would then be swapped to another random player, and then we’d have to record the deck we assembled from the new cards. The original 9 packs were simply dumbfounding. Estinien legend, minwu legend, Foil Zidane legend, it was silly. And off they went to someone else. Somewhat disappointing, but that’s the rules, so it’s not a problem. The new set of cards I had actually had a couple of legends as well, so not too shabby! After that was finished, I dropped to avoid any complications, got my box, promo and cards, and off I went to shop and explore some of the other areas of Gencon! As soon as I stood up though, a lot of pain shot up my back. With the lack of sleep, and the huge amount of inventory/accessories I had to carry around from all the walking and standing, my back was already suffering. So I picked up the starter set from the Transformers TCG, a whole bunch of goodies including a gigantic LE bag from the Blizzard store, and then checked out the Warhammer tabletop section. The Blizzard store had a lot of cool new products, but the Warhammer Games-Workshop area was really lacking. It was basically my local store, except with higher prices, and a few unique products you could only get at Gencon until September. Meh. After walking away from some some Warhammer 40k cosplayers, I realized that (About 12:35pm now) I still havn’t eaten since the day before. Off to some expensive / mediocre pizza. But hey, you gotta eat. After eating, I bumped into a couple of friends near the ARG/Dragonball booth, including Jim Mcmahan who got my Cards of Ivalice jersey designed, which was really neat! After that, I bought a bunch of merchandise from the FFTCG booth, and then rested at a table, back was really starting to hurt. Thankfully, I got to play a couple more games of constructed with friends, and rest a bit. And then… things got kind of awkward. It was a minor thing but, still kind of odd.

As I was going through my inventory, a FFTCG judge walked up to me. I don’t remember his name, and I did not recognize him, but no biggie. Problem was, he asked why I was still hanging around since I dropped, and I explained that not only was I selling singles to people who were in need of cards, but I was demoing the game for new players, and the entire point of my trip was being with the community. He then rolled his eyes and said if “I was just sitting around”, that I should have just played anyway, and didn’t understand why I bothered entering. One way or another, it was awkward, and I really hoped that other non sealed participants weren’t given a lecture on just being social or playing friendly constructed games on the side at tables that were empty due to the tournament progressing and players dropping. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Regrets and Surprises

There were 2 major regrets during my FFTCG visit at Gencon. The first was not being more assertive with certain players. A good example of this was when I was playing against Angel Moret in constructed. We were discussing things like FFTCG, Octopath Traveler, Battle for Azeroth, etc, and having a fun game. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a familiar player next to me, who I thought was Hunter Nance, but was not completely confident it was him, and also didn’t want to interrupt my current game (or the player next to me who I assumed was Hunter) in the middle of his game, in fear of being rude to either him or Angel. After I dealt my final damage to Angel and shook his hand, the guy next to me was gone, and I was disappointed that I didn’t introduce myself to him (I found out near the end of the day it was indeed Hunter). While I believe Hunter to be consistently critical of a ton of cards, he always has reasons behind it and I take his advice on the game very seriously, so I was looking forward to meeting him since I knew he would be attending. But, alas things end up like this unfortunately. I should have just spoke up.

The 2nd regret was that I did not get to really talk to Kagayama or gunsling with him, nor anyone on the Square-Enix staff. I inquired a few times on when gunslinging would be available, but it seemed that at the time of inquiry, they did not have a time established for that yet, so I wasn’t sure what to do. This was also my first major FFTCG event with guests such as Kagayama or The Break Zone, so I wasn’t too familiar with the pacing of the event. He did sign my Final Fantasy Tactics playmat through, and that really meant a lot to me. We got to shake hands, I told him I loved the game, but I could have easily sat with him for a very long time to share my thoughts and praise on FFTCG, the community, and the state of the game.

As for surprises, I think having people approach me, or pat me on the back, or just hug me and go “It’s you! The dude from Ivalice!” or people I’ve talked to on the FB group for a long time but meeting in person for the first time was the best surprise. Meeting up with Matthew Okimoto, his wife Angelica, Max Williams, Greg Col WoL IRL, Jesse Sims, Matthew Rice, Angel Floret, Jesus San Miguel, and many others, it was such a blast. Not only to play cards, but then to go out to eat (beers and burgers!) and then hang out at their Airbnb Pad… I mean, I could do it every single day. I felt right at home, like I was with friends I’ve known since I was in middle school or something. And to get to watch these incredible TCG players skirmish with each other. It was perfection. And I’m definitely gonna make future rendezvous possible. But by midnight, my back was a disaster, I was running on no sleep, and I still had 2 hours to drive back to my wife and family, and that was after ubering back to my parking garage.

Lessons learned, memories earned

So between the logistics, my medication, the timing and preparation, lessons were learned. Thankfully my wife Kayla made this all possible, since we were able to integrate a visit to her family and Gencon in 1 trip, but it just got a bit too dicey for me with all the driving and lugging stuff around. In the future, we’ll get a hotel room right next to the con, plan to spend all 2 or 3 days of the event together with friends, so that it won’t seem as rushed, and I will not being my store’s inventory with me to the con itself (maybe sell after hours if we meet up and playtest somewhere else?) The following day, I was on pain meds and got to relax with my awesome inlaws, so that’s just how it worked out, but I am definitely looking forward to dedicated trips to official FFTCG events, and i definitely want to play in constructed or title. This article went on forever, and I’m extremely tired from a delayed flight, uber, 45 minute drive (Sorry Richard Brady / Kagayama, god speed on your flights!), but just wanted to share my trip. Met so many awesome people, and I love this community, I really do. Thanks guys! Less mushy / personal articles coming up soon! =P

(Did you know? Many players were convinced you could bring Aerith back from the dead in Final Fantasy 7, since the original NA name for Aerith was Aeris. When you rearranged the letters in “Aeris” you end up with Raise. While Gameshark could help you with this conquest, players tried for many years to naturally accomplish this feat.)