And I'm off to Gamescom!

Bound for Germany for the biggest electronic entertainment convention in the world. Will update when I'm not thoroughly exhausted. :) Hope you all enjoy reading. -BL

8/15/2013 and 8/16/2013 : Another of the longest workdays on the planet

Went to work at the normal time and flew out to Frankfurt at 7pm. Landed at 5pm and then had to manage finding the train to Cologne. Which was a rare delight since everyone here also speaks english. I grabbed a ticket for the express which was a good choice. I got the fancy train.

Rode past some lovely countryside and arrived successfully.

Also, had a nice surprise diectly outside the rail station upon arriving in Koln. And more fun buildings on the drive.

You know you've arrived at a civilized location when the hotel elevators obey proper mathematical number lines...

We all had dinner at an italian restaurant called Vapiano. Excellent spot within walking distance of the hotel. Everyone lines up for pizza or pasta or appetizers and you get to watch them cook it.

Came back afterwards, drank and played a couple rounds of Liar's Dice. I lost both, of course, because I'm horrible at the strategies.

8/17/2013 : First actual workday

Had a large breakfast with the rest of the team at 10 and then took a train over to the convention center and got to work. We set up nearly all the player stations and event machines in one day hopefully making the rest of the trip easier.

There was enough refining to the process that it didn't seem terribly tedious. And the rest of the booth is fantastic! I can't wait to see all this open space filled with fans. or haters. or whatever, it's going to be a very busy booth. :)

The setup was definitely tiring.

We worked straight through to 10:30 and then broke for dinner. Mexican food place where the best things was the strawberry margarita. It was a really good drink though after a long day with no AC.

8/18/2013 : More work?

Another long workday. Nothing major except for the jetlag.

8/19/2013 : The Rain gods disapprove of mortal plans

Another long day. Punctuated with annoyances. I was moving equipment outside and staged it at the bottom of the building. As I'm inside setting some up I hear a roar and open the door. It's pouring and the cardboard box I brought outside was getting soaked. :( I outsmarted Germany the next time though. It rained on nothing but me :P

Things are taking shape. Booth looks amazing.

Went out for italian food with some of the coworkers and they all mocked me after midnight, because...

8/20/2013 : HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Another day of setup. And I think we're pretty much ready. Here's the view the competitors will see from our stage.

We got out early and 3 IT guys and Iwent to an excellent French restaurant. They were nice enough to buy a bottle of wine to drink in honor of my birthday. I was sick enough not to know if it was good wine. :(

8/21/2013 : Press Day

Gorgeous sunrise to start the day. We had to be in veeeerry early.

Show opens for the press. The booth looks amazing without people here.

Also, a little ridiculous, was the show next door at Wargaming. For a tanks and planes combat game, they had a lady doing a silks Cirque du Soleil act and accompanying backup dancers on the stage. I have no idea what that had to do with the game, but it drew a heck of a crowd.

8/22/2013 : OPEN TO THE PUBLIC OMGSOMANYPEOPLE

So, I had been told that this is the largest convention center venue in the world. I had been told that 300,000 people had tickets and it had sold out. I hadn't really grasped the sheer magnitude of what that many people do to a popular space. There were more League games going on today with some high profile teams and we drew a crowd. Quite possibly the biggest crush of people I've ever been packed together with before.

We also spilled out into the extremely well-placed snack area. :)

After the day's games and the community events, we had a band come play our stage. Not just any band, but a kickass League-costumed band out of the Dublin office called "Pentakill".

They did a set composed of primarily covers of System of a Down, Black Sabbath and other songs of those style. Also, one cover of a League song which was fun.

Today was also a neighboring booth's party. We got invites and took a taxi over to what looked to be a bombed out part of a factory. Very nice ambience at this place and they had flown WWII like balloons with the game's motto on it. Also, the drunk/blurry picture is of what I assume is a spitfire or some sort of WWII era prop plane inside the actual venue.

Had a very nice talk with Sjokz before the party started. The free drinks and people and dancing ended up being fun. The DJ was pretty lousy and during nearly every transition, there was an agonizing loss of rhytmic continuity. I often ended up just standing there and catching the gaze of a coworker and sharing her disappointed expression.

8/23/2013 : Second day of Gamers

Not a peep out of the equipment after fixing a nagging issue from yesterday. Today was spent patrolling, tossing swag to fans from stage, watching the games and more patrolling. Grabbed dinner at the bar with every IT person and then we played liar's dice over drinks for a little while back at the hotel

8/24/2013 : Third day of Gamers

Actually got to run a shift today. Started at 2 and the day was super smoothe. Got some work done on the website, made an icepack for the injured and went to one of the league parties. It was lame and we left as soon as I finished the one free drink.

8/25/2013 : Last day of the Gamescom

Back to the early days. The show began with me fixing a super minor issue with one of the TVs and then nothing. The show ran itself. I fetched drinks and directed pedestrian traffic when the walkways got too full and security was cracking down. The summer job at Unjversal studios paid dividends today. ^.^

The show ended with all of us on stage tossing the rest of our swag into the audience. Made for a great time and we all waved goodbye to the crowd.

... And then the strike began. Was well equipped and manned, but had some minor procedural issues, but worked past them and in less than 3 hours had everything back in boxes.

Then we went to dinner with the entire IT dept for French food. French place was closed, sooooo we went to the same bar again to eat. Steak was much better this time and it was enjoyed over a nice conversation of overall impressions of the trip. TL;DR it went spectacularly.