Arcade Con 2013 Review

We arrived back from Arcade Con on Wednesday and things since then have been a little turbulent here at home :S However thankfully our trip to Ireland was nothing short of amazing which offsets all the crap we're dealing with right now XD Thank you to the Arcade Con staff and attendees for making this such an amazing con. We met so many wonderful people... I'm still flabbergasted at how well we were received at the con and how warm and loving the atmosphere at Arcade Con was! Absolutely incredible con experience :3

The staff really amazed me at this con. They were attentive, helpful, kind, and always offering to get us drinks and just generally working hard to make everyone run smoothly. They worked tirelessly and it really showed in the calibre of the con.

All the people we met were so kind and easy to talk to. We'd meet someone once and after that we'd see them around and we'd wave and chat if there was time and before I knew it I was thousands of miles from home but feeling like I was at a home convention. It was wonderful, thank you all for making it so

I'm going to try to stay away from mentioning specific names or people in this journal because I know if I do  I'd never finish typing this XD

-arrived at 5am at Dublin airport where Ally and Melissa were at the arrival doors waiting for us with signs XD They waved and ran to greet us as we staggered through the doors, so we knew right away that we were in the right place. I can't thank these two enough for being such a kickass welcoming duo <3

-went to the hotel and checked in, we promptly passed out for a few hours shortly after.

-we woke up around 3pm and went for a walk down the road. Explored around the hotel a bit, had some dinner, and returned to the hotel. Nice relaxing day!

-we walked into Dublin in the morning and took a little stroll around. it was pretty awesome that the con venue was so close to the city centre.

-came back to the hotel and changed into Shota and Sawako for the Arcade Con burlesque show! I had never been to one of these before, and I was pleasantly surprised by how entertaining it was (and by all of the lovely ladies (and man) on stage who charmed us all evening ;D

-Met a number of people at the show too!

-Friday was Avatar day! But the con didn't start until later so we went for a walk into Dublin in the morning (the city centre was only 20 minutes away, talk about prime real estate for a con! XD). We explored a bit then walked back to get changed.

-As Zuko and Katara we walked down and the first thing was saw was the beginning of a huge line up. In fact the line was backing up into the parking lot and around the building! 

-We got into the dealers hall early with the VIP attendees and there we met some really awesome folks! Here's a pic of me talking to a few people:

-before we knew it we had our first con friends! It was awesome!!! 

-We took a little break for air outside and got invited to play a game of Ninja with a group of people (including a number of Naruto cosplayers who were all fittingly very good at playing Ninja). As a Firebender, I, of course... lost... every single time... consequently I burned down their villages.

-the day progressed and we walked around the con and explored. We met so many people kickass people and talked so much with them that my throat was hurting halfway through day 1 of the con XD

-That night we judged the Mr and Mrs Arcade Con contest which was essentially a spoof on beauty pageants. It was incredibly fun to judge this with the Irish Pubcast, however we had our work cut out for us. it was a really close contest. In the end the Skanty and Kneesocks cosplayers won it! They were just lovely ladies and I was so lucky to have gotten to the chance to get to know them better as the weekend went by. The Deadpool and Predator couple were fantastically funny, I loved their performances and banter XD There was an adorable femme Thor/Tony couple and also an irl couple who bravely went on as themselves without personas! They were a really entertaining pair

-Saturday was Attack on Titans day and it was also hot as balls 

-Woke up early to get changed into our cosplays in time for the VIP bunch, which was a small gathering of some of the VIPs and the guests for chatting over pastries and coffee! This was the fabulous group that we chatted with for most of the bunch! I apologize to everyone there for my weird stories XD

-After brunch we went straight to the Cosplay Contest that we were judging and giggling gillakers Batman this was a HUGE contest! For a con the size of Arcade Con I would have estimated 20 people in the contest. But there were over 50 entries and there were so many amazing entries that we had one helluva time deciding the winners. It was a really hard decision D: I loved seeing everyone's costume and stage presence  

-the cosplay contest ran a little late so we rushed off to our Wig Panel which was right after it. We got to where it was being held and ran into a huge HUGE lineup that crowded the entire lobby of the hotel. We went through the crowd to find our panel room only to discover that the crowd WAS the queue to get into out panel! I was astounded, but the staff and Nova and I were also really at a loss of what to do because the panel room's max capacity only fit 1/4th of the people lined up. The staff were really quick to move on this, and while I was retrieving my laptop (cause of course we had tech issues too XD) they made arrangements to hold a second wig panel that evening in a bigger room to accomadate everyone who couldn't get in. I felt awful that we had to turn so many people away, but thankfully many of the people who couldn't attend the wig panel were able to make it to the second wig panel.

-The panel went really well and afterwards we went out into the lobby and took photos with people, met with people and generally just hung out!

- We went for lunch then came back to the con for our second wig panel, which was also full but in a much nicer ventilated room :3 We had to set up a makeshift projector sheet before the panel started which made our slideshow kinda warped and creepy but I think that just added to the fun at this panel XD

- We changed out of Eren and Mikasa because we were wet with sweat (so... so hot....) and then went downstairs to the dance/rave/concert where we just hung out with people for the night. It was really chill and again made me lose my voice a bit XD but that's always a good sign!

-Sunday was Superboy/Supergirl (AND I WAS SUPERGIRL! >8D) *shot*

-We did our usual hang out with people around the con routine before our How to Deal with Cosplay Hate panel, and I don't know how time flew by so fast but it did and before I knew it it was time for us to go to our panel!

-We went to our panel room and, low and behold, the lobby was once again crowded. It was another lineup or our panel that vastly exceeded the room capacity XD The staff tried moving it to the biggest panel room, but that was too small so they ended up moving us to the ballroom/main stage which was thankfully empty. I was really impressed with how our panel attendees and the staff were so calm and orderly about the whole thing. It was such a chill thing to change the plans like that and it couldn't have been a smoother process ^_^.

-We set up in the ballroom and had a really fun panel about people who hate on cosplay, how to deal with it, cosplay drama and then eventually the panel just became weird/funny cosplay stories XD I had a really awesome time at this one :3

-We went outside after out panel and met with a lot of awesome people. It was a whirlwind of chatting, taking photos, signing stuff and making creepy little videos for people's friends (always enjoyable XD making life awkward is what im best at). Then, before we knew it, it was time for us to go back into the ballroom to get ready for our Q&A panel that we were sharing with Matt Elliot. 

(MY SINGLE RED EYE IN THIS PHOTO >8D)

-We had been given moustaches just before this panel by some of the folks we were chatting with, so we took that oppritunity to put them on and make the panel dapper as fuck

-After the panel we went to the charity auction, where we figured that we wanted to donate something so we donated our Attack on Titan jackets The charity auction went amazingly well, and when it came time to bid away our jackets we were called up on stage and I honestly could never have anticipated how quickly the bids went up for our jackets! They sold for 300 euro and I'm still kinda shocked by that, thank you everyone for bidding so generously for charity!

-The con ended and we said our teary goodbyes to the amazing people we had met at Arcade Con Later that night there was the VIP/Staff/Guest after party, but we don't speak of that. Too many Irish secrets shhhhhhhhhhh I learned so many phrases and learned the ways of Irish drinking games which maintaining my sobriety XD

-After the con our Irish pal from Alcon took us on a walking tour of Dublin which made for a really awesome day. We really got to experience the city so enormous thanks to her for that!!

-The day after that we went to Bray with some friends from Arcade Con where we enjoyed the beach and the fun fair they had going on there. We even saw one of the friends we had made at Arcade Con at the fair! Small word XD

-I also went on the world's scariest ride. Seriously, this side doesn't look like much, but I have never been so thoroughly upset on a ride. The shaky nature of the thing really made me feel the fear of death for the first time in my life. IT WAS SOMETHING I WILL NEVER FORGET

And that's where I'll stop this enormous journal XD I've gotta find a way of condensing these things, but they just seem to be getting longer and longer! Is my memory getting... better??? THAT SHOULDN'T BE THE CASE  D8<

Thank you Arcade Con for having us this year, I hope that it won't be too long until we can return to Ireland because I miss everyone already.