firefighter's gen con report

My road to judging at gencon and the master professorship.     Wendsday: The airport is jammed as usual in albany and i get in to find out i have 1 hour left, so i sign in and get to the airlines with 10 minutes to spare. I get on and get to detroit with no problem but then my flight was delayed. so after walking over 2 1/2 miles to get to the terminal im waiting another hour. I sit and wait at mcdonalds near by for 30 minutes and after i eat i find the boarding has started. I get in and get to milwaulkee. It was easy getting to the hotel but the fun was finding out my room was booked 3 times over and i was checked out a day early so i check in, get to the center and find the lines were 3 lines long so i go to floor 3 and find mike guptal. He gets me set up with everything and assures me that the hotel problem will be fixed. I get back to the hotel to find a note that yoshi went to eat and will return. I ate my dinner and watched tv till he returned. I greeted him and we rested up till the next day knowing it would be hard. I went down to find gamers but found all late night gaming starts tomorrow so i left to go to bed. I got up and crashed.   Thursday: I got up after yoshi almost thgrew me from my bed. :) We got to the center ok and found mike. Yoshi got ahead because i was still getting ready. I got in and got the all powerful dci judge shirt. I met lizard otc and we all now know each other so we judge the unlimited event for the day. It was ok. One person has a few problems and it became embarrassing but we calmed her down and things ran well. The 14- went well too. It was my first head judging responsibility. The event was fun and to see the kids build decks for this was interesting because they looked like starter decks with a little work. It was kinda funny but one kid walked in with this massive deck and tore the competition apart. I ended that tourney with good spirits. The night came out better. I got dinner at dominoes. they have GREAT pizza! Trust Me! I then headed to the ccg room back at the center for a raw deal sealed deck event. That was fun but hard due to i never worked with a deck that would do no more then 4 d for any attack. The trish stratus deck ran well but i lost 2-2 and was 1 win short of 8 packs. I came back and crashed knowing yoshi was already asleep. i just fell in bed and was asleep within minutes. The next day ran well. We got in early and i went to the dealers room to play marvel hero clix. I learned the game and it rocks. I love it so much i actually got in a few games over the weekend. I got a few cool figures and had a blast. As the 1:00 pm clock tolls i returned to the tournament field to await futher instructions. I was asked to help run things till 5 and then head judge another 14- event. I helped yoshi and lizard ruin things till 5 and then ran another 14- event and this time yoshi was there till it ended, like thursday. He was a very determined judge. We got it down well and then i got to run a daft. That was awesome. It took a little to get it organized but round 1 i forgot to set time and angered DMTM and round 2 i accidentally made mistake 2 which he didn't like. By round 3 i was ok. At this point it was the top 2 so it ended ok. I remember the last match was a brutal one that went to the final bell. I decided to go eat and found quizno's. Ok food. Bad pricing, $9 for a sub meal. the sub was 4 parts but come on subway doesn't charge that high. I went to another raw deal sealed event where this time i got a ric flair deck. It flopped. It was slowly dominant till my opponent turned the tide and annihilated me when my reversals came at the wrong time. Next round it went againt trish and it went to the final bell where he won by a certain card and i was out. I played some with my regular deck and one 1 and lost 4 but at the end a guy helped me fix my deck and it worked well. I learned stay up till 5 am and you will PAY FOR IT!!!!   Saturday: I woke up and the clock said 1:20 pm. I ran down to the center and by the time i got there i was 1 hour late. Mike was ok about it but he said don't let it happen again and i got to help judge the team event. It was an awesome event and i saw a girl i thought id never see again. TR_Cassidy. It rocked. She went with a partner to the top 8 and lost round 1 of it. I rememebr lizard otc and his son went to the semi's before losing. The winner i didn't hear. I went off to judge the next event as the event was drawing to a close. This time the room for tournaments shrunk so low that we were crammed into the star wars area. Mike went to clear out casual players to make room and i held the unlimited tourney. LONG but fun event, The field was paved with all sorts of decks. The winning deck was a powerhouse. I think it had sneasel buzz in it. The winner was the only one undefeated., After the round me and yoshi were beat. Yoshi wanted to do a fun sketch but no one sticked around so i went to these two girls who were looking for gamers. I remember walking to this guy with a BRIGHT blue shirt and black hair and playing this game called crypt which turned out to be realllllllll fun. I had a blast and the craetor let me in on some more tables and i got to play a 2nd time after i was knocked out of the tournament. The 2nd game was dropped after many had to go to bed and i figured oh well. i thanked the guy for letting me test out the game and good luck on it. Its a great game. The guy shook my hand and said thanks. He gave me a booster which was nice. I went to baron vangor torth (Raw Deal Co-Designer) and asked him to sign a card of mine he promised he'd sign after he was way to tired to sign it the night before. I thanked him and left due to i ran short on funds to enter the last sealed event. I got back to find yoshi in pain. His foot was in major pain so he stayed in bed while i got him tylenol. He rested kinda hard that night on his injured ankle and i rested well. Sunday We all got up early and i got in to say hi to mike g who was happy to see me up on time. I talked to MTM and found out he was so busy he can't battle and what he said next provoked me to do this. He said: "Why battle you now? If i make you wait then there is something to live for. if i battle you whats left to achieve??" I went over to the klingon jail and bail and decided to put a warrant out for MTM's arrest due to MTM was not busy and revenge is sweet. The guys came up to him and you hear mike moan: "joeeee joeeee, why?? " Mike was brought up and called in front of the judge. he stated: "This man has been tried for crimes against the klingon army" "He constantly avoids battle." "He chooses weedle as his favorite pokemon" He said do you have anything to say. All MTM could say was uhh i dont know. They guy threw him in the cage for 5 minutes. It was so funny. He laid down and the guard said this is jail, Get Up!" MTM said ohh its my first rest on the job all weekend." They made him sing this really bad diva song and the guard said im gonna lean on this post and watch you. You better make it good. He sang like william shatner. It was so funny. After the song the guard said: "it was too good". Next 2 more prisoners were thrown in and they were all forced to sing the barney I lve You song. It was really funny but next they had to sing what i thought was moonlight bay and it was torture to the klingons. One said: "We're supposed to torture them and their singing is torture to us". After the final song MTM was released and as me, him and yoshi returned he said :Now i dont think ill have time to battle you. We returned and i decided to calm my laughter and see yoshi's pics. They were perfect. He will have them up as soon as he can. I went back to the exhibitors' hall to test out the simpsons game. For a trading card game its fun but a tiny bit complicated. I liked it. After that i went to play pokemon and mlb showdown. Now i know why mlb showdown is so much fun. I decided to stand in line for the wheel of prizes. This line was to long so after 30 minutes i left. I rember one physical challenge that made everyone laugh hard. This guy was a packers fan and the judge was a bears fan so the judge said as a physical challenge the guy had to stand on top of the ad research booth and say. hi,Im from wisconsin and i like the chicago bears". He had to do this for 5 minutes. The guy went up there and said that but he added something. He said: Hi, im from wisconsin and i like the chicago bears. I like to watch the bears get beaten by the packers. Thats is why i like the chicago bears. The guy got his packs but if it wasn't for his daughter i think the judge would of threw him off with no prizes. Next i left for the judging area and i was to head judge the unlimited at 1. It was fun but easy because i had much help. The event ran well and when it ended i was relieved. At this time we got our boxes for judging and said our goodbyes. As yoshi and lizard otc departed i stayed for a few games. I had my fun and lost all the games but 1 because i need to improve my grass deck. I left after saying goodbye to mike guptal who if you ever meet is one of the kindest guys you will ever meet. I said my goodbyes to all the MT''S making sure MTM was last because he was the guy ill miss the most. Mike said good luck in college and hope to se ya in the future. I left for the hotel and bought a domino's pizza. I rested till the next day   Monday: My way out was quick. Woke up early, got packed and was out by 11. At the airport i was called back due to my electric toothbrush went off and the staff thought something was wrong with my bag. going through security 2 times can be tiring. Probelm solved easily and i got on the plane. The ride home was ok. when i got back unpacking was the hardest part. The memories will last a lifetime and the sadness will be with me for a longgggg time.   Props to: Wizards and Comic images. Ran their events well and both did a good job. To comic images head man: Barron Vangor Toth: Thanks for everything To wizards staff: I had a blast. Thanks for all your support.   Slops to: Poeple who tried to make space. Too many complaints in the weekend because not enough room. Oddly enough origins had more room then gencon did. Till i travel again this is FireFighter Signing off