Convention Report: PAX East 2020
For my first convention of the year, I was honored to be given a Media Pass through my podcast CosplayBytes. Longtime readers of my blog know that this was something I was trying for so long, in a sense to elevate my legitimacy as a content creator. It's something that dwelled in me for part of Saturday and I'll get into that soon. I hope you all have enjoyed my posts regarding the event, my podcast episodes will be publicly posted starting on Wednesday and I don't know if I'll do all of them back to back. Possibly each week? In any case this post will be sort of regurgitated in podcast form so if you want a head-start, then read on! I arrived Thursday in the afternoon and hit the convention floor after I left my bags at the hotel. Boston is a fantastic city and it took me until day 3 that I was managing ok with navigation. There was a shuttle from my hotel to the convention, but the walk honestly wasn't too bad! Can't say no to exercise right?
I met up with some friends who were only there that day and truthfully, I didn't do too much work. I used Thursday as an attempt to get majority of my shopping done plus get a feel for the convention floor. Arguably some of the more popular booths included Nintendo and Square Enix. Specifically with Final Fantasy VII Remake and Animal Crossing Horizons being playable. However, the line to get to the AC demo was pretty much impossible to get in. I took a few snapshots of some of the booths there. The Indie Megabooth was a standout as it always has been and throughout the con, I got a chance to try some games and made some Media appointments. Quick note: there's a chance I'll leave out some things in this report but they'll for sure be covered in the podcast episodes!
Friday rolled around and that's when the fun really amped up! I stopped by the Gestalt Vanguard booth and interviewed Morrigan Lynx who was there helping with promotion. I also got to hang with Sutefaniiroozu for most of the day with her Cyberpunk 2077 cosplay! Early on I got to chat quick with Danielle DeNicola who was there helping out the Acer team and promoting their Afterparty later that night. In addition, photographer Martin Wong was there plus cosplayer Jenna Lynn Meowri. I also had my friends Margaret and Dillon help out as well and they hooked me up with a bag and giant mouse pad. I also prior to the con got media credentials approved for the Afterparty so this was my first REAL event after con hours that I attended. The Filthy Casual crew was also in attendance and of course I bought more stuff? OH and once the con opened up, I rushed over and managed to get a ticket for the FF7 Remake demo. Holy smokes guys was it incredible!
I also got to meet cosplayer HelloIAmKate and she was just a doll! The afterparty (held for the 5th year by Acer Predator) rolled around that night and I spent most of my time there with Dollilicious and her friend Meg. Their outfits were absolutely baller you guys *swoons*. I didn't do too much dancing but I got a LOT of kind words and congratulatory statements from people with my Media pass accomplishment so that made the night so much better. Most of everyone else I saw earlier that day was also in attendance. I'm so happy you loved the drawings Jenna, and I got your cute stickers all placed up in my room! I didn't get back to my room until 1-2am, absolutely worth it!
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| With Dollilicious and Meg |
This was also the day I ramped up my cosplay photo taking skills. Cosplayer Midge Scully was also in attendance and rocked an incredible gijinka of Zamazenta from Pokemon Shield (which also had a presence in the main lobby of the convention center!) I got to meet and chat quick with the developer of Maquette thanks to my friend Ali and you'll hear more about it on the podcast! Jenna also wore her Triss cosplay from the Witcher and sadly I was unable to see it in person. The pics she posted on social media though were GORGEOUS!
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| Danielle's cosplay was AMAZING! |
For the final day, I mainly hung out with Dillon again and several more of her friends after my last appointment with Audeze Headphones. From there, we got to try this really interesting live action demo for the upcoming game Scene Investigators. We were given a crime scene all set up and asked to solve the mystery of who was murdered along with several other questions. This was honestly a unique experience and I was so immersed in the experience. We got all the questions right by the way :D. There was also an interesting rhythm game utilizing a turntable that I got to try out which was also tons of fun! Here are a ton of other personal photos I took during PAX East! I also ended my time there after meeting Youtube Streamer Alice Pika and SHE WAS SO SWEET!
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| Jenna is a sweet bab <3 |
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| Sutefaniiroozu at the Afterparty! |
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| FF7 Remake booth shots! |
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| Nintendo's Animal Crossing booth was top notch! |
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| Dillon is best bun |
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| Alice Pika was a sweetie! |
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| Midge and her friend were an incredible Zacian and Zamazenta! |
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| HelloIAmKate was so sweet! |
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| Yas I got to ride the Harley :D |
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| The FF7R Demo ticket for Friday |
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| Filthy Casual crew is best family <3 |
I really hope you all have enjoyed my coverage here on the Lightning Palace blog regarding PAX East 2020! If you missed any previous post, be sure to check out the homepage or search the tag paxeast2020! Thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart for supporting me as well as the organizers of PAX East for giving me this incredible opportunity. Would LOVE to be back next year! Enjoy the incoming podcast episodes about the con too!
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