AGDQ 2019 Feelsbin

Well, another AGDQ has come and gone, and like the previous 2 I've attended, it was one of the best weeks in recent memory.  I got to meet up with tons of my old friends again, and I also got to meet so many new people for the first time.  The event this year seemed to have a different feel than the previous ones did, and it was one I thoroughly enjoyed.

Let's start with WAM, which for those who don't know, was a pre-GDQ meetup of a bunch of Jak and Ratchet runners at Skitz's place.  It was an absolute blast, from getting to do crappy runs and still having fun to playing tons of party games and having some great laughs.  Huge shoutouts to Skitz, Ricky, Jazz, Wed, Xem, Ruh, Piddles, Lunk, Bongo, Josh, Wyatt, and anyone else I may be forgetting.  With AGDQ moving south next year, I'm not sure how WAM will work in the future, but I really hope we get to do another event again because it was awesome.

Now let's get to GDQ itself.  Due to the severe lack of interesting games on the schedule this year, I got more involved with event activities and got to spend more time with my friends, so I guess that was a blessing in disguise of sorts.  The only runs I watched in the stream room were Jak 3, Crash 2 NST, Rayman 2, Klonoa, RaC 3, and Pac-Man: CE2, the last of which I got to be on couch commentary for.  All these runs were great and I was happy to see my friends get the chance to shine on the big stage.  The Jak 3 run was probably my 2nd favorite run ever to be in the crowd for, with only the Superman 64 run from AGDQ 2018 besting it, and getting to couch for another Pac-Man run was thoroughly enjoyable.  Hopefully, next time around I can get back onto that stage. :D

I also joined 3 tournaments throughout the week - Kung Foot, Evil Zone, and the PS1 mystery tourney.  Erin and I were runners-up in Kung Foot, losing in the finals after pulling a reverse 3-0 in the semifinals to get there.  Playing this game throughout the week and in this tourney was some of the most fun I've had in quite some time, and although I'm bummed we couldn't quite close the deal in the bracket, I'm confident we can run it back next year :) .  Evil Zone was loads of fun despite the fact that I had never played the game before.  I managed to win 3 games while knowing basically nothing, and I plan on buying a copy of the game myself so I can maybe surprise some people this summer.  The tourney finals was one of the most hype moments of the entire event, with the title coming down to the very final match while our whole crew was getting endlessly harassed by the ALttP randomizer people.  The PS1 mystery tourney once again was loads of fun - I managed to win 4 games in a row after immediately getting sent to the losers' bracket before getting knocked out on a rail shooter that required using the PS1 mouse controller.  The finals of this were once again crazy to witness, with it somehow fittingly coming down to randomly pulling Frogger out of the trash for the final game in the bracket reset.  Big props to Punchy for pulling out the W in both of these tourneys.

Korean BBQ late in the week was once again one of the highlights.  Spud, Cane, Nitrof, Wed, and I hit up Iron Age for the 2nd year in a row, and it was dope.  Between the crazy atmosphere and stuffing ourselves full of every kind of meat, this was definitely something I'm glad I got to do again, and I hope this tradition continues in the future.

I wanna give big shoutouts to all the pals I got to meet again this year - it was great to see you all again and I hope I see you yet again in the near future!

Sprash - Cane, Spud, Nitrof, Wed, Crash, Phoenix, Paaws, Gaz, Riko, Whit, Zbm, Stump, Faulty, Roach, EZscape
Pac - Nacho, Beef, Rob, Woofer
Jak/Ratchet - Jazz, Ricky, Josh, Skitz, Xem, Headstrong
PlayStation Nation™ - Punchy, Caveman, Dr4gonblitz
Other Cool Dudes - Glackum, Jaxler, Piddles, Scott, Loader, Alex, Lunk

I also wanna give separate shoutouts to all the people I got to meet for the first time this year.  Some of you guys I've been talking to for 2-3 years, and finally getting to meet you face-to-face was awesome.  I hope to see you all again at future events!

Sprash - Erin, Wingo, Saboom, Blunts, Thermospore, Violin, Trob, Michael, Tebt, Zach, SHM
Pac - Loz, Pinball, Joe
Jak/Ratchet - Ruh, Sicky
Other Cool Dudes - Yoshipro, Tower

I'm sorry if I forgot anyone up above; it was quite a hectic week and I met a lot of people, but just know that you're all cool and I hope I see you all again soon!

As for my post-GDQ plans, it's back to the Twins 100% grind.  I'd like to try and push for WR in the couple months before SGDQ submissions open, and I may throw in some Any% as well to try and push for a 15.  I'll stay fresh in Pac, as always, but Twinsanity is the main focus for now.

Thanks everyone for reading this, and especially thanks to everyone who helped make last week one of the best weeks of my life.  Here's to more great times.  PacAttack

-Joe