SGDQ 2019 Feelsbin

Well, another GDQ has come and gone, and like the 3 previous events I've been to (AGDQ17, AGDQ18, AGDQ19), it was one of the best weeks of my life.  This being my first SGDQ, the atmosphere definitely had a different vibe from past AGDQs, but it was one I thoroughly enjoyed.

Let's start first of all with the event schedule itself.  Aside from AGDQ17, which was loaded with the most PlayStation stuff at any event, the games list this time around was phenomenal.  I found myself in the stream room far more often than at previous events, and I also spent a fair amount of time watching the stream from hotel rooms.  I managed to catch all of these runs live:

Stream Room:						Hotel TVs:
Spyro Reignited						SMW Blind Levels
SotN								SMB3
Portrait of Ruin					Invictus
Perfect Dark						Grand Poo World 2
Ape Escape							Banjo-Kazooie
Crash NST							MKDD
Sunshine							Tetris Effect
Silent Hill 3						TAS Block
SADX								BotW
Divekick							Chrono Trigger
Shrek XL
Catlateral Damage
Hylics
Laffy Taffy 3D Pyramid Challenge
Glover
Dark Souls II

Every single one of these runs was amazing, and I'm really happy for all the runners of these, many of whom were good friends, for getting the chance to shine on the big stage and for delivering.

Now for my time on stream.  All I can say is "Wow".  Both of my runs went amazing, and I'm really happy they were super well-received!  Mort was even more hilarious than I think anybody expected, and I finally got revenge for my Pac run at AGDQ17 with a really solid time that still showed off some funny things in the game.  I wanna give a huge shoutout to Punchy, Wed, and Nitrof for helping me with commentary on those games, and I also wanna shout out the camera operator for Pac-Man World who left the camera where it was for Super Mario Galaxy 2 and kept my hands in view.  I'm really happy that people got to see just how involved that game really is.  I also got the chance to do commentary for the Sly Cooper run, which also went well.  Big shoutouts to Zenthrow for being a beast and for Cyna and Neon for being fun on the mic.

Outside of the event, I didn't get out to do much in the early half of the week due to a combination of practicing both of my games and wanting to watch a bunch of runs.  I was bummed I missed out on the Mall of America and bowling, but there was a ton of fun stuff that happened later in the week to more than make up for it.  There were many intense Blokus and Sorcerer's Maze games at 1 AM - shoutouts to everyone who hopped in on one of our games.  We also had some intense Spyro 2 bingo matches - shoutouts to slvr, Caite, and Gaz for a super fun and close match, and another shoutout to slvr for clutching the W for us.  Finally, there was the classic Evil Zone tourney, which was loads of fun yet again.  Big shoutouts to Caveman for organizing it yet again and to Punchy for successfully defending his title.  I'm hopeful someone else can continue to organize the tourney now that Caveman can't do so anymore, but I have faith in the PlayStation Nation™ to keep this tradition alive.  Speaking of the Nation™, I have to give a shoutout to World 9 for actually having 2 Model 1 PS1s and a PS1 link cable so we could engage in some hot Blast Radius multiplayer action.

The last few days at the event were definitely the best as far as I was concerned.  It started with a huge ultimate frisbee game on Friday, followed by a big pool party.  Massive shoutouts to slvr for organizing everything and a huge thank you to everyone who came out to play.  Now that AGDQ is in Orlando, I'm hopeful I can organize another game come January.  Saturday featured a huge group lunch featuring all-you-can-eat sushi and it was an absolute blast.  Saturday night featured a heated 7-way match of PS1 The Weakest Link, and I managed to pull out the W, but shoutouts to Punchy for being a worthy opponent.  Rematch at AGDQ on the PAL version?????

No discussion of this SGDQ would be complete without mentioning 2022.  Big shoutouts to slvr, Wed, and Nitrof for using their room as the hotspot for all community gatherings during the week.  Tons of good times were had in that room, and I'm glad there was always a place any number of us could go throughout the week to hang and chill.

I wanna give personal shoutouts to everyone I got to see again at the event - it was great to catch up with everyone and I hope I see you all again soon at future events!

Spyro - April, Alex, Caite, Chris, Gaz, Hum, Nitrof, orsa, slvr, stump, Wed, saboom, EZScape, SHM, whit, faulty
Crash - Cam, Blunts, Tom, Wingo
Ape - Horn
Pac - Trey, Nacho, woofer
Jak/Ratchet - Xem, Bongo, Sicky
PlayStation Nation™ - Caveman, Punchy, Dr4gonblitz, Uyama
Other Cool Dudes™ - Tower, Glackum, yp, smloader

I also wanna give personal shoutouts to everyone I got to meet for the first time this week.  It was great to finally meet you all and I hope to see you again soon!

Spyro - Dayo, Cyna, Jason
Crash - Murcaz, Jpeezy, Dep
Pac - mckiddy, Jets, Dage, Laurie, Viper
Sly - Zenthrow, Neon
Other Cool Dudes™ - Steven (likesorange), Steven (RockPaperSteven), Pea, Lingo, Hagg, amyrlinn, Frozentrually, Jaxler, alkamaass, DrunkWario, vi/o

I think that covers everyone.  There were a lot of people I ran into at the event, and I'm sorry if I missed anyone.  It was an absolute blast hanging out with all of you and I hope to see you at AGDQ20 down in Florida!

Now that GDQ is over, I can switch my speedgame attention away from Pac for a while and from Mort for forever.  In the next couple months, my plans are pretty straightforward - get the 40 Winks Any% WR and try to get the Twinsanity 100% WR.  Those 2 runs are gonna be the ones I try the hardest to get into AGDQ20, and based on the success I had at this past event, I'm pretty hopeful I can sneak one of these in.  Aside from that, I may do some Pac 100% if I'm bored, but 40 Winks and Twins are the main priorities.

Thanks to everyone who's still reading by this point.  I don't write stuff like this often, so I like to be thorough when I do.  Here's to a back half of 2019 filled with lots of speed.

PacAttack

-Joe