AGDQ 2020 by THE Claude

Hi hi yes AGDQ 2020 was really cool. I mean it's pretty hard for it not to be unless you're sick the entire time or something (which I wasn't until right after the event).

For the sake of brevity and not having a forever pastebin, I'll just try and hit the key good points & bad points of the trip.

GOOD STUFF:

Venue / Logistical Stuff:

- Most important thing for me, it wasn't cold as heck. I'm pretty sensitive to cold weather, so finally getting to experience an AGDQ where I'm not freezing to death was a huge, huge plus for me.
- Venue layout. The practice & tournament rooms were linked this event, with the casual room being not too far off. So, it was super easy to see what everyone was up to by just casually strolling around. Stark contrast to previous events, where everything was segregated into different rooms (some of which were on different floors of the hotel even).
- Hotel room itself seemed a lot better. No wacky bathroom door situations, and the actual space of the room seemed a bit bigger.

Everything Else:

- I think commentary for 103% went pretty well. It's hard to tell when you're up there doing it live, but it seemed like feedback was universally positive. Since I don't really have runs in GDQs these days, I try to work extra hard on anything I commentate, so seems like it paid off. v0oid's run was also very good for a marathon setting, so that helped a lot as well.
- Entered a lot more tournaments this year (Twinkle Star Sprites, Super Turbo, and PS1 Mystery). Didn't do that great in any of them, but it was fun just to be a part of more stuff like that. Twinkle Star Sprites in particular was a lot of fun, despite never even hearing of the game until a few hours before the tournament.
- Golden Corral was amazing. As someone who doesn't particularly care about the actual quality of the food he eats, being able to get infinite food for like 11 bucks was pretty godlike.
- Soupa Saiyan was not a meme, my god man. Some damn good noodles for only like 10 bucks.
- Million Arthur in person for the first time versus LCC. Too bad our controls kept glitching out, and the PC we were playing on didn't even have sound.
- SM64 Rando with Mill & Lack was fun, even if Mill & I ended up ragequitting 62 stars in.
- neerrm's FF6 run didn't explode and actually went really well. Pretty based.
- TCG with the boys, glad we were able to squeeze in one of those (despite the logistical nightmares involved with getting it set up).
- Pub sub lived up to the hype, way better than anything Subway can ever put together.
- Biannual Smash Bros with the boys. Stay fit, lads.
- All the people I met for the first time, or that I just haven't seen in forever. Won't go through them individually, since I'd hate to forget someone - but you know who you are (I hope). Super special shoutouts to alanim & JP, two Florida boys that I'd have probably never met if the event wasn't in Orlando.

BLEH STUFF:

- Easily the most expensive GDQ (and event in general) I've ever attended. A lot of that was my own fault for not really planning out transportation to and from the hotel, which I'll definitely fix for next time. No free breakfast kind of sucked too, but at least Golden Corral was pretty cheap. Flight costs were about the same, fortunately.
- I only watched 4 runs this event (LttP portion of the Zelda relay, MM 4-6 relay, neerrm's FF6 run, and the MMX race), and the first two got pushed back way late into the night. I know not much can be done about that, but kind of sucks that it happened.
- The Goemon race imploded, but it truly do be like that sometimes.
- A few AGDQ regulars I usually hang with opted out of this one, likely due to the location shift. Understandable, but a bit of a bummer.
- Kind of regret not staying one more day. A part of that was trying to save on costs, and typically it seems like the final day is kind of dead. But, I missed THE DAILY (featuring Twig) on the final day, and you can't really put a price on that.

Also, special shoutouts to LCC, neerrm, and just_defend for being top-notch roommates. Kept things clean & quiet, just the way I like it.

Overall it was a blast, DA BEECH really pulled its weight. Think I'll rank it a B+: certainly not my favorite event, but still pretty good. Will almost certainly be going to AGDQ 2021 barring a real-life catastrophe. Oh, and I'll be going to Limit Break this year as well, even though I doubt I'll submit anything. That event is basically too cheap for me not to go to.

Thanks for reading, GDQ is still good (don't let the haters persuade you otherwise). See ya on The Twitch.

- Claude