Hello there! For those of you who don’t me, I’m Homebrewed, and I am the content editor for ManaGrind. Last weekend, I had the fortune to attend this year’s PAX East at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in my home state of Massachusetts.
After a long wait, I was able to attend, not only one day, but two days. On Thursday, I spent all morning packing and reading up on all the exciting events that were going on and when my sister got home, she dropped me off up to the commuter rail station and off I went to the hotel. This year, I joined up with a room share several enforcers (PAX East Volunteers) had to stay fairly close to the convention center. I arrived at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel and decided after settling in to grab some food, unpack, play some Pokémon X, and got some much needed sleep.
(Note: Click an image to see a full-sized version)
Day One
Not getting much sleep that night (The floor is sometimes not as comfortable as one would think in hotel), I woke up early and decided to head over to the queue for the opening day. Several hours later, it was time, the lines started to charge in like Leeroy Jenkins going for the kill. I decided it would be best to b-line it over to the Blizzard booth and start checking out all the content within.
Already packed, I hopped in line to try out Hearthstone on the iPad, of which they have four stations set up. After my demo, which I found very easy and smooth to play I received my first swag of the con, a Hearthstone card back pin and a scratch card for a free pack of Hearthstone cards, both very cool. After wandering around the booth and the convention for a bit, I went to go grab a swag bag and hopped into the Diablo 3 PS4 line (Line was a bit of a stretch). I was able to play the demo right away, preloaded with a fairly geared Crusader began to experience some of the changes they made to the interface for console demon slaying compared to the computer.
I don’t usually have to want or will to play many games on the console, because I feel most of the time it is both easier and better played on its personal computer counterpart. I was very surprised with Diablo 3 on the PlayStation, they made it easy to change out equipment on the fly and the mini map was very cleanly added to the interface. I also got to finally met Brandy Camel (CM_Nevalistis) from the Diablo team at the end of my demo.
After catching up with some things on Twitter, I finally met up with Christina Sims (CM_Zeriyah) and Lyndsi Achucarro (TheLyns) both from Team 5 (Hearthstone). I found out about the upcoming adventure, The Curse of Naxxramas, (Very exciting news) and tracked down Leeroy Jenkins (CM_Keganbe) for the super limited edition Leeroy Jenkins pin (Hands down the best thing I got all weekend).
Later on that same day, I got to try out Heroes of the Strom for a bit (Played Murky), attended a Razer meet up, finally met up with Stephen Stewart from BlizzPro and his friend Waterfiend from DiabloIncGamers, grabbed some grub, bought a few pins from Behemoth (Derp giraffe rules), won an awesome Book of Tyrael from Kadala’s Gambit (Diablo 3’s daily raffle), and bought a Rowsdower plushie (WildStar). The very last thing I did on my first night was waited for the line to play the alpha of Warlords of Draenor, never got to play, but I did receive a beta key, in consolation.
Day Two
Accomplishing most of the things I wanted on day one, day two was much more relaxed. Right off the bat, I arrived early and stood in line at the PAX East merchandise booth to acquire some rare and sought after pin. While waiting, I just played some Magic the Gathering and talked with of the people in line. After that I casually lounged around chatting with people and playing Pokémon enjoying my breakfast and Starbucks I brought with me until the doors to the expo floor were well open.
Around 11 AM, I went down to the Blizzard booth again and was first in line for an autograph signing with Paul Teutul Jr. (American Chopper) and Holinka from Blizzard. They introduced Azeroth Choppers; they are doing a custom motorcycle build off based on the two factions, in which the fans are going to vote for one of the choppers to be virtualized into a mount in-game. After I grabbed a few lanyards a friend really wanted and met and talked a bit with Val Maun (Vmaun), a recruiter for Blizzard. I hung out for a long time in the tabletop area, talking with some people and gaming a bit. Lunchtime came and passed and before I knew it, it was time for the other major event I went to PAX East to see.
TeSPA Hearthstone Collegiate Open
Around 3 PM, I hopped over to the Twitch booth and its glorious shag purple carpet and setup a spot to view the main event of the day. During set up the booth was joined by Jason Chayes, Eric Dobbs, Lyndsi Achucarro, Christina Sims, Keganbe, and Hearthy.
Our pro team member, zRusheR (Tommy Zhang), was in the semifinals in search of a share of the $5000 scholarship prize pot. He was joined by DarkAngel, Zeph, and RisingVirtue.
The tournament was streamed live on Twitch’s own channel and shoutcasted by Chris Chan (ChanmanV) and Kevin Knocke. The format was the typical BO5 style that Blizzard previously used in its own invitational, with the addition of each combatant, having a pool of nine totals decks they could choose from. If you lost a round with Warlock though, you would be locked out of that class for the set; the winner continued playing with the same deck for as long as it held up.
ZRusheR destroyed DarkAngel in their semifinal match, 3-0, defeating a mid-range Hunter, a “Handlock”, and a legendary Druid deck. RisingVirtue squeaked out his win with an amazing tempo Rogue deck turning around a 2-0 deficit into a 2-3 victory.
After some interviews with the winners of the semifinal rounds, the finals started. Zrusher lead with a rush Hunter deck versus a watcher Druid deck, he won with a huge burst of damage in the end. Game two, RisingVirtue came back with his impressive Rogue deck and beat the Hunter. Game three, zRusheR swapped the deck that carried him in the semis, the “Handlock”, finally shutting down the Rogue deck. Game four, RisingVirtue rushed down the “Handlock” with Hunter. The final game, zRusheR, came out victorious, managing to stave off a double trap and unleashing a Force of Nature for the coveted dragon goblet and a $2500 scholarship for his effort. RisingVirtue ended up getting $1500 and the rest of the contenders received $500. After the match and the crowds clear, I met up with the winner and ChanmanV briefly before heading back to my hotel.
Demolish the Devs and Wrap Up
Later that night, after recovering a bit and enjoying some Gatorade and a sandwich from 7-Eleven (Super fancy), I went back to the convention for the last event I attended.
GameSpot had a panel called, “Demolish the Devs”, in which developers from Hearthstone (Jason Chayes & Eric Dobbs), Titanfall, and Street Fighter were challenged by the crowd. There I met IVs (A ManaGrind veteran) and finally had time to get some of the Hearthstone developers sign WoW TCG cards I brought with me (They were all Murlocs, of course).
That was the end of day two and my experience this year at PAX East. I had a blast and I met a bunch of cool people (Hope to meet even more next time around). I can’t wait for next year and hope to see Blizzard back again! Maybe, even next time I’ll see you. Thank you for reading!
Hello there! For those of you who don’t me, I’m Homebrewed, and I am the content editor for ManaGrind. Last weekend, I had the fortune to attend this year’s PAX East at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in my home state of Massachusetts.
After a long wait, I was able to attend, not only one day, but two days. On Thursday, I spent all morning packing and reading up on all the exciting events that were going on and when my sister got home, she dropped me off up to the commuter rail station and off I went to the hotel. This year, I joined up with a room share several enforcers (PAX East Volunteers) had to stay fairly close to the convention center. I arrived at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel and decided after settling in to grab some food, unpack, play some Pokémon X, and got some much needed sleep.
(Note: Click an image to see a full-sized version)
Day One
Not getting much sleep that night (The floor is sometimes not as comfortable as one would think in hotel), I woke up early and decided to head over to the queue for the opening day. Several hours later, it was time, the lines started to charge in like Leeroy Jenkins going for the kill. I decided it would be best to b-line it over to the Blizzard booth and start checking out all the content within.
Already packed, I hopped in line to try out Hearthstone on the iPad, of which they have four stations set up. After my demo, which I found very easy and smooth to play I received my first swag of the con, a Hearthstone card back pin and a scratch card for a free pack of Hearthstone cards, both very cool. After wandering around the booth and the convention for a bit, I went to go grab a swag bag and hopped into the Diablo 3 PS4 line (Line was a bit of a stretch). I was able to play the demo right away, preloaded with a fairly geared Crusader began to experience some of the changes they made to the interface for console demon slaying compared to the computer.
I don’t usually have to want or will to play many games on the console, because I feel most of the time it is both easier and better played on its personal computer counterpart. I was very surprised with Diablo 3 on the PlayStation, they made it easy to change out equipment on the fly and the mini map was very cleanly added to the interface. I also got to finally met Brandy Camel (CM_Nevalistis) from the Diablo team at the end of my demo.
After catching up with some things on Twitter, I finally met up with Christina Sims (CM_Zeriyah) and Lyndsi Achucarro (TheLyns) both from Team 5 (Hearthstone). I found out about the upcoming adventure, The Curse of Naxxramas, (Very exciting news) and tracked down Leeroy Jenkins (CM_Keganbe) for the super limited edition Leeroy Jenkins pin (Hands down the best thing I got all weekend).
Later on that same day, I got to try out Heroes of the Strom for a bit (Played Murky), attended a Razer meet up, finally met up with Stephen Stewart from BlizzPro and his friend Waterfiend from DiabloIncGamers, grabbed some grub, bought a few pins from Behemoth (Derp giraffe rules), won an awesome Book of Tyrael from Kadala’s Gambit (Diablo 3’s daily raffle), and bought a Rowsdower plushie (WildStar). The very last thing I did on my first night was waited for the line to play the alpha of Warlords of Draenor, never got to play, but I did receive a beta key, in consolation.
Day Two
Accomplishing most of the things I wanted on day one, day two was much more relaxed. Right off the bat, I arrived early and stood in line at the PAX East merchandise booth to acquire some rare and sought after pin. While waiting, I just played some Magic the Gathering and talked with of the people in line. After that I casually lounged around chatting with people and playing Pokémon enjoying my breakfast and Starbucks I brought with me until the doors to the expo floor were well open.
Around 11 AM, I went down to the Blizzard booth again and was first in line for an autograph signing with Paul Teutul Jr. (American Chopper) and Holinka from Blizzard. They introduced Azeroth Choppers; they are doing a custom motorcycle build off based on the two factions, in which the fans are going to vote for one of the choppers to be virtualized into a mount in-game. After I grabbed a few lanyards a friend really wanted and met and talked a bit with Val Maun (Vmaun), a recruiter for Blizzard. I hung out for a long time in the tabletop area, talking with some people and gaming a bit. Lunchtime came and passed and before I knew it, it was time for the other major event I went to PAX East to see.
TeSPA Hearthstone Collegiate Open
Around 3 PM, I hopped over to the Twitch booth and its glorious shag purple carpet and setup a spot to view the main event of the day. During set up the booth was joined by Jason Chayes, Eric Dobbs, Lyndsi Achucarro, Christina Sims, Keganbe, and Hearthy.
Our pro team member, zRusheR (Tommy Zhang), was in the semifinals in search of a share of the $5000 scholarship prize pot. He was joined by DarkAngel, Zeph, and RisingVirtue.
The tournament was streamed live on Twitch’s own channel and shoutcasted by Chris Chan (ChanmanV) and Kevin Knocke. The format was the typical BO5 style that Blizzard previously used in its own invitational, with the addition of each combatant, having a pool of nine totals decks they could choose from. If you lost a round with Warlock though, you would be locked out of that class for the set; the winner continued playing with the same deck for as long as it held up.
ZRusheR destroyed DarkAngel in their semifinal match, 3-0, defeating a mid-range Hunter, a “Handlock”, and a legendary Druid deck. RisingVirtue squeaked out his win with an amazing tempo Rogue deck turning around a 2-0 deficit into a 2-3 victory.
After some interviews with the winners of the semifinal rounds, the finals started. Zrusher lead with a rush Hunter deck versus a watcher Druid deck, he won with a huge burst of damage in the end. Game two, RisingVirtue came back with his impressive Rogue deck and beat the Hunter. Game three, zRusheR swapped the deck that carried him in the semis, the “Handlock”, finally shutting down the Rogue deck. Game four, RisingVirtue rushed down the “Handlock” with Hunter. The final game, zRusheR, came out victorious, managing to stave off a double trap and unleashing a Force of Nature for the coveted dragon goblet and a $2500 scholarship for his effort. RisingVirtue ended up getting $1500 and the rest of the contenders received $500. After the match and the crowds clear, I met up with the winner and ChanmanV briefly before heading back to my hotel.
Demolish the Devs and Wrap Up
Later that night, after recovering a bit and enjoying some Gatorade and a sandwich from 7-Eleven (Super fancy), I went back to the convention for the last event I attended.
GameSpot had a panel called, “Demolish the Devs”, in which developers from Hearthstone (Jason Chayes & Eric Dobbs), Titanfall, and Street Fighter were challenged by the crowd. There I met IVs (A ManaGrind veteran) and finally had time to get some of the Hearthstone developers sign WoW TCG cards I brought with me (They were all Murlocs, of course).
That was the end of day two and my experience this year at PAX East. I had a blast and I met a bunch of cool people (Hope to meet even more next time around). I can’t wait for next year and hope to see Blizzard back again! Maybe, even next time I’ll see you. Thank you for reading!
Article by Homebrewed, Formatted by Whale_Cancer