Pictures? Click here to see the entire convention pictures.

Left you folks hanging there for a while? I don't know how anyone could personally stand waiting seventeen days for the third part of this story of epic proportions. Keep in mind that I have been sort of kinda busy with updating the site and getting ready for our local Ruby and Sapphire Challenge (which was a blast). So for those out there who have criticized me for spending more than needed time to update you with the spiffy details surrounding the convention, remember this: "I was only goofing off half of the seventeen days."

The morning of GenCon was expected to be smooth and a dose of Pokemon that would aide our bad luck so far. Or so the weatherman thought when he predicted clear skies in Tennessee in the last report! We should really learn not to trust those people, as well as individuals who receive information from certain tournament organizers regarding the next Best Of Promotional Card which was expected to be Cleffa... Anyways with a deck for each format in hand, badges, and a Krispy Kream doughnut in hand, we loaded up the van for our trip to the convention center. Traffic was horrible. Locals probably had it worse, since it was a Thursday, but for those of us who had to make it to a certain event or miss out on prizes, well, that takes precedence. We circle around the convention center once, seeing the line outside of the building. I just happened to spot BondiBorg in his Pojo.com shirt. He should have pre-registered! Heidi finally manages to find a nice parking lot behind the RCA Dome and the whole crew walks around the building sampling the fine sights of downtown Indianapolis. Then we enter the building.

If the line outside didn't tell us something, the crowds inside sure did. At the time, the party thought that those lines were for Badge Registration for entrance into the convention itself. Little did I know that it was for Generic Event Tickets, the one stupid, idiotic, fatuous, foolish, silly, and all other related synonyms that the LETHARGIC GenCon Event Staff decided to pull on ALL attendees. What was the big idea? You needed Generic Event Tickets to enter into any seminar, tournament, or event. While that may sound all fine and dandy, understand that every single event was a different dollar amount. So of course, instead of making the organizers or individuals halls responsible for handling the event fees, they decide to set up one large booth in one location to sell Generic Event Tickets each that equaled $1.50 in value. Again, this might sound quite easy except that they did not print ANY of these god forsaken pieces of low quality paper in advance. So, for instance, if my imaginary friend Joe would purchase $150 dollars in Generic Event Tickets, the slow printer would have to kick out one hundred individual tickets. From what I understand, they started requiring your name to be printed on the ticket itself, so that nobody else could use the tickets. That was counter productive and took way too much time, so they quickly stopped that process.

Meanwhile, I was scoping out the TCG Hall, trying to mind my own business and keep a low profile for the time being while I sorted out my deck for the Modified tournament. I was running the deck that FreakDeluxeTE made for our "Build The Pojosama a Modified Deck" contest...

4 Zubat NR
3 Golbat NR
3 Crobat NR
2 Grimer LC
2 Muk LC
2 Cleffa NG
2 Pichu NG
2 Murkrow NG
1 Suicune NR

12 Grass Energy
3 Darkness Energy

4 Professor Elm
4 Copycat
4 Pokemon Trader
4 Double Gust
3 Gold Berry
2 Focus Band
2 Pokemon Fan Club
1 Town Volunteers

Seriously, this is a beast, but what he needs to win with this deck, are the Flips. If he'd get 2-3 Heads on Cross Attack, its fairly easy. Unfortunately, one or no heads will really hurt the deck. Crobat saw its large run during the early days of the Neo Block when Feraligatr was the only tier one deck in the Modified format. However, those days have gone for Gatr since the rotation of Modified losing a few essential key cards. Crobat was quickly countered by Discovery Espeon and it's been downhill from good old Crobat since. Most consider it, as I do, a rogue deck. The Modified format during the convention had three big decks: Magcargo/Entei, Feraligatr/Parasect, and Scizor/Furret. Crobat had a chance, but the odds were not very good if it was matched up against anything else but Gatr. And I was right in the end, placing 18th out of 35 players. I still walked away with the satisfaction of knowing that I was not going to be flipping many coins this week and kissed a few sleeves good bye for another deck.

Heidi showed up sometime in between the tournament sharing the news regarding Generic Event Tickets. I didn't hear anything about it until she showed up three hours later after standing in line buying some for her family. I was lucky enough to have pre-registered for the first 9am Pokemon Modified Tournament incase we were running close on time the first day, but now I wished I would have pre-registered for everything. What a hassle it would have been if Douglas Zuver, famed Zapdos player and local judge, didn't purchase a bunch of extra Generic Tickets and sold them to Pokemon players. What a great guy. I think I'm going to have to hand Doug a lava cookie! Just avoid feeding it to his Espeon, Furret will throw a tantrum over not receiving his "fair" share of his delectable pastry.

Later the same day I played in a Unlimited Tournament with Sneasel/Furret, which was a lot of fun to play. I placed eight in that tournament, walked away with a few packs and reverse holographic energies.

Mingling with other players was also a crucial part of the first day... some faces and names I remember, others I just plain forgot, but I still love you. People like Gymbo (Jim), Cory Davia, TR Cassidy, Lia and her family, Pokesensei, RaNd0m (Jon), Nick15 (Philippe), KaiserMyuu, Ness (Jason), Yoshi (Steve), NoPoke, Freddy K, David Freidlander, MTMike, DMTM, the Gillette family, the entire Pokemon USA staff, MTJimmer, MTDave, and *Misty* (who was one of the few who actually asked for a special autograph, hope you enjoy it).

I also ran into some friends who ran the WotC demo booth at Magic US Nationals/JSS Championships in 2002. Guess what they were doing? Demoing for WotC again. At the Wizards of the Coast booth I sampled the Neo Pets TCG, which for the most part, is the Star Wars TCG. A little advice for Garfield (nobody else read, thanks): you should have copyrighted some of that game's mechanics, as you did with tapping, because now Wizards is going to use them in every single future game. In addition to Neo Pets, which looks promising and completely random, another demo on the list was The Simpsons. Called a Trading Card Game and even showing set numbers and rarity symbols, but this game is clearly made for multiplayer. Mike Gills told me it was designed more for a party atmosphere. If it was up to me, since it is considered a "party" game, I rather not be trying to collect all the cards and trade for them. Sadly, The Simpsons, unlike it's big brother on television, will be the biggest bomb that Wizards of the Coast has made since Harry Potter. I swear the game itself is so simplistic and so boring that I'd rather be playing the Spongebob Squarepants CCG.

Speaking of which, I headed over to the Upper Deck area to try to find our Pokemon Zeo buddies who are touring with the Yu-Gi-Oh Mall Tours, Ech and Purity. I managed to hunt down Purity as she bought some munchies on day one and proceeded to stalk her until I blew my cover and threw my cheese covered nachos to distract her. A close call indeed folks. Perhaps that's why I never got a copy of her Live Nude Sneasel card... *sniff sniff* Don't worry I will not hold it against you Pure, since Ech and yourself spent alot of time on those super cool poster cards given out to the WotC Customer Support Staff (as seen in pictures). Meanwhile back at the Upper Deck booth, Ech managed to lure me into the dark side and demo Yu-Gi-Oh with me. Unlike most other demos, Ech constructed two decks himself, giving the better one (or so I hope), to myself, and a bad deck to himself in order to ease the game. I caught on fast, since Yu-Gi-Oh is basically Magic/Pokemon with really tiny text and bad OP program. Wait. That has nothing to do with the demo. However it is still true. Heh. I ended up losing the match, thus destroying my heart. Heart of the cards. Or something all mystical and satanic like that. Who knows, could be a trekkie thing. In addition to Yu-Gi-Oh, I also managed to pick up the Spongebob CCG, which was colorful and simplistic. Really had no plot at all, but it's fine for a game marketed to kids with no organized play. The next day I come back to the Upper Deck booth to try my luck with the Marvel CCG. This was a very large attempt to take Warlords and Yu-Gi-Oh, mix them together in a blender, and add a whole bunch of restrictions. End result is a cool concept with confusing rules and restrictions. That or the individual who demo'd the game did a bad job. Artwork was amazing on the cards and with proper marketing, the game should hit off well with the comic fans.

Following my adventures in exhibit hall land, I made my way to the colorful Nintendo booth. Pokesensei was helping out the demos for the Pokemon TCG, while Yoshi was on the side watching and talking with Jimmer. Dave Freidlander also was kind enough to teach me the Pokemon TCG... which was very challenging. At one point I broke down and started crying for help. A sad moment in Pokemon history. Every day at the Nintendo booth they held a raffle for various Pokemon stuff like EX: Ruby and Sapphire Booster Packs, Mouse Pads, e-Readers, Pokemon Ruby or Sapphire Games, and I believe a few Gameboy Advance SPs too. Promos and super cool EX: Ruby and Sapphire Posters were also some freebies given out to all who wanted some.

Decipher, Atari, WizKids, and some other big names in gaming also did some demos, but time restraints kept me from making a visit to their booths. I stopped by Score for a few seconds to watch the Yu Yu Hakusho demos and DBZ demos. I'm not a huge fan of the Yu Yu anime series, as it seems more like the Dragonball storyline stuff, which I prefer over Hakusho. From what I've heard, the card game itself is very similar to Pokemon too.

With day one complete, I really was hoping that the next day would be a bit more smoother for all who wanted to play some Pokemon. The conclusion to my trip to GenCon will be posted soon. Till then, enjoy the photos.

-GymLeaderPhil