Day Forty-Two: Quest for the Comic Con Shirt

7/25/14, 9:50 PM PDT

Thanks to my dad's connections, I was able to land a Comic Con ticket literally YESTERDAY. Since this would be the first time EVER that I would actually go inside of Comic Con, my nerdy self stayed up until 3 AM last night looking through the entire Comic Con schedule to make an hour-by-hour plan of what I'll be doing today.

Unfortunately, that late-night study session resulted in me waking up late. Late enough that my mom couldn't drive me Downtown like I planned. So I took the trolley.

Just like everyone else.

You don't know, but out of frame to my right was a large man wearing
a tie breathing down my neck while playing Angry Birds. No joke.

Upon arriving at the Convention Center, this is the first thing that I see.

THEY DECAPITATED FINN AND PUT HIS HEAD ON DISPLAY OH
MY GLOB.

Cute. You know. As cute as gigantic severed heads of my favorite cartoon characters can get.

First thing I did today? Went over to the Nintendo Gaming Lounge to play me some...

SUPER SMASH BROS 4 OH YES.

LOOK AT THEIR BEAUTIFUL LIVESTREAM SETUP.

It's... it's breathtaking.

During my late-night research, I heard that if you play the demo, you can win an AWESOME free Smash t-shirt. I made it my primary goal to win that t-shirt today.

And it is SURPRISINGLY hard to win that shirt. First of all, you have to play a six-minute 3DS demo. After those six minutes, if you end up placing first against all of the other CPUs, you get this ticket:

Who am I? Triple-O four two nine!

Then, you can cash that ticket in to play against three other people that also cashed in their tickets. In that four-player, items-on, final smashes legal free-for-all, whoever ends up in first place wins the t-shirt.

So yes, it is very hard to win that t-shirt.

I mean winning the actual tickets was a piece of cake. The CPUs weren't geniuses, so if you set them all to a super weak character like Yoshi, you're basically guaranteed to win every time. Sorry Yoshi, I love you and I love aMSa, but in Smash 4, let's face it: you suck.

Owowowowowowowowow.
(via destructoid.com)

But winning multiplayer? It's ridiculously hard. Especially when winning pretty much involves getting all the OP items/Smash Balls before anyone else can.

So obviously, I didn't win my first multiplayer game. But I don't call my first multiplayer match a total failure. Why? Because while I was in line for the multiplayer match, the kid in front of me was talking soooo much shit. He kept saying stuff like how we all suck at the game and if this were Melee, then he could wreck us all by playing Pichu, even in a Stamina Match. And he had the most annoying high-pitched voice too. For a thirteen, fourteen year old boy, he sure did sound like a little girl on helium. But hey, maybe his oversized braces doubled as a voice changer.

Alright, that was a little mean, but seriously, this guy was just the WORST sport. I wanted to punch him in the throat but I restrained myself because if I got arrested, my chances of winning that t-shirt would be damn close to zero.

So instead, I punched him in the throat. Through the new Smash Bros game of course. When I got put in his group for the multiplayer match, I chose Fox and just harassed the guy. Every time he got within range of me, I'd lock him in a drill kick and every time he tried to run away I'd laser the back of his stupid head and every time my charged up-smash foot connected with his sorry face and launched him into a blast zone, he let out a very vocal "GOD DAMN IT" which just fueled my fire.

In the end, I placed second to a kid that got the Smash Ball twice and absolutely wrecked everyone as Super Sonic. But damn, did it feel good to put that mouthy kid in his place.

Filthy casual. Talks shit, can't even tech.
(via brutalgamer.com)

Alright, my mini-vent is over. Pardon the language, but you have no idea how awful that kid was.

Anyway, after my multiplayer match, the clock struck 1:24, which meant it was about time for me to head into the convention center to watch the Assassin's Creed: Unity game demo/Q&A, which consisted of the head director of the project, the guy that voiced Arno (the new assassin), a co-creator of The Walking Dead (more on him later) and Aisha Tyler.

I got three out of the four, that's still a C right?

They started the panel off with this trailer for the new game.

And oh my god, for the entire trailer, I had goosebumps. This was the first time I've ever seen that trailer and god damn is it awesome.

Aisha kept making awkward adult jokes throughout the panel. At one point she was talking about getting stabbed in the balls or something, I'm not entirely too sure on the context but I heard "knife" and "in your balls" in the same sentence. But it was funny. I guess.

Also, the co-creator of The Walking Dead (Tony Moore) also made an animated short film with Rob Zombie about Assassin's Creed: Unity, which he premiered at the panel. It was really cool, but I think it might have been a bit too gorey for other people's taste, especially the scene that had a really graphic eye-stabbing shot.

Basically this, but with French people.
(via explosm.net)

A cool gameplay demo, followed by a kinda boring Q&A session, and the panel ended.

...But not without the unveiling of a WHOLE NEW ASSASSIN'S CREED: UNITY TRAILER THAT ABSOLUTELY BLEW THE MINDS OF EVERYONE IN THE ROOM. Why? Because it showed a FEMALE TEMPLAR WORKING SIDE-BY-SIDE WITH ARNO. CRAAAAAAAAAZY. Am I even allowed to post that on my blog or is that too big of a leak? Ah well, a few hundred people saw the same panel I did anyway, it's bound to be on the Internet by now.

After the panel, I roamed the main convention floor for a bit. Nothing too notable. I found the Cyanide and Happiness booth.

Right next to this very disappointed girl.

The Cartoon Network booth was interesting too, but the line was a bit too long for my tastes.

No thanks, I don't want to get digested today.

And while looking up, I found this thing. Not too sure what it is, but hey, it's cute.

Love that goldfish especially.

Eventually stumbled over to the Nintendo booth, where, lo and behold, they also were giving out tokens for free shirts. Except in here, the lines to play/compete were substantially shorter since one, it required a badge to enter as opposed to the Nintendo Lounge and two, it was competing with giant replicas of eggs from Alien and Uncle Grandpa cave mouths.

So in a typical MMO fashion, I decided to grind. Tickets, that is. Not the dance move, I promise.

Basically, I just played the 3DS demo over and over again until I got 10 or so tickets. Then I camped at the multiplayer area, hoping to win within 10 tries. On my second attempt, I got paired up with a girl dressed as a female assassin and two guys that looked like effing PROFESSIONALS at the game. I don't know what, but something about those two just radiated intimidation/mastery at a simple party game.

"Go on. Take my Smash Ball. I dare you."
(via usatoday.com)

But to my surprise, they didn't really know how to play. And I stomped (erm, punched) all three of them with Little Mac. And it was GLORIOUS.

Here are the spoils of my victory.

The token and the flyer they gave me upon being crowned the Champion.

The reverse side of the token.

Went back to the Nintendo Lounge to cash the token in and I FINALLY GOT THE SHIRT. Look at it. It's so beautiful.

The front. Ignore my Gamecube controller for now.

The back.

Shoulder design too. Wow, fancy.

Watched the rest of the Smash 4 3DS tournament while I was at the lounge, which took me until 6 PM. Worth it though, because it resulted in some AMAZING fights. Especially grand finals, where stuff like this happened. Hopefully with all the hype that happened in this tournament, Smash 4 can be a waaaaay better and faster game than Brawl ever was.

Oh, and I got signatures from famous Melee players too! Check it out.

Westballz and Scar signed the front.

Larry and Toph signed the right handle.

Tafokints signed the left handle. Also, I mispronounced his name as
"Takofints" when I met him and now I feel bad.

And what's a convention without taking pictures with some COSPLAYERS?! Ignore my stupid, stupid facial expression in most of them, I still have to learn how to properly smile.

Up first, Mako Mori from Pacific Rim.

Miss Takei?!

Next, some Danganronpa peeps.

Leon and Junko. Or ██████, can't tell which.

I think this one's my favorite. Freaking STEVE from BLUE'S CLUES.

Mailbox's left eye also glowed red occasionally, so I think
she's a terminator.

After taking a picture with me, Steve gave me this sticker, which I will forever treasure.

I didn't know he went to Challenger.

I was SUPER impressed with these guys though. Honest to god, I thought the guy on the left was really Matt Smith because he looks SO MUCH LIKE HIM.

Here's a pic of Matt Smith. Compare and contrast. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Woah, poses!

I asked for a picture with him, but he looked more annoyed than anything.

Whateverrrr, Michael.

I don't know what this thing is, but it was adorable and it was soft so I had to take a picture with it.

Animal Crossing, maybe? Fact check me, Samantha/Kayla.

Here's the female assassin that I fought against when I won my free t-shirt.

Pit does NOT approve.

And a creepshot of a kid I saw cosplaying as Ness. He was really into it and I didn't want to get out of line so I just took this picture without his permission. Sorry, dude.

"It's k bro."

RFotD: When I went to Comic Con badgeless last year, I actually got more free stuff than when I went today with a badge.

SGAT: Nothing. But hell, I went to Comic Con, so this zero day was worth it.