Operation GenCon 2014 – Column #2: The Present

By Magno

How Infinity is arranged at GenCon: the present

GenCon is exhilarating in its grandeur and chaos. It almost induces a state of shock when you first observe the gaming hall and seeing the sheer amount of table space laid out for our gaming fancy.  To a small event organizer and someone who earns a living in efficienizing  projects, seeing an unused table next to your event is bile inducing. That’s why it only took members of the Corvus Belli staff a few minutes of inquiry in observing our space constraints before they asked, “How do we fix this?”

–“Well, we could buy the table space for the whole weekend. But that will cost us a few thousand dollars and its…”

“Ok, how many tables do we need?”

And just like that, the challenges and difficulties of shot gunning events at GenCon were over.

The arrangement we have at GenCon Infinity is;

-Run whatever events we choose, at times we choose, how we choose and the only limit is making sure we don’t cannibalize our own events.

-Corvus Belli’s only real condition is that we reserve a table or two for free Introductory gaming.

So, with this, we immediately began laying out times and events types for the convention. It was a strange situation not having to submit events in January or having to guesstimate and accommodate for strange times. We don’t have to worry about accounting for 1-2 hours of setting up and taking down terrain every day.

The only trouble with scheduling events at GenCon is that now gaming events are competing with Corvus Belli staff events. Oh whoa are we. Angel Giraldez is venturing to his first GenCon for a grand announcement and painting sessions. Carlos will once again be presenting the ever popular seminar.

So it’s been a very cordial and calm back and forth between the GenCon WarCors and the Infinity staff on nesting in our events to optimize for best attendance opportunity for a slew of events. Not the typical grueling, grinding fight when you are at the mercy of GenCon event staff. I want to take nothing away from GenCon’s monumental tasks of arranging all those events, but I do not miss having to go through that process this year.

Additionally, having dedicated table space and terrain that remains out on the tables, we’re afforded the opportunity to allow gamers to decide how they want to play Infinity in after hours. Because this is completely new for us, this year we’re calling this “Infinity Free for all”. What this means is that between the hours of 6pm and 7am, anyone can walk up to the Infinity gaming area with generic tickets and utilize the tables as their heart desires. Have a couple of buddies that want to try out some Paradiso missions; have at it. Want to challenge someone from a tournament to a rematch? Want to round up a handful of players and throw down a Blitz tournament or impromptu team tournament? These are all options for us.

Probably the most exciting benefit to dedicated table space this year is the ability for us to tie in all the events together in an Invitational Tournament on Sunday. While at Adepticon, we enjoyed a few beers with the folks from Warsenal and discussed all the possibilities of what we can do with our secure event space when Bill aka ThirteenPixels mentioned the idea of tying together all these grand conventions in the US and Spain. He floated the idea of how to get people from the States to Spain and vice versa. A few days later, he approaches the GenCon team with the idea of an Invitational tournament and how to run it with an amazing prize.

Normally, in April,  an idea like this for GenCon immediately gets kicked to the next year. But a few minutes of drafting an event description, coordinating with our current events, and boom; a high stakes tournament is born for GenCon.

So this year should be a grand and much more relaxed time at GenCon for Infinity players, but it also ushers in unknowns that the GenCon WarCor team. We will take great care to observe, steward and ensure great times and how to improve on them for future GenCons.