The show was fantastic for us. My cohorts and I were vending out of the Rage Tilt booth in the vendor hall.

We ran into quite a few old friends and made a whole bunch of new ones. Since we normally vend closer to home, everyone at our local shows already knows who we are and what we do. It was nice to be far from our stomping grounds and get approached by actual fans of our stream who we've never met before. Makes you feel kind of "famous with a small 'f'".

As far as the setup of the show, I couldn't have been more pleased.

The Freeplay Room: I liked the variety. Different strokes for different folks I guess, but I thought the spread was great. Plenty of games from every generation. Sure, some went down, but that happens at every show. I really liked that "moe" retheme of Space Shuttle. I have no idea what moe is, but it played great. Cactus Canyon, Time Fantasy, Creech, Lost in Space, Farfalla (how did no one buy that?), there was a glut of quality games. I didn't see any of the wanton abuse described by others and I spent plenty of time in freeplay. Every show is going to have a few turds who abuse the games, if you see it happen, just say something to them. It really sucks to see folks run to the forums and tell others to not bring games. Keep the scare tactics to the nightly news.

The Vendor Hall: I thought it was great. Gabe and the organizers did a solid by us vendors by putting the newer games and DMDs in the vendor hall. This pulled people from the main freeplay room and got them commiserating around the sales booths. More than a handful of paying customers never would have even seen our booth if the games weren't there to draw them in.

The After Party: It's the first show that I've gone to that provided dinner for vendors and guests. It was awesome and made me feel appreciated.

The Pingolf Room: It was Southern New Hampshire running the pingolf room, right? I didn't participate in the tournaments, but I did take some time to play their games and it was great. They were super friendly and I loved the selection of games. Doodle Bug? RoboCop? Cleopatra? LOTR? Hell yeah man.

I didn't go to any seminars, but I heard they were great. I also appreciate that the EBL games were brought out onto the freeplay floor on Sunday morning so I got a few games in before I hit the road. The tournament was well-run and the men and women from the Sanctum did an excellent job at making sure everything ran smoothly.

As for the facility, it was well laid out, bathrooms were clean and line-free. There was a plethora of food and drink options in the hotel and nearby. People were friendly and the fact that actual pinball celebrities were there *and accessible* was awesome. Hell, I took a break and got to chat with John Borg, I had breakfast with Todd Tuckey and Paul Faris showed up while we were eating. It was awesome!

Thanks Gabe and crew for putting on a fantastic show, we'll be sure to be back next year!