Relevant to the topic, I can only offer the following observation:

- I attended LAX 2020 this past weekend, as I have annually since 2015. KY reported its first cases this same weekend. Week prior, the local sanitizer sellouts had begun. Still, I opted to go anyway...

- This was, by far, the lightest 3-day crowd I have ever experienced at LAX. It was almost eerie. Every year, the aisles were packed, and for a stretch on Saturday it was hard to move. The organizers rearranged things this year to help with that but there was no escaping the fact that attendance - as compared to my previous 5 years' experience of game wait lines / times, break-out room crowds, and even cosplay and other tournament crowds - was down.

The fear is for real, and precaution is sensible.

What? Where did I suggest that is a good thing? I made the observation that the lines seemed down (to me, Saturday felt more like Sunday). I even tried to correct for the improved floor layout but my family, friends who attended, and even a few collectors I chatted with agreed. Sure that's not everyone and it's subjective research... For me, I correlated that to fear keeping people home. Practically everyone at the show was making shifty wisecracks and nervous jokes about COVID19 right from setup so it's not like it wasn't on people's minds.

As for whether it truly kept people away, there's no way to know for sure and it's neither good (unless you relish the short lines and light crowds) nor bad (unless it affects show & vendor business and viability)... it simply is what it is. Maybe it was the weather. Maybe it was the time change weekend. Who can say for sure. Maybe me and everyone else I asked are completely wrong. FWIW Corey did share some attendance stats with me by late Sunday that were sorta inconclusive.

Personally I think the fearmongering IS overblown.... BUT precautions are rarely bad things. At this point everyone is accountable to their own personal threshold.

That's awesome. I've been clipping the pins off the back of Louisville Expo's pins and affixing them to aprons as honor badges for years. Recently they started coming on cards that almost work as shooter lane covers. Love having a token to prove my games survived a show.

Ftr I'm a bit too far and schedule-conflicted to realistically plan to attend mgc but it always sounded like an awesome event I'd love see. Appreciate your efforts and hope things fall in to place for a better-than-ever next year.