MY "NINTENDO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017" TRIP - IN MORE DETAIL THAN WHAT A VIDEO SLIDESHOW CAN TELL
Let's start this story a day before the main event, though. Sure, I was there for a full weekend, but most of day one was just getting familiar with NYC and where the venue is for the tournament we'd be attending.
Speaking of "we" and "us", I'll warn that some IRL friends of the family (or at least one female family-friend and her husband) went along with me to see this piece of Nintendo history in action.
Day two would be the shopping day, and among the places we went was the first multi-story McDonalds I've ever been to (interior pictured)
Other places we shopped at included local stores for tourists and the famed Nintendo New York store (that as of the time this blog post was made, was FINALLY making a counterpart for the West Coast!)
Pardon the use a of a fanmade Price is Right border and backdrop here, I lost the original images for these. In any event, what you see here is just the BOTTOM floor of the 2 story Nintendo store (as of when I went, there was an entire area upstairs JUST for Pokemon as well as a display of the consoles and handheld units of Nintendo's past... including the Game Boy that literally ended up going to war.)
One thing about the store, though, is that they thought of everything when it came to branding... even the phone charging station!
While on the topic of the Nintendo store, there was a HUGE crowd at one point due to people waiting in line for one of the invitees to the event. One only a WWE Diva could pull such a line (in this case, Bayley)
Once most of the day of shopping was done, we headed to the hotel for the night, only to be excited for the main event the next day. Needless to say, we all got up early and did everything we needed to (including putting on a special shirt bought at the Nintendo store just for the event that was too small for me even THEN). Once we got to where we would line up for what we THOUGHT would be the ticket process for the night's event, I decided to pull out my 3DS (I didn't have a Switch at the time) and play some games...only to be challenged by a random out there in the streets of NYC to 1 on 1 bouts in Super Smash Bros 3DS. I thought I was good, but I guess I'm only good vs low level CPUs, cause this guy handed it to me GOOD.
Another interesting event while that line was building up was a sponsored thing being done by Best Buy (and possibly a gaming influencer?) where this lady holding a Best Buy brand umbrella picked peopled from the line to answer some Nintendo trivia. I ended up being one of those folk picked. HOWEVER, there was some embarrassment, as I was a 1 person at a time event, and I didn't catch that til i blurted out an answer for SOMEONE ELSE'S QUESTION.
Though, at the end of it all, they asked where I came from to see the Championships, and when I did... they just up and gave me a $50 Best Buy gift card! (The trivia also had said gift cards up for grabs as prizes for right answers, but they musta been impressed with how far I came just to see this event in person.)
Hours later, and one line change later to another section of the area in front of the venue... (oh, and a realization that a Comic Con-like was going on next door), we FINALLY get inside to start to get seated as well as some photo ops with Mario and Luigi walkaround costumes and some other cutout places you could snap a shot at.
Here's some selfies and set shots from our spot in the audience, for good measure!
One thing I *WON'T* do here is give is my commentary on what happened during the tournament itself: the full video's still on the Nintendo of America Youtube channel.
But I *WILL* say that I was among those who did NOT see Bird & Bean coming during one Underground round. (Double elimination tournament, with the main play being "above ground" and the elimination rounds being "underground"... picture your typical side-scrolling Mario game. The upper level had newer games while the Underground had classic like the aforementioned bean game, the return of the Balloon Trip mode from Balloon Fight, and the OG Game Boy Tetris.
The main grouping's games included 2 different things from Smash Wii U (a normal fight scenario and a Home Run Derby competition), the then-new Splatoon, ARMS (which I remember having some technical issues with Joy-Cons, thus causing a delay), and as the finale: SUPER MARIO ODYSSEY (before release, just like how the 2015 edition of this tournament had Super Mario Maker as the finale)
No Shigeru Miyamoto this time, and by the time everything was done (delays included), we'd have missed our scheduled bus to take us back to our hotel for one last night's sleep before heading home.
Thankfully a bus eventually came up that we crammed into.
Despite all the fun and all the activity, there were some issues I had... achy feet from lots of walking AND lots of waiting... and probably some packed pounds from all the food ate over there.
And as you can imagine, I spent most of the day I got back home resting (we left NY the morning after the main event).
If there's anything you want to know, ask... I might answer, depending on memory.
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