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2/6/2024

UK Games Expo 2024

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The UK Games Expo has come around again, and gone far too quickly. This was my 5th Expo, that does count the Virtual one in 2020. I didn't attend in 2021 due to the pandemic still being a risky business. How was the event this year? AWESOME!

I got to Birmingham on the Tuesday this year with the family so we could take the kids around the city doing a number of things. Sea-Life, Lego Land Discovery Centre and the Think Tank Science Museum. Great time for the kids. I must admit that other than going shopping for Lego, I was pretty bored. Their behavior wasn't the best either. Come Friday though, Caroline was going to look after the kids and do more stuff, I was going to Expo.

Friday of Expo was really good. I got first in the queue at the top of the stairs, and for the first time ever, I managed to get on their opening Expo queue video. I finally have proof I was there. I had a list of places I wanted to go and covered everything. First thing was to collect my pile of Expo merchandise, and I got a lot. Then it was off to find Pac-Man Quoridor, that was an instant purchase. Lots of shopping later, it was time to go play in the Azul tournament. Now I am going to blame lack of sleep because it's true. I was absolutely knackered after not going to sleep until 1am, and then Tobias woke me up at 3am shouting in the hotel room, "it's dark in here!", and started crying. Got back to sleep about 4.30am and the alarm went off at 6.50am. So less than 5 hours sleep on top of the lack of sleep I had the previous nights in the hotel, I wasn't ready for anything.
Azul then. Lost the first game. My opponent said the same thing as me. The tiles came out crap. The next game was multi-player, which I'd never done before. Lost. Bad start. I seemed to locate my focus after two losses and won the next multi-player, and the next two 2-player games. I racked in 3 straight wins. I lost the final game to make it 50/50. I was happy with not being in negative numbers, which seems normal for me at Azul. Looking back, I know I could have done better the first two games. Do I really put it down to tiredness? Or the fact I haven't practiced enough and needed a warm up? The latter is more realistic.
The next tournament on this Friday was the Carcassonne 4-Player. Only four games in this. I did some tricky moves and won the first two games. I was on a bloody roll and it felt good. The third game, lost, but was playing some really good players. The fourth game was no different, excellent players, BUT, the curse of the tiles got me again in the final match, just like 2 years ago. I couldn't get the piece from half way through the game to join a city with the rest of the players, really effecting my score, and I kept getting roads. I love Carcassonne, but like A LOT of board games, they can be majorly screw you over if the right pieces or numbers don't appear. I was also finding the same player was getting a placement I was going to use on my turn, so that totally ruined my chances. Carcassonne, you can be a real evil game at times. I could swear at it but I'm being nice.
I went back to the hotel Friday feeling a bit beaten. Met some great people as always at Expo, but would have liked to have come away better than 50/50 on both Azul and Carcassonne. I also got back to the room with Caroline not in the best of moods. It doesn't help matters, or your mentality.

Saturday came, I got up later than planned. I decided I wasn't going to enter the Catan UK Championship, and never will enter a qualifier at Expo ever again as it could take up quite a chunk of the event. I'm only going to enter at Patriot Games in future and if I don't win there to get to the Sunday finals, I won't be aiming for any other qualifiers.
My day went great. I met lots of people I follow on Instagram. I bought dice. I had a nice meal. I did the Catan badge resource trading thing which I also did last year. I did the treasure hunts and entered the £1000 giveaway (didn't win either). There was even a Yu-Gi-Oh! quest which got me a notebook and badge. I loved Saturday, it was relaxing, it was fun. I also made a few wander videos which are going on my Tonyo Times YouTube channel. Very happy indeed. The Dalek in my outside video is brilliant.
The shame was that when I got back to the hotel, the mood was once again stale and the kids still wouldn't behave. Not sure what's got in to them lately? We also had a Pizza Hut which was crap, and the side of fries were probably the worst fries I've ever had. They were barely cooked. At least I got a better sleep after this.

Sunday then. The day Maverick and I were off to play in the Hive UK Championships. This turned out to be one of the worst days of the year. The Gods really hated us today.
As a family, all four of us got to the NEC. It's quite exciting taking the family to your favourite event of the year, especially as last year Maverick did so well at Hive and we met up with some friends afterwards. I handed in the treasure hunt slips for the kids, they got badges for it and there would be a draw later for a stack of board games, which is always cool. Been trying to win this for the last 2 years but you have to be at the Expo if they contact you to collect your prize, otherwise it goes to someone else. We went and did the Yu-Gi-Oh! quest together so we could claim all 4 of the different badges and get a notebook each. Well, no notebooks left and there was only one kind of badge left. That was the start of the fails. Tobias wanted his own big die from Roll Britannia, as I got a huge metal D20 on the Saturday. Maverick wanted one too when he saw them, along with some bouncy big D20's. So that put me over £75 down, an unexpected huge purchase.
It was time to go to the Hive tournament. Maverick did tell me he really wanted to do it a few weeks ago and we did practice beforehand, even in a restaurant. Today though, didn't happen. Both him and Tobias were moody all morning, but this was it. Maverick decided he didn't want to enter. As much as we tried to have fun since getting there, they weren't feeling it, Caroline wasn't feeling it, and it effected me. I decided not to enter either.
The real bummer was when Maverick said he wanted to go home. We went outside for a bit and had some ice creams, but still, they both wanted to go home. We did have the hotel booked for Sunday night, and I'd got the kids off school for the Monday to travel back home. I actually got signed permission for Maverick to have Monday off due to his Hive Championship experience. Alas, Hive and a day off school weren't meant to be. Both the kids wanted to go home early. So by 12pm, really early leaving the Expo on the final day, we went back to the hotel, packed our stuff, and headed to the station.
The train that arrived got stuffed with people, there was no way on. So we went back to the station lobby and waited an hour for the next one, which we did intend to get on as quickly as possible. As we were sitting there, I got a phone call. It was the Expo folk, WE WON THE BLOODY TREASURE HUNT! They wanted me to go and get the stack of games. I told them we had to leave because the kids weren't feeling good... that was it. We bloody WON! But we didn't. I am so gutted about this, yet another fail for the day, I don't think I'll be doing the treasure hunts again after this. Totally gutted!
We got the next train anyway. Caroline and the kids found a nice table, I had to stand with our masses of luggage along a ton of people near the doors and put up with some idiot chatting a sophisticated woman up, with his constant bullshitting and F words. I didn't know whether to laugh or throw him out of the window. When he got off at the first stop, I asked her if she was ok. Some other blokes thought it was quite funny. She handled him quite well. Anyway, next fail. The train folk announced that we'd all have to get off the train at Derby because there was a fault. Great! We got off, and the new train awaiting us was already full. Caroline wasn't in the mood, and we shoved on the best we could and stood there until we got to Sheffield. At least the train home after that was a little cooler, quieter, and had more space.

We got home. Another Expo over. How do I feel? Well I loved the event, it's always amazing. I just don't feel I recharged myself in the end. Going to conventions, especially the UK Games Expo, it's like plugging me in to a socket and making sure I have enough energy to get through the rough parts of life. I'm home now, and it feels like I'm more tired than ever. I needed this weekend to pump my positive mental health as it hasn't been great these last few months. Now it just feels like I'm on a huge downward spiral into an abyss.

I am not defeated!

From today, I'm going to be making more online media and keeping my head happy. I'm rebuilding this website, I'm planning on making board games videos and some crazy stuff. I might even get back on TikTok and do some stitches just to keep some kind of flow. I need my energy back and that new energy begins now. If the moods of others get low, then I'm not going down with it. I want to be me again and IT STARTS NOW!

I have booked my hotel for next year's Expo. I usually stay around the city centre but I've managed to book the Premier Inn at the NEC, not a bad price either. Whether the family is coming with me, we'll see. I won't deny them but if they won't sort out their moods or behavior, I will be going alone. Either way, roll on 2025.

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