Steezy and Smurfee's PAX Adventure (Pictures!)

August 25th, 2011 was the start of something amazing. I had a flight to Seattle, Washington at 1:00pm and when I woke up that morning I had no idea what the next four days would entail. I didn't know if the people I would be staying with would be anything like I knew them from playing online. I was a little nervous that day, but having spent the last year getting to know these guys online, I knew I had nothing to worry about.

That morning I got up and my first order of business was to print out my co-pilot, Smurfee McGee. I had the pleasure of being able to adopt him and take him along for my first ever trip to PAX.


Printing out my partner in crime..

Soon after I obtained my new friend, we were ready to go to the airport!




Made it on the plane!

Now me and Smurfee had something in common, we both never been on an airplane before. We were a little nervous, but after we went above the clouds and seen how beautiful the scenery was (window seat, bitches!), all our nerves went away and we enjoyed the ride.






Clouds are lovely to look at, especially when you're above them.

An hour and twenty minutes went by and we landed in Seattle. Shortly after, we united with Corduroy Turtle and COM 01 and we all made our way to Knutaf's house to begin our PAX adventure!

At Knutaf's house, we got to meet Knutaf, Mr Andy Dixon, Occams the Electric Toothbrush, and Law of Thermal Dynamics (unfortunately no pics).

After seeing everyone and catching up, we decided to make our way to the Indie GameWorks meet and greet that Destructoid held.


Smurfee wanted a picture with the gang, on our way to GameWorks.

We finally arrived to GameWorks and boy was it a clusterfuck. There were so many people there, and we had trouble finding the Dtoid crew. We ended up walking towards the bar area and of course that's where we found everyone.

We ended up being in the middle of the clusterfuck, but I got to meet a few Dtoiders like Gobun, Jesse Cortez (Tactix), Funktastic (who gave me a copy of MGS for Playstation!), Power-Glove and Jonathan Ross(didn't get a picture!). Among that crowd there was also..


Max Scoville!! Awesome fucking pose!

We soon made our way outside of GameWorks for some fresh air, and found these fine gentlemen outside..


Jim Sterling everybody!! *applause* (Also, fuck blur)


Danny Baranowsky (Super Meat Boy composer)!!

Both men were very nice enough to take a picture with Smurfee which was much appreciated. Danny Baranowsky (@dannybstyle on twitter) even stayed and chatted with Knutaf, Corduroy Turtle, and I and it was a very surreal experience. He's a very awesome guy and I wish we could have hung out a bit longer.

After GameWorks, we made our way back to Knutaf's house for a night of drinking and gaming. Suddenly two surprise guests showed up and made the night even better: Beyamor and Nihil (again no pics)!!

Beyamor is EXACTLY how I'd expect him to be, but a hundred times better in person. It was such an amazing experience getting to meet him. The same goes for Nihil. He has that look of a bad ass, but is really a nice person. I was afraid that his magnificent beard was going to form a fist and punch me* when I shook his hand and met him. It was great meeting both of them!

Soon after, we called it a night and made sure to rest up for preparation of the rest of the weekend.

*OMG I just thought of an awesome game that could possibly be influenced by Bayonetta. You control a man with an epic beard that can change forms into different weapons and what-not to fight baddies. Someone make this happen!

PAX Day One:

On our first day of PAX, Smurfee and I got to meet some AWESOME people! First up, these Halo Spartan cos-players had some awesome spartan suits. They looked legit and I definitely had to get a picture of them.




This is a model of KAT from Halo Reach. It was pretty awesome.




Hamza met up with our group at the beginning of the day and accompanied us to Halo Fest. He was super nice (not surprised) and let me take a picture of him with Smurfee.



IT'S FUCKING SKYRIM!!!




Ken Levine was on the show-floor and I initially walked past him when I saw him because he looked busy talking to other people. However, I seen Mr Andy Dixon sticking around wanting to get a picture with him, so I decided to head back and do the same. I was so glad I did. He thought the idea of us adopting our friend's avatars was cool. He was really nice and I got to shake his magnificent hand. It was lovely.


You better believe I played this game at least 10 times at PAX




I saw Seth Killian at the Capcom booth as I just finished up a game of Street Fighter x Tekken. I was a little star struck. He's a great person and an amazing commentator. I shook his hand told him I was a big fan and asked for a picture with Smurfee. He was happy enough to do it, but I had one problem. Who was going to take the picture? I left my group to explore the convention for a bit and I was alone. So I was left to ask some random person to take the picture for me. It was kind of embarrassing because he didn't know how to take a picture with my phone, even after I showed him. He eventually figured it out and took the picture. I shook Seth's hand again and told him how much I was looking forward to SFxTekken and left him to his duties. It was awesome!


PAX Day Two:

I didn't get as many pictures this day, because I took more time to enjoy the convention. However, I did run into Mr. Destructoid, the guys from Mega 64, and some great Storm Trooper cos-players.



I believe it was Grumpy Turtle as Mr. Destructoid. Corduroy Turtle and I ran into him and got a picture which was pretty sweet (Thanks Grumpy!).



We then walked by the Mega 64 booth and had to get a picture with the guys. So Corduroy, Andy, and I whipped out the avatars and the cameras, and the guys were nice enough to take a picture with them.


These are some awesome Storm Troopers!


PAX Day Three:

On the last day of PAX, we attended the Dtoid Live Panel and it was nothing short of being hilariously awesome. The editors of Destructoid really know how to entertain a room full of people.

After the panel, we all made our way outside to ready ourselves for the group picture (which is posted below). Right after the photo I decided that now would be a good chance to get some pictures of some Destructoid editors and that's exactly what I did.



Besides Seth Killian, I was also starstruck when I met Niero. It's like he has this gold aura of awesomeness that outlines his body. He's an incredibly nice guy and he was more than happy enough to take a picture with Smurfee. I feel like I could've said more to him, but at the same time I didn't want to take up too much of his time. I just wanted to thank him for creating Destructoid, because without him, none of this would have happened. Because of him, we are all able to call Destructoid our home and I can definitely say I've met some amazing friends. Thank you Niero!



Seeing Chad and Jordan was also awesome. I was really glad to have met both of them at the same time. Jordan is one handsome dude and Chad has that amazing smile and both were extremely nice.



Jesse is another awesome person I was stoked to meet. His love for fighting games warms my heart, because I too love the genre. He was super nice when I met him at the indie mixer and when I asked for the photo. Also, he definitely knows how to rock that fedora. We definitely need to play each other in some fighting game more often!



Lastly, we have Tara. She is even more gorgeous in person than she is on camera. After taking the photo, she was even nice enough to have a chat with me and we talked about how great it was to be able to finally put some faces to a bunch of Dtoiders. It was such a great experience.

After most of the Dtoiders parted ways, I decided to spend my last few hours in Seattle with COM 01, Occams, Law, and Kraid. We hit up Pike's Place along with a bunch of nerdy shops and I wouldn't have wanted to spend it any other way.

We did a bunch of walking around Seattle and I now have a new-found love for the city. It's super gorgeous, there's lots of tall, beautiful buildings and the TREES! Lots and lots of green trees, made it feel so comfortable. I absolutely loved it.

6:00pm was approaching and that meant I had to be at the airport. I said my final goodbyes to everyone and I entered the airport as sad as can be, but I held the greatest memories anyone could have ever had.


Talk about a VIEW! Seattle is so gorgeous!

I hopped on the airplane and took off to a place called home; but it felt like I was also leaving a home.

I landed back in Sacramento that night, my dad picked me up, and we were headed back to a place where things would go back to normal.


Smurfee was exhausted after our trip

This past weekend was one of the greatest times I've ever had. I honestly didn't expect this trip to be this awesome. An amazing time was had and it's something I will definitely cherish for the rest of my life.

Rock Band at Knutaf's house was a big highlight of the trip. I'm sure there will be videos and picture floating around of our time there, but it was definitely something to be witnessed.

Getting to meet a bunch of you Dtoiders was so surreal. Even though it was our first interaction with each other in person, it felt like we were already good friends. It wasn't at all weird or awkward. We were just good friends being acquainted for the first time. It felt good. It felt right.

I remember in my first blog I had mentioned that I wanted to be apart of the Dtoid family and be in that PAX photo. Well I am there now, and I couldn't be happier. Thank you all for an amazing first PAX experience.