As of Saturday afternoon, it was obvious they had made a very good decision.
With a day and a half remaining in the charity gaming event – home to video games, board games and everything in between – they had already broken their attendance record and were primed to see numbers well above even their best expectations.
“Sitting here at the evening of our second day we’re at 150 per cent of what we’ve ever been at,” said GAX organizer Kristian Sjoberg. “It’s just amazing, and it’s continuing for another full day. We couldn’t be happier with the response we’ve seen.”
Numbers-wise, that translated to 112 players as of Saturday afternoon, spread out in rooms dedicated to various gaming activities including board, card, console, computer, virtual reality and role-playing games. Doors opened at 3 p.m. on Friday, with the event running until midnight before opening at 8 a.m. and running until 12 a.m. Saturday and from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Players paid $15 to take play any game they chose, or $30 to set up in the LAN room and do battle on their computer screens.
“You can marathon and be here every single moment we’re open, or you can come and go as you please and you don’t have to be here the whole time,’ Sjoberg said. “You don’t feel like you have to, either, with what it costs to play.”
All funds raised from the weekend go to charity (see related story), with the Cultural Centre offering a major helping hand in that regard, only charging the MJGA for internet while offering a break on the rental fee.
“They were also able to sponsor us and give us a bit more of a discount since every time we talk to anyone we made sure to let people know that the Cultural Centre has been such a great host,” Sjoberg said. “It’s such a great partnership and it helps us donate even more money to charity.”
The extra space was a major draw for the venue shift, which saw GAX move from the basement in St. Joseph’s Church.
“This would have been shoulder to shoulder in here,” said fellow GAX organizer Kurt Hebron with a laugh.
“St. Joe’s was always amazing, they were such great hosts and did so much for us, but we’ve just outgrown the church basement,” added Sjoberg. “We outgrew the Scout Hall, we outgrew the Union Hall, we outgrew St. Joes and now we have a fair amount of room to grow… Our dream is for this to be as big as ComicCon but without all the vendors. We’d love to have 10,000 people descend on Moose Jaw just to play games, that would be a good problem to have.”
One of the major draws to Summer GAX was the inclusion of a handful of competitive tournaments, the most prestigious of which was the national qualifier for the popular Settlers of Catan board game. Competitors also did battle on-screen in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate and Super Mario Kart tournaments.
“Smash Brothers has seven of the top 15 in the province here, so there are pros, and then at the same time there are kids like my son, they’re there just there to have fun and play some video games,” Sjoberg said. “It’s all about fun and doing good for the community and we’re really happy to see this many people coming out.”
