Event Review
I had a blast this weekend at FFBE Fan Festa. It was great seeing a lot of old friends I haven't seen in a while. It's rare to see many of us at one event since we're all spread out in SoCal. Met some new people too. I met content creator YouTuber EmoTempest. Dude's nice, wish we could've talked more. It sucked that one of my buddies Taylor couldn't make it. He was part of staff so it definitely made an impact on the TCG area. I finally got to play the famous foil Max. That was fun. Wish we could've played more. As usual, I didn't take that many photos, so the TCG area is missing. Whoops. Lol.
The TCG area was packed! I mean, no joke, it was nonstop busy, the demand was real. Even RB didn't expect this much demand. I think there was 4 rows of tables, but that wasn't enough space to hold the events, demos, and random battles at the same time. They had to kick people out when an event was starting. The demo line was super long. They only had so much space and staff. Even some people from the community helped out a bit with some demos. The events were always filled and limited to one or person. They had to turn away so many people, which sucks because it potentially prevented new players joining the game.
Day 1
I entered the Constructed Tournament. It filled up quickly. I probably should've edited my deck from the last tourney I've played that was months ago. It was single elimination, which has its perks compared to having a top cut. But I lost my first match to Joshua Prijoles, who eventually won the tournament and got a Bahamut Play Arts Kai figure. I was definitely out of practice and made some questionable choices, but it was still super fun getting back into the game. The participation prize was the new Fire and Earth Dice set, the FFBE storage/deck box, and a Yang foil promo. There may have been other prizing given as you advanced more.
There was also a Sealed tournament and a Chocobo Crystal Hunt tournament. The sealed tournament was filled, but apparently there was six people that didn't show up. I could've played in it if I checked before it started. 😭 I assume the participation prizes were also lit.
Day 2
I did the Starter Deck tournament and got 2nd. Got blocked by Matt Okimoto again! It was super fun though. I miss playing Type 0 cards so it was nice, reminds me of my early TCG days. Type-0 starter deck was shown as sold out, but it didn't hurt to ask, so when I did, they said that they had it. An announcement would've been nice. Some people wanted to get the Type-0 deck but didn't know that they restocked it for Day 2. The participation prize was Fire and Earth Dice and a Yang foil promo card. As you advanced, they gave a Lasswell promo and Dissidia promo card pack. 3rd and 4th place won 4 Opus VII packs. 2nd won 8 packs. 1st won 16 packs and a Noctis full art promo card.
They also had a sealed tournament. I was about to participate in that since the last person wasn't there, but then he showed up. I didn't mind though. I wanted to do the random Battles for the rest of the time there.
Gunslinger with RB
This was fun, but hard to do. You had to beat RB within 20 min to win. Again, hard to do if you've played against RB before. He's good so you have to do well to beat him, but to also do so in a timely manner? Pretty difficult, and not just by my standards of pace (I'm slow so it's hard for me to do). My friend plays super fast, like 10-20 second turns fast. For him to go to time is very very rare, which usually means it's on the opponent's fault. The prize though for winning? A FFBE deck box. Pretty sweet. If you lose, you get a Lasswell promo card, also still pretty sweet. 😊 It's a Win-Win situation playing in the Gunslinger, or any event for that matter.
The Random Battles were on both days basically regular matches with another player. After playing three matches and getting a slip signed by your opponent and staff, you turn it in for a Lasswell promo. The first day, they said it was limited to one, so most people did just that. But the second day, many people did multiples. I don't think the staff cared at that point. There was no way to determine if you did multiples of them. So some people grinded random battles for most of the time there. One guy said he had a total of 9 Lasswell promos by the end of the event. I only managed to do one random battle per day. Didn't have much time for any more. Random Battles matches were always the first to get kicked out when events were starting to make space so that also took up time to wait for the events to play out. But it was rare, usually just for the second event of the day when they needed that space.
Loot I scored
Merch Store
Cups. When will SE learn. Their Moogle, Chocobo, and Cactuar cups are always one of the first merch to sell out at their events. They should know by now to bring more cups! Luckily, I already own them. Everything looked sold out by the end of the event, aside from the FFBE plush moogle and TCG stuff. They did sell out of playmats and some sleeves. I think the sealed events helped with that. On Day 1, the Prerelease kits and Type 0 Starter Decks sold out, so that's a good sign. The only item they restocked for Day 2 was the Prerelease kits and Type 0 Starter Decks, most likely for the tournaments that day. But like I mentioned earlier, an announcement about it would've been nice. The line was super long at the beginning of the event. They had to cap the line and handed out tickets to get into the line later. I didn't get to purchase stuff until after the Constructed tournament, which was past 12pm Day 1. But I'm glad that we got everything we wanted. I got a Moogle plush (thanks to Arvin), the three towels, and the FF playing cards.
FFBE activities
I did mostly just TCG stuff on Day 1 and did the FFBE activities the on Day 2, which I think was a smart move. The event was packed. All the activities had lines. When it got to the second day, there was less people, so not that many lines/waiting time to go through.
Photo Op
Art Gallery
I'm still new with the game, so there was a lot of characters that I didn't know. But that art work was still fantastic. I think they mentioned no photography, but that wasn't enforced very much, at least on Day 2. People were taking photos left and right. I only took a few. I also heard that some of the artwork wasn't in the art books that they sold at the event. Not sure if that's true or not so don't take my word for it. 🙄
I didn't participate in three activities: the Meet and Greet signing sessions with the developers, the Obstacle Course, and the video game thingy. Lol. I don't even know the name of it. The line was super long, so we didn't do it. But it's basically a big screen room and you play as a player with body motions and stuff to battle. Sounded like fun, but again, super long line for it. I had TCG stuff to do! 😁
Concert and Katy Perry Collaboration Announcement
I liked it more than I thought I would. I love orchestra music so when The Orders came out with all the instruments, I was excited. The Battle Theme definitely got me pumped and sounds great live. Those strings man. Awesome stuff. The home and menu screen music had a fantastic version. Sorry, don't know any names of the songs. Lol. Unfortunately, we had to leave a little bit before the concert ended on the first day for dinner. I definitely wanted to stay for the second day concert since we missed the last of the first day's concert. It was so-so for me though. I was sleepy through some of the pieces. But the Victory Fan Fare and Chocobo Theme was classic. A lot of us were hoping that Katy Perry would perform her new song, but that never happened. 😞 Pretty lackluster advertising for me tbh. I should've brought my sister to this event. I was thinking about it too to get some extra swag from the event, but didn't. She loves Katy Perry. Whoops. Misplay. But no one would've guessed that the music celebrity guest was going to be Katy Perry. I wanted a selfie with her but she didn't stay long. She talked a bit on stage, answered some questions, and was out of there. Oh, funny story though. My brother actually did guess Katy Perry when I was talking about the mystery musical guest. I think she was on the radio at the time. When he said that, I was like, "uhhh yeah right!" And so he was. 🙄
KBBQ and In n Out Dinner
You can't have a TCG gathering without a KBBQ dinner, so we left early to beat the traffic. Luckily, a big group cancelled their reservation so we didn't have to wait too long for our table. A lot of us, in Greg Cole's terms, leveled up for this dinner. We all ate more than we usually do. Stan Chin never ceases to amaze me with his appetite. The dude could eat a whole cow and still have more room to eat. I dunno how he stays so fit on top of that. For Day 2 dinner, we just had some In n Out on our way home since we all spent a lot of money for the weekend. Still good grub. Never gets old.
Swag Bag
The entry swag bag included an exclusive t-shirt, lanyard, a water bottle, a set of three collectible pins, a microfiber cleaning cloth, and a Lasswell promo card, all packaged up in a FFBE sling bag. The stickers were obtained from doing the activities.
I'm missing the event already. 😕 But at least we can look forward to the dedicated FFTCG Fan Festa in February!
