MAGIC’s second annual Good Game Fest was held on Friday, November 4 thru Sunday, November 6 at the Best Western Westminster. We drew gamers from across the country to participate in a weekend of retro arcade gaming, console and tabletop tournaments, and more!
Here’s a quick recap of what went down…
Retro Game Arcade
Good Game Fest partner Save Point brought in truck loads of retro arcade games for attendees to play for free all throughout the weekend. They brought in some of their event-only arcade machines like MaiMai, Dance Evolution, and Dance Dance Revolution!
Save Point is open in Union Bridge Friday thru Saturday with their free play arcade (donations encouraged!) and vintage game store. Check them out! You can find their games all over, including in the McDaniel College rec lounge.
Tabletop Games & Tournaments
Laughing Coffin sponsored a $1,250 prize Pokémon TCG tournament. Participants flew in from all over to participate, but only the top 8 out of 47 walked away with a prize. In fact, all of our top 8 participants were such good gamers that they decided to split the prize evenly — each walked away with a $156.25 prize.
From Laughing Coffin owners Rachael and Chris Miller: “We really appreciate everybody coming out to enjoy our Pokémon 1.25k! It was a great opportunity to network and meet new people with an interest in gaming and TCG. We hope everybody can make it out to our Pokémon 2.5k in January!”
When they weren’t competing, festival goers could play a dozen different games donated by City Park Gaming and Brew Room!
Pokémon TCG tournament winners (left to right): Travis Rowley, Chris Franco, John Orgel, Tito Algarin, Hal Stewart, Zach Heeter, Clifton Dalgard, Sam Scalco
Biz Battle
Our sponsor organizations Dynamic Dimension Technologies, Carroll Community College, Ting, American Ice Co. Café, Laughing Coffin, and Carroll Technology and Innovation Center battled it out on Friday evening in our Biz Battle.
At the end of it all, after a grueling Dance Dance Revolution match, Carroll Community College came out on top!
A huge thank you to all of our sponsors who helped to make Good Game Fest possible! This includes our sponsors that couldn’t make it out to the event: Skyline Technology Solutions, Carroll Hospital, and Maryland Print House.
Console Games & Tournaments
Good Game Fest attendees had their pick of PCs, XBOX Series S consoles, and Nintendo Switches courtesy of Laughing Coffin and MAGIC throughout the weekend.
Gamers had plenty of time to play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Fortnite before their tournaments on Saturday and Sunday.
Between all of our console tournaments, winners were awarded a whopping cumulative $1,135. A big thank you to Carroll Hospital for coming in as a prize sponsor and allowing us to bolster our prizes this year!
Check out the top 3 gamers in each tournament below!
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Our first tournament was Mario Kart 8 Deluxe!
Our top 3 Mario Karters were Gabe Horner (Sandbert) in first with a prize of $140 (far left), Robin in second with a prize of $90 (second from the left), and Cory Smith in third with a prize of $60 (far right).
Fortnite
Between the Laughing Coffin match and our tournament in the evening, Saturday night was all about Fortnite.
Out of our 20 Fortnite participants, our top 3 players were Flint Dodge (pictured) with a prize of $195, Mike in second with a prize of $145, and Dylan in third with a prize of $120.
Smash Ultimate
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate participants played it out in a close competition on Sunday morning!
Our final 3 were Nathan C (far right) in first with a prize of $170, Nolan (center) in second with a prize of $120, and Ahmad Thompson (Amekhi) (far left) in third with a prize of $95.
Vendor Village & Game Demos
The Best Western was packed with vendors from all over selling their prints, accessories, stickers, pins, shirts, plushies, and more! We couldn’t have squeezed even one more vendor into the conference center — if you were trying to find the perfect gift or collectible, this was where you’d find it!
If you missed it, don’t worry! Most of our vendors have online stores where you can get their products year-round. Our list of vendors from 2022 can be found on our Good Game Fest website here listed under “Vendor Marketplace and Sponsor Displays.”
And don’t forget to take a look at the indie game developers that came out for the weekend! Boba Studios, Glass Krikit Games, Lasso Lassie, Palaver Games, and Megacosm Games were hanging out demonstrating their tabletop and PC games with festival attendees.
Mental Health Panels & Workshops
We were thrilled to be able to work with Take This in developing a series of mental health workshops for the participants of Good Game Fest. These interactive discussions, lead by Dr. Rachel Altvater, explored the benefits of gaming as well as healthy gaming and socialization habits within the context of games. Engaging in candid discussions about video games and how they affect us is the best way to develop healthy habits and to erase the rumors, stigmas, and “moral panic” surrounding gaming.
The Take This workshops were followed by a panel discussion featuring Dr. Rachel Altvater, Kayla Balensiefer, and moderator Tina Thomas of the Infinite Love Project and Action for Kindness here in Westminster.
Thank you to everyone who came out to make this our best Good Game Fest yet! We’re already looking forward to next year, and we hope to see you there!
Thank you to this year’s sponsors and partners:
