MAGIC’s third annual Good Game Fest was held on Friday, November 3 thru Sunday, November 5 at the Best Western Westminster. We drew gamers from across the state 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
MAGIC sponsored a $1,250 prize Pokémon TCG tournament. Participants arrived from all over to participate, but only the top 8 walked away with a prize and swag donated by Laughing Coffin.
Laughing Coffin owners Rachael and Chris Miller and their team volunteered their time to run the competition which lasted 8 hours!
Pokémon TCG tournament winners: 1st: Brodee (Miraidon EX); 2nd: Chris (Chien Pao EX); 3rd: Patrick (Arc Dura ToolBox); 4th: Dominick (Lost Box Kyogre)
Biz Battle
Our sponsor organizations Dynamic Dimension Technologies, Ting, and Yesdi battled it out on Friday evening in our Biz Battle.
At the end of it all, after a grueling Pump It Up dance match, Dynamic Dimension Technologies came out on top — after two years of finishing in 2nd place!
A huge thank you to all of our sponsors who helped to make Good Game Fest possible! This includes Carroll Hospital who couldn’t make it out to the event.
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 cumulative $1,520 including pairs of Baltimore Ravens tickets that went to each of the 1st place winners thanks to a donation by the Ravens Gaming League.
Check out the top 3 gamers in each tournament below!
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Our top 3 Mario Karters were 1st: Collin Mohelski; 2nd: Gabe Horner; 3rd: Liam Curry
Fortnite
For our Fortnite tournament, our top 3 players were 1st: Flint Dodge (the returning champion from last year’s GG Fest); 2nd: Anonymous; 3rd: Luke Bronico
Smash Ultimate
Our Super Smash Bros. Ultimate final 3 were 1st: Chris Kaiser; 2nd: Alejandro Marugan; 3rd: Jason (Geeg)
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 2023 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, Jealous Cat Games, Nomnivore Games and Alpha Earl Apps were hanging out demonstrating their tabletop and PC games with festival attendees.
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:
