Indy GT Circuit: SoCal Smack Down Review

Blood of Kittens is proud to get a guest writer for Labor Day weekends SoCalSmack Down Indy GT. Warhammer fans might know Pat Lowinger from SoCal Warhammer Radio he has been generous with enough with his time to review the first SoCal Smack Down held in Orange County California.

Well, the first SoCal Smackdown has come and gone.  For those of you that missed it it was located this past Labor day weekend, September 3-6 at the Anaheim Hilton across the street from Disneyland.  The venue was top notch and I might say it was almost too nice for gamers, who traditionally go everywhere in shorts and t-shirts, but it was a class act.  The event organizers really put on a quality event for the unbelievable entry fee of $25 for pre-registers and $30 at the door for the entire weekend.  For those that attended, it was really a great time.

With that said, the attendance was light with only 300 or so making it down for the weekend.  The 5000 square main event room and 3000 square foot over-flow area was at times sparsely occupied.  The tables and terrain were top notch and numerous games; including RPGs, board games, historicals, War Machine and Flames of War, to name a few were crowd favorites.  Several demo events ran throughout the weekend and a golden ticket qualifying event for Warhammer 40k and Fantasy went off with only one hitch.

To be completely true to my journalistic intentions, the best general award in the Fantasy event went to Mike Kelly and his Chaos Demons army.  Mike Kelly received 5 out of 5 zeros for comp and sportsmanship from his opponents according to the tournament organizers, who have not yet released the raw scores to the public but did post them at the event.  In the minds of numerous persons in attendance, including myself, he should have be disqualified but the T.O.s allowed him to remain in the event, receive prizes and win a golden ticket.  The T.O.s assured me that there will be a mechanism in place to deal with this issue if it ever happens again at an event run by the Southern California

Gamesworkshop League, but were unprepared for it this time, because something this egregious has never happened before at one of their events.  With approximately 30 players in 40K and somewhere around 8 players for Fantasy, half the guys at the event had to play this guy in one of their 5 matches.  I think they would have rather gone to the dentist.  Well, I have said enough, the event is over.

Well the event organizers have guaranteed that the next SoCal Smackdown will again be held at the Anaheim Hilton on Labor Day weekend of 2011.  I think this event will be what all war gamers in Southern California have been waiting for.  I know I will be going back next year and I hope to see you all there.