The UNICON 2018 event last weekend was pretty much a successful one despite of some slight blunders. I’d like to start by thanking everyone who attended and participated in the major tournaments and the side events as well. This event report will be divided into three parts and so this first one will be a recap of the preparations and the Friday night ingress and setup. So here it goes.
After a few meetings with Sir Philip and the rest of the gang, we finalized the number of tables that our group will be using. The tables to use are the foldable ones that are available and stocked at Rei’s place and these are more mobile and are less bulky than those used in the previous hobby events.
So six tables were already listed but what else did we need? Philip said he will be providing standees for each hobby group so I decided that time to print our own custom poster for MTG Iloilo. I asked my office mate Meljon to do a quick design which he happily obliged. I provided him files of the artworks from the official MTG website. He was quick with the output so I was able to get these ready to print files by lunchtime. However, it was only after the office that I went to the printing shop and the good thing is that there were no customers that time and so their staff was able to print the designs right away. It costed me around P260 per poster, with the dimensions 5.85 ft height by 2.5 ft width.
I informed Rei earlier of the time to ingress at Robinsons Place Jaro and asked him if the FNM that time can finish earlier so we could transfer the tables. He said that it would depend on the number of players and the matchups and so I insist that the players should be mindful of the round time. Anyhow, that did not matter much as the rounds finished earlier than the 50 minutes. I just observed some awesome plays and crucial top decks on the matches.
After the last round and prize awarding, we put up the folding tables to Mandoy’s car on his back seat. Rei was still going to his shift that time so it was only me, Mandoy and Speedy that will do the setup at Rob Jaro. We arrived at the mall’s loading bay around 10:15pm and I presented the gate pass which I got from Philip the day before. We passed through their alternate entrance to the mall that then opens to the activity area. There were already a lot of people doing their own setup, and tables and chairs that were to be used to each booth. Sir Philip was also there that time facilitating with the other groups and so I asked him where our location would be.
The designated area for MTG Iloilo was on the front side near the entrance of the cordoned area. We also saw the standee with the MTG Iloilo poster that they made. Unfortunately, the size of the tarpaulin that I printed could not fit their standee. The six tables seemed to fit well but we adjusted it so as the other groups can place theirs in a similar parallel line. There were also a lot of chairs provided so we just grabbed around 24 pieces to be used to the six tables. I then made sure that the nearest table to the power outlet will be the table used for the video display monitor and the laptop.
We then left afterward and I then went home immediately so I could prepare the things that will be needed to the next day and the first day of UNICON 2018.
To be continued…