USA Games Day 2013

 In this year I was lucky to visit USA Games Day 2013 which took place in Memphis, Tennessee, July, 27.
 If I'll say that I like this event - I'll say nothig. I'm sure that this farytale will stay with me for all my life.

Memphis

  My wonderful journey started right on the plane from Seattle to Memphis. It was at night with a crystall clear sky so I was charmed by the view below. Seattle was like a space world with the millions of lights. And then the sunrise begun impressing with a wonderful colors...
 So I'll begin my story about a city of the Games Day - Memphis. All it was in Memphis' Downtown:

Memphis stays on the big and beautiful Mississippi river.

    I was really struck by two things since the first minutes in the city. The first was: there weren't any people on the streets. In the morning it was especially like in "fallout", except few strange African-American people  sleeping on benches. The evening was getting bigger, mainly due to the tourists.

Beale street - all night life of Memphis concentrates here. Now it's morning.

Central Memphis' street - Main street:

Water wall on  Main street

Fountain square and Trolley stop on Main street

It was hot so it was good to walk between the fountains.

There are a lot of horse carts on Main street at evenings 

One more downtown's point of view - the Pyramid. I don't know what it is.

   And the second wonderful thing that struck me in Memphis - an amount of squirrels instead of doves:

   It could be sadly to be alone in this city. But I met Mikle, Ban (Mikhael Bartels and Ben Comets from Painting Buddha) and Octavio (Octavio Fernandes from Spain) there. Guys, thank all of you for this time which we spend together! You saved me and I've got a lot of pleasure to be with you!

Mike and Ben

  And this is a place for the Games Day - Memphis Cook Convention Center. Where these few men with boxes are going to? - Of course, to the Games Day!

Games Day

I'll show the main points of interest on the Games Day.

This is a shop: GW, Forgeworld, Black library and so on. Later it was full of a people. I spent almost two hours in the line to Forgeworld!   

 

Warhammer games for beginners:

Relic game players:

GW Design Studio Zone, where new lizards were on display:

People converting something... into something:

Contest of conversions was going at the same time. Unfortunately I don't know its results. But I liked some works very much:

 This is the traditional contest "Armies on Parade". I was very surprised by the number of presented works - more then 30.

Gold, Necrons

Silver, Woods. I voted for it.

Vimpires

Daemons

DA

 Golden Demon

And this was my goal - the Golden Demon. Contest zone:

  There were showcases with the works on the perimeter, one showcase for each category. Works which past the first qualifying round (first cut) were placed in the window, the other - on a table nearby. Then judges selected 6 finalists, which were placed on the top shelf of each showcase. Thus it was easy to follow the process of judging, but the distribution of prizes was announced at the awards ceremony.
   In the middle you can see a black cube, that was the place where the judges were. Around him GW stuff made photo- and video- shooting. 

My Harlequins are fighting!

You can find a lot of pics of entries at  Masterminis !

The result of my "performance" exceeded all expectations:
Golden  Demon in category 40k Squad - Eldar Harlequins

Bronze Demon in category 40k Single - DA Sergant

Bronze Demon in category 40k Vehicle - DA Dreadnought

Bronze Demon in category Fantasy Monster - Lord of Tzeentch on Disc

Finalist medal in category Fantasy Single - Empire General

Finalist medal in category 40k Monster - Ork Captain Badrukk

 To my mind, the highest competition was in Fantasy Single category, the lowest - in the Fantasy Band category. Of course, I don't agree with some judge's decisions. But I'm absolutely satisfied with my results ). 

Unfortunately, this magical day was over. But my adventures in Memphis thanks to Ben and Michael have lasted a little longer. But this is another story ...