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Armageddon Expo draws large crowd
The Armageddon Expo which took place late October in Auckland, New Zealand drew huge crowds of gaming enthusiasts says Matt Searles, Marketing and Promotions Manager for Coin Cascade, owners of Timezone gaming stores. "We've been involved in Armageddon for the past few years, but this year's Auckland Expo was our most successful ever."
One of the big draw cards was the 2009 Timezone International Tekken Tournament which featured players from the Asia-Pacific region. After a closely-fought round-robin which saw three players tie for two semi-finals spots, Jack Lin from Australia, BG Jae from NZ, Jeffrey Gonzales from Philippines and Jae Ryu from Hawaii took to the main stage in front of a crowd of 500 to decide who would be crowned champion.
"As anticipated it went down to the wire with BG beating Jack in the final round of the day, to the delight of the local crowd." Trophies were handed out by Katsuhiro Harada, the creator of Tekken 6 and director of Tekken for Namco for the past 10 years. Timezone brought Mr Harada to the expo to meet fans and sign posters at the Timezone stand.
"We had loads of people come by the stand to meet Mr Harada, who is a huge icon in the gaming world," says Searles. "Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it and Mr Harada was very impressed, not just with the standard of play in New Zealand, but with the way we were able to host such an event."
Searles says Mr Harada's visit coincided with the imminent release of Tekken into the home console market. "It meant Tekken was top of mind for many visitors; it was the game on everyone's lips." Far from being detrimental to Timezone, Searles says the release of the game into the home console market is beneficial. "It reinvigorates the title, makes it topical, and although people can now play it at home, they will continue to play socially at Timezone. "It's all about the experience."
Another highlight at Armageddon was the inaugural Timezone Trans-Tasman Guitar Hero Arcade competition, which was won by Jason Maddox from Auckland. Mason beat Andrew Manettas from Australia in the final.
"The competition was extremely close, with neither player achieving domination over the other and most rounds being decided by a single error - if there was one!" says Searles. "The quality of game play was astonishing and I doubt the crowd will ever see better players."
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