Gamescom 2015 Cologne, Germany

Gamescom 2015!

Gamescom entrance

After the wine/champagne tour I made a last minute trip to Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. It is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, gaming event held in the world with over 300,000 entrance tickets sold.

Very little people know that I've been a gamer since age 10 starting with my dad's Starcraft to various PS and PC games, Diablo, WOW, etc. I even majored in 3D animation in the hopes to create games of my own and currently stream games on Twitch. The only events of this kind I went to was Siggraph and Comic Con and I was super excited to go. We knew some people going, but did not make any plans other than last minute booking at the Hyatt Regency Cologne Hotel (at 3x the price, everything else was booked) and one-way train ticket. Not even a return trip or a entrance ticket!

I didn't know my first time in Cologne was to become one crazy trip :)

Cathedral

<3

Hyatt Regency dining area

Overlooking the sunset from the dining area :)

We went one day early before the massive crowd came in. The 'business days' are for meetings and setting up the main areas, therefore very little crowd. We met up our friends during these days in a more relaxing environment to say hello since we figured it would get crazier. We were lucky to score two VIP passes upon arrival thanks to our friends!

ESL area

EA and Xbox area

Blizzard area

Hearhtstone, my current game of choice!

Lounge area. Check out the business people that are already passed out from the event!

Indie games - Last Fight arcade!

Posing with iconic monument from my first game ever, Starcraft.

Twitch booth!

The day arrived for the 'general admission' and we had to fight through the mass crowd to get anywhere. Since all the new releases of games from major companies are revealed here, people often wait 2-4 hours to play 10 minutes of a single game. With the crowd in summer makes the convention feel like an oven - I have no idea how these people do it! I refused to play games unless we knew someone who can let us bypass and luckily didn't have to wait more than 10 minutes.

New Hearthstone deck was so intense

Boyfriend getting coached by one of the commentators, Frodan

The real Hearthstone!

Goofing with one of the Hearthestone producers, Hamilton :)

David is one of the producers of Starcraft. I forced him into a mandatory photo.

 
Another cool game was Overwatch, which I played every single day - last game with the producer Jeff himself :)

We were invited to watch the match by a popular game called Counter Strike by the EnVyUs team manager, but by the time we got there they've already finished the match by a crushing win. The setup is a large few-story high stage, not unlike a rock concert, with an expensive setup that costs about $300,000 per day! They told us one match usually lasts 3-4 hours, but they won in a little over one hour. We got there after the crowd had left and only confetti on the stage was left.

The gaming setup where the pros battle it out

View from stage up top

All in all, it was an awesome experience and it opened a lot of insight into the gaming world. I see many other gaming events in the future :)