Middle East Film & Comic Con

I've decided to cut out a review for this week in favor of posting something about the Middle East Film & Comic Con (MEFCC). I can't say that it met all my expectations, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't cool or fun.

As that massive clearly show the event took place last weekend and was in Dubai. The event was a healthy mix of most of geek culture: Videogames, celebrities, board games, card games, comics, anime, manga and sweaty sweaty nerds.

Day One 

The first day was pretty short, it only lasted four hours, but it was a pretty cool experience since you could see almost the entire hall right from the entrance. This was mostly due to the fact that the first day was only for people who had VIP tickets and of course I bought a VIP ticket, what do you think I am? A peasant?

I R A COLLECTIBLE?

I got my hands on some goodies, looked through all the really awesome local and international artists who were on hand selling stuff. I didn't really buy anything though since I usually wait a little before making purchases, but it did make for some excellent present scouting. The whole day was pretty low key since not that many people were around and some of the stalls didn't even open on that day.

Day Two

This is when the event really started. I got there right on time thanks to a tweet from +Hassan Al-Bargi that woke me up just in time. As I waddled my way into the World Trade Center in Dubai and I turned the corner that was before the corner that lead to the hall that MEFCC was taking place in,  I was greeted by a massive sea of people. It was at that moment that any doubt I had about getting a VIP ticket were just wiped away as I walked past all the rabble straight into the hall. 

This is the day I will most likely remember the most since so much was going on I could barely keep track of anything. Cosplayers, the kick off of the League of Legends and Dota 2 tournaments, all the booths opening in up to peddle their wares on to all these unsuspecting people and of course the event that took up the most of my time, the Magic the Gathering sealed deck tournament.

This was the first time I had played in an official Magic the Gathering tournament and I have to say that I enjoyed myself and I might actually think about playing in a seal tournament again. But, I was a little disappointed with the fact it took so long for the tournament to actually start and actually progress. We were there from 1pm to 7pm and I didn't even place, to put it mildly I was more than a bit disappointed at the time. What really pissed me off though was that fact that during the tournament I started seeing people running around in Rammus and Teemo hat and I longed to get my hands on those hats. So, as soon as I was done I started running around the hall looking for the person who was actually selling them, and when I found them I was told that they no longer had Teemo hats. I died a little inside and went home with that feeling that made all the other loot seem that little bit less cool.

Day Three

This was the final day of MEFCC and it was time for me to scramble to actually buy everything I wanted to buy for everyone I wanted to buy it for. This was also the day I actually got to see the conference as a whole instead of being trapped in that corner where Magic the Gathering was taking place.

Hey man, I'm sorry, but Star Trek is better.

This wasn't a day that was free of disappointment either though. Due to the fact that I put off buying things, many of the local artist has actually sold their entire stock and some of the ones that were left jacked up their prices as their stock shark and demand kept going up. All this was made better though when I walked by the stand I was at the day before to check if they had any Teemo hats, and to my surprise they did with the vendor disappearing somewhere under the tables for a while before coming out with it. It is without a doubt the happiest I was during the entire three day trip and the easiest money I spent there as well. Someone even actually tried to buy the hat off me around the end of the day and I would have sold it to them if they agreed to my reasonable price of 1000 AED.

Most likely as a result of this purchase a friend and I decided to take in some of the League of Legends games taking place and watch some of these guy duke it out on the big screen. I was a little skeptical at first, but once the game started I really got into it and I finally understood why these events can actually draw so many people to watch them and the teams can actually develop fan bases as individuals. But, I personally couldn't make it through the match without my interest starting to wane.

Before ending I wanted to do a bit of shaming for some of the shittier stands at MEFCC. Those stands by the way were the stands that belonged to Fanta and MBC. They were so hilariously out of place it was sad. But at least the MBC stand was professional with its full staff there at least attempting to not look freaking out by all the geeks wandering around them, the Fanta stand was empty for almost two days and was used by most people as a place to dump their garbage and sit for a few seconds before actually going to see something that was actually interesting.

As a whole, I had a fun time going to MEFCC, and I don't know if I would go again as soon as next year but it is something I definitely recommend that everyone who is interested to actually go and see. It was for the most part a really fun experience and I managed to get some great gifts for friends and stuff for myself. Hopefully the guys putting MEFCC together can go from strength to strength and actually temp me to come back again.