Cherry Convention 2013 - Marshall Duties
Hey guys! I know it's been a while since I last made a reasonable and sensible blog. The last would have to be my movie review of Rorouni Kenshin.
Anyways, today I am going to share with you guys my experience on being a Marshall for the Cherry Convention's Dragon Nest Speed Match!
(photo courtesy of: pvp.cherrycredits.com)
YES! You read it right! DRAGON NEST. Shocking right? Some of you might say, "But, ate jaica, That's not even related to cosplay. How come Marshall ka?" The answer is simple. I too am a gamer. Hahaha.. I used to play a lot of online rpg games. To name a few: Ragnarok Online, RF online, Rose Online, Fylff, Digimon and Dragon Nest. But truth be told, I've been on hiatus because of busy schedules and complicated commitments to my career.
As I was saying, I became a Marshall for this event because I was recruited and a good friend from our head office, the Anime Alliance Philippines (AAP), asked me if I would be OK with it. And I said YES ofcourse.
To start off, our call time was 7:30am but ofcourse knowing me, I asked to come by around 8am since I live so far away from the venue - SM Megamall B Megatrade Halls 1 & 2. When I finally arrived at the hall, everybody was already busy blowing up balloon clappers to be given away during the event. When the time already came for all of us to gather and commune for the distribution of tasks, I was assigned under my good friend Katherine Barrameda in the DN SpeedMatch area together with fellow marshals.
(gather around marshals...)
We were briefed on what to do during the event. Some were placed in The Queuing Area - where they hand out queue numbers and an information sheet to be filled up by the participant. Another area was The Class Area - where the marshall ask what class would they want their characters to be. Here, the said characters is a ready-made character for the purpose of the speed match event. Use of own characters for the event is strictly prohibited.
(busy marshals on the queuing area)
And finally, the last area was The PC Unit Area, where I was assigned. Here, we are tasked to maintain an order where we are the only ones allowed to create a map for the PVP speed match. We were told to impart strict rules and regulations such as "NO LADDER. NO PVP ON OTHER ROOMS. NO USING OF SKILLS IN TOWNS & NO CREATION OF YOUR OWN MAPS." If these were not followed, the participant is hence forth disqualified from the match.
(patching DN.. RedFox PC area)
I was actually quite nervous at the beginning since It has been a very, very, very long time since I last played DN and truth be told, I already lost my touch and my way around the game. But I'm very thankful because my fellow marshals were very welcoming and nice towards me. They taught me on what to do and stuffs like that.
Now, each of us were assigned to 10 PC unit. I was assigned at the RedFox PC unit area. You can just imagine, 10 players per match and the flow of players is continuous! But personally, the thrill was fun~! The match began at 12 noon. From then on, the game went none-stop! In the PC area, we were also tasked to give the winning player a speedmatch coupon as proof of them winning.
As the event progressed, I, as a marshal did encounter several problems. Some with the PC unit like glitches and sudden DC from server but the most problematic was the players themselves. I encountered difficult and hard headed ones to say the very least. Now, prior to the start of every batch of players, I have to orient them of the rules. And ofcourse, some of the recurring players already know this but still, they insist on doing it their own way. Example: When creating a map, we were brief to only make it for 2players and for 3rounds only. Some would make it to 5rounds and such. Other players would go to the Arena and participate in the Ladder-type PVP (correct me if i'm wrong here), while others would use their own characters for the game. I mean like "URGH~! C'mon you guys! Be nice and play fair! Don't give us marshal's any trouble. It's already hard to monitor you guys as it is." My patience was literally being tested here.. There was a quick instance that I had to handle a whole 20 PC unit. So you can just imagine me going up and down from the 1st 10 PC unit in the left and the other 10 more PC unit to the right! I was like a dancing ballerina, twirling around without any periods of rest! Goodness me! But good thing the other marshals helped me out.
As the event was coming to a close, the DN Speedmatch for Day 1 ended at 6pm or past 6pm I think. I actually lost track of the time when I was working. After that, we had a little meeting on what transpired during today's event and what we should avoid for tomorrow and other stuffs so that tomorrow's match would go smoothly.
Over all, my experience as a Marshall for the very first time in such a big event is very overwhelming. In terms that this time around, I'm acting as an ordinary follower, a member or volunteer of sorts. And also because in this event, I worked as a Marshall not for a cosplay competition but for a gaming event. So, this is new to me and I am very much hyped up and thankful for the experience. I'm actually excited to work with them once again if an event comes up once again. All in all, I had fun and I met new people in the process, Marshals and gamers a like!
Special thanks to Anime Alliance Philippines staff namely: Michael Ramas, Katherine Barrameda, Futomi Nomura and Patrick Alvin Cham for the warm welcome~!
(the goodies I managed to acquire during the event.)
So there you have it guys! My first and newest blog for the year 2013. I hope you guys like it and I hope I managed to impart a little bit of insight as to how it goes down in being a Marshal for a big event such as the Cherry Convention. If you have anymore detailed questions on what I actually experienced, you're welcome to drop me a message or two. Don't forget to introduce yourselves too ok?
(I would also like to apologize. I only managed to take few photos of the event since I was busy working.. gomenasai ne minna-chan~!)
Well, till my next blog guys~! Ja ne~! Lovelots,