My Experience at MadEX 2024

Earlier this month, I attended the first MadEX convention at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, WI. While I was unable to schedule any one-on-one interviews, I did attend several panels and wanted to share some information:

Saturday, September 14^th

So You Want to Be a Pro Cosplayer?

As someone who’s been dabbling in cosplay recently (even if I have no plans to do it as a job), this was a panel I definitely wanted to see. All three panelists brought impressive costumes, and did a great job talking about their work and answering questions from the audience. One panelist (rightmost in the picture) had a particularly interesting story where they had used cosplay as an activity at the VA hospital in their area (the panelist was a veteran themselves) to help returning soldiers re-adjust to civilian life.

Mike McFarland

One Piece Q&A

While this was a panel primarily about One Piece, one of the panelists happened to be Mike McFarland, who had a few small roles in the Pokémon anime. During the Q&A portion (FYI, I generally tried to make sure I was towards the back of the line on these sessions so fans of the series could get their questions in first), I was able to ask him how the Pokémon roles came about, and it basically ended up being a case of being in the right place at the right time.

Ray Chase

X-Men ’97 Showcase

Another panel covering a hot show, this one featured Ray Chase, best known as Professor Cerise in Journeys. As it turns out, there was actually some overlap between his work on the two series, owing in part to Pokémon being a dub and X-Men being a pre-lay. The bulk of the panel was, of course, a discussion of the hit streaming series, and it was great to hear about the VAs experiences with the X-Men franchise and working on the show.

Sunday, September 15^th

Elizabeth Maxwell

How to Become a Hero

This My Hero Academia panel featured Elizabeth Maxwell, who dedicated Masters EX fans will recognize as the voice of Dana. I asked her about the role, and she mentioned how it was interesting to play a character with both an acting and non-acting side. She also implied some things were under NDA, suggesting this might not be her only character in the game, or that Dana might be featured in some future events. Regardless, it was good to hear about the ongoing production of MHA.

Robbie Daymond

LAVA: Loud, Annoying, and Very Annoying

This panel was primarily focused on some outrageously funny improv, but it did also have a Q&A portion, which gave me the opportunity to ask panelist Robbie Daymond about voicing Professor Willow in various Go-related media. He didn’t have a ton to say about it, other than he enjoyed the opportunity. At the very least, I expect it was more fun than when he was forced to hold water in his mouth while the other panelists tried to make him laugh.

Cosplay:

As usual, there was a variety of cosplay outfits on display at the event, as well as a cosplay contest for each day. Compliments to the many great attendees who put in the work to put them together!

Other Thoughts:

-I really enjoyed the panels that I went to this weekend (and I missed a few due to conflicts). There were some absolutely wonderful stories, including a voice actor who did some of their work from the hospital where a family member was a patient during the pandemic.
-The shopping was a bit limited, in part due to the size of the venue, and given that next year’s event is planned for August 2025, I hope they can attract/accommodate more vendors.
-Having some sort of dedicated open gaming area would be nice, even though there was a designated tournament area.

A press pass was provided for this event.

MadEX 2024: Smash Ultimate 1v1 Tournament Winner

Ahmet Kurter

The following is an interview with Ahmet Kurter, winner of the Smash Ultimate 1v1 tournament at MadEX 2024.

Where are you from, and how did you get into competitive Smash?

I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin! I got into competitive smash when Brawl came out because my cousins were obsessed with it, and entered my first tournament in 2014.

You tend to play as a fair number of different characters. Who are some of the more common ones and what do you like about them?

I have used over dozens of characters in my local smash scene. But some of my favorites are Sonic, Aegis (Pyra/Mythra), Joker, Wolf, Dark Pit, and much more! I use most of these characters because I like how they feel to play, or are from my favorite series (Sonic, Persona, and Xenoblade.) Of course, the characters my opponents are playing also tend to influence who I pick in bracket.

What happened in the earlier parts of the tournament?

My bracket run was pretty funny to me, because in winner's semi-finals, I fought Fatalis, who I knew from my local scene, and I knew that would be my hardest matchup for sure. After I won the first set we basically told each other "See you in grands" which was funny, and correct!

Fatalis uses Sheik from the Zelda series. How did that affect your overall strategy?

It affected my strategy a lot, to be honest. I like to rush in a lot, but Sheik is really scary for a lot of different reasons. Her frame data (timing) is so unbelievably fast and has very little cooldown so I often had a lot of trouble figuring out what I could punish. She is also very quick so running from her does not work that well, plus she has a projectile that is very quick and goes very far. Eventually my strategy consisted of me trying to kill Sheik earlier than she could kill me and beat out her hitboxes with bigger and more active moves.

After losing the first game in grand finals [against Fatalis], you switched over to Wolf from the Star Fox games. Why did you choose that?

That was a result of the experience my opponent had-they already fought two of my characters in winners’, specifically Sonic, and Aegis. I won game one there with Sonic, lost game two, then switched to Aegis which allowed me to win game three (with a convincing two-stock). But even after I won that first set it felt very stressful because I felt like I was not hitting him enough, and making a lot of incorrect decisions in advantage.

In the first game of grand finals I started with Aegis, but I lost (he two-stocked me this time), so I decided to try Wolf because I was not feeling comfortable in the matchup. Wolf having a projectile is already a huge change to the pace for the matchup, with Sheik having an incredible projectile in needles I also wanted a strong projectile to bait him into making mistakes when approaching me. Wolf also has very consistent and active hitboxes which allowed me to get combos more consistently than my other characters. The MVP move for the set for me was Wolf's neutral air. I used it a lot to punish his unsafe hits on my shield and to use when he is jumping at me from the ledge, so I could knock him back offstage again to reset the situation.

Technically, your opponent could have switched characters for later matches, but didn't. Did that surprise you?

Nope! Not at all. I have only seen him pick Sheik at locals, so I knew I was only going to fight his Sheik.

What else did you do at MadEX this year?

This was actually my first con, so when I first got there I walked around the whole convention to see everything, met up with my friends, talked with them the whole time, and talked to my GOAT Max Mittleman. For the whole tourney, I rocked Ryuji's codename Skull for my in-game name, so shout-outs to Max Mittleman for indirectly powering me up.

A press pass was provided for this event.

Livestream: Discussing the music of "Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon"

Over labor day weekend, Anne from Pikapi Podcast and I recorded a discussion of the music of Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon. The polished podcast version will come out at a later date, but the raw audio can be enjoyed here:

Pokémon Worlds 2024: A (Partial) Spectator Experience

Unlike last year’s event in Yokohama where I spent very little time at the worlds event area due to a lack of access, this year I was able to secure a Saturday spectator pass for Honolulu. As such, I was able to spend a meaningful amount of time at the tournament site.

Thursday

Booking a connecting itinerary proved significantly cheaper than flying direct out of O’Hare (unlike London and Yokohama), so I ended up starting in Madison and making the short hop to Chicago before taking the 8-hour flight to Honolulu. The travel was not particularly eventful, though I did have an interesting conversation with my neighbors on the plane, who were visiting their son in the armed forces. After landing, I took a pre-arranged shuttle to my hotel.

Once I was settled in, I went to pick up my badge at the Hilton complex a few blocks away. The ballroom was in a rather obscure location, situated on top of a parking garage and requiring use of an elevator or escalators for access. After picking up my pass, I asked a few questions of one of the customer service reps to clarify some things.

Friday

The spectator pass gave me a slot at the Pokémon Center store, which luckily did not have to be on the same day as the spectator pass (I feel bad for anyone who had a single-day pass and had the Center eat up a significant portion of their time). My slot was for 11 am, but I decided to go early to identify the entry point. When I arrived, I noticed a large line, and it quickly became apparent that the store was behind schedule (apparently their point-of-sale system was having significant connection issues).

After being herded through several areas (including the parking garage), I finally got to go into the Center around 12:30 pm. I found the store to be well-laid-out, and I definitely appreciated the live musician performing there. As far as the actual shopping, I wasn’t particularly picky, so although a few things were out of stock, I was relatively satisfied with the selection. I ended up picking up two plushes (Riolu and Crocalor) and some sleeves.

Saturday

Naturally, my goal was to spend as much time at the event as possible since this was the only day I had a badge for. I arrived before events started, and got registered for the 9 am Build-and-Battle and the Pokémon Go Scavenger Hunt (I wish I had known about having access to the tasks in the app to get a head start on Friday).

After finishing 1-2 in the Build-and-Battle, I decided to get some lunch (I had missed breakfast). I found the selections on the top level of the convention center to honestly be pretty disappointing, particularly compared to the offerings at events in the Baird Center in Milwaukee (a similarly-sized venue). The food I ordered was okay, but I certainly would have preferred a wider selection.

At 1 pm, there was a panel discussing the localization of Pokémon Horizons and the production of Path to the Peak. While it was largely information I already knew, I did appreciate the opportunity to listen to some of the folks involved. Unfortunately, no questions were taken and no recording was allowed, so I don’t have much to share other than that.

After a brief stop at the anime viewing room and art gallery, I participated in the 4pm Chaos Cup, where I also went 1-2. I still needed to cash out both my side event points and the go scavenger hunt, so I took care of those and headed back to the hotel.

Sunday

I decided to do some shopping in order to see more of the area. I visited two Book-Off locations and picked up a variety of games (including a physical copy of Super Mystery Dungeon, since my digital version crashes my 3DS on startup), and some other media. I was able to finish my shopping and return to the hotel in time to watch the (admittedly disappointing) closing ceremonies.

Monday

My flight left in the evening, so I used some time to explore a bit of Waikiki before heading off to the airport. The return trip was fairly tiring (as usual), and it was good to return home.

Overall, I had a good time at this year’s event, though it probably would have been more enjoyable if I could have spent the whole weekend at the convention enter. That said, assuming I can acquire a spectator badge next year, I do plan on attending.

Other Notes:

-Given how crowded the main tournament space was and the unusual way the Pokémon Center line was woven through the facility, I expect this is the last time the Pokémon World Championships will be held in Honolulu unless a larger convention center is built or the current one gets a significant expansion.
-The closing ceremony definitely ended on a whimper. Announcing the next two years will be in the same state, followed by no Legends Z-A information (regardless of whether it’s a “competitive” game) was a major structural issue. Even with the announcements they did make, they could have been re-ordered for a better impact.

-The anime viewing room actually did have a schedule, but that didn’t seem to be made clear on the Worlds website, which seemed to imply the room would cycle between episodes of Horizons and Pokémon: The First Movie, when in reality there were several different movies shown throughout the weekend.
-Shout out to the guy who had us guess Pokémon anatomy while we were in the parking garage waiting to get into the Pokémon Center. It made things a bit more bearable.
-I cosplayed as Michael Hunchence from  INXS as a Pokémon trainer like I have at previous events (Friday the 16^th was actually the band’s anniversary). Unfortunately, the only time I ran into an Australian was on Monday. He got a kick out of the picture I showed him.
-While the food at the event was disappointing, as usual I got some great meals out of the local restaurants:

In addition to this scrumptious entrée from Eggs n’ Things, I also ordered food from Kyochon 1991, Betty’s Burgers, Teddy’s Bigger Burgers, and Fresh Catch Kapahulu, all of them delicious.

Poke Press Digest Podcast-Episode 73-What's the best version of the English Pokémon Theme?

Anne from Pikapi Podcast drops by to help me discuss several versions of the English Pokémon theme. Listen in as we compare and contrast renditions from the TV show, movies, and beyond. Oh, and if by some chance you were wondering how “Born To Be A Winner” fits into all of this, don’t worry, we cover that after the outro:

Links:

Pikapi Podcast

Poke Casters Network

Livestream: Discussing the music of "Pokken Tournament (DX)" w/Pikapi Podcast

Anne from Pikapi Podcast drops by to help me discuss the music of Pokken Tournament for the arcade, Wii U, and Switch. Tune in and find out what we got out of this modestly successful game's soundtrack:

Livestream: Pokken Tournament DX livestream with Pikapi Podcast

In preparation for our upcoming music discussion, Anne from Pikapi Podcast and I recorded a livestream of us playing the Switch version of Pokken Tournament. Neither of us claim to be experts, but we did try to explore a large portion of the game: