Review of Salt Lake Gaming Con 2016

Salt Lake Gaming Con 2016

Salt Lake City, Utah

Thursday June 2nd – Saturday June 4th, 2016

Review By: John Fragglepuss Evans

This weekend marked the second annual for Salt Lake Gaming Con (SLGC)! Last year’s convention drew over 15,000 attendees and this year appeared to bring in even more gamers. There is something for every type of gamer at the convention, whether you prefer PC, tabletop or console gaming. Vendors and exhibitors generally come to mind when talking about geek conventions, and SLGC has a variety of exhibitors. Microsoft, Playstation, Nintendo, Asmodee, and Fantasy Flight all had a presence this year. Special guests included celebrity cosplayers and voice actors. Some of the guests in attendance include: Steven Ogg, Sealver Siliga, Mark Moreland, Steve Warky Nunez, Vincent Lords, and Joanie Brosas.

An exciting bit of news broke about a week before the convention that SLGC and Salt Lake Comic Con (SLCC) had teamed up with SLCC buying into 50% of SLGC. The partnership was clear when I first walked into the convention center and saw the Salt Lake Comic Con car parked front row center.

If tabletop gaming is your preference, the Salt Con provided game library was enough to keep you entertained all weekend. You could check out any of their games and play with friends or place your “Players Wanted” sign and make new friends while you play. If your first choice is console gaming, every variety of console could be played from retro gaming to the latest generation. PC gaming also had a dedicated section of gamers. It seems like Overwatch is the hot game this year.

If you wanted to get up and fight, the dedicated L.A.R.P. arena was always looking for warriors to battle. On one side of the LARP arena was the Nerf Zone with battles going on all day. To the other side of the arena was all manner of giant games, like giant anime monopoly and giant Twister. In addition to all of that, the kid section provided an area for the young attendees to play all day long.

Game tournaments throughout the weekend included tabletop, PC, and console tournaments. Some of the tournaments were: Call of Duty, Mario Kart 8, Mortal Kombat X, Super Smash Bros, Pathfinder, Yu-gi-oh!, Rocket League, League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm, Starcraft 2, Pokémon, Heroclix, DiceMasters, and Counter-Strike. I really enjoyed the large screen for some of the tournament finals.