Jeff Alexander, Bravo 5

MEMOIRS OF A DECIPHERCON VOLUNTEER
by Jeff Alexander, Bravo 5

I wonder what the Cavalier Hotel staff is thinking right now! ;-) The last four days, while only representing a fraction of one's life experience, have embedded fond memories of people and events that I shall remember for a long time. There are few chances in life where you can take part in an event where everyone has shared interests and all are great people. Deciphercon was one of those events.
Let me begin with the people for without the people, the event is simply a selection of empty rooms and piles of cardboard. The volunteers, Decipher staff and the players that I met truly made this weekend enjoyable. I was proud to be associated with all of the talented Squadron Members and Ambassadors that took part at helping run the festivities. We truly made this convention happen. The images of different people are flashing through my head as I write this and I just want to reiterate that you ALL were great and I am incredibly happy to have met all of you and hope to see you soon again--I can't say this enough!
But the people need to do something for four days so that's where the events enter the stage. My schedule seemed light from first view when Kyle posted the schedules to the listserve. My days of duty were Thursday and Saturday leaving only one full day to experience all the events as a player. Not a problem since I find great joy in helping as I do in playing. I arrived Wednesday evening with my roommates from Miami (Lunch [Gold 43] Lund, Josh Hoade and David Irvine). The van pulled up amid the chaos of people checking in and Decipherians running around trying to tie up any loose ends before the big show. That's where I was finally able to meet Kyle for the first time and see the vette nestled in its quaint shelter.
The sun sets and rises again, day 1. Thursday begins and Chuck (Gold 43) and I go down to the Deciphercon Store to get our briefing by Kyle before all the festivities begin. We receive our sharp staff shirt and information booklet and head off to our assignments. The nerves and anxiety begin to wane as I meet all of you for the first time and begin to learn what my role will be for the four days.
The sun sets and rises again, day 2. Friday was game day for me and the highlight was the Japanese Sealed Deck event which was the largest sealed deck tournament ever (until the next day's ECC tourney!). I unfortunately started coming down with my illness. I could tell I wasn't feeling well because I'd get dizzy when looking at the Japanese writing on the cards. =) I departed early from the event and went to bed--the rest was needed! Another highlight of the day was the unveiling of four EJP cards. I had heard about them the night before by some lucky SMs who got a sneak peek. But now they were displayed in their full glory and WOW! Decipher's art department is simply too good for words.
The sun sets and rises again, day 3. Saturday was interesting to say the least. I started off trying to play a couple of games of ECC-EPP Sealed Deck before my 12pm Young Jedi 8-Man duty kicked in. Well, the tournament was late getting started as there were over 150 contestants making the largest SWCCG tournament ever (of any format). I had to drop out before even playing any games so that my shift would be covered. Fortunately, all the players were involved elsewhere and no one showed for the YJ 8man events that afternoon. As my shift approached its end, I decided to help the ECC crew.
Marcus, Alex, Jim, Ryan , Lars and Winfried had their hands full and I could tell that an extra hand would not go to waste. I'm sure you've heard some things about the problems during this tournament and I'd like to make the following recommendations that may help alleviate such problems in the future:
1. Either create a flag to remind the director of which tournament format they entered before pairings are made or make it possible to change tournament formats after the initial pairings were made. Some sort of programming needs to be made to the software to allow for correction of errors in tournament format selection.
2. For Deciphercon II - Stick to a registration deadline and make event registration digital. This would create the ability to network the tournament computers so that a MASTER DATABASE of players is online at all times. Perhaps having the ability to load or upload TOURNAMENT REGISTRIES produced from event registration from a disk or network that would hold the entrants for an event into the software would allow for a one-step registration process at the tournament site which would greatly increase the speed at which an event of this size could get off the ground.
In what I thought was a brilliant move by Marcus, he brought up Jeremy Bulloch and Shannon Baksa to sign cards and stuff for the many players who were waiting for the next game to begin. This gave the volunteers time to fix the problems while giving the players something to do. I got the opportunity to help the guests by collecting the $$ for their pictures which gave me the chance to talk to the two guests a little--very nice people!!! After about an hour of signings, the event neared its next game. In the end, after a long day the tournament ended and around 40 people or so remained. Thankfully most of those players were in good spirit and were understanding of the situation we faced in trying to get the tournament corrected--no riots occurred and we were able to walk out of there unscathed! ;-)
That evening brought the highlight of the weekend for me. First it started with the Player's Choice Sealed Deck tournament I helped run with Steve 'Soup' Porth. Steve, the implants will simply NOT happen! ;-) We moved our event from the room it was in to the "main" room. There we had use of the PA system so we were able to act like Marcus and Kyle for an evening! Soon, rumor had it that the squadron members were going to meet at 11:30pm to organize a SM-only sealed deck event. Steve was too kind by letting me leave our event early. I owe you one!
The sun sets, a new evening begins! Midnight rolls around and all of a sudden we're missing a few of the SMs that wanted to join this tournament. After some probing around, we find them huddled together at the bar getting some strange blue drink technically called a Blue Lagoon but which quickly became Juri Juice! We go up to the top floor after agreeing on a Player's Choice format of sealed deck. We all are in a totally happy mood (some 'happier' than others) and simply take the place over. After some time, Decipherians start to learn of our party and sneak a peak upstairs to see what their elite volunteer force is up to. Kevin Reitzel comes armed with Japanese packs and a trivia contest to make us even more crazy! Around 3am, most of us hit that 'wall' of tiredness and retire. Alex Alcalde retired a little earlier than that due to his relationship with the Juri Juice! (I'll let him tell that story).
The evening ends and the sun rises, day 4. The sadness of the final day was upon me for it was time to leave. =( Happily, I was able to get in one more event before leaving and heading for lunch. Afterwards, I walked around saying goodbye to all the people I had met. It was truly sad to leave--I wish we could have stayed longer. At the same time however, I was happy to be able to go home to my wife, cat and comfortable bed!
The adventure of Deciphercon didn't quite end there. At the airport, on the way to Charlotte, Josh and I ran into Decipher's Vice President/General Counsel who's name escapes me at the moment. He was very nice and we shared some small talk about the event and about Decipher's new agreement with Paramount (had to get some 'biz' talk in there!). The flight home was fine and I was happy to be able to rest and sleep.

The sun set and with it Deciphercon.

I'm sure I've left out many other stories and people and for that I apologize. Deciphercon was a great experience and will be a well-remembered theater of engagement during my tour of duty. Until next year!