My Calling Las Vegas Experiance
The decision was a no-brainer to attend The Calling Las Vegas. It may not have been the first in the US, but I had a good feeling it would be the largest - and it didn’t disappoint. This was my experience attending the Calling NOTE: I am not a competitive player, I spend much more time cracking packs than playing, though I love playing.
I have gotten to know both DMArmada and Red Zone Rogue over the last year or so, and we decided to share a hotel. I couldn’t have asked for better roommates! I definitely recommend going with or meeting up with friends if you attend a Calling, it just makes the experience more enjoyable. In this photo we were in line to pick up our goodies (playmat, promo card, deck box). I also ran into several of our DC area players, which was amazing!
The first day was the Tales of Aria Premier Sealed event - the hall was filled with around 1,000 fans! The energy in the room was contagious, hearing folks scream out as they got epic pulls, and the general excitement over seeing the new cards early really fueled the atmosphere. In fact, I pulled a pretty spicy card myself out of my six packs!
The second day was the main event tournament, constructed format. I did absolutely terrible, but I had a blast bringing Azalea to the fight! I went 2-4-1. I met some great people, everyone was extremely friendly and courteous. I cheered on some of our DC area players, below is a picture of Stephen Didion playing on the live Channel Fireball stream.
The FAB community truly is amazing. I was exhausted (the bit of jet lag didn’t help), and so were my roommates after casting all day, we went back and crashed.
On the third day, I was lucky enough to do two Tales of Aria draft matches. One I used tickets to buy into, and the other I won a social media contest to get into! I also spent time in between matches going out and meeting and talking with folks. I got to meet Saint, Chris Sires, Joey from decks and draughts, Travis from FAB Foundry (we had a great conversation, and may be brewing up something for a future Calling!), Louie, and The Professor to name a few. I also took a picture with the cosplayers, they did an amazing job on their costumes! You can follow them here: goberthicks (Prism), TappyToeClaws (Dash), and cspranklerun (Dorinthea).
After all of my fun, I went to watch the rest of the main tournament and cheer on Prism!
That night, my roommates and I went to dinner with The Professor - It was an amazing place! You can see some video of it at Red Zone Rouges recap here. The food was incredible, and the ambiance was unmatched. My phone camera didn’t perform to well in the low light, I managed to get only one good pic from the restaurant below.
After this, it was time to go home. Not ready to fully admit The Calling was over, I found myself building a deck from my sealed and draft Tales of Aria cards while awaiting my return flight.
Pictures and Text by Jim, from fabtcgcards.com