 Hello, everybody, and welcome to another hobby-cheating video. This one's going to be a little different, because today we're going to take a look back at Adepticon 2023. Let's get into it. This video is meant to be a sort of companion piece to my Golden Demon video that was published two weeks ago, in that I talked a lot about why I think Golden Demon has opportunities for improvement and why I won't be participating in it going forward at least for the foreseeable future. However, Golden Demon happens as part of a larger convention, that convention being Adepticon, here in Chicago, in the United States, and I have to say it's one of my favorite conventions all year. So, in this video, I just wanted to share some fun interviews and moments, things I recorded over my time there, there's some interviews with some artists who had also participated and just people I really think are great, and put on camera and wanted to get their feeling of their emotions. Adepticon comes down to about five days of just some of the most fun nerd, geekery, wonderful tabletop wargaming fun I have all year. I love seeing everyone, I love teaching, and honestly I had an absolutely incredible time top to bottom. It was just amazing, from the moment I arrived there on that Wednesday and we got to do the preview and then the show, you know, I always do a Warhammer Weekly, basically from my hotel room we got to do a little hostage video on Wednesday night with Adam and John. That was very fun, all the way through to the end of the thing. It's just something I look forward to every year and so highly value. What's up Sam? How you doing buddy? Hey, I'm excited, I'm happy that I'm here. It's Thursday, it's turn in day. Alright, so here's the question, how do you feel? Hungry. Alright, excellent, good response. Worriesome, nervous, I expect nothing yet I've arrived here with entries, why, what am I thinking, I don't know, why do I do this? Why do we do this to ourselves? I thought it was the eagerness and the anticipation, I never know what's going to happen and I'm very excited to see this pop-up art show that you'll never see the same time again. This is such a unique, conglomeration of all these people, combination, thank you. I run on films of all these people's work and this is so much passion in those cabinets and stuff so it's a little museum, I'm excited about that. Fantastic, love it. One of the strengths of the wargaming community is its people. I'm just constantly blown away by everyone I meet and everybody I talk to. These that inspire me, people who are doing awesome things, building amazing armies, playing really fun games and everybody is so supportive of each other in this community. That's why I love it and nothing shows that off better than when you go to adeptcon and you get to see all of this in action. Everybody having fun, playing these games they're really passionate about, learning, participating in the hobby. It really is a completely unique experience and one of my favorite. There's two big conventions I go to every year, adeptcon and nova, I cannot recommend enough that if it's at all possible for you to make your way to one of these two things sometime in your life to do so, you won't regret it. It's incredible fun. Mamma Con, what's up buddy, how you doing? Pretty good, very tired, but very good. Alright, you turn your stuff in? Just three entries so far. Three entries so far? Do you have more? Yes, but I don't want to disclose the total amount. Oh, we're keeping it secret. This is some NSA stuff, very, very secret information, very good. Alright, so here's the question. This is Thursday, this is turn in day. How do you feel right now? I feel tired. I know you're asking about the competition. Oh no, I'm looking for you personally. I am tired, extremely tired. I want to sleep or die and I also really want to enter. All of my entries, but I have to finish two of them still. So I'm excited to be here as well. I'm happy to see you, to see all of the other guys, everyone. So it's good to be here. Thursday for me was a whole very long day. It started off my teaching that day. I got my Golden Demon entries submitted, but there's just a lot going on on that day. Because it's the first full day of the convention. So this meant walking around the exhibit hall, this meant talking to people. There's just a lot of demands on your time when you're there, especially if you're someone who creates content, because you're always trying to network and talk to other people and stuff like that. But this was overall a really rewarding day. What's up, John? Hey, it's Friday. It is Friday. Alright, so here's what I want to know. I see the most entries get submitted, right? Because when the case is really filled out, how are you feeling? You know, since I put it in, in the case, and I wipe my hands of it, there's this feeling of a big weight that it's no longer anything I can do about it. It is officially out of my hands. And then over the last 24 hours or so as we get into the afternoon of Friday, then I get a little sweaty emotionally, where you worry that all the hours spent relies on, you know, 48 hours from now. And trying to convince myself that, however that turns out, shouldn't ruin the whole experience that led up to this. And it's a lot of just trying to convince myself of that, and sometimes failing. Nice. Transitioned very quickly for me into Friday, wherein I taught in the morning. And so it was really just an intense couple of hours where I taught back-to-back classes and then woke up and taught back-to-back classes on not quite enough sleep. I'm quite sure this is probably the time period where I got COVID right in here somewhere. I was running on too little sleep, pushing myself too hard, shaking a lot of hands, apparently licking a lot of doorknobs. I don't remember that, but it must have happened. But overall, it was really, really wonderful. And I'll say I ended that night actually just doing a, this is a very, very late at night sometime around midnight, went and did a magic draft with some friends with Ninjohn and some of his local crew. And honestly, it was a pretty great way to unwind at like one in the morning. So, you know, it just represented a really full, really long, really intense day. John Margiata, Blood as Medium, my hero, my painting mentor, my senpai. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing very well, Vince. Thanks. It is so good to talk to you. Likewise. You're here. You have just a few golden demon entries. A little bit. I have the time. I came in with six. It was work. How are you feeling right now? Where's your emotional state? Saturday. All the entries are in. Judging has started. Where are you living? When I, you know, when I came, I was fine. I had a little, you know, I didn't have any stress. I didn't have any, like, expectations at that point. I was kind of numb, I guess. Now, today, it's something I got to force myself to do. But I'm always fighting some type of nerve. You know, that's putting my work out there and seeing how others either appreciate it or what. But constantly battling nerves. Inwardly, you know. So nerves would be a good... And your work is exceptional. Thank you, Vince. Thank you. If it was me doing any part of that judging, there would definitely be a few categories where I would have you in the top three absolutely easily with a bullet. And unfortunately, one of those is one I'm in. So that makes me sad. Saturday was probably the day I got to enjoy the convention the most. It was the most, I'm going to say, relaxed, but that's not correct. It was the least scheduled. How about that? Though I did, of course, throughout this judge the resin beast, which is something I get to do every year, and I am very passionate about how to be able to take part in. Resin beast is CreatureCaster's miniature painting competition. This year, the best large was won by Sam Lenz. Absolutely incredible piece that I was honored to judge, but there was a lot of amazing entries in all of the categories this year. I really hope if you have any interest in CreatureCaster stuff, put this on your radar. If you're coming to Adepticon in 2024, I want to see those cases just filled up and packed to the brim. Give me more work to do. Give me more incredible pieces of art to look at. So thank you to everybody who submitted into resin beast. As I said, it was an absolute honor to judge and just a whole lot of fun going to the award ceremony and seeing all the winners. Everybody just incredibly well earned there who participated and it was really, really great. Will Han, Sick Willy, you are an amazing miniature artist. Thank you. Okay, now you're here and you finished your Golden Demon piece, let's say just before the contest. Yes, so it wasn't quite the same crazy deadline as last year where I was painting in my room because I told myself that I would not come here with paints. I wouldn't allow myself to do that. So I did, I think my flight yesterday was at 1.50pm and I varnished the model at 12.20pm. So how are you feeling overall here on Saturday looking at the cases? I'm feeling like I'm frustrated with myself for doing the same thing I did last year which I told myself I wasn't going to do and that's painting a model in two weeks and then at least last year I entered a vehicle and this year I decided to enter the Murders Row which is 40k single and good God there are some absolutely beautiful entries in there. I'm happy I got the model done in the two weeks. It's nice, you know, it's not my favorite thing in the world but it's good. All right. Very good. Sunday of course closed out the whole thing brought us to the end of the convention always a sad day to say the least but overall I was very happy with this year's adepticon even with Golden Demon being a bit of a drag on it it was still an extremely fun time and as I said if you ever find yourself with the ability to make it here to Chicago for this event you should do so. Thank you very much everybody for watching I know this isn't the normal content don't worry we'll be back to tutorials next week I hope you enjoyed this if you did give it a like subscribe for additional hobby cheating in the future we have new videos here every Saturday if you've got any questions hey drop those down below if you want to take your next step on your hobby journey or want to support the channel there's a Patreon down below where you can do so and you can take your next step on your personal hobby journey as always though thank you so much for watching this one I really appreciate it and we'll see you next time