Flight to Hawaii was fun, check in at the hotel was a breeze, and a FFXI player even checked me in :) (Sorry I forgot your name!)

Woke up the next day and went down to breakfast, which cost twenty bucks, and met some of the Square guys there, kinda by accident too. They were getting ready to go PC Gamerz and get everything set up. Only reason I recognized them was they were wearing these FFXI Event Staff shirts.

Pikko came and picked me up, and we headed out from there. We met up with some of the people from the forum at Kim Chee 7.. me and Pikko were kinda embarrased when people started showing up.. we didn't know any of these people, but we eventually got over that and started talking to people. Everyone who came to Kim Chee 7 was really cool.

Me and Pikko then made our way to the event site, but we had to park at the mall across the highway because there was no room ANYWHERE in the whole shopping center. After a perilous journey across a super busy highway we arrive at PC Gamerz. At first people didn't know who we were and started telling us to wait in line, blah blah blah, then Kensaku and the other Square-ENix staff came over and introduced us to the people helping out, and me an Pikko now had all access.

The PC Gamerz place is nice. You can play all kinds of games there, from EQ and FFXI to stuff like Counter-strike and Battlefield. There were about 30 or computers set up, and about 6 set up outside under the tent. After everything got up and running, a redbull car stopped by and dropped off some free redbull for everyone... which went quick. Some radio station dropped by also, and just stood there for awhile. Everyone was mingling so on and so forth.. and then the festivites began.

First up was some of the BBB stuff. Team Garuda was up first, and promptly got there butts handed to them on a silver platter by Tenzen. Team Time Bomb was fighting against Timb Bomb, and got served also. Every team was losing horribly at this point. One of the reasons given for so many of the teams getting pwned was lack of gear, lack of spells and some other things. But that just made strategy even more important.

During all this some Mithra's were getting there picture taken with hundreds of eager fans. Some trivia questions were being thrown out also, prizes were given away, some passes for the level 1 WHM taru race were given out, t-shirts were bought, food coupons were used for something that I think was either chicken or pork.

Next up came the dev panel, which included me & Pikko. There was a live feed to Japan, going both ways, as the panel or audience members would ask the questions and the devs in Japan would answer them. The translation time is what kind of held this event up, but all in all it was cool to get answers from across the Pacific. Some really good questions were asked, things like more summons/avatars, maybe adding some PSP aspect to FFXI, and various other questions about design and graphics.

As the day wound down people seemed to be leaving, but they were missing the best parts.. the Taru race and the raffle! The taru race was nice. Seeing lots of taru's kick the bucket but getting pwned by mobs in Misareaux Coast was great, especially considering I was wearing a nametag that said "I Eat Tarus! Galka Pride!"

The night ended with the costume contest and the raffle. Some sweet prizes were given out including those FFXI clocks that are no longer being made, the FFXI Atlas from Brady, sets of 6 Square-Enix games, the CoP computer (which is sweet) and more. For everyone who attended, Square gave out some mousepads in different designs and a CoP poster.

*NOTE: Click on the smaller pic to bring up a bigger pic.

Pikko at Kim Chee 7

FFXI Player's at Kim Chee 7

More FFXI Player's at Kim Chee 7

The PC's outside that one member of a BBB group would use. These were also used at the camaras during the Taru Marathon

This a small look at what the line looked like. It actually ended up going almost to the end of the block.

The first Mithra model to come outside.

Galka Pride!

The Red Bull car. I want one.

The list of things going on and at what time.

All of the Mithra Models

People getting ready for the first round of BBB

Team Garuda, including Pikko!

Pic of the crowd taken from the panel table.

The lucky guy who won the CoP computer.

The Square-Enix people, the volunteers, the Mithra, and me and Pikko after everyone else had left. THe guys with the lei's on are the Square-Enix people.