Hey folks, I’ve had a busy few weeks because I recently moved somewhere else in-state. It wasn’t all stress though, because during the whole moving out process, I attended a convention. I attended LVL UP Expo, a local Las Vegas convention. My sister got me tickets to attend for Christmas, so hey, even though we were busy, we can’t just not use them, right?

Getting into the convention on the first day was a bit hectic. Besides the confusion stemming from the fact that this was our first convention experience, there was also a Trump rally going on nearby which screwed up traffic. Thanks a lot Mr. President.

After a long walk, we properly got to the convention entrance. On the way, we got a taste of what to come by seeing a whole bunch of cosplayers. There was a Terry Bogard (though with a Fatal Cutie hat), the Pop Team Epic girls, and a woman dressed up like a red Pikmin. A notable cosplayer was one dressed up as Bowsette, who we followed because we were lost on our way to the convention, so shout out to her, whoever she is.

Immediately upon entering, we saw a whole bunch of merchandise stands, along with an exhibition/tournament for a card game called 9DKP off to the side. They were a big sponsor of the convention and had advertisements on the lanyards. We hit up the merchandise first, since it was right there. I was enamored by these expensive “Mystery Box” things that had random sets of merchandise, but as a gacha game player, I knew that there was a good chance of being disappointed. I ended up getting a Jojo and Persona 5 shirt. My sister got a little Espeon plush for herself, but the vendor needed her to meet a minimum price before letting her pay, so she ended up getting me a Mimikyu plush that I just adore.

We then hit up the artist alley, because I was out looking for nice prints to hang on the walls after we moved. The first thing I bought was a cool pin of Black Frost from Shin Megami Tensei, by Hexselenas. I then got a proper print from Alyruko, depicting the gang of part 5 of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. I even surprisingly found a print of OFF, by Dune5and.

If you know me, you know that I’m a huge Nier fan. I got three (3) whole Automata prints from kyupls and Chimfucius. One of them is even this neat holographic print showing off the amusement park that I think is really cool. Later on, we passed a stall selling a whole bunch of nerd books and I picked myself up a copy of Nier Automata: Short Story Long; after dropping a bunch of things I was holding like an embarrassment. I also saw that there was actually a guitar music book for Nier Replicant, and it was only because I have no idea how to play a guitar that I did not get it.

While we were browsing around, we saw a few stalls representing retro stores selling a whole bunch of old games. In the process of moving, I dug up the Wii and PS2, so I was ready to pick up some new old stuff. As expected, the more big name games were expensive as heck. I saw a copy of Drakengard going for $100 and to be honest, even if it’s cool, it’s not even worth a quarter of that. We saw a copy of Mario Party 6, a game my sister and I played when we were younger, going for $60, but thankfully we found another vendor with a copy going for $45.

My sister and I stopped to have some lunch, which was some pricey fried stuff. While we ate, we heard a commotion going on but thought it was coming from the esports tournaments nearby. When we left, we saw what it really was from: the live pro-wrestling matches. Along with showcasing games and anime, LVL Up Expo was showing off the love of wrestling,

The show was being put on by Versus Pro Wrestling, Snake Pit Pro and Future Stars of Wrestling. It was my first time at a wrestling event while my sister’s been to a show previously to support a friend. We were shocked when one of the first wrestlers up was actually one that she recognized, a heel going by Shaggy. However, Shaggy took a step back and let his crew of the Sin City Scumbags fight some flashy challengers. Unfortunately, the challengers lost when they failed a team maneuver, resulting in one of them knocking out the other. As the Sin City Scumbags celebrated their win, their knocked out opponent grabbed the teammate that failed him and was ready to punch, but the crowd urged for forgiveness.

We stuck around for another match. It was yet another challenger that my sister knew, Lazarus, who was actually the tag team partner of my sister’s friend; she actually checked to see if he would be competing, but he was out with an injury. Lazarus went up against a guy named Mikey, who styled himself after Albert Einstein for whatever reason. Lazarus and Mikey competed for the favor of the crowd, who booed Lazarus and cheered for Mikey’s goofy antics up until his victory.

We soon left to check out some games. While the esports tournaments raged on (a Smash Ultimate and Mario Tennis N64 tournament), there were multiple gaming setups for anyone to sit down and play. Unfortunately, most of them were dedicated to Smash Ultimate, which was whatever, since we could play that at home. Instead, we played a quick game of Balloon Fight and Mario Tennis N64. Until she ran out of lives, she actually really crushed at Balloon Fight while I beat her out in Mario Tennis. We also tried to see if there was any VR stuff, but the only available stuff was aimed at little kids.

Our first day at LVL Up Expo ended with a hunt for some specific merchandise: Death Note merch. My sister’s a fan of Death Note, and hey, that series did pop back into relevance recently with the new one-shot, so surely there had to be merch of that. Unfortunately, in spite of the existence of multiple OFF and Nier Gestalt/Replicant merch, we couldn’t find any good Death Note merch besides some honestly bad shirts. She did find a Death Note game, but it was an untranslated visual novel from a Japanese game import stall.

We left the convention shortly afterward and got home after stopping for some coffee, because man, walking around all day left us feeling winded. Our spirits were high for tomorrow, though I personally feared my wallet getting lighter. We had a fun time and we had the love of wrestling instilled in us. So, what exciting things awaited us the next day?

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