A couple of weeks back, Cart stumbled upon a Magic the Gathering tournament and asked me a long to take have a look. Cart used to play MTG card games, I didn’t. But I thought that it would be interesting just to see what was going on, like a typical busybody.
Here we are at the Palazzo Dei Congressi where major exhibitions and conferences are held. The moment we reached there, I felt as if I was not in Rome anymore. Because as soon as we went up the staircase, I heard two Americans having a conversation with each other. And as soon as we entered the tournament hall, practically everyone was speaking in English.
The judges, the tech supporters, the emcees, the players. Woah. Am I really in Rome? Doesn’t feel like it.
Anyway, we decided to just barge in to take a look at the contestants at work. Cart was hesitating because he feared that we’d be in the way, but worst comes to worst, the assistants will ask us to go away, right? So we’ll go when we’re chased away 
I’m not too sure how the game goes, but I noticed that as they were playing, they’d scribble in a little notepad to tally up their scores.
There were SO many people playing. It was impressive. The hall, which was very large by itself was full of contestants. And yet, there were other halls and levels that we did not explore into. So many contestants! A rough estimate would be about 4 thousand contestants in all.
But what is interesting is that I also noticed that there were hardly any girls playing. Hmm …
As you see, contestants come from all over the world. Which makes me wonder. Considering that many of the contestants are in their teens, and live overseas, how on earth do they earn the money to come to Rome and stay here for about 4 days or so. According to Oharlie, one could earn a lot of money from these tournaments but I’m still very sceptical about it.
Exploring a little bit more, we came across a section where you could play Magic the Gathering Online. I’m sure its very interesting to play but I’m more of a kill and slash person when it comes to MMORPG games 
Walking a little bit more, I saw this very nice conference hall. Cart postulated that this was the area where the winners will be announced. I really liked the place. It reminded me of the past conferences that I’ve attended like Interesthink and Nexus. I thought that it would be the perfect place to go to for a blog conference.
I just wish I was more fluent in Italian! I’m learning from here but I need more practise though. By the way, I have an Italian blog. If you like, feel free to see it but it sucks
Not too far from the conference hall, we came across a long queue of people wanting to get their items signed by two of MTG’s artists – Jeremy Jarvis and Aleksi Briclot. Looking through some of their illustration online, freaking heck, its gorgeous and totally something to be appreciated.
Breathtaking!
Towards the end of our exploration, Cart and I came across a small area where contestants could challenge the head honcho, the creator of MTG, Richard Garfield himself.
Personally, I think that Richard Garfield is a genius to have created a game out of something that he enjoys doing and make a lot of money at the same time. Its hard to ignore the presence of MTG. Its been around since I was in school and even during my stint as an educator the past years, you’d see kids playing it.
I wonder if he is married
Anyway, if you’re interested, here is a video about the event :
Err .. I don’t understand what they are talking about.
To end this post, I will put up something completely irrelevant.
How come Italy don’t have gold can red bull? I don’t like the blue one.
The U.S. has the blue and silver can for Red Bull like what’s pictured on that car as well. I think it originated in the US right? So that’s the original can. I remember the first time I saw the gold can Red Bull I thought it was a cheap China knock-off and I still don’t trust it. I have found and bought regular (blue canned) Red Bull here in Singapore, so I’m still not sure what the difference is. I think it’s a Coca~Cola product though and they change the taste of Coke to match the region they’re selling it in, so maybe they changed the can design to appeal more to Singapore and whatever other country that design is sold in?
I played MTG for about two weeks with my brother about 13 or 14 years ago. I remember thinking it was a lot of fun, but at the time we didn’t have a lot of money so we couldn’t build a deck like you’re supposed to. So, we gave it up. I’ve always been interested in swords & magic type stuff though. Right now I’m reading the original Conan the Cimmerian stories by Robert Ervin Howard. ^_^
I always thought that the gold can Red Bulls /were/ the original ones, from Thailand. I myself prefer the gold can but only on ice. It’s too sweet to drink on its own.
On MTG, I never played it but it looks interesting. If anyone wants to teach me how to play, I’m game.
Brad
I think that the Red bull originated from Thailand then they were customised and produced in Austria for the foreign market – there is more from wiki if you’d like to see it.
As far as I know, I don’t think its a Coca Cola brand.
Anyway blue cans are very different compared to the gold cans. The gold ones are stronger and sweeter compared to the weak blue ones. To me the blue cans taste like carbonated waterered down fizzy versions of the gold one. Suffice to say, I don’t like it.
Mintea
You’re right! The gold can red bulls are the original ones! No blue cans for me, those are weak!
Anyway if you’re interested to learn how to play, maybe I can try to coax Cart into teaching you? We can hang out at geek terminal or something :D
Hm. Didn’t realize that. Nice to know. It’s interesting how in the US it’s become such a big part of popular party culture that I just assumed it was an American drink. It’s typically mixed with vodka there I think. I never drank it with alcohol. Seemed stupid to me to mix an upper and downer. But… anyhow, the detrimental effects listed on that page are crazy. Think I’ll make a blog post about it.