The long awaited road trip was finally here! The newer generation of NNW had never had the opportunity to go on a big road trip before, and the older members just about remember January 2015 as the last time the NPUK community met together for a similar idea. Of course we had North vs South in Summer 2015, and the Switch Premiere in January 2017, but there had since been a period of relative quietness, and of course lockdown happened too.
2022 is back with a bang. NPUK had been planning this event for months, and having a full committee for the first time meant that we could have a more structured plan that we could share the workload for.
The end result was a fun event for everyone. No event runs 100% perfectly, but of course it was our first event in a very long time, so it was pretty fine considering 🙂
Jen & Dylan went down for the weekend as Jen was one of the organisers, so were involved in the setup and admin side of things.
The rest of NNW came down on a coach which was shared with Liverpool. Leaving at 6.30am sounded ambitious, but everyone was there and ready to board!
The journey down was pretty smooth, there was a little mishap when Liverpool got on board, but handily there was a mop and bucket there!
Thanks to Alpine for helping us out 🙂
Meanwhile, while NNW were travelling down, Jen, Dylan, and a few others were putting together 170 goody bags for the guests.
We were ready by 10.30, but the agency who were setting up the equipment in the rear of the venue weren’t quite ready, so everyone had to stay at the front of the venue until they were ready.
So many familiar faces started appearing, and some spoke to each other for the first time since before lockdown. It was lovely to see so many reuniting with each other, and also to see some of the younger generation turning up to experience what we’ve been doing for almost a decade but on a much smaller scale.
The food caught us by surprise though. The chef was handmaking Italian pizzas in his wood fired stove, and he’d already served 5 pizzas before we realised. There was a bit of chaos as people weren’t sure how much pizza they could take. Jen and Adam jumped in after that and took control of the queue, advising and helping anyone who had specific dietary requirements. By the time the second wave came out at 3pm, things were a lot more under control!
Gameswise, of course we were there for the Last Chance Qualifier for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and the Grand Finals.
The Last Chance Qualifier was capped at 32, but we had a decent representation for NNW. Only the top 3 could get through to the final though, so sadly it wasn’t for us, but the top 3 winners got themselves a cappy hat at the end!
On the side there were also freeplay stations, but they got a bit hidden as people claimed their tables and didn’t really move much once settled!
There were some Indie games spotted, and also a few rounds of Salmon Run.
There were also tables in the centre of the venue, so because people had been asked to bring their 3DSes for Streetpassing with, there were a few setups with those consoles too.
We also had the Splatoon 3 Inkvitational taking place, so that was intertwined with the Mario Kart happenings.
Both games were high energy, and there was lots of whoops and cheers as well as shrieks of despair!
The Rip Tides took the victory. They were the strongest team in the competition from the start, but everyone seemed to enjoy their matches anyway.
We started an hour behind schedule, and caught up throughout the day. We were actually going to be finishing early, but there was a delay with getting the results to the balcony where Leon was, and the guys at the bottom underneath the balcony ended up waiting a while.
We started by awarding the 3 cappy hats,
then it was Splatoon 3 goody bags for the Splatoon winners:
Then 8th – 1st for the Mario Kart Grand Final Winners..
Well done to our Em who placed 8th 🙂
(3rd place had to dash off early, so he got his own picture too)
Sadly a coach arrived early, so some of the group had to dash before the final bit of news was revealed!
We managed the group photo first though!
Then came the final bit of news!
NPUK will be returning with Squid League in early 2023! We thought that we’d give people enough time and warning to get their teams together 🙂
We ended the event with a committee photo as it’s the first time since the committee was established in September 2020, that we were physically all together in one place.
Thanks to Nintendo UK, BD Network and Dropshot Digbeth for helping us to organise what is the highlight of 2022 for NPUK! It was a perfect day, and many are asking when the next one is!
Until next year, don’t forget to get involved in your local groups. A lot have regular in person events that you can join in with. NNW’s is just in Bangor this Saturday 22nd! Hope to see you there!
Photo Credits: Jen, Dale, Andrew R