RETURNING from a three-year hiatus, CONQuest gathered around 33,000 questers nationwide at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay last Jul. 23 and 24 for the country’s biggest face-to-face gaming, technology, anime, and pop culture convention of 2022. Fans were thrilled not just because the all-star guest lineup included their favorite local and international gamers, content creators, and voice actors; the festival was also jam-packed with 55 artist booths, 19 vendors, and three indie developers for them to explore.

Off the Screen and Into Real Life

Meet-and-greet sessions started with a short Q&A followed by a photo and greeting session. Questers were exhilarated as they encountered the online gaming and content creation personalities invited by the CONQuest team. Those who gave free panels and had meet and greet sessions with their fans on the first day of the festival included VALORANT streamers, Kyedae and Razzie Binx; Genshin Impact streamers, Atsu and Tuonto; Genshin Impact voice actors, Anne Yatco, Ratana, LilyPichu, and Christian Banas with Yatco and Ratana giving their audience a treat by playing live Genshin Impact character trailers; VTubers, Bao and Senz; Twitch streamers, Nekkopii and BTMC; cosplayer, Een Mercado; and Blacklist International’s star duo and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) defending World Champions, Johnmar “OhMyV33nus” Villaluna and Daenerie “Wise” Del Rosario, otherwise known as V33Wise. Some of them returned to the stage on the second day of the festival joined by YouTube sensation, Michael Reeves, who is known for his mind-blowing robot inventions.

Conquering the Philippine Esports Community

Esports teams from different universities went head-to-head during the grand finals of AcadArena’s Alliance Games for five well-known esports: League of Legends, Call of Duty, Wild Rift, MLBB, and VALORANT. As a reward, the top five scoring schools earned exclusive AcadArena Scholarships and Aid fund for their students amounting to P30,000. New Era University’s Project Paradigm emerged victorious as they defeated University of the Philippines-Diliman’s Oblation Esports during the League of Legends grand finals. Meanwhile, Holy Angel University’s Valiant Esports Club secured their three-peat championship after defeating Far Eastern University Institute of Technology’s (FIT) Tamaraws Esports Club-Mayhem in Wild Rift. Another school remained undefeated as University of Santo Tomas’ Teletigers Esports Club crushed University of Batangas’ Brahman Sports in the MLBB championship. Finally, De La Salle University’s (DLSU) Viridus Arcus was crowned the biggest winner of AcadArena’s Alliance Games as they did not just win two esports events, but also maintained their winning streak. After dominating FTI’s Tamaraws Esports Club-Dasig in the Call of Duty: Mobile (CODM)  grand finals, DLSU’s Viridus Arcus remained as the champions of CODM in collegiate esports as they clutched their ninth consecutive championship. They also secured a four-peat victory during the VALORANT grand finals when they defeated Ateneo De Manila University’s LG Esports.

A massive crowd gathered at the main stage as another esports highlight of CONQuest 2022 was the VALORANT All-Star Showmatch between Team Razzie (Een Mercado, Nicole “NicoleG” Grumal, and Francis Adrian “burg” Salunga) led by Raemon “Razzie Binx” Bingcang versus Team Kyedae (Amanda Magdalena “maggiekarp” Zamora, Krisrey, Xavier “xavi8k” Juan, and s0nshine) led by Kyedae Shymko. Although Team Razzie won the match, both teams showcased their exceptional gaming skills.

A Little Bit of Everything

During the weekend-long festival, cosplayers brought their favorite anime and game characters to life from their wardrobe and makeup to their accessories and weapons. Aside from the Genshin Impact Cosplay Contest won by Magatsu Mitake Narukami no Mikoto, they also conducted the Gyeonggi International Cosplay Festival (GICOF) Qualifiers wherein winners will represent the Philippines in the upcoming GICOF 2022 World Championship.

Different brands also had their own mini stages where they gave game and event updates, and conducted their own mini contests with merchandise as giveaways. Questers who came enjoyed exclusive promo bundles, huge discounts, and even free merchandise if they were lucky. Although online games are all the rage nowadays with Micro-Star International and Silicon Valley providing a stream zone for gamers, the CONQuest team also prepared old classic games for attendees to play such as Dungeon and Dragons.

Last but not the least, with the pandemic forcing events such as graduations to be held online, the AcadArena conducted a live graduation ceremony during the event to acknowledge their graduates from Batch 2020 to 2022.

CONQuest was indeed one of the biggest face-to-face pop culture events ever since the pandemic started. Questers spent their weekend celebrating their passions, forming new relationships with people of the same interest as theirs, showcasing their creativity through cosplay and paintings, wandering through a variety of booths, discovering new art, games, and technology, and learning from panels of guests who shared their experiences and skills with the audience. With tickets sold out days before the event and people constantly posting on their social media wishing that there were more tickets left, the CONQuest team is sure to engage with a larger community and create CONQuest 2023 a bigger and better celebration than the previous one like they always do.