Each year in October a gaming festival takes place in Virginia called Magfest. The purpose of this convention is to bring together gamers from all over America to gather and play videogames together and enjoy some of the other activities that involve videogames; such as music, tournaments, and debates. Last year Magfest had fewer tournaments and concerts, compared to this year. However that may not have necessarily been a good thing as so much happened this year that almost some of the events and tournaments got cancelled. Fortunately with enough voluntary staff gamers were able to help run certain events so that the over all set of the gamers would be able to play in tournaments and still be able to attend events such as concerts and the debates. In the end Mid Atlantic Gaming Festival 3.0 ended as solid as ever and here is why.

Day 1: Wednesday September 29th 2004 (The Gathering)
As members of the Empire prepared there journey to the state of Virginia , they found themselves in a rut as four members were caught in a last minute situation and were in jeopardy of not going to this years event. Shen Yin , Harlem Hero , Ako: Lady Harlem , all were in a bind with lack of funds to go to Magfest. Triforce was informed about this and spoke to Chris Matrix about what could be done to raise last minute funds to try to help get the last four out to Magfest. Matrix being a part of the $yndicate had his unconventional ways of trying to help come up with the money, but first he needed to make a phone call. The first person he called was Xecutioner . For a brief while they spoke on the phone and in that moment they came up with a plan. The plan involved a risk as usual but it was a good shot at it as they would be relying on Marvelous to carry such a chance. Chaparralboy , a new member in Empire Arcadia was egger to help out and just pay for the three members way, but was turned down based on principles of him being a new member. So the Empire stuck with its original plan and so they headed downtown to China Town Fair.

As they arrived they waited for Eddie Lee, a Marvelous to reach the arcades. As the group nervously awaits their arrival they played a few arcade games to buy sometime. Both Wyldflower and Ako took a walk out to a fast food restaurant for a break, during their leave Marvelous and Eddie lee arrived and started a private challenge with the prize of $100.00 on the line, first to reach 10 wins. However Marvelous was handicapped and was only allowed to select a mid level team versus Eddie who was allowed to pick a stronger team. The challenge took almost one hour to complete and during their play Wyldflower and Ako returned from the restaurant with some good news. Stating that they luckily they found $100.00 dollars in the bathroom. Makes you wonder right? Random! Whatever the case was that still was not enough money as they needed to raise over $250.00 in the next 6 hours to give a chance for two of the three to even go. Marvelous and Eddie Lee battled until they got to 9 - 9, and the final game was at hand. As Marvelous has done so many times before he clutched and was able to defeat Eddie Lee in his final game to get the score 10 - 9. With this pre victory at hand, Eddie Lee smiled as he knew that this was only the beginning.

As the group cleared out the arcade because they were closing, and that is a sign to show how long the Empire was in the arcade watching Marvelous play Eddie Lee, they all gathered outside to wait to see what was going to happen. Xecutioner and Chris Matrix walked up to Triforce and explained to him the situation about the rules to the challenge; and being that Marvelous beat Eddie Lee his Marvel vs. Capcom 2, it was Xecutioner and Chrix Matrix turn to play Eddie Lee in a game of Eddie Lee's choosing. If Xecutioner and Chris Matrix could beat Eddie Lee in his game then they would win the cash prize. Xecutioner told Triforce that he would keep in contact with him later and that it would be best for everyone to head home and start packing to meet at Greyhound in the next several hours. Triforce agreed as he had much to do before first light. Everyone started to get their stuff in gear and headed on back to there homes after Triforce explained to everyone the situation, but for the three, Harlem Hero, Ako, and Shen Yin they were a bit less optimistic about the situation as they had a feeling that the worst was yet to come.

A couple of hours later, Triforce arrived at Marvelous house and the two took a walk. They spoke about their mission at Magfest and what the Empire had to do while there. Triforce told Marvelous about the importance of not only socializing with the gamers, and spreading information to them about the Empire and the videogame Industry but the importance of sportsmanship during competition and how it was just as important to teach some of the gamer who did not know how to play some of the games, just as much as winning. The two spoke for over an hour and many of as they gave advice and tips on how they would be able to accomplish their mission at Magfest. Then they were interrupted with a phone call from Xecutioner. Xecutioner told them that they had lost the challenge against Eddie Lee based on time and that there was no way to get the guys to go to M3. With this bad news Triforce knew that he would have to bring this news personally to the three. As Triforce said to Marvelous that he would see him in Virginia the next day and left towards the train station to head home, he instantly called Harlem Hero's home and told him the bad news as straight forward as possible. Harlem was not surprise at all as he knew it was coming, and conceded to the fact that he was not going to go to Magfest this year. Triforce thought it would be best that he brought this news home to Shen Yin personally, so he waited until he got home to tell him of this news.

When Triforce arrived home, Shen Yin was already in a bad mood as he always suspected that the bad news was coming back to him, and surely enough Triforce told him straight forward that he was not going to be able to go. With less than two (2) hours to spare Triforce had no time to revel in the bad news as he packed up his things, with the help of Kylian and Siepher to make their move towards the Greyhound bus station. Sepia Soule said he would stay and hold down the fort as Shen Yin decided to help the group pack and carry some of the stuff down as well. As they got to the bus station they met up with the first set of Empire Arcadia members that were set to leave in the morning, as Xecutioner, Sepia Soule, and Marvelous were schedule to leave during the night time. At the bus station, they met up with Orin, Ether, Ace, and Slash to go downstairs and await the departure of their bus. But they were missing two more members. Triforce started to be annoyed at last minute issues that started to happen, from bus tickets being misplaced when the entire time they were in his back pocket, then to barking on Orin for holding clothing that they had to put for the fashion show, in the wrong manner. One piece of the clothes was damage but not so bad, and Triforce was really frustrated then. what made it worst, was the group was ready to board the bus, as the bus was ready to leave in ten (10) minutes and Kreymore or Flash had arrived yet. Then with only a couple of minutes to spare, they came down with their luggage and jumped right on the bus, just in the nick of time. Triforce had a bizarre expression on his face, one showing neither anger or happiness yet completely blank, as he looked towards Orin and Ether, then towards Flash and Kreymore then out the window of the bus at Shen Yin standing at the terminal and then turning away and walking off; Triforce just turned around back in the bus, and looked at his wife, smiled and held her. The bus started, and they were off.

Day 2: Thursday September 30th 2004 (Road Warriors)
As the group had many discussions on the bus ride to Virginia their first transfer point was Washington D.C. where they came into a little problem. The next bus out of Washington continuing to Richmond Virginia would not take all of the members of the Empire. They only took 6 out of the 10 and said that they could not take anymore on the bus as seats were reserved for transfer passengers in other towns. Thus the group had to wait for the next available bus which was 4 hours later. As the group camped out at the bus terminal playing an assortment of videogames for the Game Boy Advance, they patiently awaited the next bus so that they would continue their journey to M3.

Once back on the bus they spent their final 3 hours joking around and talking about all types of topics from music artist to how well Magfest would turn out to be. Triforce spoke about how it was important to be helpful at Magfest and to compete as well. Triforce got a phone call from RX who was on a train to Williamsburg Virginia and how he was almost there as well. The two knew that they would rendezvous at Magfest roughly at the same time. The group all arrived at the bus station in Williamsburg Virginia around 5pm and took a cab to the Clarion Hotel in which Magfest 3.0 would be held. In less than 30 minutes the group all gathered in the lobby and got there rooms checked in and prepared themselves for the pre party later that night. Trioforce went to the super market which was across the street in the local area mall and purchased some cake and brought it back to the hotel as the rest went downstairs in the "Game Room" to set up the Empire's booth. During the booth set up other members of the Empire registered for M3, and shared in some cake to celebrate Wyldflower and Kylian's birthday which was September 30th.

The night was short as expected and they were aware of the coming for the next day. While most of the members of the Empire returned to their rooms late that night, Friday morning which was the first of October, Triforce remained at the front desk with Brendon Chairman of Magfest 3.0 and worked on setting the score at Magfest for the Black Dragon Emperor's Challenge . After setting his score up he then relieved Brendon of his watch duty and gave him a four (4) hour break to sleep. Triforce continued his game throughout the night and into the morning, earning a score of 2,370,050. During this time throughout the night and early morning, attendees for the Magfest convention camped out by the front desk and socialize about many different topics, as they awaited the game room to open. Triforce stopped his game, but was not satisfied with his efforts as he wanted to beat his home best of 2.4 million however at the same time felt that it was enough to be set for the challenge. As he engaged with conversations with some of the attendees who were waiting for the game room to open, he notice that Brendon over slept passed the four (4) hours that he said that he was going to get. Fortunately for all the gamers that waited, Patrick Vice Chairman of Magfest came down to open the game room. As the room opened it slowly started to fill up. Triforce hung around for a bit to make sure that the Empire booth was ready, then he headed up back to his room to get only an hour of sleep before opening ceremony would begin at Twelve (12) Noon.

Day 3: Friday October 1st 2004 (The Welcome)
During the time Triforce was about to go and get an hour of rest time, Marvelous, Xecutioner and Sepia Soule all arrived. The spoke to Triforce about room arrangements and quickly got settled in. Shortly after freshening up, members of the Empire all wore there uniform showing the Empire's logo. They all gathered in the Main hall of Magfest where opening ceremony would be preformed. First Brendon welcomed everyone and started to explained the rules and regulations for this years Magfest and that he hoped that everyone would enjoy themselves this year and enjoy the convention put together by himself and staff, and all the support that he received from contributing forces. Shortly afterwards he started to introduce all the special guests that came and or returned to Magfest this year. Guest from the Minibosses, Temp Sound Solutions, The Smash Brothers, Jake Kaufman, Wave Theory, Jenova Project, Neskimos, Charomelodeon, Inheretics, Dale North, X-Strike Studios, Cindy Morgan - Tron, Robert Aldrich, Virtual Fools, and Empire Arcadia.

After the well received and warm reception, everyone raced back down to the Game Room and the PC lan room and started to game. Throughout most of the day the line up of games and event were diverse but they clashed as the Main game room, PC Lan room, and the Viewing room all had something to offer all at the same time, depending on what you would like to do. For instance, during 2pm to 4pm you had Mario Kart Double Dash in the main room, while Unreal Tournament 2004 was in the PC Lan room, and in the video viewing room you had The Wizard, Gungrave 1& 2, and Orphen episodes 1 - 3. So gamers had to make a choice as what they were going to do that day. Later that night the schedules clashed even harder as Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was being held on a arcade cabinet in the Main room, while open Lan games were being run in the PC Lan room and concerts and panels were being held in the Main events room like Inheretics, Chromelodeon, NESkimos, Name that game tune, X-strikes Presents and a new movie showing of Silent Horror.

All Images!

Ken vs. Ken! Guess who won?