SAEGX is a brand new convention to the 2024 scene and definitely showed that this team of uni students not only have a huge amount of ambition, but a clear vision for where they’re headed.
We were only able to attend the Sunday of the event due to normal adult life things getting in the way, but did our best to see or experience all that was put on offer.
Entering the expo was an experience on its own. Walking into the entryway we were greeted by rows of exhibiting tables lining either side of a large entry foyer, with an eSports arena completely encased in glass directly in front of us. You could see the tiers of red seats rising up to the back wall that hosted two TV’s broadcasting the current game out to the masses in the foyer.
To students of the university this is simply the technology wing of Swinburne University’s Hawthorn Campus, but to first-time visitors it’s quite an impressive space to be welcomed into.
Amongst the various facilities in the wing, the different sections and attractions of the expo are nestled in classrooms, between lecture spaces and robotics labs (which you can peek into through the windows which is also super cool).
In the main foyer you find club stalls, the Game Breakers Playtest Zone, the aforementioned impressive eSports Stadium and the very respectable Artist Alley. For a first time event, the amount of vendors in the Artist Alley is incredibly encouraging. The fact that throughout our stay it was possibly one of the most frequented areas is also equally as encouraging, and the first hint we saw of just how much the community has rallied around SAEGX.
The rest of the event is scattered throughout the campus, which brings me to the only real gripe I have about the convention. With how smoothly the rest of the event ran it’s a fairly small one, but the Hawthorn Campus is a large boi. It sprawls over 16.5 acres with over a dozen buildings, and a lack of signage made navigation difficult. The show map, whilst pretty (and reflective of Dreamhack, which is a big complement), does little to actually convey distances and the direction you need to travel to find different zones.
We spoke to several of the management team towards the end of the convention and they made it clear that they’re aware of these issues. A lot of them were caused by breakdowns in communications between management and departments within the university itself and changing capabilities that were outside of their control, as is such when coordinating any large-scale event in a facility that’s as (rightfully) tightly controlled as a university for the first time, honestly.
For simplicity, from now I’ll refer to the buildings that hosted specific sections as they appear on the SAEGX map, using the university designations.
The EN building hosted the fighting games, BA functioned as a sort of cosplay central with panels, a cloak room, cosplay guests and repair areas, a photo booth and the cosplay stage in the Atrium.
AD was the home for workshops with cosplay altering and, the unexpectedly huge draw for the event: the cat ears workshop. This is where attendees could learn and create their own set of cat ears to wear and take home after the convention. This workshop booked out almost instantly and was all but forced to run well past its advertised finish time, through to the end of the day.
I’ve also seen said cat ears out in the social media wild in posts by cosplayers and attendees of SAEGX in the week following the convention.
I will admit that we didn’t manage to experience everything the convention had to offer due to the navigation issues, but we heard multiple reports from friends, cosplayers and general con-goers that everything they partook in was run incredibly well (someone said surprisingly well considering this is the first go-around run by students).
The true standout for us was the cosplay competition. Not only was the prize pool impressive, and actually outstripped the prizes offered by many other competitions we’ve watched, but it was super well organised and also compares well against other competitions by moving at a good pace and being properly entertaining.
Part of the entertainment factor definitely comes down to the skilful MCing by vanilathrila_, but major hats off to the organizational team behind the comp.
The caliber of the cosplays brought out for SAEGX was also, at the risk of repeating myself, surprisingly impressive. With oneclearlycrazy18 taking away Best in Show with her reimagined Cunning Little Vixen by Janaćek, all of the contestants brought intricate and well thought out costumes which would’ve made the judge’s job difficult.
Cosplayers in the competition
Considering we only learnt of the convention’s existence at Animaga 2024 barely a month beforehand, the marketing was bare-bones but the amount of familiar faces that attended is a testament to the community and its enthusiasm. The bare-bones approach wasn’t intentional as the team had to wait for certain factors to clear before they could begin their campaign, so expect a louder voice next year.
Some of the shots I took over the day
SAEGX 2024 was a grand entry into the Melbourne convention scene and upon speaking to the team they’re hyped to provide an improved event in 2025 - we can’t wait to see where they take it!
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