It was the last day of the con, though we didn’t attend for long this time. The main convention hall closed a few hours earlier compared to the other days and we had to do some moving work beforehand. However, we weren’t going to spend time wandering the main hall like we usually did, because the first thing we did was attend a panel.

On June 27, 2019, a man named Matty Roberts posted a joke Facebook event: storming Area 51. He was inspired to do so in the middle of the night after listening to some alien conspiracies, clearly not intending for the whole thing to blow up. Someway, somehow, his Facebook event caught the attention of millions, growing into a big internet meme with a few people actually taking it seriously.

He happened to be hosting a panel to talk about his experiences. The panel started with a trailer for Alienstock, a documentary covering the Storm Area 51 phenomenon and his legal disputes against an Alienstock festival that tried to ride its coattails. Think of something along the likes of those documentaries on Fyre Festival, except made with good intentions. From there, Roberts answered a variety of questions from the audience. His answers ranged from silly stuff like “yes, I think we can clap those alien cheeks” to more serious stuff like “the FBI visited my home and I think my house is bugged.”

In spite of trying to make the Area 51 phenomenon into a brand, Roberts was humble with some sincere belief in the things he talked about. Overall, he was a weird yet earnest guy. My sister and I ended up getting a picture from him shortly after a mad expo worker warned that the panel was going over time.

As we walked into the convention hall, we thought that we missed out on wrestling, mainly because the brochures for LVL UP were really bad at communicating when wrestling was going on. However, there was a huge commotion going on. As it turned out, we left the panel just in time for the final match. It wasn’t a traditional one-on-one or tag team battle, but it was this thing where multiple wrestlers fought on stage, with new ones joining in after a few minutes.

The brawl brought in a lot of previously seen wrestlers, trying to take each other down to reach the top. It eventually reached a final three: a strong lady, an opportunist and Da Shade. The woman had taken down multiple wrestlers at that point while the opportunist was happy to pin down wrestlers that other wrestlers dropped. The opportunist went against the woman with dirty tactics, wrapping himself around her neck and choking her out to win by default. This win garnered the boos of many, this guy coming out as the ultimate heel of the event.

Then Da Shade challenged him, in a culmination of his character arc. He was accidentally knocked out by his partner in his first fight and had to be talked down from beating him up. He then allowed the Butcher to win the previous day. However, despite all those setbacks, Da Shade captured the love of the crowd and redeemed himself by defeating the opportunist.

With wrestling done and the main hall due to close within an hour, we ended up looking around for some more merchandise. I figured that I may as well spend more money since our tax refunds were due to come soon. I got a new lanyard themed after Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and figured that I may as well get a new charm to hang on it. I revisited the stand run by kyupls and Chimfucius and got a cute Nier: Automata themed pin. I also ended up getting a Jack Bros themed tote bag from Hexselenas. I looked around a bit to see if anyone had any Undertale themed prints that I could hang on the wall, but nothing really caught my eye.

I also hit up the retro game stands for the last shopping trip. I got Donkey Kong Country Returns because hey, even though I could get the Switch version, the original Wii one was just $15. I also got Timesplitters 2, which I heard was a good game, and Arc the Lad 2, which I only really got because I heard about it from a joke in Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden. I also got a metallic Pokemon bookmark, though I’m currently not sure where it is.

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— dari bloodysunday (@scitydreamer) February 24, 2020

We also saw some cool sights during this last hour. We saw a Miles Morales cosplayer playing Sunflower on a saxophone. Some drones were rolling around like they owned a place. A whole bunch of con-goers were running around the hall in a train formation, urging people to join in, in one last hurrah for LVL UP Expo.

Overall, I had a fun experience at LVL UP Expo, even if I blew an embarrassing amount of money on it. I got to see some cool people, I got a whole bunch of stuff to decorate my new room, and I’ve been instilled with the fiery spirit of wrestling. I’m hoping to attend LVL UP Expo next year and I hope to make new experiences.

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