Level Up: Lyon Con Shines in Debut

Level+Up%3A+Lyon+Con+Shines+in+Debut

Travis Morales, Freelance Reporter

In the Spring of 2017 Bill Allan, advisor for LTTV, pitched an idea that would set itself apart from any other event in LT history. His idea: a comic con-style event, featuring tournament gaming, open tabletop gaming, video games, cosplay and cosplay contests, photo ops and more.

With the collaboration with local business professionals and a quick approval from LT Student Activities Director, Peter Geddeis, Lyon Con was born. Before its debut on Feb. 3 – Feb. 4, Allan was optimistic right from the start.

“Once we laid out the basic framework, we knew it was going to work out pretty well,” Allan said.

Waking up bright and early, artists, panelists, and eager gamers swarmed into the SC Corral just before 8 a.m. on opening morning Evan Stuit, LT alum and Lyon Con staff member, stayed for the entire event from 8 a.m. – 9 p.m. on Saturday Around noon the initial wave poured in for the epic Dungeons and Dragons Adventures League.

“Once [the epic] happened we were like, ‘wow, we got a lot of people here.’ And once they left, there still were a lot of people,” Stuit explained.

Panels consisted of topics from the history of comic books to Star Wars, Rebel Force Radio. Star Wars fans were not disappointed as Stormtroopers, Darth Vader and the rest of the dark side invaded Lyon Con.

“Everyone’s mouth dropped [when they entered]. They had really good costumes,” Stuit said.

Allan was surprised by how quickly everything came together, including how over 100 pre-registered gamers were ready to play before the doors even opened.

“It quickly blew up into something that, quite frankly, was a lot bigger than I ever thought. I would have been happy if just 50 people showed up,” Allan said.

Throughout the two-day span, it was estimated that 150 people attended Lyon Con. Allan was not the only one pleased with the attendance numbers; Geddeis was also thrilled.

“[The attendance] greatly exceeded our expectations,” Geddeis said.

With a strong turnout and overall success, Geddeis gave fans an uplifting message for the future of Lyon Con.

“I do expect that we will put on another Lyon Con in 2019. We have already begun those conversations,” Geddeis said.