This week, Frag Reel Friday takes a look at footage from the recent EB Games Expo in Sydney's Homebush, Australia's largest gaming convention.
The EB Games Expo has developed into Australia's largest trade show for video games, but the event wasn't always the big public affair seen at Sydney's Showgrounds earlier this month.
For a majority of the last decade, EB Expo was a largely similar experience to what gamers came to experience in Sydney and the Gold Coast last year - but the event was held for EB employees only. Trent Weekes, national events manager for EB Games, last year said the internal conference was already Australia's biggest gaming fair.
And in truth, Australians have been crying out for years for an event to match the scale and scope of something like the E3 Entertainment Expo or the Penny Arcade Expo (the latter of which will debut in Australia next year).
But it wasn't all about the new games: there was a tonne of other events on show, including a series of tournaments for the local competitive gaming communities, a large Cosplay exhibition, forums on gaming and more.
We'll start the coverage in reverse order with footage of the Ladies in Gaming Panel hosted by Geek Bomb. The forum featured Stephanie "Hex" Bendixen and Janet Carr from the ABC's own Good Game; as well as the Asian regional PR manager for Electronic Arts, Snezana Stojanovska; founder and editor-in-chief Tash Richards; Convict Interactive CMO and programmer Rebecca Fernandez; and Swinburne University professor (and avid cosplay fan) Kirsty Sculler.
The Australian arm of gaming media outlet Gamespot also hosted a few panels of its own, including one looking at whether Australian gamers were being overcharged on games and one talking about the local professional gaming scene. Panellists include former managing director of Sega Australia Darren Macbeth, Polygon's Tracey Lien, former 2K developer Bryan Ma, Derek "Dox" Reball from professional gaming Team Nv, Steve "PyroZero" Androu of The Shadowloo, and eSports consultant Craig "pandan" Warren.
The Cosplay fans turned out in force for the weekend, with stage shows across Saturday and Sunday showing off some amazing - and some unusual - costumes. Plenty of people were happy to strut their stuff despite the crowds, whether it be in front of the lights or just on the floor in front of random people. There was even a set of cosplay-themed skits screened at the final
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