RTX London 2017: Saturday Recap

For the first time, Rooster Teeth brought their RTX convention to London, holding it at the ExCeL centre over the weekend of 14-15 October 2017. Here’s what went down on Saturday.

With Rooster Teeth being as big a company as it is, it wasn’t a surprise that there was such a huge amount for visitors to do when they arrived. From RWBY, an anime, through to Day 5, an apocalyptic show, they do far more than you would think.

Walking around the convention there were literally thousands of people dressed up in a variety of different ways. In fact, the attendees could be placed into four distinct categories based on their clothing choices: “normal” clothes, merchandise wearers, half-cosplayers (maybe sticking to the colour scheme of their favourite character), and full cosplayers (the badass people who fully commit to their cosplay: battle armour, helmets, the whole nine yards). You’ve got to tip the hat to anyone who commits to full cosplay for so many reasons, not least for the looks they probably get from people on the Tube. It’s amazing to watch the recognition and excitement displayed by people at the event, and to see so many people chatting and mingling, costume or not, is heartwarming.

Rooster Teeth’s enormous reach as a company is shown best by looking at the people in the exhibition halls. It’s almost guaranteed that no two people will be wearing the same t-shirt. We spotted Funhaus, Screw Attack, Sugar Pine 7, Kinda Funny, and so many more.

There were several panel discussions throughout the day for some of Rooster Teeth’s more well-known and -loved ventures, including Always Open, Writers’ Block Party, and RWBY to name a few.

The RWBY panel featured director Kerry Shawcross with Barbara Dunkleman, Lindsay Jones, Miles Luna, and Gray G. Haddock. During the panel, the guests discussed the anime and premiered the first episode of their newest season, Volume 5, to the excitement of the audience.

Another of the panels that took place was one for the upcoming Lazer Team 2. Director Matt Hullum and stars Burnie Burns, Michael Jones, and Gavin Free spoke about the differences between the first and second film and shared that the number of shooting days had been halved for the sequel.

They then showed the first five minutes of the film. This was the first time that even the stars had seen it, due to the fast turnaround of the production process: writing started in December 2016, and shooting wrapped in April 2017. The film will be coming out later in 2017 on YouTube Red.

Aside from attending panels, there was plenty to keep people occupied, including stands for Forbidden Planet and Sugar Bunch, and even an AR escape room. Alongside these, there was a gaming area filled with different video games for attendees to try out, from indies to big-name titles such as Super Mario Odyssey and Arms. And it wasn’t just video games – there was also a tabletop game section with a whole range of different games (including the RWBY board game, of course!).

The day closed with an Off Topic panel on the main stage, featuring Gavin Free, Geoff Ramsey, Michael Jones, and Jeremy Dooley. The crowd for this panel was easily the biggest audience of the day, and the main hall was completely packed. At one point, James Buckley joined the panellists on stage, a complete surprise for the audience which led to rapturous applause.

As part of the panel, the guests all played an “unofficial” round of Gavin or Gaggle, the game in which they try their utmost to make Gavin gag as much as possible (which you may have guessed from the title).

Something that really sticks in your mind from attending the event is the looks of the parents, who seem completely confused at what is going on. At TenEighty HQ we look forward to being exactly like that with our own kids when they tell us about their obsession with anthropomorphic cat holograms that write poetry. Because that’s the future, right?

Want more?

We were fortunate enough to attend Buffer Festival 2017 over in Toronto – check out our recap of the event! Or did you hear that Daniel Howell and Phil Lester have released their very own board game?!