As you may know, the Conclave participated last weekend in the Offline fun Rio de Janeiro. It was a magical, fun and exciting weekend!

We were at the event with two areas this time. The first, our normal stand with sales counter and play area. The second, our first Family Area, with games aimed at children and families, with special Haba tables and activities throughout the day. Our booth remained fully booked throughout the event, with matches running non-stop from the opening to the end of each day. But what surprised us the most was the Family Area. We need to get more tables and rearrange the layout of the area, which even had lines to play at certain times. Featured for Magic Maze, Animal Upon Animal and the launch Rhino Hero. The Family Area formula was so good that we will certainly repeat it in future events!

The Family Area was an innovation, but bringing international guests is already a tradition. Conclave, in partnership with the organization of Fun Offline, always seeks to brighten the event by bringing international designers to the event. This is important, as it shows the strength of the hobby in Brazil to the guests and promotes greater interaction and connection between the foreign and domestic market. Furthermore, it is an opportunity for Brazilian players to meet the authors of their favorite games, exchange ideas, get to know their work better, play with them and, in addition, have their games autographed.

The stars of this year were the French Yohan Lemonnier and Roberto Fraga. They came for the launch of the Captain Sonar and, to our surprise, they seem to have enjoyed themselves even more than the general public at the event. The two, along with their wives, formed the “Capirinha Team” and played several Captain Sonar matches against diverse teams during the event. The team that won the Capirinha Team would take home a copy of Captain Sonar. As expected, only one team won, out of six matches. Yohan and Fraga loved the event and even commented that they were very happy to see how Brazilians relate to the games, how there is a sparkle in the eyes of Brazilians at the gaming table. They said that coming to Brazil was refreshing and inspiring. They gave out a lot of autographs and a lot of sympathy. And their gaming tables drew so much attention that Thati Lopes, of Back door, asked to play with them and, of course, took home an autographed Captain Sonar. In the end, we saw how gratifying their coming was for all of us, as the farewell was with tears in our eyes… See you in Essen, guys!

But we still had many other activities at our stand. There were challenges, special matches, promotional discounts at the sales desk and games, lots of games. We had throughout the event tables of ethnos, Captain Sonar, Flamme Rouge, Richard the Lion's Heart, Above and Below, Rhino Hero, Animal Upon Animal, Looterz, Magic Maze, Amun-Re, karuba and Honshu. In addition, throughout the event people were able to play and get to know the new games that will be released by Conclave: gnomopolis, Sovereign, Rematch, Towers of Arkanos and Clank! All this, keeping so many games running at the same time, was only possible thanks to the commitment and dedication of a fantastic team, which worked with incredible synergy throughout. Our thanks to the monitors, who were tutored by the guys from SePlay It's from mansion invites, for the commitment, dedication and for the smile on your face at each match!

Of course, it had the traditional showcase with future releases, but we'll talk about each of them here, soon.

As we have already said, the Offline fun Rio de Janeiro was magical. It was a pleasant surprise to know that our hobby has grown so much in Brazil that it allows us to have two large events in the year. The audience surprised us both quantitatively and qualitatively. The event was full the entire time and we didn't see any problem logs. Merit of the organization, always concerned with meeting requests, committed to solving any questions and attentive to the progress of the event. Congratulations to Geek Carioca! as we said on here, you have raised the level of gaming events in Brazil and have not stopped rising. Now we finally have a real gaming convention in our country and we want it to last for many, many years to come!

Cristiano Cuty
Creation & Editing