RTX London 2018 Report
Last weekend I headed down to London to attend the RTX London 2018 event at the ExCel centre. For those of you who aren’t familiar, RT stands for Rooster Teeth, a Texas based group of gamers and animators who produce a ridiculous amount of high quality content. From animations such as Red vs Blue, RWBY and Nomad of Nowhere, to tabletop gaming shenanigans and gameplay commentary, these guys and girls do it all.
This was the second year of the London event, and my first time attending. My friends Sophie and John attended last year, so they were my guides and gurus for the weekend. They were ably assisted by the fantastic RTX London 2018 app which might just be the best thing I’ve ever seen for a con in this country. The app allows you to create your own custom schedule from the various panels, events and autograph sessions. You can then compare with friends to see which you all want to do. It’ll even send you notifications to remind you, so you don’t miss anything!
Friday Afternoon
After a long and often frustrating drive down to London (thanks Soph!) we checked in to our hotel and then went to register. The huge registration hall was pretty much empty and we walked straight up to a Guardian (the name given to volunteers at RTX Events) and got our packs. Weekend entry, which we had, grants you a lanyard which is your pass for the weekend and an exclusive bag. There was also a nice laminated programme in there but due to some last minute changes most of it wasn’t correct.
Below is an image of what was included in the different packages, together with the prices for 2018.
We headed back to the hotel and over dinner used the app to work out our schedules for the weekend ahead. After that it was time for an early night as both Sophie and I were cosplaying the next day and needed to be up early for hair/make-up etc.
Saturday
Sophie and I were both up early, so by extension John was too. He went for a run while we started getting ready. Both of us were cosplaying characters from RWBY, and while we’ve both cosplayed RWBY characters before, these were both new. Sophie was cosplaying Raven Branwen while I was channelling my inner bad girl as Cinder Fall (Vol. 5 version). Once we were ready we headed over to the ExCel.
Panel queueing nightmares
There were a few panels we wanted to get to over the weekend. Most important for me and Sophie was the RWBY Panel at 10am. By the time we arrived the queueing had begun. We dived in as John wished us luck and headed for the Ask the CEO panel.
Something that became a bit of a running joke through the weekend was my Beginner’s Luck. Not only had I managed to snag my desired autograph session effortlessly (more on that later) but by some amazing fluke, Sophie and I ended up in the front row for the RWBY panel!
We had a picture taken of our cosplays by another attendee and then settled in for the panel. The line up was Lindsay Jones who voices Ruby Rose, Anna Hullum (Raven Branwen), Gray Haddock (Head of RT animation and voice of Roman Torchwick) and Barbara Dunkelman (Yang Xiao-Long). We got a bunch of new information about tie ins. They also introduced the upcoming YA novel series RWBY: After The Fall, which is set to focus on the lesser spotted Team CFVY. We also got a sneak look at new RT Animation project gen:Lock which was introduced by a video message from star Michael B Jordan!
If you plan to attend an RTX event, we totally recommend getting there to pre-queue for your chosen events as early as you are allowed. These things fill up fast. Something we were about to find out to our cost.
Cosplay contest fail
After the RWBY panel we had some time before the pre-judging for the cosplay contest which we wanted to enter, so we headed outside to find the RWBY cosplay meet. We had some pictures taken and then realised the cosplay pre-judging was about to start so we went back to get in line. However when we got there, just a few minutes after the pre-judging started, we were told by a Guardian that the line had already been capped, and we wouldn’t be allowed to enter.
Sophie had been working on her cosplay since April and I’d learned to sew, from scratch, in order to make mine. Needless to say we were both pretty bummed out. We decided to get our pictures taken by RT staff photographer Wes Ellis and then hit the Rooster Teeth official merch store and indulge in some retail therapy to try and cheer ourselves up.
Soph made it on to the RT twitter account having her picture snapped by Wes.
And @elliswes is back! #RTXLondon pic.twitter.com/QGZCnBxjTN
— Jackie the Avocado ??? (@GeekyFriedRice) September 16, 2018
Rooster Teeth Store
The RT store offers all of the merch available for the various projects from Rooster Teeth. RWBY, Nomad of Nowhere, Achievement Hunter, On The Spot… they were all here. I knew I needed something to get signed by Lindsay and Michael the next day, so I grabbed the RWBY 2019 calendar as well as a couple of other bits and pieces.
Soph however was on a mission. I watched in awe as she stacked up a huge pile of merch in her arms. Seriously, she was in danger of being buried under a pile of boxes!
Once we’d bought all our goodies John took our bags back to the hotel, Sophie and I grabbed food and then she went to get in the queue for her autograph.
Autograph headaches.
The autograph sessions at RTX are allocated via codes. You get one code with a weekend pass and two if you go for the Platinum pass. A week before the event you can use your code to select the autograph session you want. Sadly this didn’t go according to plan this year, with the allocation system crashing withing minutes of opening. Many fans were left unable to obtain the sessions they wanted. I got lucky, and got mine just before the system crashed. Sophie and John had more trouble, but eventually got their slots secured.
I plumped for a slot with Lindsay and Michael Jones on Sunday morning. Sophie had Matt and Anna Hullum on Saturday afternoon and Gray Haddock and Jordan Cwierz on Sunday (thanks to John letting her use his autograph code).
Lessons learned
One lesson we definitely both learned this year was to pre-queue for EVERYTHING. My autograph session on Sunday was at 10am. I got there about 9:20 and was told the line would open at 9:30 so hung out until then. As I had a weekend pass I was herded into a box with all the other weekend folks. Platinum pass holders were ahead of us. It didn’t look so bad. I was on the front row of our box with about 35 people in the Platinum box. To start with. Sadly as Platinum get priority, anyone coming from another auto session who wanted to see Lindsay and Michael got put in ahead of us. As a result I didn’t get my autographs until almost 12!
Sophie did better on Sunday with Gray and Jordan, but her Saturday session with Matt and Anna took her the better part of two hours!
The great thing about the autographs at RTX though, when you get up to the front, one of the amazing Guardians takes your phone/camera and while you are talking to the guests they take a bunch of pictures. Then you get posed pictures with the guests too.
I realised that at some point in the afternoon, I think just after I had my picture taken with a Ruby cosplayer, a part of my costume had fallen off and gone missing. I’d been considering wearing Cinder both days, but due to the costume fail I had to resort to my second costume for Sunday.
RT Animation Panel
The last thing we wanted to do on Saturday was the animation panel. We didn’t get quite so lucky on seating for this one. I did have fun in the queue on the way in as I kept passing a Pyrrha Nikos cosplayer who kept pretending to be scared of me. If you don’t know why… WATCH RWBY!!
I think all three of us were hoping we’d get a sneak peek at RWBY volume 6 but instead we got to watch the penultimate episode of Nomad of Nowhere. I hadn’t watched NoN before, but on the basis of that episode I have started now.
The big news out of the animation panel was to do with upcoming mecha-anime series gen:Lock. We already knew that Michael B Jordan, Dakota Fanning and David Tennant would be voicing characters in the series. We got the exclusive news that Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams was going to be voicing hacker Cammie MacCloud!!
End of Day 1
As we headed back to the hotel we stopped at the rear of ExCel to take some more photos with some other cosplayers.
Then it was time for dinner and another early night as we were all pretty tired, and still had Sunday to go.
Sunday
Sunday was a much easier and less stressful day for me. I was cosplaying Neo, and that’s a far more comfortable outfit than Cinder (and I lost part of Cinder’s outfit). Sophie had decided after putting in so much effort she was going to wear Raven again, instead of her usual Yang Xiao Long.
I got into line for my autographs. After some quality queuing time (cos what’s a convention without queues right?), and bonding with my queue mates, I got to meet the lovely Lindsay and Michael. Lindsay voices the main character in RWBY, Ruby Rose. Her husband Michael voices Sun Wukong. They also both are part of the Achievement Hunter team. I might have geeked out with Michael over the fact I’m meeting a different incarnation of the Monkey King (Sun Wukong) later this year. He asked which version and I got all fangirly about New Legends of Monkey. He said he hadn’t seen it but would check it out..
Most of the Sunday for us was about hanging out and enjoying the community side of things. Cosplay meets, taking pics with other cosplayers and another trip to the Rooster Teeth Store. Oops!
There must have been a photographer from Rooster Teeth at the cosplay meet because we ended up on twitter again!!
We love all of the #RWBY cosplay photo shoots at #RTXLondon! pic.twitter.com/awZFCS4PZL
— Rooster Teeth? (@RoosterTeeth) September 16, 2018
Sophie went to queue for her autographs with Gray and Jordan and John and I were just relaxing. We’d just sat down when a Guardian came over and asked if we’d like to meet Jack Pattillo. Evidently he’d gotten through the queue of people who had been booked to see him and had told the Guardians to see if anyone else wanted to come over. They had gone out looking for cosplayers so I got spotted. Jack was lovely, he signed our lanyards and we took some more pics and then went back to wait for Sophie who was rather jealous we’d met Jack without her.
After a couple of final laps, just to make sure we hadn’t missed any merch, our con was mostly over. We headed back to change out of our cosplays and get some dinner before packing so we were ready to leave in the morning.
Recap
RTX is a great, well run convention. Sure there are a few issues with regards to queuing for things, but like I’m sure we are all aware, that’s a part of convention life.
My biggest downer of the weekend was obviously not getting in to the cosplay contest, or even the pre-judging. I think I heard a rumour later in the weekend that there were only 40 spots available for pre-judging. I hope that Rooster Teeth realise just how huge the cosplay community is here and find a way to allow more entries next year.
Due to the snafu with the autograph session booking system, several of the guests over the course of Sunday did impromptu signings in various locations. We passed by a couple but the lines were huge so we decided not to jump in. But for those who might have missed out on getting the session they wanted, these were a great bonus.
All in all, I would definitely do another RTX Event. I also think I would give serious consideration to the Platinum pass. For the ability to skip queues, get priority seating for panels and the added extras I think it’s worth paying the extra. I’ll probably reassess that when the prices for next year are released though!
