Over 1,100 people — according to organizers — walked the halls of the Exhibition Hall on March 1 for the third annual WreckCon. The student-run fan convention included video game tournaments, table-top game free play, panels, vendors and a cosplay competition.
Flavio Irani, fourth-year CS and President of WreckCon, has been attending conventions for ten years and has been involved in WreckCon since its inaugural event in 2023. He started out managing volunteers before becoming outreach head, organizing tabling, flyers and social media. This year, he focused more on logistics — contacting vendors, communicating with Tech staff about reservations and guiding preparations by other staff.
“The most rewarding [part] is definitely the convention itself,” Irani said. “I’m so excited for it tomorrow, just to see how everything turns out — it’s built up for an entire year.”
For the first time, WreckCon had three panel spaces that were active throughout the day. One panel featured Tom Bloom, a comic author and game designer, who talked about how to create a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG). Another panel featured Tiffany Grant, Nadia Marshall and Corey Wilder, who answered questions about their voice acting careers. The main stage also hosted trivia and the cosplay contest.
“I just really appreciate the community here and the amount of people who are participating,” said Christopher Leonard, first-year CS.
Many of the events are run by student clubs: GA Tech eSports hosted the Mario Kart tournament, Gourd Art invited attendees to add to a mural to commemorate the convention, Anime O’Tekku ran the cosplay contest and, VG Dev showcased student-made video games. Six other clubs invited fans of all skill levels to join in trading card games, TTRPGs and board games.
“I had a lot of fun,” said Levi Phillips, first-year ChBE. “This was my first real con.”
In addition to Tech students, many families, cosplayers and fans from around the Atlanta metro area, such as James Brathwaite, attended WreckCon. Brathwaite is a local social media creator who makes tutorials for constructing cardboard props and weaponry. His costume included goggles and a cardboard gauntlet, and he was carrying a large cardboard hammer based on a weapon from the indie video game “Clone Drone in the Danger Zone.”
“I really like how cozy [the convention] is,” Brathwaite said. “The smaller scale makes it a lot easier to just bump into new and interesting things that are happening.”
However, the intimate scale of the convention does have some drawbacks.
“It was a little bit crowded during some of the panels in the Exhibition Hall,” said Samuel Galysh, first-year CS.
WreckCon follows in the steps of MomoCon, an annual fan convention started in 2005 by Anime O’Tekku, an anime club at Tech. MomoCon initially took place in Tech’s Student Center before moving to Atlanta Marriott Marquis in 2011 and the Georgia World Congress Center in 2015.
This year’s WreckCon provided students with an opportunity to volunteer and share their passion with others. It allowed Tech students to showcase their skills and meet new people from across Atlanta in an environment surrounded by people just as passionate as they are. Irani says they do it all for Tech students and the community.
“We want to show off Georgia Tech culture,” said Irani. “It’s a convention made by Georgia Tech students for everyone.”