By Collin Urban
On Sunday, NJIT hosted its third annual Minicon, hosted by the Gaming club, the Anime club, the Association of Computing Machines, Brick City Tech Meetup and Ventures, and a number of merchants and artists, commenced for the third time on the Campus Center second floor. The driving force behind the creation of the Minicon was the Anime club, intending the convention to be a smaller, more accessible version of the larger conventions that take place on a nation-wide scale. With free admission to NJIT students and $5 admission to everyone else, the focus of the Minicon was broad appeal. This was reflected in the con-goers, who were from NJIT, Rutgers, other nearby colleges, and even from the greater New Jersey area.
While the Gaming club open their doors earlier for the purposes of setting up the tournament, the convention began at noon. Many of the events began at noon and ran all day, such as the Hype It Up X tournament, a gaming tournament. The games being played at the tournament were Street Fighter 5, Ultimate Marvel Versus Capcom 3, Tekken, Super Smash Brothers Melee, Super Smash Brothers for Wii U, and Halo 2. The tournament was streamed on Twitch, and selected competitors had their matches streamed to the world. In addition to the matches, there were a number of non-tournament games that were showcased in the Ballroom where the competitions were held. A custom Super Mario Maker course created by the Gaming club was shown on a projector, and various attendees were invited to try their luck.
In the same room, in a similar vein, the Brick City organization held something of an exposition. Computers and controllers were set up in an area of the Ballroom where convention goers could play the games that were developed by students and professionals from all around Newark. Brick City, not to be confused with the Intravarsity event, is an organization focusing on technology startups and innovation in the Newark area. Most of it’s members are from NJIT or Rutgers. The games they displayed were all independently created.
Beyond these two major events, there were a number of smaller events and panels that ran throughout the entire day. These events varied in type from costume contests and live action role playing, to trivia contests and information panels about various topics. Besides panels, a number of vendors were in attendence, selling merchandize such as figurines, t-shirts, art prints, plushies, and accessories.
