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Don’t get me wrong; the video of the final of the 2024 Omegathon at PAX West is a wonderful watch — not least of all because of the actual, down-to-the-wire drama of the final itself, wherein the two finalists were so evenly matched that the outcome was uncertain all the way up to the very end; see for yourself below — but nothing compared to the experience of actually being in the room when it was all happening.

Omegathon as a whole is both a joy — who doesn’t want to see a tournament of video game face-offs, especially one that is as gleefully ridiculous as to have a final in which players have to use five different defunct game systems from 20 years ago, after all? — and a perfect encapsulation of what makes PAX West such an enjoyable event overall: it’s not just a celebration of video games and video game culture, but it’s a communal experience of the same. Attending Omegathon isn’t only about watching other people play games, it’s about the crowd’s reactions to what’s happening, as well, as they pick favorite players or “ohhhhh” and cheer a particularly successful move or lucky escape. (Okay, some of the escapes are skillful, it’s true.) The resulting combination is a heady mix of nostalgia, fandom, and one of the greatest sporting events you could dream of attending.

Even better, by running the entire thing across the entire show  — there are five rounds in four days, with each round (featuring a different game, from Tetris to Halo 3, and beyond) knocking out contestants from the contest — Omegathon becomes a surreal narrative spine to PAX as a show, aided by a board showing each of the contestants, dubbed Omeganauts with tape covering their faces as they get eliminated, melodramatically and impressively eye-catchingly. Even if you miss any given round because it conflicts with a panel or somewhere else you need to be, you can still see who’s stuck around and grimace that your favorite has dropped out at the end of the day.

I’m distracting myself, though; I was trying to explain the atmosphere inside the main theater of the Seattle Convention Center on Sunday afternoon, when thousands of people watched the final two Omeganauts try to take each other down with an increasing excitement as the upper hand passed back and forth between the players. By the time we were in the midst of a best of five Dead or Alive 3 final final round, it’s fair to say that almost everyone in the room was as excited as if they were playing themselves. Or maybe that’s just everyone around me at the time.

Look; I’m already on the record as being a convert to PAX West, and ending the show with the Omegathon final felt like the perfect conclusion for what had been a pretty much perfect show: a send-off that didn’t just feel thrilling in the moment, but left everyone feeling part of a wider community that is fun, not taking itself too seriously, and entirely dedicated to celebrating each others’ achievements when it comes to beating people up on pixelated form.

Bring on PAX West 2025. And bring on the next Omegathon, too.

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