dwangoAC is the keeper of TASBot, a robot that plays video games perfectly for charity events. TASBot presses buttons in order similar to a player piano and beats games perfectly, often employing game breaking glitches. TASBot content has helped raise more than $1.5M for various charities at Games Done Quick events since 2013. dwangoAC is part of the senior staff of TASVideos.org and has presented at DEF CON, Thotcon, GeekPwn, and other hacker events.
Sayu
A wanted criminal and unhinged gacha gamer, Sayu is surely the meaning of "evil and scary."
Bonus Stage
Bonus Stage is a volunteer- run, not-for-profit production team creating opportunities for video game inspired art and entertainment. We create concerts, burlesque shows, gaming nights, live-streamed content and more!
Josh Pendlebury has organized, hosted and performed at Bonus Stage events since its inception in 2015. He has also organized talent and created content for other events including MAGWest, VGM CON and the Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo. Famous internationally for his online concert and listening party series, Josh brings his same fun, casual and inquisitive energy to MAGWest this year.
The Chris Waffle Explosion
Chris Waffle has been writing and performing comedy and music for more than 25 years. He started his career as part of the comedy rock duo Hot Waffles who appeared with Kevin Smith, Dr. Demento, Tommy Chong and on KROQ. He's made appearances on The Travel Channel's America's Worst Driver, Attack of the Show, and in the feature film The People vs. George Lucas. As a comedy rapper, he has performed at Rose City Comic Con, Nerdcore Dayz, and Magwest. He's a frequent comic convention nerd music panelist, and has emceed other national conventions.
Black in Gaming
Black in Gaming (BIG) is a thriving community committed to fostering, empowering, and amplifying Black professionals within the video game industry. Since 2002, our mission has been to actively create avenues for education, leadership development, and skills enhancement for Black individuals in gaming.
San Jose Public Library
Video Game History Foundation
The Video Game History Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to preserving, celebrating, and teaching the history of video games. This year, VGHF launched their digital library, where you can access their collections of rare video game research materials for your own research.
Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (MADE)
Over more than a decade, the MADE has sought to legitimize the preservation of video games as an historic, cultural, and artistic medium within the context of our time. Visitors to the MADE have access to play any of our collection of over 14,000 games across 40+ systems, on-demand. Through exhibitions, events, and exposition, these games are exposed as works of art, with the processes behind their creation brought to light for the first time in a true, interactive, museum setting.
Brandon Harnish
By day, I am Manager of Orchestra Operations and Social Impact at the Reno Chamber Orchestra. My work involves planning and running RCO's primary concerts and concerto competition, the Nevada Chamber Music Festival, and community-oriented events.
I am also the Director of Orchestra & Choir at Reno Video Game Symphony. I am perhaps best known (at least, in the realm of video game music) for founding Virtual Video Game Orchestra, which is an online community of musicians that host orchestral recording projects, founded in response to COVID-19.
I taught math and economics part-time at the University of Nevada, Reno from Fall 2021 through Fall 2023, and am set to teach math at Truckee Meadows Community College in Fall 2024 as part of TMCC's Adult Basic Education program.
I worked at the University of Nevada, Reno's Math Center tutoring students in math, stats, physics, and mathematical aspects from various disciplines. I developed a tutoring resource compendium there that spans all the difficult or otherwise obscure topics in the lower division math curriculum. I also wrote and hosted the annual UNR Integration Bee.As a musician: I am an arranger/orchestrator, copyist/engraver, bari-tenor chorister, player of assorted middle/low brass, former classical pianist, and have dabbled in mallet percussion and low reeds. I mostly perform music from video games and other media.
In addition to being a performer with Reno Video Game Symphony and Virtual Video Game Orchestra, I've performed with numerous orchestral ensembles that specialize in video game music, namely: the Game Music Ensemble at UCLA, The Intermission Orchestra at Berkeley, the Washington Metropolitan Gamer Symphony Orchestra, and the University of Maryland Gamer Symphony Orchestra. I participate in Dwelling of Duels (DoD) as an arranger and recording artist, where I arrange/orchestrate for the DoD Brass Collective and sing with remote a cappella group Gamer Tag. I appear on various cover albums with Pixel Mixers, and have contributed to VGM charity albums hosted by VGM CON and Speed Jammers.
Outside of video game music, I have sung tenor/baritone with the Reno Philharmonic Chorus and the UNR Chamber Chorale, and played sousaphone for the Carson Street Ragtime Band playing traditional jazz. I am a former musical director of Nevada Glee Club at the University of Nevada, Reno, where my journey as an arranger began.
I am a former competitive speedcuber, having started competing in 2009. I'm best known there for having held the world record for solving the Skewb puzzle for most of 2014. I also held the world record for the average amount of time for solving the Skewb around the same time. In 2016, I won a U.S. National Championship title for solving the classic 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube in the fewest number of moves.
I started organizing speedcubing competitions in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2013 under the name Bay Area Speedcubin'. I am a former president of the Rubik's Cube Club at the University of Nevada, Reno. I organized the first competition held simultaneously in multiple continents, and co-organized the first three western regional championships for CubingUSA.
I served as a Delegate for the World Cube Association from 2017 until June 25th, 2022, where I trained up-and-coming competition organizers, officiated competitions, and helped establish and grow local communities in California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Hawaii. I am considered by many to be the chief perpetuator of the 6.25 meme. (Hi Mitch!)
Chase Bethea
Chase Bethea is a professional multi-award winning video game composer that has been working in the industry for over a decade and is known in the industry as the "Swiss Army knife of video game composition". He has shipped over 25 games thus far, been featured in museums, nationwide magazines and the VGM Real Book. He has given over 45 talks in two years about the music he scores for games and his experiences in the game industry.
Jason Butler
Hi! I'm Jason Butler! I'm a freelance composer from New Orleans, Louisiana. Now living in the Bay Area, California, I've dedicated my career to crafting captivating music for interactive media. Over the last year, I've been composing for Double Fine Productions on an unannounced upcoming title. Throughout my career, I've had the privilege of sharing my music both within the United States and across international borders. I've had the honor of performing at renowned festivals, including the iconic New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Pan African Music Festival in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, and the Bourbon Street Festival in Sao Paolo, Brazil. These experiences have been the heartbeat of my musical odyssey, connecting me with diverse audiences and cultures worldwide.
Prince-Camui Cosplay
Prince-Camui is a local Las Vegas Cosplayer and performer. Camui has won many awards for performance and craftsmenship around the west coast area and is the lead vocalist in Otaku Dreams Maid cafe. When they are not performing, they are teaching young performers as a theatre teacher at a public charter school in town. They have recently discovered a passion for translating their favorite thai songs into english.
