[Guestpost] Gamescom Community Dinner

Guest post by @long-way-to-helheim about her experience of the post-Gamescom community dinner.

Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gladygamer and YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/GLaDyGamer

Stroopwafels,
finding a Bacon-Lara cosplayer, and silly faces on Snapchat!

Huh? Are you trying to
tell me that has almost nothing to do with Tomb Raider? Oh, you’re actually
wrong, because this article is about the post-Gamescom “Tomb Raider Community
Dinner 2016”, hosted by Meagan Marie, community manager at Crystal Dynamics.

It’s been almost two
months, since I attended the dinner and it left a huge mark on my heart. I got
invited by Mrs. Marie herself and I couldn’t be more satisfied. The event was set
to take place on 21^st of August, in Cologne’s fancy restaurant,
called “XII APOSTEL”. I was excited, but nervous. Why? Well, let me explain:
I’m quite a shy person, when it comes to meeting new people. Loads of questions
filled my mind. “Will they think, that I’m too weird?” was one of those. One
week before the dinner took place, I finished my Tomb Raider Anniversary Natla
cosplay. It looked neat and I thought: “Hey, you could go to Cologne as Natla!”
And eventually, I did.

My best friend
accompanied me, because I needed someone to take care of my wheelchair. When we
arrived at the restaurant, I recognised many familiar faces. I met many fellow raiders
at last year’s Gamescom and seeing them again made me happy. All my fears were
long gone at that point. I also met new people, like Nathan McCree, composer of
Tomb Raider I/II/III, and Lady Crossader, the second cosplay ambassador, who
worked together with Lena-Lara (a well-known German cosplayer) for the first
time. Everyone was amazingly friendly and absolutely crazy (in a positive way,
of course).

Before I could start
talking, I was squished by many hugs. That was the moment when I realised that
our Tomb Raider community is actually a huge family, where you don’t have to
know everyone in person in order to feel comfortable. You can’t get along with
all the people you cross paths with, but that’s how it goes. Many recognised me
as the evil and immortal queen of Atlantis, which was a wonderful thing. I
joked around with a few Laras, trying to mimic Natla’s attitude. We all had a
good laugh, I take that for granted. After ten minutes, we were allowed to get
inside the restaurant, where Meagan and her colleagues were waiting for us at
two huge table sets. She and Mrs. Barbara Winterfeldt, who works at Square Enix
Germany, were delighted to see me and everyone else again. I got to talk with
almost everyone, including Nathan McCree, Lena-Lara and Lady Crossader, as well
as Meagan and Barbara.

Lara (Marilena/Lady
Crossader) and Natla meet again~

Goofing around with
Barbara, Nathan, and Meagan!

We had to introduce
ourselves as well, which was quite a fun thing to do. Tomb Raider lovers from
all around the world where with us, such as people from Israel, America,
Croatia, and the Netherlands for example – not just Germans. We had dinner
afterwards. The waiters came to us with two kinds of pizza. As a matter of
fact, one of them was vegan. Meanwhile, I took pictures with fellow cosplayers
and other raiders.

Natla and her gang:
Petra as Lara (left), Nathalie (top-left), Nora as Sam (top- right), Lena-Lara
as Lara (right)

A wild Nathalie
appeared!

Here we have Zuzka as
the Doppelgänger from Tomb Raider Underworld and her friend Andrej

Sharing your passion
for something with others is just fantastic and it helps you to find new
friends. Even my best friend enjoyed this special evening, which is a rare
thing. The fact that we even had a chance to meet many people who normally live
far away still blows my mind. As I said before, we’re a huge family full of
lovely, crazy, and brilliant members. You can’t come together all the time,
which is quite obvious, but when you do it’s always fun: Talking about weird
stuff, like who’s going to cosplay Bacon-Lara, sending Snapchat pictures of
yourself to other members of the community, or being “The Tomb Raider
Stroopwafel Troop”, because Nathan posted a picture of himself eating
stroopwafels after dinner, is actually normal. And thanks to Facebook and
groups on WhatsApp you can stay in contact after such a huge and wonderful
event. I seriously can’t wait for another meet-up. Maybe we’re going to see new
faces? The Tomb Raider family will never stop growing.

This evening was an
unforgettable one and will always be one of the greatest days of my life!