Bowling for Boilrig - Facepunch UK North Meetup Field Report - General

If you've never experienced it before, it's slightly surreal to have someone you don't recognise come up to you and identify themselves as the face behind a username you've seen online. I was standing in Manchester Piccadilly station at 10.30 in the morning, my Facepunch t-shirt visible to passersby, waiting for someone to recognise the icon on my chest. Before long I was approached by @Instant Mix , who had had an early start and spent the day battling the urge to fall asleep. We struck up a conversation that meandered between the topics of terrorism, university, and online hand dryer reviews. The others were on their way; by train, bus, and car. @Hezzy was the next to appear, and we soon discovered that @TheHypnotoad was waiting in the agreed meetup place - unlike us (sorry!). @Fulcrum was on his way, but with little time before our escape room booking, and Hezzy's stomach as empty as a Rust kiddie's soul, we headed off to a Wetherspoons pub to grab some cooked breakfasts. After ordering our food and realising the pub was not actually a Wetherspoons, we were found by Fulcrum, who completed my roster of expected guests. However, there was one more to come. Standing next to our table was a man arguing with the pub's security guard, who was trying to dissuade him from bringing his electric longboard into the establishment. After some heated words were exchanged, the security guard disappeared to fetch the manager, and the man introduced himself as ex-Facepunch user @Bengley , who had been invited along by Hezzy. With the manager seeming less interested in Bengley's longboard transgression, we squeezed into our booth and wolfed down our cooked breakfasts before heading off to the escape room at Clue HQ Manchester. Confident that the average Facepuncher's extremely high IQ would assure us swift victory, I had booked the most difficult room available. We quickly set to work solving a murder, in what was the most complex and well-produced escape room I've ever done. Towards the end, the murderer announced that he was flooding the escape room with a deadly neurotoxin. Despite concerns that this was an attempt by garry to kill us off, we held our nerve and completed the room with 16 minutes to spare. One Uber later, we arrived at All Star Lanes and slipped on our bowling shoes. Bengley ordered nachos, and Hezzy scored a strike early on. It was then that Hezzy polled the group: who is the most unpopular user on Facepunch right now? A consensus quickly emerged: it was @Boilrig . Hezzy then announced that if he was able to score another strike at any point during the game, he would permanently ban Boilrig from the forum. Here's what happened next: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlnAry6gHjg Final scores for the bowling: https://i.imgur.com/DPqh2fI.jpg With our main activities finished, we headed to The Thirsty Scholar for some drinks. There we discussed the forums, Gmod nostalgia, work, previous FP meetups, and VR, among other things. Fulcrum had to leave slightly early, but we weren't far behind as we all took a much-delayed train back to Piccadilly and went our separate ways. I wasn't sure what to expect from my first Facepunch meetup. In the end, it wasn't awkward at all. It quickly became totally normal to be discussing things like the OIFY and the Refugee Camp with people who knew what you were talking about. If you're in the area and interested, the southern FP UK meetup is next Saturday in London. See the thread for more details. I'll be there.

Internet meet-ups can be so weird the first time, and you never get used to seeing someone you know online for the first time in real life. Benelux meet-up when?

It was the will of the pins.

That boilrig video made me laugh so fucking hard.

jealous of you UK folk. you get to do cheaper meetups than us colony blokes.

my god when the Cowboy bebop music kicked in.

That last bowl really had me on the edge of my seat

That video editing was top notch

I'd love to travel to the UK some time for a meet up when I can get time off from work

Don't do it, you'll leave with a desire to restart the Empire. That's the real reason we're leaving the EU, they've caught on to our expats trying to do Empire things.

What a weird tinder date.

Regret not coming sounds like a bunch of fun. Had a bunch of stuff come up which meant I couldn't pre-book yesterday as a day off, so I hope you do more north meetups in the future!

Man, meetups look really fun. @nied do you want to hangout on the 21st?

Anybody in the Bay Area?

aw man I didn't realise I came last, I was doing so well to begin with i blame boilrig

I'm no ex-facepunch user, just a very very occasional lurker! 'twas good to meet you guys and it was a good afternoon.

I'd be willing to make the trip, probably. I live in Humboldt now. There was a Socal meetup last year and only me, Otterman and Perogi Palooka showed up but it was still a good time. I'm kind of an awkward idiot irl though.

I missed a good thing. For shame.

Hey, the california beach meetup one was free, sans bringing some hot dogs to grill.

I mean cheap as in travel expenses. I live in Florida