The Otafest Arcade hosts different gaming events and spaces throughout the festival. In the main gaming hall (Macleod A), you will find our competitive gaming tournaments and drop-in events, our Open Arcade featuring casual gaming, the Community Lounge where you can chat with local streaming community members, and our Mobile Corner where you can play the latest mobile and digital card games!
Head over to the Marriott’s second floor and compete in our Pokémon League for your chance to win our elite gym badges, and while you’re there, stop by the Gunpla Hangar and learn about model building or vote on the best build on display.
We look forward to seeing you this year at Otafest Arcade. Let’s play!
Otafest Arcade is your place for gaming competition!
This year, competition is broken down into two formats, Tournaments and Drop-Ins.
Come by during our Tournament blocks to compete against others to be the champion of any of our competitive brackets featuring fun and challenging games! These events are limited entry but they’re also your chance to be crowned a champion in arcade-style tournaments.
If you’re looking to pop in quickly between panels, give the drop in challenges a shot!
Running all day long, we’ll have gaming challenges such as score attacks and king of the hill for head to head contests with your friends or your chance to bring down the reigning king!
Hang out with your friends and enjoy a free-play space where you can experience retro consoles here at the Open Arcade. This space has a collection of board games provided by our friends at FallCon as well as previous-generation consoles for some fun and (maybe) relaxing gaming.
Sanitization measures will be in effect and we will have controllers provided for those looking to play, however we encourage attendees to bring their own controllers if they would like to play for longer periods of time.
Gaming, anime, and community all go hand-in-hand. Otafest only exists because there is a community of people with a love and deep respect for the artwork and stories of our favorite series. We’re celebrating this by creating a space where the gaming community can get together.
We’ve partnered with Endless ERA Gaming and Extra Life Calgary to create a community gaming space that includes a content creators lounge where you can check out some incredible streaming rigs, chat with some of the Endless ERA Gaming content creation team and get to learn more about the thriving gaming communities in Calgary.
Our community members put together two amazing, hand-built arcade cabinets running Marvel VS Capcom 2 and there will be prizes for those who last the longest without defeat.
Bring your quarters for the arcade machines, because all money raised on the MVC2 cabinets will be donated to Extra Life Calgary and we’ll also have guild members from the Extra Life Calgary community hanging out with us.
We’re running a dedicated Otafest Arcade broadcast and will be chatting with content creators and highlighting some of the most amazing plays and cosplayers who walk through the arcade hall.
We’re hosting some of the most popular mobile games and card games featuring both high-speed tournaments with exciting prizes and casual arcade style gameplay.
This year’s games will include Teamfight Tactics a League of Legends-based auto-battler where you will build teams of champions against one another, Hearthstone and Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel where we have prepared pre-built decks for you and your friends to duke it out against each other in a battle of strategy and wits!
Whether you’re an avid Pokémon Master, or a casual player looking for a reason to dust off the game after beating the champion, the Pokémon League is a place for all skill levels and ages. Come battle our own gym leaders for the chance to earn real badges to take home!
Looking for an added challenge?
Our champion will be waiting for those willing to test them to earn a certificate, but not before you go through the Elite 4 who block your path.
Join us for a fun and exciting games. We are here all weekend with not just battles, but events as well to give you a wonderfully Pokémon-filled time at Otafest.
Calling all Feddies, Zekes, and Newtypes! Otafest now has a place for all your Gundam, Gunpla, and other miscellaneous mecha obsessions! We call it the Gunpla Hangar! Come out to the Acadia conference room in the Marriott to build a kit, chat with fellow mecha enthusiasts, or just hang out watching various episodes of Gundam being shown throughout the weekend.
For those looking for a bit of friendly competition, we’re holding a model showcase too! Bring out your best work, whether Gunpla, 30MM, Digimon, Pokemon, or any other kit that’s mecha/anime related, for the chance to win some cool prizes. There will be categories for small, medium, large, and junior entries along with five just for fun special awards chosen by Otafest’s Gunpla team.
Otafest acknowledges that the land we gather on is the traditional territory of the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprising the Siksika, Piikani and Kainai First Nations), as well as the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda (including the Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley First Nations). The City of Calgary is also the home of the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region III.
Photos on this website are courtesy of
Elyse Bouvier, Brenrich Carandang, Plutopia Productions, Ryan Logan, Dani Sato, Chi Tang