There is a caster that I seemed to be fascinated by, in terms of everything he does, and the way that he does his thing on twitch and elsewhere has me caught up.
His name is Bruce Alcomendras, but you can call him Juicy Brucey. He's an esports caster and voice over artist hailing from Cebu but currently based in Metro Manila. He was once a DJ at Monster Radio BT 105.9 down in Cebu, but then he joined the esports elite casting for Valorant Champions Tournament - Philippines. He was tapped by Acadarena to do hosting for the ConQuest Festival, in 2022 he hosted the community panels then the following year in its perhaps most controversial iteration that lead to the events downfall (and that seems deserving of a separate article) he became main stage host together with caster comerade Riku. He has hung out with the big stars of OfflineTV, namely Pokimane, Michael Reeves, LillyPichu, and Yvonnie, and he also chatted with two of the biggest vtubers out there: Bao (I hear she's a great genshin personality) and Shoto (he's a very chill guy)
I watched the recorded live videos of ConQuest to see why the event was so hyped and became very disasterous and it was there I realized that those streamers had such a gigantic following here in the Philippines. But the aspect of CQ that piqued me was the hosts of the event, JuicyBrucey and Riku.
The disaster of the ConQuest event made me want to examine the convention scene I little further. I have seen all the negative feedback about the event, the people who spent too long in line and so much money but never meeting thier idols. But where there is a cloud, there is always a silver lining, and I spoke with Dione, one of the buskers at the event and it was her that provided a moment of light and happiness to the tired out people in the lines through her music. I have also met many cosplayers who have went to ConQuest and they have shared thier experiences good and bad.
But the experience of one of the event's hosts is such a refreshing and very insightful perspective. I asked about how he felt about the ConQuest festival being retired, considering he spend many hours behind the scenes of the event and mingled with all the big name streamers at the event, and he felt very sad about the event having to go. He was an ex-radio DJ looking for a good enough hosting gig, and it was ConQuest that gave him his big break. He felt sad because he was looking forward to more such events. I felt very sad too as I do think that the event had such a great vision to be a pop culture safe haven in Manila.
I watched many of the clips of the streamers that were there and I do believe that ConQuest really did have a vision to become a celebration of all things pop culture, uniting the worlds of anime, gaming, music, cosplay, k-pop, TV and movies, anything related to pop culture. Despite all the issues that have come about in terms of ticket overselling and line mismanagement, it was such a spectacular star studded event bringing people and worlds together. And with all this in mind, I already see why Brucey feels very sad in regards to the retirement of the brand.
It is sad for him and me, but I believe that where one major event on the scale of ConQuest comes to an end, another may start its hero's journey. I had so many ideas about how a convention of that grand scale can better manage the lines and the logistics of such an event. He does agree with many of my ideas.
The more I watched JuicyBrucey stream, the more I found out about his personality and the more we found ways that we were able to connect. For instance, I found out that he does play animal crossing and the fact that he had to restart his game was something that amused me very much. I did admire his persistence in rebuilding the whole island. In less than a week he basically grinded the regenerated island by getting Blathers to study the island, it was all a very great effort that somehow entertained me.
There is something in him that I do connect with.
