Guest post from Sean Deshay
Am I in Heaven? 
On the morning of Saturday October 9th, I woke up nervous and sweating at the thought of going to an event called IGC. I had no idea what to expect from this event, or what I was getting myself into. All I knew was that it was the largest light gloving tournament in the nation. Being a beginner glover, I was worried what the environment was going to be like and if I was going to be accepted into this social culture. I always see random light glovers at festivals I’ve attended, but never been the person actually giving out these light shows.
Leading up to the event, I began to get more and more unsteady of what to expect when I walked into the Yost theatre. I had seen EDM concerts in the past at this venue, but what the hell would a light show tournament look like? Crazy thoughts went flying through my mind, while attempting to visualize hundreds of people with lights on their fingers dancing around a music venue. Another question I had, was how does a particular person win this insane event? These were just a few of the questions racing through my brain, and I couldn’t wait to find my answers.
Once I arrived to the Yost theatre, I was amazed to see everyone hanging out outside the venue. I felt like I had walked up to a raging day party where all my friends were taking a break from the action inside the house. As I got closer and closer to going inside the venue, my heart started to beat faster and faster. Then right as I was about to approach the door, I could hear the electronic music blasting inside and knew I was ready to see what this thing called IGC was all about.
Boom! The doors opened and I was instantly teleported into the dead center of a rave pit at EDC! Holy shit, every direction I turned my head I saw someone giving a light show, receiving one, or practicing for their battle in the tournament. To my surprise, the competition seemed to be really organized and everyone knew where they were supposed to be. Emazing setup flat screen TV’s on stands to display the standings and upcoming battles. Since it was my first IGC, I was delighted to see the tournament being ran smoothly and they even had the battle areas taped off so the competitors knew which arena to go to.
From the second I walked in, I felt like I was at an underground dance battle mixed with Beyond Wonderland. Everyone I walked up to, was ridiculously welcoming and sincere. Right off the bat, I met a bunch of cool people who were willing to show me some of their favorite light show tricks. I brought my GoPro with me, and was stoked when the security guards said I was able to bring it in. Thankfully I stuck it in my bag, because I ended up getting hours of amazing video of all the dazzling glovers. I even busted out my Snapchat, so I could show all my friends what they were missing out on. All the glovers I met were more than willing to let me film them, once I told them I wanted to make a compilation video of everyone I saw at IGC.
In terms of the competition…all I can say is MIND BLOWING! I made it inside for the beginning of the open tournament, and saw some of the craziest gloving moves of my life. I felt bad for all the judges, because in my eyes every competitor was putting on a brilliant individual performance. After each round, I finally started to see what makes the good performers great. The technicality and movement was just absurd, and at times it looked as though their hands were pure liquid. Then I found out that the two winners of the open tournament would be entered into the end all be all LEGENDS tournament.
To my surprise they had talented dance performers that put on acts in between rounds of the gloving tournament. I had heard Animated J and Dytto were going to be performing, but I had thought I somehow missed their dances. Later in the afternoon, they said it was Dytto’s turn to perform, and I was beyond stoked to watch her do amazing tutting on stage! I was really impressed that Emazing was able to handle everything going on at once ranging from the gloving tournament, dance performances, and of course Bear Gryllz DJ set.
By far, my two favorite parts of IGC was watching Bear Gryllz perform and the Legends tournament. For Bear’s set they had one hour of open gloving time, which was one of the coolest most entertaining hour I’ve ever had in my life. No matter where you looked you saw strangers trading light shows! Smiles and laughs were contagious and you couldn’t help but be impressed by what was going on around you. It seemed like everyone was in a somewhat euphoric state, and no matter what song was on there was going to be straight pandemonium everywhere your eyes moved. Once I was given numerous light shows, I figured what the hell why not get in on the action. My roommate had given me his gloves to borrow in case I wanted to bust them out. Even being a beginner, everyone around me made me feel great and thanked me for giving them a light show. Every single Legend that performed was a master of their craft. Once it got to the latter stages of the all-star tournament it was nearly impossible to guess which person was going to win each battle. Then the finals came, Ice Cream Teddy vs Machine in a decisive battle for $1,000 and a year of bragging rights. Ice Cream Teddy ended up putting on a performance of the ages, and I couldn’t help but stand there and clap once he received the first place trophy.
Each and every person I met at IGC made me feel perfectly welcomed, even though I wasn’t the most experienced person in this culture. I now know what an International Gloving Championship looks like, and am more than excited to go to next year’s event. I will be recommending all my friends to come with me next year, knowing they will be embraced by the gloving community. I’m already thinking of how they are going to out-do themselves and put on an even more scintillating tournament. IGC…you are what the EDM culture needs! Maybe next EDC, they will actually have a light gloving tournament…how many heads would that turn?
For more info about the tournament and the results, you can go here.
