RTX 2022 Hello, gentle readers! This is the speech that I typed up for our usual RTX Guardian Thank n' Cry for Sunday after the show. I wanted to share it with all of you: If you're like me - and I know I am - this show is very special on a personal level. I swear to ficus that load-in was like church. It was fulfilling on a spiritual level. I know that it's not incredibly necessary to even acknowledge the last 2 or 3 years because we were all there, right. But it's been rough for a gazillion reasons. I'm doing my best to not get too sentimental and squishy because it has been a solid 3 years of intense marathon sobbing for so many of us. After so much loss, we got this back. RTX came back. Some say too soon. Some say it's about damn time. But here we are. We came, we Guardianed, and we conquered as is our way. And with flying fucking colors I might add. This year gave us unique challenges, but what a great way to grind down the rust. This year was unexpectedly the perfect opportunity to bring in new people, to experiment with new techniques and processes, and to remember how the entire hell how to do this crazy thing we do! We had a little over 100 new Guardians this year. Show of hands if this was your first year. We did this show with 240-ish Guardians. Now…TO BE FAIR…we had fewer attendees than we are used to. Attrition was aggressively high all across the board - from Guardians to RT Staff - to attendees to functioning elevators at the Hilton. I thought we were in deeeep trouble with that roster number. I knew that we were going to the best we could with the cards we were dealt but WOW, folks. Just exceeded all expectations and made this year one of the most positively memorable experiences I've had in the 35+ shows I've worked. Every year, I think "How do we top this?" and y'all show up, mask up, put on a lightish red shirt, and yelled HOLD MY BEER and Naruto ran head first into everything. Team Leads stepped the entire hell up. I am so grateful for you all. I learn so many new things from the TLs EVERY YEAR. Team Lead knowledge and experience is worth more than oxygen. Guardians - new and old - you all have the passion and fire of every god damn anime character ever created and that right there is worth the price of RTX tickets alone. Thank you all for your patience while we figured out the new shit. Thank you all for following the code of conduct. Thank you all for striving to make this show as safe as possible for everyone. Thank you for hydrating. Thank you for your hard work and genuine love for this event. For your genuine love of your Guardian family. I love you all so much. THANK YOU.