TEN Year anniversary

2025 marks the ten-year anniversary of Victory Gamers.  A decade of bringing people together to paint, play, and generally socialize - both in person and online.  A lot has happened in that time, so below is a (not so) short history of Victory Gamers.

The Beginnnings

Victory Gamers was launched on May 1, 2015, through the creation of the Victory Gamers website.  Through a chance websearch, the club attracted its first member, Tito B. (and his then very young son, Josh).  From there, the club moved forward with a Google Groups email list serve, which went out each week under the subject of “Friday Night Fights”.  The first year of the club was mostly limited to Warhammer 40,000 played at my house on Friday nights.  The club grew to around ten members, with Trevor A., Jesse G., Michael B., Sean M., Felipe C., Casey B., and Michael H. joining Tito and me and our young sons as core members.  At the time, the goal was to play one game a month!

Although focused on 40k, even at that time Kidshammer existed, and I was trying to get the club to expand into Malifaux, Imperial Assault, and Dropzone Commander (some things never change…).

2016 also saw the first ever Tentcon, which was held on June 4 literally in a 20x10’ pop up tent in my backyard (the bald spot in my grass lasted until 2018).  It was a single all-day multiplayer narrative game of 40k on three 6x4’ tables side-by-side.You can read more about it and see photos here on the Victory Gamers website https://www.victorygamers.org/news--events/archives/06-2016).  

2016 was also the first Victory Gamers club appearance at the NOVA Open. The club fielded two three-person teams for the Trios competition: Me and my two boys on one team (Orks and Khorne Daemonkin) and Tito, Trevor and Michael H. on the other (Tau, Black Templar, and Ultramarines). Tito, Trevor and Mike came in third in painting and third overall.  Trevor came in second for the exploits of his Warlord. Most importantly, both teams tied for first for storyteller, with the edge going to Tito, Trevor and Mike. You can read a write up here and at this blog.  The club’s massive display board set the bar for future Trios competitions….

2016 also marked the beginnings of the use of WhatsApp for club communications, with Trios team members starting a single chat to plan for the Trios competition. 

Next Steps: The AoS Crew Joins Victory Gamers

The fall of 2016 witnessed the biggest expansion of Victory Gamers. Age of Sigmar took off with the release of the first-ever Generals Handbook and the club hosting the Verdant Corpselands Season of War campaign at Victory Comics every Tuesday evening from September through December.  That campaign lead to so many new club members, including Aaron B., Brian O., Chris C., Peter N., Stephen T. (aka Airship) and Ben M. who are still active in the club.  Club members also hosted events as part of the much larger nationwide “Coalescence” narrative event.  

The club also allied with the existing Star Trek: Assault Wing group that was playing at Victory Comics on Tuesday nights.  James M. came into the club this way.  I also remember Andrew M. and I playing a game of Dropfleet Commander at my house around this time.

Because the club was no longer mainly 40k, the club made the big decision to create a second WhatsApp chat for AoS.  This lead to the birth of the “Wrong Chat” meme (and Ben M.’s lovely face meme) when people talked about 40k in the AoS chat.

The second annual Tentcon was held, this team under the pavilion of Michael H.’ community pool.    

Club Expansion

The period from 2017 through 2019 was a period of slow but steady growth of the club.  Kidshammer was held at the NOVA Open for the first time in 2017.  Age of Sigmar held further weekly campaigns on Tuesday nights at Victory Comics with the Battle of Fells Cliff and the Return to the Verdant Corpselands campaigns.  The club also ran two more “Coalescence” narrative events.

40k took off with the launch of 8th edition and a new mindset at Games Workshop.  This brought a new wave of 40k players into the club, including Ryan L., Zach G., Michael D., Monte F., Ray O. (who met a club member who was visiting Hawaii when Ray was living there), Paul B. (through NOVA Open when he was looking for a club who would let him bring his big tanks to games), Martin R., and Frank S. (also through NOVA and mutual friend, Mike B.).

The club also began renting space for gaming. The club was too big to fit into the space at Victory Comics and needed larger space to accommodate the number of players we were attracting.  At first, we rented space at the Falls Church Community Center one day a month on a Saturday afternoon.  

Eventually, we outgrew the once a month regime at the community center and made the move to playing Sunday afternoons at my son’s Tae Kwon Do dojang in Arlington.   Plus we needed a space to store our tables, mats, and terrain since my garage was out of space.  I agreed to pay the dojang a monthly fee to allow us to game in the dojang on Sunday afternoons when no classes were being held and to store our stuff in the dojang’s storeroom.

The rented space at the dojang was a big step for the club, although it had its memorable quirks.  The AC often was shut off for the weekend or wasn’t working, which made gaming in August very sweaty indeed.  Plus the dojang was in a hard to find location - under a CVS that could be accessed only through a back parking lot of a shopping center.  This lead to the catch phrase “Where’s the dojang?”

The dojang closed at the end of 2018, however, and the club had to find a new place to play.  

The Board Room opened in Arlington and the club rented the Chairman’s Lounge on New Year’s Day of 2019 for a gaming session.  By chance, the manager of the Board Room was there that day and he and I sat down for a drink.  We agreed to terms to rent space to game and store our stuff, and the Board Room has been our home ever since.

The club was up to about 50 members by 2019, and the WhatsApp chats expanded to about 20 different chats with around 200 postings a day.  The club experimented with moving the chats to Discord, but decided to keep both methods of communication.

We also had our first ever Holiday Party at the Board Room in December 2019.  We made it a formal event, so that we could present our best sides and (try to) impress our spouses and significant others.  

Nothing could slow us down!  Until…

COVID Years

COVID hit as club members were at the Las Vegas Open in late January 2020.  By March, we were in lock down.  Fortunately, the club kept going, first solely online through the chats.  Victory Comics and the Board Room stayed open during the pandemic, although under very trying circumstances.  Victory Comics handed over purchases in the parking lot, and the Board Room offered take away food, date night specials, and growlers of beer.  The club supported both Victory Comics and the Board Room by purchasing merchandise and gift cards. 

The club was able to resume in-person gaming at the Board Room in the summer of 2020, but started a SignUp Genius to limit the number of people playing at one time and to track attendees in case of notice of COVID positive tests.

The club also added a whole bunch of new players during the COVID years, as word of mouth spread the news of our online community.  We continued a mix of in person gaming and online conversation throughout 2020 and 2021, and happily although a few club members tested positive for COVID during the period, no one became seriously ill.

New games took off - Kill Team, Adeptus Titanicus, Lord of the Rings, Battletech, Blitz Bowl, and Marvel Crisis Protocol to name just a few. 

Tentcon 2020 was held in August, instead of June, in a huge 40x20 tent in the back parking lot of the Crescendo Music Studios in Merrifield, VA.  It was a great success, even in masks.  We returned to the same space in June 2021, but the near 100 degree temperature made that the last outdoor Tentcon for the club.

Although there was no Holiday Party in 2020, the Holiday Party returned in 2021, again at Ms. Peacocks at the Board Room.  Victory Comics and the Board Room were the club’s Heroes of the Year for getting us through the COVID years.

Present Era

The club continues to grow.  Tentcon and the Holiday Party have become yearly traditions.  The club strongly represents and volunteers at local and national gaming events, particularly the NOVA Open.  A wave of new members has joined, bringing the number of members of the Great Hall WhatsApp chat to 166.  Dave E. and Beau B. have made Hobbypocalypse something to look forward to every year.  

In short, the club has come a long way in the last decade.  Looking forward to even better things in the future!