Now that Comic-Con is over and I’ve had a week to reflect on my experiences, I thought I would share my top 5 moments from this year’s show. Looking back on the week, most of my favorite moments were impromptu or surprises. My list showcases how important it is to be flexible and open to happenings around you. Without further ado, here are my favorite moments from 2014 San Diego Comic-Con:

5) Nintendo Lounge – Building on their success from last year’s lounge, Nintendo’s setup was similar to last year’s except it had more upcoming titles, fun tournaments, and speed runs going on all weekend. As someone that hasn’t bought a WiiU yet, I was happy to get my hands on a couple of upcoming titles that excited me and may have convinced me to purchase one in the future. The speed runs and tournaments brought a sense of excitement to the crowd. The lounge was packed most of the weekend but the majority of demo stations didn’t have very long wait periods. It was also a great place to get streetpasses from other Nintendo 3DS owners.

4) Paramount panel – Since Paramount didn’t announce what they were bringing to Comic-Con this year, there was little buzz going into the panel on Thursday. By doing this, Paramount exceeded expectations and had quite a few big surprises. Two of the biggest moments were Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson entering Hall H through the crowd and gaving his legendary wrestling line, “Finally, The Rock has come back to Comic-Con” and Matthew McConaughey and Christopher Nolan showing the new trailer to their movie “Interstellar”. The Rock had such stage presence and had the crowd in the palm of his hand. Christopher Nolan and Matthew McConaughey had never been to Comic-Con so that was a big moment. Not to mention that the Interstellar trailer was the best one I saw all weekend.

3) Xbox Lounge – Microsoft had a huge presence at Comic-Con this year. They not only had a booth on the show floor but also had the Xbox Lounge in the nearby Grand Hyatt hotel. The lounge felt like a mini E3 with loads of upcoming games available to play. They even had a stage for developers to show live demos of their games that weren’t playable. I found myself spending a lot of time there when I wasn’t on the show floor and went hands-on with a number of upcoming titles.

2) Video Games Live concert – On Thursday night, I was able to attend the Video Game Live concert with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. It was a beautiful night with some beautiful, nostalgic music. As someone that grew up on video games, it was so cool to relive games I played through their soundtracks. It was a good break from the craziness of Comic-Con and I hope to make it something I do every year.

1) WB TV screenings – I have to hand it to Warner Bros. for not only playing all three of its pilots to the Comic-Con audience, but also bringing the casts of Gotham, The Flash, Constantine, and Arrow on stage for a panel. It was the largest panel ever in Hall H. Stephen Amell (Green Arrow) hosted the panel and you could sense his excitement. All the attendees also got a nice swag bag with popcorn, water, a comic, and an exclusive t-shirt inside.

This year’s Comic-Con went surprising well. I was able to get into almost all the panels I wanted and had a great time meeting new friends and old. I can’t wait to see what next year will bring.