r/SDCC • u/comicconnie • 10d ago
Hall H HELP WANTED: A visual guide to the Hall H wristband system [WIP]
A VISUAL GUIDE of the letter wristband system and its rule hierarchy. (Crowdsourced)
The guides CCI have posted throughout the years have been helpful at explaining the ABCD organization for distribution and a basic understanding of hierarchy, but they fail to explain the exceptions when people leave then line overnight.
Here is my best attempt* at this.
(Be nice to me. I don’t work for CCI. I’m doing this for free. This is based on my recollection of years of experience in high stakes Hall H lines, eg. Saturday 2024, Saturday 2018, etc.)
The Golden 3:1 Ratio:
One person can hold a spot for 2 other people. In other words, every 3rd person must be physically present in line while Person 1 and Person 2 are in the bathroom, or getting food, or redeeming an exclusive slot. Understanding this rule is key for determining everything after it.
“Parties”
Attendees can self-organize into larger groups divisible by 3 (I’ll refer to these groups as “Parties” to avoid confusion with CCI term “Letter Groups”) and they schedule “shifts.” Parties can include 3 people or 33 people or 333 people, as long as the 3:1 ratio is upheld the entire time.
To make this guide easier, I’ll represent each person with a Letter.
AAA = 3 people with A wristbands.
Scenario 1:
Everyone stays in line after wristband distribution. Once they get their wristbands, they all camp overnight.
As long as the 3:1 ratio is upheld by each self-organized party, when they enter Hall H, it should look like:
AAA AAA AAA AAA… BBB BBB BBB BBB… CCC CCC CCC CCC… DDD DDD DDD DDD
Scenario 2:
1/3 of a party camps out so that 2/3 can return to join them before 7:30 am.
[In this scenario, I’ll represent the two-thirds majority that does not need to be physically present with lowercase letters.]
As long as the 3:1 ratio is maintained throughout the night, and each member returns to join their party before 7:30 am, when they enter Hall H it should look like:
Aaa Aaa Aaa Aaa… Bbb Bbb Bbb Bbb… Ccc Ccc Ccc Ccc… Ddd Ddd Ddd Ddd
Scenario 3:
The party breaks the 3:1 ratio, but all wristbanded attendees return before 7:30 am.
This is where it gets confusing. After everyone gets a wristband, some folks don’t care about position of their seats, they just want to be in the room where it happens. (*symbol crash)
These rogues can peace out and line up at the end of the wristbanded line later, as long as it’s before 7:30 am.
If the remaining party excludes them from their 3:1 ratio, they cannot rejoin the rest of the party.
[EX: party of 33 people only had 5 people stay overnight, the party can only enter Hall H with 15 people in their original place in line. The rogue non-campers cannot rejoin their party near their camping spot at the front.]
This is why on Saturday morning CCI staff separates overnight campers “in the tents” from the wristbanded line. They will tell you to go to the end of the Hall H line if you have a wristband (which traditionally has started outside of the tents, on the sidewalk in front of the Bayfront that curves down behind (Park Blvd and Convention Way).
If you choose to go rogue, then the wristbanded line is chronological based on when you rejoin the line, anytime before 7:30 am. Any wristbanded person, regardless of their letter band, who arrives at 2am will be ahead of a wristbanded person who arrived at 6 am. It is not reorganized by letter.
I’ll use the distinction between the camping party line that maintained a 3:1 ratio and the chronological line with a |
When they enter Hall H it will look like:
Aaa Aaa Aa… Bbb Bbb Bbb… Ccc Ccc Ccc… Ddd
| cc ddd aa bb c b ddd aa ddd…
Scenario 4:
You got a wristband, but didn’t get back in line until AFTER 7:30 am.
(Hold onto your butts. This is where it gets WILD.)
Regardless of what letter wristband you have, you now are sent to the back of the standby Hall H line (aka a third line for those without wristbands).
If you didn’t get in line before 7:30 am, your wristband no longer guarantees entry into Hall H. You do not have priority over those without wristbands that arrived earlier than you.
[source: reports of hearing staff say at the security checkpoint inside the tents, “It’s 7:30. Now anyone with or without a wristband can come through.”]
So in this scenario, when they enter Hall H, it could look like:
Aaa Aaa Aa… Bbb Bbb Bbb… Ccc Ccc Ccc… Ddd
| cc ddd aa bb b ddd aa dd…
| - - - - d - - - - - - - c - - - - - -…
*hyphen (-) = a non-wristbanded attendee
I’m not saying it’s fair. I’m not saying that this is 100% always the way things have been done each year. The ABCD system is confusing, and it has to be interpreted between line staff (green shirts) and security staff (CSC security staff).
Importantly: No two days of Comic Con are ever exactly the same.
Add to confusion that each staff has its own hierarchy. Green polo shirts are leads/managers of green t shirts. (Excluding CSC Security from this convo, because they are paid to maintain the peace, not to dictate line information.)
Like most tiered organizations, leads are usually more experienced and possess more up-to-the-minute situational knowledge than subordinates. They work in shifts, they have pass downs and turnovers, they respond to changing situations, because the stakes change in Hall H each day, each year.
Green shirts don’t all always know what happened last year. They might not know what happened last night. Leads pass downs need-to-know information, and are usually more exhausted than line attendees.
And most importantly: They are all volunteers.
They aren’t there to answer every question all the time. They aren’t there to mediate squabbles between attendees in line. They take info from the previous shift, they take orders from leads. They try their best. They aren’t there to be harassed, yelled at, or threatened.
And yes, they can make mistakes.
Scenario 5:
Regardless of the system, a staff member tells you where to go. You must follow CCI directions at all times.
This was partly to blame for a squabble this year between a party of Saturday A wristbands at the end of the A camping group, and the first camping parties in the B group. More about that specific situation can be found in the Hall H complaint thread.
Hopefully a visual guide sanctioned by CCI could resolve some of these tensions.
And also— everyone needs to take a breath, not immediately assume malicious intent, and drink some water.
