The GAMe PLACe

The GAMe PLACe

Another angle, revealing The GAMe PLACe to be adjacent to a Staples store.

The inside of the PLACe as of 27 October 2011.

“	I also hope that the Game and Hobby Place in Charlottesville... BURNS TO THE GROUND! ALONG WITH MICHAEL SNYDER!	”
Chris

The GAMe PLACe (also known as Cville's Hobbies, Games, and Toys) was a comic book, game, card, toy, and hobby shop in Charlottesville. For several years, up until the summer of 2008, Chris hung out there on a regular basis, going there every Friday without fail to play the Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! card games. The shop hosted the Pokémon TCG League, where Chris served as a self-proclaimed volunteer gym leader (though he was not endorsed in any way, and was largely simply tolerated by the store).

After a long period of increasingly disruptive behavior, and repeated warnings from staff, Chris was permanently kicked out of the store by one of the managers, Michael Snyder, on 28 August 2008. After his permanent ban, Chris attempted several times to regain access to the store, to no avail thanks to Michael's insistence.

Following the judgement after the 28 October 2011 incident (see below), Chris must keep away from Michael Snyder at all times, which by extension meant that he was permanently banned from the store by law after the judgement.

People of note

Chris originally met Megan Schroeder at The GAMe PLACe in 2005, where they bonded over their shared interest in Yu-Gi-Oh! Megan continued to hang out at the shop even after her friendship with Chris collapsed in the spring of 2008, although their relationship by that point was strained to say the least. Once she broke off all contact with Chris, she did her best to ignore him entirely when they were at the store at the same time.

The other two best-known patrons of the shop, aside from Chris himself, are Mimms and Lucas. The two friends are the primary source of most of what is known about Chris's behavior at The GAMe PLACe (and most of the information in this article), which they revealed during a detailed Q&A session on the PVCC forums. They're also famous for having taken and uploaded the first photograph of Chris to reach the Internet, which Mimms snapped and Lucas uploaded to 4chan in the fall of 2007.

Michael Snyder was one of the store's managers until he became the owner around October 2011. Chris often mistakenly referred to Snyder as the store's owner long before he purchased the store. Snyder would eventually become one of Chris's real-life nemeses when he kicked Chris out of the store in the summer of 2008.

Chris's attitude at The GAMe PLACe

“	Chris would rarely ever shake anyone's hand after a game, and when he did, he quickly followed up with hand sanitizer.	”
Mimms

Chris acting his age.

Some regulars.

In his early days at The GAMe PLACe, Chris's behavior seems to have been more "childlike", for lack of a better word. According to Mimms, who was a regular at the store for the entire time Chris hung out there, Chris avoided using foul language when he first started gaming at the store. He also never failed to show up for Pokémon games in his old Ash Ketchum costume.

The costume was eventually retired, however (by the time of the 2007 photo, Chris was showing up in his usual colorful clown shirts and sporting the Sonichu medallion), and Chris's behavior grew more aggressive and vulgar over the years. According to Mimms and Lucas, Chris often became angry at his card-game opponents, even small children. An October 2007 e-mail from Megan mentions an incident where Chris was extremely threatening and insulting to a guy whom he thought was putting the moves on his gal-pal.

Mimms recounted a few instances of Chris displaying his blatant racism with his dislike and distrust of black people. He was openly suspicious of the young black kids he played Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! with, apparently because he thought they were going to make off with his cards. Chris also nearly managed to earn himself a beating from an older black gamer by the name of TJ:

“	Chris yells at him, "I'm going to smack your effing face down!" and TJ stands up like he's going to beat his ass. Chris shrinks back and and says "I mean your face-down monster..."	”
Mimms, Mimms and Lucas Q&A

Likewise, Chris's homophobia occasionally surfaced while he was hanging out at the shop. A gay regular at the shop by the name of Eric was the target of mockery, insults, and threats from Chris (although Mimms noted that, for obvious reasons, Chris wasn't likely to ever do him any great physical harm). Chris also assumed that two of the shop's regulars were gay because they happened to exchange a few jokingly romantic remarks — his literal mind took that as proof that they were a couple.

Chris the TCG gamer

Chris stares down his youthful opponent.

“	Chris was pretty awful at all the games he played.	”
Mimms, summing up Chris.

Though he apparently spent plenty of money buying new cards at the store and built them into a sizable collection of themed decks, Chris didn't have any aptitude for deck-building or strategy in the Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card games. Even when playing against small children, he rarely won games or advanced in tournaments, although Mimms recounts one occasion where Chris managed to win a match on a day when most of the regular players were absent, and proudly hollered "I'M THE LEVEL-UP KING!"

Chris often declares that he was a gym leader in the store's Pokémon league (an older player who manages tournaments, keeps track of wins and losses, and so forth). It's mentioned on his résumé, for instance, and he talks about it in the Father Call. However, his memory has apparently inflated his role considerably. "He wasn't actually a gym leader," says Mimms, but rather a substitute who took the place of the regular gym leader on a few occasions. He also wasn't very good at the job, reportedly becoming angry and snapping at the players he was supposed to be taking care of. This earned him his first ban from the store, lasting two weeks, which, according to Lucas, began on 4 April 2008.

To Chris's very slight credit, Mimms says he did resist using his custom Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in actual games. Mimms and Lucas also noted that he played the Universal Fighting System card game, often playing female characters such as Cassandra from the Soul Calibur series and Chun-Li.

The GAMe PLACe photograph

Blurry because Mimms was trying to be covert.

In the fall of 2007, Chris discovered the Encyclopedia Dramatica page devoted to him. There, he also discovered a blurry photograph of himself, which had been taken and posted to 4chan by Mimms and Lucas respectively.

Though he'd already pretty thoroughly blown a gasket over the ED page, Chris went even crazier trying to discover the identity of the photographer. In an e-mail to Anna McLerran from November 2007, he mentions pestering the staff of The GAMe PLACe to go through their anti-theft camera footage to find out who had taken the photo. Unsurprisingly, they weren't very cooperative. According to Mimms, Chris complained about the photo and the ED page so loudly and frequently at the store that the management eventually threatened to kick him out if he didn't stop.

Chris also complained to his mother, who apparently became as angry or more so. At one point, early in November, Chris's parents visited the store and interrogated Mimms as to the origin of the photo. After Mimms admitted that he had snapped the picture (but feigned ignorance as to how it found its way onto the Internet), they threatened to take legal action, but never actually did so.

Chris's "investigations" continued on and off for months after he originally found the picture. In an e-mail to Megan (sent in March 2008 and oddly situated in-between desperate apologies for the porn he drew of her), he recounts an indirect confrontation with Lucas at GameStop on 8 March.

“	So it brought up to mind my first word being "Monkey", so I told Mimms that. And with a turn around towards the accompanying Lucas, I said in his direction, "Well, that's something new you didn't know about 'be-4' about this 'Chan'." I noticed a look on his face like, "Wow, I can totally wail on that tidbit of information." He said nothing.	”
Chris's idea of subtlety, from the Megan e-mails.

Later, Lucas gave his own interesting take on the story.

“	The funniest part about that is that I have no recollection of him saying that to me whatsoever. I had no idea I was even a suspect until I saw that e-mail.	”
Lucas, Mimms and Lucas Q&A

Chris gets the boot

Chris's behavior offended the store's management and customers in a number of ways. Aside from punting his gym leader duties, scaring the small children he played card games with, picking fights with other players, and generally being a racist and homophobic creep, he would truck his video game consoles into The GAMe PLACe and take over the shop's flat-screen TV for considerable amounts of time, loudly sing along to Britney Spears during games, pitch fits inspired by his hatred of the HEXBox in public, and so on.

The trigger for his permanent ban in August 2008 was a shouting match with a young black kid. That particular incident was merely the straw that broke the camel's back, though "Mike was looking for any reason to ban him at this point," says Mimms.

Predictably, Chris did his best to resist getting kicked out of the store. He brought his parents in to argue his case with Michael Snyder, to which Michael responded by calling the Jerkops. Despite a fierce response from Barbara Chandler, Chris and his family failed to move either Michael or the cops, and from that point onward every indication was that Chris would never be allowed back into the store.

In the Jackie e-mails, Chris offers his own chronology and version of events. There, he claims that he was thrown out of the store much earlier than Mimms indicates, in June 2008. The so-called "Wii Incident", according to Chris, was when Michael Snyder forced Chris to stop bogarting the TV for his Wii. Doing this apparently caused a number of children to miss out on obtaining a few trade-only evolution Pokémon. Chris got angry and wrote a letter, sign, or simply scrawled a note on the side of a card box stating "Michael Snyder Loves the "F" out of Mary Lee Walsh." This, Chris claimed, was Michael's last straw and he booted him then.

According to the CWCipedia article for Megan Schroeder, Chris claims that Megan was there the day he was banned and claimed that she just stood there in shock, refusing to speak up for him. In reality, of course, she was simply disgusted by his behavior like any rational person would have been and relieved that his being kicked out of the store would be the last time Chris would ever be in her sight. Also, she refused to defend Chris not because of shock, but because of his sexual harassment, destruction of her dignity, anger issues, and overall immaturity, ultimately cementing the fact that nobody wants Chris to ever return to the store.

In February 2011, Chris released the third part of his Autism Tutorial, in which he shared that he still feels bitter over his banning. In his words: "And I also hope that the Game and Hobby Place in Charlottesville... burns to the ground! Along with Michael Snyder!"

Unbanning attempts

Chris recounts flipping Michael Snyder the bird.

Chris repeatedly attempted to overcome his ban and gain readmission to the store. As mentioned in a July 2008 e-mail, Chris sent a letter to Michael Snyder shortly after his initial one-month ban. In March 2009, he attempted to apologize in the best way he knew how: posting a video to YouTube on the off-chance the individual addressed would see it. This was not the most sincere apology in the world, since Chris made it clear in a later video that he doesn't really understand why he was thrown out in the first place. A month later, in April 2009, Chris attempted to sneak into the store, but when a cashier recognized him and caught him, Chris ran.

Almost two years after his initial ban from The GAMe PLACe Chris would try again to get the ban lifted. Chris's conversations with Jackie reveal that he attempted to go to The GAMe PLACe after church on 11 April 2010. When he was once again recognized by a cashier who threatened to call the cops, Chris got angry and bolted. The next day, Chris visited the store again to talk to Michael Snyder in an attempt to have the ban removed. However, the visit did not turn out in Chris's favor, as the audio from the incident shows. Michael refused to revoke the ban (later noting on YouTube, that Chris was actually reading the apology from a pre-written script) and Chris took this about as well as could be expected; he flipped Michael off, yelled "JEW!" at him, and left the store in a huff. The police were called about the incident, according to Mimms, but Chris was already long gone by the time they arrived. No charges were pressed, likely because nobody was actually harmed.

Later that day, Chris uploaded the audio of the incident to YouTube, accompanied by a description soliciting harassment and "trolling" of Michael and his fellow employees. However, it was removed from the site in a matter of hours due to a "Terms of Use Violation". Considering Chris's antisemitic remark directed at Michael, his invitation for others to harass him, and the possibly illegal nature of the recording, it's easy to see why it was removed from YouTube.

Chris has never fully understood why he was kicked out of the store. According to Mimms, Chris didn't see what was wrong with his behavior at the time, and he evidently hasn't reflected on the subject much in the intervening years. During the April 2010 visit to the store, the only possible grounds for his ban he could remember was the aforementioned "Wii Incident". Later, when he posted an ad on CWCipedia complaining about Snyder's refusal to lift the ban, Chris appeared to believe that the store manager refused to let him in because he hated him personally and people with autism in general.

In October 2010, Chris made yet another request to be readmitted. Wearing an ancient Pokémon League T-shirt, he apologized for his behavior and said that the ban was his fault, blaming the whole thing on his infamous "stress". He also claimed to have only "shouted a loud outburst" twice. Mike was unmoved.

With Chris's continued failure to overturn the ban, it was clear that his chances of winning entry to The GAMe PLACe were almost as remote as the chances of his duck winning entry to China without the use of commercial services.

The Charlottesville Incident

Sonichu wishes Chris luck in his next murder attempt.

On 4 June 2010, Chris visited The GAMe PLACe. He claimed that he wanted to take a photograph of Snyder to use as a dartboard, but when Snyder saw him with his camera outside, he chased Chris. Chris claimed that he tried to drive away, but was accosted by Snyder, a woman he didn't recognize, and the police. Snyder's version was more succinct:

“

Christian is in my parking lot right now being grilled by the police. He took pictures of my daughter and tried to run me over with his car. they witness this, and I bet they still do nothing about it.

”

The police listened to Chris rant about the trolls for a while and eventually made him delete the pictures and sent him home with a warning. Chris did not tell his parents anything and it would be two months before they would learn about it.

Crime story

The coupon itself.

Main article: 28 October 2011

On 28 October 2011, Chris and Barb got arrested and ended up facing multiple charges; hit-and-run (both), misdemeanor assault, trespassing (Chris), and attacking a law official (Barb). Going by the details of said charges, as well as photographs uploaded on-site by Chris himself, it can be assumed that the two tried to enter the store, Chris got in a fight with Michael, the two tried and failed to escape the parking lot before the police arrived, damaging something in the process, and when the cops showed up Barb tried to stop them from arresting Chris.

After the incident, Chris used a 10% off coupon found in the local newspaper to produce an anti-GAMe PLACe flyer - stating that it was a "cyber-bullies hang-out" and encouraging people to "stay far away". He also stated that the PLACe will go down by "[his] will, or by someone elses fire-on-a-stick and bombs" suggesting he has learnt absolutely nothing from his chastening court experience.

Google Maps reviews

A scathing review of the place on Google Maps written by a "Robert" was discovered by trolls. What's notable about this is that the review was written right around the time of the incident.

“	Owner is very rude and a liar. He banned my autistic friend Chris from the store a couple years ago. I tried to talk it over with the owner who's name is Michael Snyder to see if I can get him to let my friend back to be a customer there again, we wouldn't give me a reason behind the ban and hung up on me. But that's only the beginning. Just recently he actually had the gall to charge my friend and his WIDOWED MOTHER with some bogus "hit and run" charges. The employees however are pretty nice and try to help you, but if my money is going to the profit of this utterly contemptible owner I would much rather take my business somewhere else."	”
"Robert", on the GAMe PLACe.

Several clues made quite a few trolls suspicious that 'Robert' was actually Chris. The mere fact that his "friend" has to point out that he's autistic from the get-go raises a red flag, and the message is pretty much full of biased contempt towards Michael Snyder, and pretty much sets the tone for his anti-GAMe PLACe campaign above. Note also, that the words, "WIDOWED MOTHER" is in all caps, something Chris routinely does in his writing when angry.

A second review later showed up by someone who identified themselves as "Ben McMullan." The review read:

“	Owner is a registered sex offender. He has also historically denied service to autistic patrons."	”
"Ben McMullan", on the GAMe PLACe.

It is unknown if this review is by Chris or by a troll, but, judging Ben McMullan's other reviews, which include businesses in Georgia, North Carolina, and Maryland (places Chris has never been), it would appear to be the latter.

Another review from "Alexander Deck" also appeared, and looks very similiar to "Robert's" review:

“	"This HORRIBLE place kicked my friend Chris out, and for that I can NEVER FORGIVE THEM."	”
"Alexander Deck", on the GAMe PLACe.

Another review from "Henry Bradston" is possibly by Chris:

“	This store has a wonderful and expansive selection of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, which is what attracted me to the store in the first place. Then my cousin mentioned he was banned from the store a few years ago, and that made me realize how nasty the employees are. Upon a visit I took to the "Cville's Hobbies, Games and Toys" last month, I had the pleasure of meeting who I think was the supervisor, or possibly the owner(...?) His name was Mike and he seemed like a very nice man. After only browsing booster packs for five minutes, I saw him start screaming at another patron. I don't recall what the argument was about, but it only lasted a couple minutes. The little kid (who couldn't have been older than ten) ran out of the store, crying. This incident alone coupled with the fact my cousin (who already has troubles of his own) was banned for what he says was "no good reason" has changed my perception of the store entirely. I would advise anyone who is interested in comics, TCGs, or toy collecting to NOT visit this store. And if I could say something to that fat sixty-something year old, I'd tell him to change his business tactics of scaring kids away cause it will only hurt business. ALSO, it turns out the OWNER is a registered sex offender.	”
"Henry Bradston"

Chris's parents and The GAMe PLACe

A phone conversation recorded in early August 2010 revealed many more details about the odd attitude that Bob and Barb Chandler held and continue to hold towards The GAMe PLACe. During the discussion, they evidence a total ignorance of how Chris behaved at the store and why he was banned. Barb shows signs of still holding a grudge over her visit to the store after Chris's final ban, while Bob suggests that he believed that the trolling of Chris somehow originates from a conspiracy at the store.

“	Mike and Megan are the ones that conspired together with a couple of other people — kids there that I think were gay — to persecute and torment Christian for years.	”
Bob Chandler, on the GAMe PLACe conspiracy.

Bob does not explain why Mike, Megan, and the "gay kids" (likely a reference to Eric and Tito) would create this grand conspiracy against Chris, but he goes as far as to accuse them of fraudulently obtaining access to Chris's credit cards and bank accounts. Data uncovered a month later shows that Chris wasted shit tons of money on PlayStation Network cards and games he won't play in the future, resulting in further debt and an excuse to blame Snyder and the trolls for stealing his credit cards.

Acceptance?

On 4 April 2013, Chris posted on Facebook, "I, Christian Weston Chandler, fully never ever, forever, want to have anything to do with the Game and Hobby PLace." It remains to be seen whether he will follow through. However, it could be a geinus plan to lull Michael Snyder into a false sense of security.

The Imgur leak revealed a post that would elaborate more on this development. Amusingly, Chris believed that everyone at the PLace masterminded the trolling that continues to haunt him to this day, particularly Megan Schroeder and Michael Snyder, who he deemed as the "Prime Trolls". He also called for the PLace itself to be destroyed, if only for the reason of ousting a manchild that acted like a jackass in the store.

Either way, it seems that given the consequences of his actions and his utter refusal to let go of childish things, it seems very unlikely that Chris will forgive or forget the Game PLace. It does, however, raise a valid question concerning Chris: What will he do once his probation ends?

Nope, He Still Wants it to Burn to the Ground

Proving once and for all that Chris absolutely refuses to let go of his ban from the GAMe PLACe, on October 4th 2013, Chris posted a very angry Facebook post where he shifts all of the blame onto Megan. In the post, he claims that Megan had been plotting with a GAMe PLACe employee to set up everything to get him banned, from the photo being taken by Mimms and Lucas to Megan "pretending" to kiss a "homosexual jerk", thus leading to him getting banned forever. He then goes on to say that he'll continue to curse the GAMe PLACe and Megan until she apologizes for what she's done.

The End of the Saga

Poster indicating the former location of the Game Place is now up for rent.

In June of 2014, information was leaked on the CWCki Forums that seemed to indicate that the Game Place had shut down for good. The historical location of the store was empty, and a poster on the store's glass front indicated that the location was up for rent. Whether the place was apparently shut down because of financial problems, Chris's curses, or other factors remains unknown.

External links

• Current website
• Old website

The places of Chris's life

Chris's homes: 14 Branchland Court (Chris's room | Chris's kitchen | Yard | 2014 house fire) | Cloverleaf Lakes Apartments | Surreywood Subdivision | Newberry Towne Subdivision | Rental House | Regency Inn Richmond | Central Virginia Regional Jail | Western State Hospital | Big Island house Chris's education: Greene County Primary School | James Madison University | Providence Middle School | Nathanael Greene Elementary School | Manchester High School | Piedmont Virginia Community College (not to be confused with Private Villa of Corrupted Citizens) Chris's churches: Grace Baptist Church | Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church Chris's jobs: Cutco Cutlery | Wendy's | Books-a-million | Toys “R” Us | Sonichu Entertainment of America Other attraction locations: University of Virginia | Charlottesville Fashion Square (Abercrombie & Fitch | Chick-fil-A | Pac Sun | Starbucks) | Wal-Mart (McDonald's) | Target | The GAMe PLACe | Impulse Gay Social-Club | Fridays After Five Conventions: Animate! Raleigh | Anime Mid-Atlantic | BronyCon (2017 • 2018 • 2019) | MAGfest | OmegaCon | TooManyGames Other places Chris has visited: Anytime Fitness | Best Buy | Burger King | Country Cookin | "Create-a-Crear Workshop" | Cville Pride | The End Games | GameStop | Golden Corral | McIntire Park | Region Ten | Snooky's Pawn Shop | Taco Bell Cities of the World: Albemarle County (Advance Mills) | Bedford County (Big Island) | Charlottesville | Chesterfield County (Midlothian) | Greene County (Barboursville | Ruckersville | Stanardsville) | Harrisonburg | Lynchburg | Richmond Countries of the World: Australia | Australatina | China | Confederate States | England | Finland | Germany | Italy | Iraq | Japan | Mexico | Molvanîa | Niger | Spain | Russia | United States (California | District of Columbia | Maryland | North Carolina | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Texas | Virginia | Washington) Extra-terrestrial locations: Dimensions | The Moon | The Sun Map of Chris's World