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GeneralZorpa on Yugioh
SJC SF And What I Learned
January 13, 2009

A Harsh Reality
 
Well, Shonen Jump Championship South San Francisco has come and gone and pretty much all of my aspirations of becoming an SJC champ. Graduating from college will leave little time to go to events like an SJC, as a job, job-hunting and whatnot are going to consume my time. As far as I can say, I have to agree with Jae Kim on the entire event. It STUNK. The only games that I had any fun with at all were in the bottom 100 of the tournament, where players were playing to play and not for prize support.
 
The judges (5 of I have known for a while) were working the hardest that they could in order to get us the time that we needed to play. However, I found that the overall running of the vent was below my expectations for a tournament of this size. Granted, 3 weeks ago they thought that there was going to BE no tournament, but that is still no excuse. Thievery was so rampant that I did almost no trading at all, for fear of things getting stolen. One little boy who traveled down from Seattle got his deck box stolen, and they couldn't afford to replace it. It was not returned even though the mother made a plea (with real tears) for it's return. I could really care less about the people who have 3 CCV's getting one stolen, but a whole deck box from a little kid? That is a whole new low for the game.
 
The police officers that I saw were more interested in chatting up the little kids lining the event than catching thieves and the TO was completely powerless in everything. Another odd thing was that there was no player meeting to collect decklists in order. That meant that players wanting to make last-minute additions to their decks (either by trading or buying from vendors) could not do so. my friend Keenith managed to make a last minute change by borrowing a DAD from Judge Julio while he was in line for registration. BTW, we are eternally grateful Julio!
 
A Learning Experience
 
More so than the moral inferiority of the vast majority of the players present, I learned that I should always follow my instinct in picking a deck for the event. Once again, GZ scrubs an SJC with poor deck choice. I was running a Lightsworn build with only 2 Honest and 1 JD, which was sadly inferior to other decks being played. The Lightsworn deck in the top 16 was 3 cards different than mine, but those 3 cards were all the difference.
 
My instinct said to play an anti-meta Volcanic deck that had been ripping up Tele-DAD and Zombies all day, but I lacked the Solemn Judgment cards that I needed to make the deck viable. So I went with what I jokingly called Thirdsworn. My point is that it is far better to play a deck with all of it's components that is judged to be inferior than a deck that is missing some parts and is thought to be superior. Of course I will never get to test my theory, as we never went back to the Regional the day after due to a cranky Asian.
 
I also learned that it is possible to have fun even while you are losing. I played with some great guys. The best games that I had were against Ty, who had an Evil Hero OTK deck and was one of the most fun games that I have ever had. Thanks Ty! My match with a Tele-DAD deck (sorry, I forgot your name!) was great as well, with some ruling reversals (at least from what I knew to be true), Skill Drains and Destiny Hero Defenders with a lot of stalling the match was one that will certainly stay with me for a while. I actually already knew this, as my losing records at Regionals and SJC's will tell you, I can have fun even when losing. This is something that I saw few people doing, even thoguh it must be so basic and elementary to the game.
 
The other thing that I learned is that you can leave no hole in your gameplay. I was playing this one game, a mirroir match, where my opponent summoned Celestia, targeting my face down Threatening Roar and my face-up Card of Safe Return. I said "Chain Threatening Roar" when he destroyed the cards, but my opponent did not respond. I was pretty surprised when he declared an attack on my Lumina for game. Apparently I had not said it loud enough fro my opponent to hear it. Luckily, I had Necro Gardna in the graveyard to negate the attack and a Monster Reborn and Brain Control later it was over. My point is that Necro Gardna is not always going to be in your graveyard. Immaculate play is going to be your best friend in the quest noit to get rule-sharked.
 
The Next Day
 
The next day, due to a sleep-deprived friend and losing records, we did not go to the next day Regional. I am glad that we didn't go. Instead, I got to run the most fun tournament that I have ever been to at Bizarro World. There were 16 eager players, willing to trade and learn about the game. My friends and I decided to play our lwoer key decks than our perfectly competetive decks. Plants, Dark Synchro and Gladiator Beasts respectively.
 
It was hectic, as I had to run 2 pods/tournaments. One for the younger kids and the other for the older people. I managed to win teh tournament thanks to the filtering and +1 power of Gladiator Beast's Respite and Gladiator Beast Equeste. I made some great trades, saw some old friends and went out to Chinese food afterward.
 
So what I am getting at is that we should not be so eager to be competetive. Winning is fun, yes. But so is losing. If we never lost, then how would we be able to grow as a player?
 
Anyway, enough of my rambling for today huh? you can reach me at raptor1k@hotmail.com if you have any questions, comments or other things that you want to talk about.
 
Thanx for reading!
GZ