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Mofox's Journey

Mofox’s journey from Newbie to the
UK National Tournament - Part 3
March 1, 2006

After learning about a local store near me I decided it might be worthwhile investigating the store and see some real life duellists in action.

Impact Games

After speaking with Ryoga and him telling me about this store located in my nearest major city, Liverpool.  I was keen to go down and have a look and see this game in action.  A perfect opportunity arrived in the first weekend of May 2005.  My son was being looked after by my brother and my then fiancé (now wife) was shopping for her wedding dress so I had a day all to myself and funnily enough I was going into Liverpool to finalise the design for her engagement ring so I would be there anyway.  So why not go and have a look for this store and see how things work.

Now for some reason they seem to like putting these stores in the most out of the way awkward back streets above some other random store.  Working from a street map printout that I had produced on the Friday I looked up and down the same street for more than half an hour before I finally found the store in question.  After all that searching you would think that I would sprint up the stairs but that wasn’t the case.  I spent the next 5-10 mins just waiting outside looking at the Yugi posters on the walls inside the front door.  My heart was pounding with both excitement and nervousness.  Why was I so nervous?  I couldn’t understand it.  In everything else in life I’m a confident, outgoing, person.  I’ve never not had the courage to do something in my life before, but this was different.  The comments made by my friends and family on a regular basis were running through my head and I was having visions of everyone looking at me as soon as I walked through the door.  I decided if anyone asks, my nephew had asked me to find out about the store.  It gave me enough courage to go in.

As I climbed the stairs, each one increasing the pace of my heartbeat, the goings on within the store began to come into view.  Inside it was very minimal.  Nothing like what I was expecting.  It was a small place and two of the walls were all windows.  On the other wall was one glass cabinet with various TCG items in it and not just Yu-Gi-Oh!  As soon as you walk in through the open entrance at the top of the stairs, to your right is a small counter with a glass display cabinet containing every booster under the sun.  Manning this counter was a young guy, not sure if he was the Store Owner or just an employee but he was definitely younger than me.  The middle of the store contained just some foldable tables and this was where all the action was going on.  There were about 15-20 people all duelling, trading and laughing and joking.  Contrary to my earlier visions no one even flinched when I walked in.  The atmosphere was beginning to calm my nerves, but this didn’t last for long.  As I scanned the room I suddenly became very aware of how much older I was than all these duellists.  My best guess was that the age range was from about 12-17.  There was only one other adult there and he was very obviously with his son and was just waiting while his son duelled and traded.  I began to get uncomfortable again.  I turned my attention to the young guy behind the counter and asked him a couple of questions.  This wasn’t a tournament but just a club where duellists got together to play.  He did also have a huge collection of single cards but they were sat in a big box under the desk and needed sorting out.  I asked if anyone of any age could come down and play as I had a young nephew that was interested in the game.  I was informed that anyone is welcome to come and play.  With that I proceeded further into the unknown and into the store, walking past 2 duellists having to play on the floor due to the lack of room on the tables.  As I approached the tables, I noticed some kids trading and had huge binders full of ultra rare and some ultimate rare cards.  They also had tins and tins full of cards next to them on the table.  Their collections made my little collection of starter decks look pathetic.  On another table opposite there was a duel in progress so I turned to see what was going on.  The two guys were very quiet and were playing at what seemed to me to be a lightning pace, however everyone else watching seemed to be following the game rather comfortably.  I watched a little longer and then decided to leave thanking the guy behind the counter as I left.  Outside I remembered my main reason for being in Liverpool that day, ‘oh yeah the engagement ring!’ and walked off to the jewellers.

In hindsight I didn’t achieve that much from my visit and certainly regret not introducing myself to someone while I was there.  One kid did actually ask if I was duelling but I just shook my head.  I’d say to those newbies out there if you find out about a store in your local area and you want to go down here is some advise:

• Take a friend; things aren’t so intimidating if you are with someone else.

• Introduce yourself to everyone who is there. I was thinking about this after I failed to introduce myself to someone.  Who would I have chosen? The person closest my age? The person on their own? The person with the biggest group of people around them?  The more I thought about it the more I thought I should just introduce myself to everyone.

• Take your cards with you.  If you haven’t got your cards how can you get involved?  Even if your collection is a lot smaller than everyone else’s, you never know you might be the one that has the card they have been looking for.

• Have the right attitude when you are at the store.  The most important thing is to have respect.  You may think you are the next Yugi Moto but you aren’t.  Ruffling feathers at any early stage will not win you any friends.  Respect is important.  Respect the Store Owner but more importantly respect the other duellists.

• Don’t be afraid to ask questions while you are there.  In my opinion you can’t ask stupid questions you can only give stupid answers.  Therefore no question you ask will be stupid, don’t EVER be afraid to ask any question.

From my article you can see that however nice and pleasant your store may look it will generally always be intimidating to a new player.  So I also have a tip for Store Owners.

• Find a regular to your store who you think wouldn’t mind running a class for newbies or run it yourself if you have the knowledge.  You could offer him store discount, free tournament entry or cards as payment.  The class could range from 30 mins to 1 hour long and could be done at weekends.  It is a session for all newbies ONLY.  Keep it separate from the other duelling/trading areas.  Crucial to this is whom you select as the person to run this class.  They must be approachable, patient but mostly knowledgeable about the game.  All classes should start with an introduction session of all people at the class.  Something like “Hi, I’m Mofox I have been following Yu-Gi-Oh! for about a year and I have yet to duel or enter a tournament” and then move on around the class.  Then the content of the class can be anything.  Always finish the class with a single duel.  Partner the members of the class up and let them have a duel.  Just a single duel, not a full best of 3 match.  Plus limit the cards to 20 and only have 4000 life points to save on time but also the idea is not to deck build at this early stage but to just get them wet and let them get a bit of experience.

So to you newbies, don’t be afraid.  If you have had a bad experience of your first visit to a store then please email me and tell me about it.  If you are thinking of embarking on your first visit again please email me and I will try and answer any questions you may have.  Although my experience wasn’t the best I’ve still come out of it alive and as big a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh! as ever.

My email address is mofox9@hotmail.co.uk it seems that since I last signed up for hotmail they have now created a .co.uk suffix and not .com so apologies for the mistake last time.  I will reply to all emails that are sent to me.  Remember newbies no questions are stupid questions.

Until next time fellow duellists!