Hello everyone and
welcome back to DeathJester’s Dojo! I
think it’s been about 2-3 months since I
last wrote an article here on Pojo.com.
I’m a bit of a recluse, as you can tell
from my track record of articles.
However, I really…really…really promise
I’ll stick around to write articles week
by week. I’ve got great things in the
works and you can come right here to
Pojo.com to read about them.
A Little History
Lesson…
In the past 2-3 months
I’ve gone through quite a bit of
changes; I’ve lost friends, made new
friends, and totally redefined the way I
look at the game and my progress in it.
I’ve read countless articles, conducted
rigorous research, and relentless
testing. I’ve learned quite a few simple
lessons from the struggle (more on that
in another article).
In other news, I’ve made
some changes to my YGO team. Yes, you
remember Team Fallen right? We blew up a
couple of months ago in our debut at SJC
Orlando 2006. After that, our popularity
well…died. We’ve kept to ourselves for
the most part. Staying on the lowdown
was the best course of action regarding
our dismal performances at recent
Regional tournaments and internal
conflicts resulting in slicing off an
entire division (Tampa). I won’t make
excuses, we’ve done terrible, and we’ve
improved each time we went home with
heads hanging low and hopes crushed
under the soles of our feet. The most
important lesson from all of this is
that progress doesn’t come from NOT
failing.
The big reveal…
Life in the last few
months has revealed a number of things
for me in my YGO career. Where do I
start? Let’s see….
How about I start with
the professionals in our YGO community
and the secret to their success? It’s
actually quite simple. You’d be
surprised to hear this and frankly, you
might be a bit disappointed: The most
successful players in this game aren’t
always the most talented.
How many times have you
thought to yourself when you look at the
Top 8 SJC decks: “Damn, these decks are
so boring…why do these guys always win
with the same bullsh*t that everyone
else runs?” Good question. How DO they
do it?
It’s a combination of
factors that you may not notice right
away, but you should take a closer look
at our YGO celebrities and you may
appreciate them more for their
successes:
1.
Goal-Setting and
Self-Evaluation:
The #1 quality of all successful
individuals in this game. These guys
have strong, well-defined goals. They
know exactly what they want, why, and
how they are going to get it. Their
brains do the rest for them. When they
set goals, they make sure they conduct
regular self-evaluation on their
progress towards their goals. This is to
ensure they don’t waste time. They try
their hardest to relate everything they
do to their goals. Conducting activities
that are related to your goals and will
bring you closer to them are
productive activities. It takes a
large amount of willpower to travel from
major event to major event and
consistently do well. It’s a drive or
groove that they have that does not
waver under any circumstances. If they
come across an obstacle, they keep their
sights set firmly on their goal and plow
through. Simple and efficient. Maximum
productivity. Like a machine.
2.
Tight Play:
Again, the most successful players in
this game aren’t the most talented.
Implant that in your head. They win
because they play tight. They always
make the optimal play based on the
information they gather during the game
and draw from experience. If they make a
mistake, they dig their way out their
graves to steal the win back. They treat
mistakes much like bumps in the road.
Yea you hit the bump, but your car keeps
on moving right? You don’t have to
talented to do that.
3.
They win the games
they are supposed to win:
I learned this from a prominent MTG
player. The pros in MTG “win the
games they are supposed to win”.
What the hell does that mean? It means
that the pros aren’t always tremendously
better than your local store champ, but
they are better at seizing opportunity
when it appears. If you are the type of
player that likes to give the game away
to your opponent, they will take it from
you. This is how the pros win. They
capitalize on your tiniest mistakes.
4.
Testing:
Like any professional TCG gamer, YGO
professionals test, test, and test some
more. Each group of pros has their own
method of testing the popular match-ups
as well as the unpopular ones. Whatever
method they choose, it is always
rigorous and time-consuming. Let’s face
it; test-playing takes an extensive
amount of time. If you don’t test, you
don’t win. Sometimes our schedules won’t
permit such a commitment to one
particular activity. That’s ok. As long
as your time test-playing is
productive then you have nothing to
worry about. I’ll elaborate on this in
my next article.
5.
Time Management:
Time management is a prerequisite for
true success at anything. You can’t be
successful at anything if you don’t make
the proper amount of time for it. Our
pros aren’t chumps without jobs and no
kind of education (unless they’re
younger than 16. The older players are
winning more nowadays anyway). They know
how to use their time-wisely (this
relates to everything; not just
test-play). If you want to be a
champion, you’ve got to be a master of
your own time.
6.
Pros hang out with
Pros: It’s a
tried and true success axiom that: if
you want to get better at anything you
should hang out with people that are
slightly or much better than you at it.
Pros are not as stuck up and elitist are
some of them market themselves to be.
Most of the successful players are
actually more than happy to help an
aspiring duelist if he/she would
appreciate their help. I’ll tell you
something, the main reason why pros
don’t bother taking challenges from
“lesser” a player is because it’s a
waste of their time. They don’t learn
anything and they don’t progress any
further from beating a “lesser” player.
Also, a “lesser” player would
obsessively brag about how he beat “such
and such” one time in his entire
life anyway. I understand if you’re a
fan-boy or fan-girl of any pro. Any
other case means you’re a loser and you
should shut your mouth. Success in this
game is determined by credentials and
experience. Beating a pro in a casual
game does not give you
credentials. If you beat them to steal
the SJC Champion title from them, THEN
you can talk.
How do you feel about
that?
Those are the “secrets”
to the pros in YGO. It’s really that
simple. In my next article I will teach
you techniques that will guarantee
that your success rate will improve
dramatically in less than a month. I
will transform you from local store
newbie to Regional Tournament heavy
hitter. Or even Regional heavy hitter to
contention for the SJC Championship
title. Make sure you read my next
article carefully. You won’t be
disappointed.
Until next time everyone,
remember to play hard, think through
your moves, and most importantly…have
fun!