YCS Austin

It has indeed been a week after the event. It was to once again work with a bunch of fellow judges. Compared to the regional I just ran, it was a lot smoother and fun. Maybe it was because I wasn't in a "leadership" role, but it was much more organized. I am super grateful for having these types of events around and not lose my mind. I now understand, especially after having to run a regional, how the HJ and the TO feel about an event during it occurs. It is quite hectic.

What did I think was gonna win, it was gonna be water OR MacroRabbit (or anything that could run Macro). I think the water has good matchups against a lot of deck because it becomes huge beaters and forces the opponent to use some sort of removal, which most decks now lack. Also, we can add to the fact that a lot of players were running water (more like more than 50%). I wasn't surprised when 50% of the players in the top 32 was water, but it was still interesting. What was more interesting was the people that weren't playing water. Read more here.

As for my experience, I blew a casket you can say... During round 2, a player went into time and then the match ended in a draw. He proceeded to complain about how it became a "draw" and that the system is stupid. I then threw back, maybe if you didn't slow play so much, you'd have time to play out the match. This was me stressed from the previous weekend... He then proceeded to request to talk to the HJ, I followed up with an apology as I knew my head wasn't in the right place. WOW, I can't believe I did that. This was definitely a sign that I needed to get out the judging scene for a bit, but I can't help it, it's so much fun with the people I work with. As for customer service, I don't know if I can continue with such hard work. I'm not quitting, no. I want to continue this expedition, but I want a break :\

What can I say? That wasn't a good customer experience for that player and I do apologize for that. Especially making Konami look bad in front of other players and especially making that person's experience not very welcoming. I as a well experienced judge, should have known what to do and should have said the right things, however, I was out of my mind... We shall see how things turn out in the future. :\

Besides all this, here's some pictures from Austin :]

First meal in TX

Water fall pool... I keep forgetting to get swimming trunks. 

Working hard to make the place clean!

Lining up for judge dinner! BBQ!

Lobby on the 10th floor?

The was a fire place... LOL

Outside the convention center, so many stairs!

From the 18th floor! GOSH it is high...

Jadges

Cool looking building

Someone stole my iPod

Congrats on making Day 2 Galo!

BOSTON!

HJing my first event!

Ahhh, it has been almost 2 weeks since this event, have been super busy about this YGO thing. Let us say that it wasn't the most pleasant experience that I've had in a while. It is due to the fact that it was the first regional in the Massachusetts area for over 1.5 years. I applied as a judge and I became the Head Judge because I was the "most experienced". This wasn't the fact for the Tournament Organizer (TO) as he believed that he didn't need my help. I didn't offer it. Instead, I took it into my own hands. I contacted the potential judges and talked to them about what was expected and tried to prepare them for what is needed.

The HJing experience was one of the most difficult due to the fact of the lack of experience coming from me, and especially the TO. Coming from me, I understand what HJ is supposed to do, however, I had little to no experience of how to do it. Player management was one of things I wanted to work on. Luckily another judge volunteered for the event and was really helpful. Thank goodness. Overall, not going into too much detail, we, the judges, saved this fiasco of a Regional and we got through and got all the results at the end.

What did I learn from this? A LOT. Judges don't want to read the material, players don't want to listen, TOs need their materials to have the tournament run much more smoothly. I had to become TO, Scorekeeper, and HJ at this moment. The TO/Scorekeeper was too busy cleaning up after and selling products to the players. Anyways, I hope that we all learned something because I definitely have over the 1 year judging at premiere events.

Being a Player and a Judge - The Conflicts

As a "well-experienced" (there's always something to learn from judging) judge, I always have a nick to be a judge even though I'm a player. As one player said, "WTF Allen, you're always instigating about the game." Well, that's what judges have to do, keep a gamestate. I do have to step down because I am not the judge at the locals and I am a player at that moment. The issue I have is when I am a player and my opponent insults me and my rules knowledge.

An incident occurred where I did a play where my opponent was confused. His first reaction was, "You can't do that!" Now I look at him and I wonder why I couldn't have done that. I gave him my reasoning and he continues to say that I can't do it because it would make that deck "broken". Then I asked him if my reasoning made any sense to him. He ignored my question and then continues to say that his reasoning was correct. I did the proper thing to call the judge over to get the ruling. While we waited for the ruling, he said to me one of the lowest comments ever. "____ and ____ played the deck longer than you, they're experts at this deck, call them. I've played that deck since it came out. You never topped a YCS, you don't know the rulings nor do you know how to play the deck."

I kept as calm a demeanor as I could being a player at the moment. What I want to bring up is that I as a player have to abide to what a player is. No matter what the ruling the Head Judge of the locals give, whether you know is incorrect or correct, we abide to it. As for the behavior of this player, I do not like it one bit. If I was the judge, I would not have tolerated it and would have brought it up to the TO and/or the store owner for this rude behavior. I try to keep an open mind about rulings as the transition from UDE to KDE has made drastic changes in rulings and in wording (PSCT). There is a time of learning for players and judges alike and from that, I learned quite the lot. Especially in the player's shoes (similar to an incident in Miami). And it would have been even worst if I was surrounded by a lot of players.

Even as a player, I want to be a judge. It was true that I should "stop instigating" games, but the inner me just wants to judge people xD

YCS Miami

Hi all! It has been a while since I posted something up on this page and I start it off with the first YCS of the year! SO EXCITING! Before I start, I will post up some pictures for everyone to see!

The Hostel I stayed in on Thursday night! One of the best hostels around on South Beach

Fences to the beach!

All over that beach! ;D

So many palm trees!

It was a really good day! The sun ALMOST came out... haha

My friend Galo pre-registering for the YCS.

Getting seated for round 1 of the YCS Miami!

Mid round bantering with players. 

View from hotel room! It was such a sunny day on Sunday, but chilly for Miami. 

Judges assembling! Michael Lee!

After day 2, we were exhausted. A few good judges here, except Uzo... ;P 

It was a fun time, especially getting out of the cold weather in Boston to go to Miami. It was 3 times the difference (20 degrees F to 60 degrees F). I had my small bit of traveling up and the beach and then walked through the "shopping district" although there wasn't much to shop for because they were all small local stores. I was carrying around a 20 pound duffle bag at the time too. I didn't volunteer this time at Miami because I wanted to look around Miami and hang out with a friend who came down with me to Miami (Galo). I saw a bunch of the older judges and greeted them as I ran into them. We went to the judge dinner after the Pre-Reg was over and I was super excited to get some food in my belly.

The dish I ordered sounded better than it tasted. There were inedible tissues left on my steak and I just left the rest on the table for the chefs to deal with it. I understood that there was a huge party that the cooks may not have been prepared for, but the group made a reservation ahead of time. Why was the restaurant not prepared? I'm not sure. But we got out of there relatively late. The manager tried his best to help out the waitresses to no avail, the group was just too overwhelming for such a small restaurant.

Day 1! 

The amount of people trickling in was any typical YCS. Big waves of people, then small amounts, and then big waves of people again and then the stragglers. Those who just like to get the round 1 loss. hahaha, no, the whole day went pretty smoothly. There were a few issues and hiccups that came up. I had to bring up a few of the issues with the TOs and the judges. It was a rough day for me, but I pulled through. It was definitely a HUGE learning experience for me. Player management, rules knowledge, and many other aspects of the community I learned more from this YCS. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel, got some food, looked at some trade binders and went to sleep. Luckily, I didn't catch anyone trying to intentionally draw to make it into day 2.

Day 2!

Players were excited to play for day 2. Some people were completely dominating and some... forgot to wake up. Sadly, with this loss in the beginning of day 2, the player didn't make it to the top 32. I stayed in as a floor judge for all the top tables and also was a feature match on a top 16 table! Fire Fist versus Wind-Ups! It was a close battle, good communication from the players and everything went smoothly. This was my first time judging a feature match. And from that, I learned a bunch! ^_^ Our top tables Lead, Natalie, did a great job, especially from all the experience she's had. It was a smooth top tables! I've heard that side events went pretty smoothly. Good job Uzo and judge staff!

Our Winner?

I'm sure you've heard already, Wind-Ups! It was a WU mirror match in the finals, so there was no chance another deck would have won... haha. There was a bunch of other good decks out there, including Billy Brake's 3rd place water deck (Water deck w/out Undine engine), and 4th place Karakuri deck (w/ Solar Wind Jammer + Emergency Teleport techs for first turn shenanigans). Congratulations to all those attended and I hope you learned as much as I have in this event, judges and players alike!

Rules I learned and told to YCS

• Wind-up Rabbit still banishes the card even though the monster is targeted by Book of Moon afterwards. It will be banished facedown due to the wording of WU Rabbit that says "banish it" rather than "banish that target". It will also return back facedown. 
• Although agreed upon by judges, Altantean monsters should not get their effects if it was returned to an area of private knowledge before they activated, it was ruled at YCS that they still get their effects. (Broken much?) We hinted on a sense of Konami trying to push for the water deck. But this ruling was in a limbo for a while. 
• Dark World Dealings doesn't make both players discard at the same time, instead, it is whenever one player discards and then the other. Players can "change their cards of selection" after seeing that it was a Dark World match up (discarding their Moulinglacia). 
• There is less incentive of a double game loss, instead, it will more likely be an "accepted game state" instead of handing out game loss/warnings to players. (I know, this is less of a ruling than a judge/player management thing)

And here's the last and one of the most important picture around, the judge staff! I believe there was a few people missing. :[ But that always happens for the judge photos. :P

Stolen From Julia! RUV U!

NAWQ - Long Awaited Update

Almost two months later, this person finally puts up a post. Sorry about the long awaited post. I've been busy with work and trying to figure out some logistics in my life. Anyways, as you can read from the title, I judged in the North American World Qualifier for Yu-Gi-Oh!. It was an exciting news when I got an email confirmation that I were to be judging at such a prestige level of event. Before I continue, I want to thank for all those who got me on the staff and those who supported me. I am very thankful and grateful for such an opportunity. 


A small tid bit about the event. It was an attendance of a little over 1600 in the main event. I believe that Konami tried to put it in the middle of the United States so that people from the East coast and the West Coast was able to attend at the same price where as if it was in California or in New Jersey, it would be too "expensive" for some of the players. However, I also believe that it was just that they try to put the NAWQ at different places in the country every year. Also, with this being the case, the amount of people were well below what was expected. With 4400+ players having invites to this event, we expected at least 2500+ players and max 3500 players. However, it wasn't the case, having "unnecessary" rooms. But, as we always say, "better to have too much than have too little". 


A lot of the staff members were a bit stressed because of the amount of things going on. Not exactly sure what was going on, but a lot of hustle and bustle was rousing around in the back area of the judge area. The staff were talking to this player and that player for doing something that they weren't allowed to, etc. etc. It was quite the unexpected behavior of the players and I, as a judge AND a player, am upset about the player's behavior. Besides all this, the event staff moved swiftly and quickly which made the event end sooner and on time. 


Now to one of the least important part of the event, the winners. As you can read a lot of this stuff on the Konami website, I will also make a quick note on this post. Tyler Tabman was the winner with the deck, Wind-Up. It was an interesting deck that won it, but was one of the few decks that had a huge advantage. However, I think that DinoRabbits should have a huge advantage in this format, the only issue is the inconsistency it does have. But it should have a favorable match up against Wind-Ups, so I was confused when I heard that Wind-Up won. Here's his deck list. (found off yugidojo)

Monsters: 21

3 – Wind-Up Rabbit
3 – Wind-Up Rat
3 – Wind-Up Shark
3 – Tour Guide From the Underworld
3 – Effect Veiler
2 – Wind-Up Magician
1 – Wind-Up Hunter
1 – Spirit Reaper
1 – Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

Spells: 13

3 – Mystical Space Typhoon
2 – Wind-Up Factory
2 – Instant Fusion
1 – Heavy Storm
1 – Book of Moon
1 – Dark Hole
1 – Pot of Avarice
1 – Mind Control
1 – Monster Reborn

Traps: 8

2 – Solemn Warning
2 – Torrential Tribute
2 – Bottomless Trap Hole
1 – Solemn Judgment
1 – Mirror Force

Extra: 15

3 – Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity
1 – Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 – Number 20: Giga Brilliant
1 – Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 – Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 – Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 – Number 39: Utopia
1 – Acid Golem
1 – Steelswarm Roach
1 – Tiras, Keeper of Genesis
1 – Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon
1 – Cyber Saurus
1 – Dragoness the Wicked Knight

Side: 15

3 – Dimensional Fissure
3 – Shadow Imprisoning Mirror
2 – Maxx C
2 – Snowman Eater
2 – Dimensional Prison
1 – Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1 – Soul Taker
1 – Dust Tornado

This was a surprise for a lot of North Americans because a lot of people are in the state that DinoRabbits and LS Dragons will win it for sure, but never saw that Wind-Ups had a decent matchup against any and almost any deck. Again, it really matters one what you were paired up against. Maybe he got paired against an easy matchup, maybe he got the first round bye. Only he would know, but so far, the deck looks solid and I really can't complain too much. After all, it is Yu-Gi-Oh!, there's not much explanation to this card game. :\


Until next time, Blog to you soon!