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!

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!