Brian Kibler was the reigning Vs. System PC champion, having won PC Indy with Common Enemy deck. His luck didn’t last today, however, with a last-gasp win squeaking him into Day 2 only to have him blow the drafts and drop early. He admitted that today was only his second Man of Steel draft, and that he wasn’t well enough prepared to perform.

This will also be his last draft, at least in a Professional Vs. System capacity—he’s leaving the Circuit to work for Upper Deck Entertainment, on their R&D team.
 
I asked him about his new job. He responded, “I’ve been playing cards for a living for a couple of years now, and I’ve been meaning to move out of Atlanta, because I’m done with school there, and I’m looking for other opportunities. Ben Rubin told me that Upper Deck was looking for people to come in and do R&D work, and that was an opportunity I didn’t want to pass up.” He told me that gaming for a living gets grating after a while, as one spends a lot of time at home, on the computer, playtesting or playing poker. While some of those who live in the 9-5 rat race would welcome such a life with open arms, Brian feels as though with this sort of lifestyle he simply isn’t contributing anything to society. “While it’s fun, it’s not enough for me right now – I want to do something where I feel I’m making some sort of contribution.”

Brian has had a wonderful time playing the Vs. System, as well as various other TCGs. Right now, he’s leaving that, not for a full-time position, but only as a contracted employee. “I’m going to give it a try and see how I like it, and I’ve heard Upper Deck is a great place to work, and making a living playing games can’t hurt! They’re a bunch of great, like-minded people, and living in San Diego doesn’t have bad ring to it.”

So this was Brian’s swan song, his last PC for the time being. While he’ll miss the opportunity to play in upcoming events, he doesn’t feel sad – he hasn’t really had time to let any emotional response sink in “It still feels surreal that I won the first event! Seeing the poster of me on the wall was bizarre . . . ”

This won't stop him from playing games, though. He’ll keep playing poker – although he hasn’t been playing much lately. He’ll also keep playing Magic, although he doesn’t really spend that much time playtesting these days. “I’ll probably end up playing more once I go out to Upper Deck. Having such a big group of Upper Deck employees who are current and former Magic players may make me play more. I’ll certainly still play in Pro Tours.”

As for his swan song turning into a swan dive, Brian says he didn’t really have much motivation to test for this event. “I did some testing, but wasn’t really as serious about it. I didn’t want to get stressed out and worry about it—I want to do well, but don’t like the stress and politics that go into Pro tournament, with players hiding decks and tech from each other.” He admits this kind of secrecy happens more in other TCGs, but still sees it in Vs.

I asked him how his teammates felt about his decision to leave Vs. He told me that “a lot of people are moving away from taking Magic or Vs. as seriously as they were a year, or even six months, ago. A lot of it is poker, some of it is a loss of appeal cause we’ve been doing it so long and the European and Japanese players are much more competitive and serious . . . it’s hard to stay competitive.” He said that his “team” was only an informal team. “People made a big deal about us ’cause of our Top 8 (at PC Indy), but none of us really worked for this event. It’s kind of difficult to come from the sort of high of a team Top 8 and to deal with expectations people have of you – especially with so many people taking the game more seriously. I haven’t played particularly well in this event and could have played better in some matches.” He felt that a lot of it was his need to learn as he went along, as he had to do with his Teen Titans deck yesterday in the Constructed portion of the tourney. “This game is so difficult, that being able to play in the way I want to is hard to keep up with. One difference between this and Magic is that Vs. is a lot harder to play. If you don’t play consistently, you’ll make a lot of mistakes. Being a competitive person, I don’t like making mistakes. But I have no motivation to take the time to work those mistakes out of my system.”

Brian figures that he’ll find that motivation as an Upper Deck employee. He has a reputation as one of the best TCG deckbuilders in the world. “I’ve always had a knack for finding problem cards and breaking them. I haven’t done R&D before, but I’ve done my best to try to find those problem cards that have already been printed and find ways to exploit them or to find answers to them within the game.” That talent has brought him success as a player and will surely bring him success working behind the scenes as well. And we wish him the best at it!