With all the attention that Shonen Jump Championship events get, lots of players want to participate. When there’s one in your area, you’re in luck! However, since they take place all across the country, if you want to go to more than one, you’re going to have to take a trip. It’s certainly not unheard of—if you are a regular reader of our live tournament coverage, then you’re used to seeing lots of the same faces at these larger events. How do they do it?
Lots of people want to get to Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG events in other areas (sometimes even other countries). Getting out of your usual area, meeting new players, and experiencing new ideas can really improve your understanding of the game (and travel is rewarding in its own right), but if you haven’t done a lot of traveling, coming up with a plan might be challenging. However, if there’s one thing I know about, it’s traveling to events—so I’m going to give you some pointers on how to make it work for you. It’s not difficult, but will take some time and planning. Let’s get started!
The first thing you should do is pick an event or events that you’d like to travel to. Look over the scheduled events and see what’s feasible—it might make more sense, to wait for the series to cycle back closer to where you are than to attend events which are particularly distant. In any case, you need to consider your budget and modify your travel plans accordingly! Advance planning will certainly improve your chances of getting to events, since you’ll have more options available for travel and more time to get your funding together. If you’re really serious about attending a variety of events and don’t have the means at hand, start a travel fund and talk to other players you know or teammates to look into the possibility of working together to get to the event. If you talk someone into financing your trip, don’t promise him or her you’ll be bringing home a laptop and prize card! You never know what will happen, and that someone is going to be justifiably annoyed with you if you don’t pull it off.
If you want to travel to an event in a different country, don’t forget to find out what you’ll need to do in order to go there. You’ll almost always need a passport (and that’s a handy thing to have anyway) so think about getting one if you don’t have one already. You might also need a visa, or there might be other kinds of requirements. Find out as soon as possible, because you won’t have as much time to get all of these things taken care of as you think you will.
Okay, got your events selected? Have an idea of what your budget is/will be? Let’s assume you do, and move on . . .
Next, see if you can find some travel buddies. If you are planning to go to a distant event, it’s a good idea to travel with a group—back-up is nice, whether you’re joining forces with your team or some friends or family members. Remember that there’s something to be said for including an older, dependable person in your group. Someone’s parent is a good candidate. Trust me, if something should go wrong, you’ll be glad to have someone along who can help you out in times of crisis, especially if that person isn’t actually planning to compete in the event and can act in a support role. This is especially important if some members of your group are minors.
All right, now you need to figure out how you’re going to get there, and where you’re going to stay once you arrive!
For the actual travel, there are quite a few options.
Carpooling, or persuading family or friends to take you
Road trip time! This is the option that a lot of players fall back on, since carpooling can be a fairly affordable travel option—even to distant events—with good planning. If the event is being held in an appealing location, or during vacation times, have a go at persuading your family or friends to take you and then have a good time, seeing the sights while you play. This is the best option for players who aren’t old enough or experienced enough to go careening around the country by themselves, and as I said before, it’s safer and more fun to travel in numbers.
If your plan is to get someone else to bring you, be prepared to compromise. You’ll need to put something on the table too, to make this an attractive and fair deal. It might be spending day 2 of the event at the water park with your younger siblings, or it might be paying most of the gas. Whatever it is, be prepared to have it not go all your own way. If you’re carpooling with a bunch of other players and want to go to several events, trade off! Talk it over in advance, trading a ride to your event for a ride to someone else’s or the like.
If you’re planning to road trip it, exercise some common sense. Include several licensed drivers so they can trade wheelman duties on really long trips, and keep an eye on each other to avoid fatigue. You don’t want to end up in an accident. Also, no matter how badly you might want to get to a tournament, it’s not a good idea to seek rides from people you don’t know. Don’t post on a message board looking for a ride, and don’t give a ride to someone asking for one on a message board. Stick with people you really know and trust.
Take the bus or the train.
If you’re willing to put up with ground transit, then you can often save a lot of money by taking a bus or a train to the event, rather than taking a plane. It’s safer than making a long drive all by yourself, and service is wider than a lot of people realize. Greyhound and Amtrak are the most well-known lines in the U.S., and fares are often quite reasonable compared to airline travel or several tanks of gas. If you’re traveling from one major population center to another, be aware that there are often other options from independent transportation lines. Ask around, do a search online, or look through the yellow pages to find them. Buses and trains usually have travel rewards programs, so you can earn points that could add up to a free trip later on. Look for coupons or online specials to save you even more money: most transportation lines offer some inducements to online customers, so you might as well take advantage of them.
The bus or train is going to take longer than a plane ride in most cases, but if you’ve got the time to spare, look into it. Be vigilant on long trips, and keep an eye on your stuff. It’s a good idea to take your cards as carry-ons.
Get on a plane.
Flying to an event is usually viewed as the most expensive option, but go ahead and compare the cost of flying (and the time saved) to the cost of gas, food, and lodging for an extended car trip. If you watch for fare deals and plan in advance, it’s often not that bad. 14 days is the usual cutoff date for discounted fares, but last-minute specials can pop up too, so it doesn’t hurt to look if you make your plans too late. There are lots of discount travel sites on the web, and those can be a good place to start—however, don’t neglect the airline sites themselves. I like to look at a travel site first, to get an idea of what fares are like per airline, and then visit individual airline sites. You can get bonuses for booking directly through the airline site, and the fares there are sometimes cheaper than they are on the “discount” sites. If you have frequent travelers in your family, see if they have mileage rewards they might be willing to donate to you if you plead hard enough. Maybe they’ll trade a ticket for something in return. If you buy a ticket, then sign up for the airline’s mileage programs. You never know! (You wouldn’t believe the air miles I’m hoarding right now, and no, I won’t share them with you.)
If you’ve never flown before or haven’t recently, be aware of all the security measures in place at the airports, and pack your bags and carry-ons appropriately. You’ll need a photo ID to fly, too, if you are 18 or over. Again, take your cards in your carry-on. You don’t want to risk something happening to them before you ever get to your event.
Transportation is taken care of? Well, it doesn’t end there . . .
Find a place to stay!
I can’t stress the importance of finding a place to stay before you head to the event—don’t assume something will just turn up. I’ll tell you now; lodging is the hold-up for a lot of players! I’ve seen people plan on driving home Saturday night, only to make Top 8 (or have a team member make Top 8). Now what? I’m pretty sure that no one who spent the night in the parking lot of the venue has ever taken home the championship, and it’s really not safe.
Hotels or motels don’t have to be expensive—look online for good rates and compare them to get a good deal. Check with the TO’s site to see if they’re offering a discount on hotel rooms to tournament participants (a lot of them do this). Got any relatives working for a hotel chain? If you do, they might be able to help you out with a discount. See if anyone has any travel reward points that can be redeemed for a hotel stay.
Affordable lodging is easier when you’ve got a group to share the cost. If you’re heading to the event by yourself, see if there is anyone else you know who can give you a spot in the room—but please don’t ask the judge staff. If they’re being housed at the TO’s expense, they can get in a lot of trouble if they let people stay in their rooms. (The same goes for the Metagame.com staff, and no amount of begging is going to get you in!) Whatever you decide to do, make sure you know who you’re rooming with, and make sure everyone sharing your room knows who is staying there. If you don’t nail this down in advance, you may find yourself with six extra roommates you don’t really know, that no one really knew were coming. Also, agree with the people sharing your room to not let other or unfamiliar people into the room. You want to keep yourself—and your stuff—safe. Just because someone’s a fellow Yu-Gi-Oh! player doesn’t mean he or she is all clear.
If you don’t think you can come up with the funding for a room, then maybe you’ve got relatives or friends in the area? It might be a good time to visit dear old Aunt Ruth and Uncle Joe! If you do decide to impose upon friends and relations, ask them first—for goodness sake, don’t just show up—and be sure to thank them, take them a nice gift (I don’t mean all the commons you pulled from your prize packs), and don’t invite along a bunch of other people without finding out if it’s okay! Spend a bit of time with your hosts, too—it’s very rude to just breeze in, drop off your stuff, run out to do some playtesting, and then come back to mooch a meal.
Speaking of mooching a meal, you’ll also need to figure out how and what you’re going to eat on your adventure.
Feed yourself adequately!
Anyone who spends any time around me at an event knows I’m interested in the food—not necessarily the convention hall food, but the area specialties. I might not look like I love to eat but I assure you that I do, and what I look forward to most (apart from seeing old friends) is trying new food. While you’re planning your trip, you need to make sure you’ve got money in your budget so you’ll be able to eat decent meals while you’re at the event—or at the very least bring some good food from home. I have seen hungry players walking around scrounging from other players’ meals, and it’s not a pretty sight. (While I suppose you can subsist on the food service’s free ketchup and relish packets, it doesn’t mean you should.)
It takes a bit of planning (and usually a lot of saving) to travel to a big event, but if you want to invest the time and money, you’ll often find it was a fun and rewarding experience. Experiencing a completely different metagame and meeting other players is a challenge, and just getting out of your normal range and routine can be quite exhilarating. Take advantage of being in a new place and see some local sights, eat some local food, and enjoy the variety. There are big events held all the time, they draw players by the hundreds, and they give you a tournament experience you won’t find anywhere else—don’t let the distance put you off! Checking out a distant event might be easier than you thought.