Team Recoil is well-known for being slightly over-enthusiastic when it comes to starting up a team. At first there were way too many members to count, with the motto often being portrayed as “Team Recoil: Doesn’t matter who you are, but pick up a team shirt on the way in.” Since then, however, Team Recoil saw that having more than twenty members was slightly ridiculous, and so now we’re left with what they like to call “The Elite Eight.”

The team members currently include Igor Kharin; Daniel Levy; Ashleigh Campbell; Vito Innocenti; Jacob Scott; Zee Mushtaq; Olly Ford; and Han-Wei Tang. Dan Levy, who was the first UK Level 2 judge at only sixteen years of age, and one of the nicest guys around, is judging today but all the other team members are competing.

Hailing from London, this team of friends have all come a long way since they started playing, and they come from very different Yu-Gi-Oh! backgrounds. Igor has only been playing for a year, while others such as Jake have been playing from the start. Most of the team are regular attendees of the infamous Trotters tournament in London, and they score enough wins there to keep their records impeccable. I managed to get the whole gang together and sit down with Jake to talk over what sets Team Recoil apart from other teams.

I sat down with Jake just after round one, where he had just taken a pretty bad beating from last year’s runner-up, Joe Whittaker. Four of the team’s members have just gone down in their first match, whereas Olly, Igor, and Zee all picked up wins for the team. I asked Jake what he thought about the new format and how the Nationals was playing out so far. “We are really pretty annoyed at the moment,” Jake told me. “Our guys just took some real bad beats, and this format is turning out less impressive than we thought.” I pried in to his views of the current game and what the team thinks about it. “It started to grow on me, but after the last few days I think I’m changing my views.” We both grinned and he continued, “The team has come together really well to help each other out, and a few of the guys are playing rogue decks. Igor’s playing Cyber-Stein today, while Ashleigh’s playing his weird Monarch deck with Granmarg the Rock Monarch.”

I inquired as to how the team spends their time outside of Yu-Gi-Oh! Tournaments. “Most of us just hang out and play sports. We chill with each other a lot of the time but mainly school and exams get in the way. Igor and Zee both play basketball though, while Ashleigh is a UFC fighter and trainer.” That last comment really took me aback. A top Yu-Gi-Oh! player who trains in the Ultimate Fighting Championship? It’s not really surprising after you see Ashleigh. The guy is huge, has a lot of muscle, and you can tell that he’s not the kind of person to mess with down a dark alley!

Moving swiftly on, I asked about what the aims of the team were and how they planned on going about the future. “Really, the main aim of the team is just to get recognition as a good, strong team. America underestimates the UK in a lot of ways, and our teams in particular. We really want to make a strong showing at the Nationals this year as it would really be good promotion for the team.” Team Recoil is well-known online, as well as in the UK. Unfortunately my interview with Jake was cut short by the call of the next round, but with a mixture of luck and skill, Team Recoil will be able to regroup and turn some early bad luck in to a strong showing later in the tournament.