9:20: Joe Whittaker—He made quite a trip to get here!

 

It’s not every Shonen Jump that brings in visitors from across the Atlantic, so I definitely needed to have a little talk with Joe. He had plenty to say, and in such a charming accent! Joe is 17, and has been playing Yu-Gi-Oh! for two and a half years. He’s quite good, too. He finished second at UK Nationals last year, and has already qualified five times for this year’s Nationals. “Perhaps we’ll see you at Worlds,” I said. “That’s hard to do,” he said, then went on to explain that the Top 4 players in the UK would then have to go and compete again in the European championships.

 

Joe was proudly sporting a Trotters t-shirt, a name that should be familiar to readers of Metagame.com, as we’ve had several event reports from there. But what prompted him to come all the way over here to play in a Shonen Jump event? “That’s a good question,” he replied. “I know a lot of people from forums, and I wanted to come over and meet people and play in this metagame.” What did he think of it? “The North American metagame is pretty good.” Gesturing towards Matt Peddle and Dale Bellido, he went on, “Canada is a bit different than the US. The US seems more removal-heavy, and the Candians use that to their advantage.”

 

Despite making the long trip, the event didn’t go in his favor. “I dropped a few rounds ago, but sometimes it just happens that way.” He had plenty of company, as Paul Levitin and Fili Luna dropped early as well. Joe played a deck he invented, “It’s kind of hard to describe. Mostly Flip-Flop, but I’ve also got Solemn Judgments and Wave-Motion Cannons for when things slow down.”

 

Sadly, he cannot play in the Regionals tomorrow, since he’ll have to catch a flight home, but he hopes to attend another Shonen Jump sometime this summer, once his exams are over. Did he pick up anything here he plans on taking home? “Yeah, from that guy over there,” he said, pointing towards David Bustillos at the feature match area. “A lot of people are playing Dark World combos, but he’s doing it with Creature Swap, so he’ll get the second effect. If he makes the Top 8, that’s going to be netdecked immediately.”

 

Thanks for stopping by, Joe. It looks like you had a pretty good time while you were here, and we hope to see you again!

9:00: Deck Check: Tony Murray

 

Out of a field of nearly 500, it’s no mean feat to finish at 7-2, and that’s what Tony did, playing a variation of Toolbox with some interesting tech. Tony doesn’t get much chance to play anymore since he’s always having to judge, so I was interested to see how he’d do today.

 

“Better than I thought I would!” he admitted candidly. While a Top 8 finish would have been glorious, 7-2 is quite respectable, especially when you’re looking for something unique to play rather than straight Cookie-Cutter. We sat down and I took a look through his deck.

 

“Tell me why you maindecked these,” I asked, fanning out Kinetic Soldier, Elemental Hero Wildheart, and Exarion Universe. “I put in Kinetic, because there’s so much Warrior Toolbox. Most people side deck it in anyways, but I decided to main deck it. It’s good against attack position D. D. Assailants, too. Wildheart just because so many people are running traps, and Exarion Universe because of all the puny defense monsters. The piercing effect is great.”

 

Now, the tech! Earlier, Tony had mentioned he was running Anti-Spell Fragrance, and I wanted to know how it was working out. “It’s won a few games. The last guy just couldn’t believe I was running it, but there was nothing he could do about it.” Tony’s other two tech cards were Rush Recklessly—“It can be activated during the damage step, so it works well for a lot of things. I can activate it when a face down monster is flipped up, and it also saves my monsters, like Don Zaloog”—and Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World, It’s a piece of tech that a lot of players were running today, and Tony explained why he made the choice. “It works well against a lot of the top decks. It’s good against Soul Control, with Thestalos the Fire Monarch, or Spirit Reapers in Warrior builds.” Since most of Tony’s spells are quick-play, Anti-Spell Fragrance fits right into his deck. “I set most of the spells I use anyway, and I run plenty of Dust Tornado as well as Nobleman of Extermination, to get rid of the cards my opponent sets.”

 

While several of his opponents considered his choices to be incomprehensible, it’s hard to argue with something that works. Tony was happy with the deck’s performance, and relieved to know his fellow judges would not beat him when he gets back home. “Everyone always says ‘If you’re going to play instead of judge, you’d better do well!’” He came in 26th out of 482 players, so it looks like he can return home in safety!

7:00: Round 8—only one more round to go!

 

We’re all ready to freeze (those of us who aren’t wearing coats or from Canada) but the day is nearing its close. What’s the top table looking like now? Let’s take a look! It’s all down to the wire now.

 

Table 1 – Tom Casey (7 wins) vs. Omar Gaspar (7 wins)

Table 2 – Zachary Austin (7 wins) vs. Richard Treadwell (7 wins)

Table 3 – Christopher Flores (6 wins) vs. Feroze Ramcharan (6 wins)

Table 4 – Brent Macrow (6 wins) vs. Carlos Santiago (6 wins)

Table 5 – Timothy Fowler (6 wins) vs. Gary Kuchta (6 wins)

Table 6 – Shawn Kuchta (6 wins) vs. Matt Laurents (6 wins)

6:30: Who took my pen!?

 

Who's the heartless person who took my pen? Yes, it’s my fault for forgetting it on the feature match area, but really! Someone took my pen! If anyone sees a Yu-Gi-Oh! player running around with a pen that looks like this, it's probably mine, and you should tell them so. It's tiny, only about three inches long, and it's a fountain pen that writes in bright cerise-colored ink. It came from Harajuku. It’s a very girly pen, which I bought on a very girly floor in Kiddyland. You should stop and think about that, whoever you are, that took my pen. My girly pen. GIRLY.

 

Please, oh please, give me back my pen!

5:50: The Top 8 heats up! But not quite enough to warm up the room . . .

 

It’s round 7, and there are only two rounds left in the day. There’s been a lot of shuffling in and out at the top table, and right now the matchups look like this.

 

Table 1 – Zachary Austin (6 wins) vs. Jordan Hodges (6 wins)

Table 2 – Miguel Garcia (6 wins) vs. Omar Gaspar (6 wins)

Table 3 – Jason Holloway (6 wins) vs. Richard Treadwell (6 wins)

Table 4 – Tom Casey (6 wins) vs. Mike Pianka (6 wins)

Table 5 – Jonathan Labounty (5 wins) vs. Dwayne Nunez (5 wins)

Table 6 – Wilson Luc (5 wins) vs. Brett Shane (5 wins)

 

A mistake here could move a player out of the range of redemption, so they’re all quite focused and intent on their matchups. Who will advance in the next round, and who will fall behind? I’ll bring you an up to the minute with the start of each new round.

5:35: The Atmosphere in Durham

 

Frankly, it’s cold in here. Drawing from past experience and a complex mathematical formula, it’s been proven that a large concentration of players in one room tends to heat things up, sometimes past the point of comfort. The room temperature was lowered accordingly, but I have to say I’m terribly disappointed in today’s crowd. As of yet, they’ve totally failed to heat the room up to a livable temperature, and there are only three rounds left in the day! Is it just me? I’ve been accused of cold-bloodedness before, so let’s hit the floor and find out what other attendees think.

 

Judge Eric: “It’s kind of cold in here, isn’t it?”

 

Metagame.com reporter Jason: “Huh? I’m really hot. Do you want to borrow my jacket?” (He’s from Canada, so this must feel like summer to him.)

 

UDE rep Alex Charsky: (donning jacket) “It’s really cold in here!” (Remember, Alex is from California.)

 

Player Franklin DeBrito (dressed in a thick polar fleece jacket): “It’s good! Well, maybe it’s a little chilly, but it’s better than some other Shonen Jumps where it was way too hot.”

 

Player Feroze Ramcharan, also wearing his jacket, chiming in: “Yeah! You’d rather be cold than hot, right?”

 

Not really! I’d rather be perfectly comfortable!

 

The general consensus seems to be that jacket-wearers (and Canadians) are happy with the temperature, and as a side effect, hardly any jackets have been handed in at the lost and found. Opinion varies among those of us who did not come to the event dressed to be outdoors. Some think it’s fine, and some are blue and shivering. I, for one, look forward to hitting the hot tub later on.

4:10: Deck Check . . . Steve Martin?

 

No, not that Steve Martin. Steve’s teammate Tomm dragged him up to the reporting area before the event began today. “This guy is running a Last Turn/Stein deck!!” he announced. “Come back up after round 4,” I said, “and tell me how you’re doing. If the deck’s done well, we’ll do a little feature on it.”

 

Well, after round 4 Steve was 3-1, and had just defeated Bryan Coronel. A deal was a deal, so let’s hear a bit about Steve’s deck!

 

“I build the deck about a month and a half ago,” Steve said. “I built it because I wanted to do something with The Last Warrior From Another Planet, because I really like that card.” He tested it on YVD and with his teammates in Team Betrayal, but this is the debut of the deck at a major event. The deck was built as a straight Last Turn deck, using Cyber-Stein to get out Last Warrior, but by side-decking Steve can switch it completely into a Cyber-Stein deck. “I take out the Last Turn stuff, then add in Megamorph and Limiter Removal, Nimble Momongas and Emergency Provisions.”

 

“Basically I just keep butting the opponent until I get the cards I need, like Jowgen the Spiritualist, Last Turn, Wall of Revealing Light, and Cyber-Stein. Solemn Judgment is nice to have, too, in case they’ve got something like Enemy Controller.”  Steve uses a variety of cards to cycle through the deck, including Magical Mallet which he prefers over Reload (“I never used Reload as a quick-play anyways!”), Card Destruction, and Jar of Greed. “Usually it plays quickly, depending on how long it takes me to get the cards I need. If I need to I can get out Last Warrior and just let it sit there, until I get Solemn to reduce my life points so I can activate Last Turn.”

 

How’d the game go against Bryan? “Well, we had like four Self-Destruct Buttons in the beginning, but then the two actual games in which someone actually won, those were both mine, with Last Warrior.”

 

Last Turn is a card that tends to drive judges insane, but Steve certainly seems to know what he’s doing with it, so I guess I’ll have to forgive him. Where will he end up in the final standings? Four more rounds will tell us!

3:00: Team Unity

 

Teams, teams, teams as far as the eye can see! At least, that’s how it appears here at the Durham Shonen Jump Championship. Here’s an introduction to a newer team—Team Unity. This team hails from the Virginia/Maryland area, and they’ve been around for about a year and a half. “The original team of four has been around for a while,” Brett Shane explained. “We’ve had some additions since then, though.” And they certainly have. The team now numbers fifteen, and nine of them are here at the event. Three have qualified for Nationals, and the rest hope to make it as well. They all drove down as a group, and present today we have Shawn Debrew, Chad Goodwin, Brett Shane, Rey Nelson, Jose Guandique, Alphonse Yamakawa, Manuel Guandique, Leonard Hamilton and Tonya Newton.

 

Most of the team members were either 3-0 or 2-1 going into round 4, so everyone was positive. Originally started at the Anime Pavilion, where Tonya ran the tournaments, the team is currently without a sponsor but they’re working on finding one. A strong finish from one or more team members today might be the break they’re looking for!

Jonathan Harris, spokesman, caught my eye earlier with his elaborately decorated playmat, and enjoyed the chance to get some exposure for his team. “Hype!” he said. “Teams help you get your name out and get some respect.”

Boston is quite a hike from North Carolina, and the intrepid team took eighteen hours to drive here. “It should have been less,” they admitted. “We ended up in Pennsylvania, where we didn’t want to go, and got lost.” So far it looks like it’s been worth it, though. Half the team is 3-0, and the others are at 2-1. Should their decks hold out, the drive won’t matter at all. 1:20: Thai Bui for Team GED

 

There are local teams, and there are teams from farther away, and then there’s Team GED (Gaia Elite Duelists), which holds the distinction of having an international membership. Formed online by the top 10 Yu-Gi-Oh!-playing members of Gaia Online, the team relies on Internet messaging and YVD to playtest their decks. With members in Japan, Europe, and North America, the team draws on a wide span of metagames to develop new and innovative tech. Thai Bui from Philadelphia is here today to represent his team, and at 3-0, he’s representing them quite well, thank you.

 

“We use the fact that everyone lives apart to explore a more global, international metagame,” Thai stated. “We’ve been working with cards like Hydrogeddon, Time Seal, and End of Anubis to mess with a lot of the currently popular decks.”

 

Thai relies more on his online playtesting than actual tournaments to develop his ideas. “I’ve only actually been to 3 Regionals.” He’s been playing the game before it launched in the US, and continues his interest in the original card game. “I travel to Japan each summer, so when I’m there I always take some time to see what people are playing over there, it gives some insight into what’s in store back here.”

 

Thai was the only member of his team here today, but Team GED hopes to meet up at future events. “I’ll see one of the other members at the Shonen Jump Toronto, and a few more are planning to attend Shonen Jump Philadelphia.” The idea of pooling international metagames to find new tech seems to be working out well for the team, and we’ll keep a look out for future team members at events yet to come.