There was no way around it—you can’t cover the last Shonen Jump Championship of the year and not talk to the hottest player in the game. Paul Levitin is the number-one player of one of the best teams in the game, and has joined Wilson Luc and Theeresak Poonsombat as the only duelists to ever make the Top 8 in four Shonen Jump Championships. After making it to Day 2 in Boston, Atlanta, and then Chicago, Levitin, tore through Shonen Jump Championship Los Angeles – he went undefeated and took home the Championship.
Levitin’s consistency is even more impressive when you consider the fact that his Top 8 showings have been back-to-back-to-back-to-back. He’s made the Top 8 in every Shonen Jump Championship in the new Advanced format, as well as in Boston. If he manages to make Day 2 again this weekend, he’ll tie Theeresak Poonsombat’s record. No other duelist has ever made the Top 8 in five Shonen Jump Championships.
We’ve never spoken to Paul before, so I had to get the basics down first. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Levitin is only fifteen years old. Only fifteen? I was kind of stunned—his recent globetrotting isn’t exactly standard fare for someone of his age. “Soon to be sixteen, though!” He grinned. “Like, two weeks!”
Levitin never stopped smiling, even when he started getting technical about his chances today. Despite all the pressure he’s facing, recent accusations of shady play habits, and a horde of nay-sayers that would love to see him fail, Levitin is clearly happy to be on top. He was quick to attribute his success to his team members. “Back when I first started playing, we all started at the same store. First we just joined our books, sharing collections so we’d have access to all the cards. As we started playing more and more competitively, we eventually decided to make it a real team. After Shonen Jump New Jersey we started taking it more seriously, adding more good players to the team. Team Overdose did so well there, so we started taking it more seriously and looking to expand.”
“The original team was me, Shane Scurry, Carlos Santiago, and Jeffrey Ogarro. We’re all here today too, which is nice.”
It’s a good time to be a member of Team Scoop. The group is now sponsored, and they’re receiving financial backing for travel, thanks to a store in Brooklyn. “After Boston we got sponsored, when three of us were in the Top 8. There’s a store called Whatever Dot. They knew us from around, they saw us play and stuff, and after that event they saw that we were getting a lot of attention. They saw how we handled business, running dealer’s tables, so they sponsored us.” Levitin ran down the team’s performances in recent events, demonstrating that Whatever Dot’s money was well-spent. “Ever since [we got sponsorship], they’ll always send a few people to the far-away tournaments. Once events start running on the East Coast again, the team’ll be there in full force.” Now that they have sponsorship the team seems set to be ever-present at Shonen Jump Championships.
Check out Whatever Dot if you’re in New York. It’s at 296 Atlantic Avenue, in Brooklyn.
Speaking of team goings-on, Shane Scurry had just finished his round and plunked himself down in the interview area, grabbing a seat next to Levitin. “Hey, put me in the interview!” He grinned, but he was serious. I’ll say one thing for Team Scoop—they’ve got a driving hunger for exposure that gives them the will to win.
However, Levitin admitted he was feeling some pressure to maintain his standards. “It’s a lot of pressure. Like, coming into this jump I was thinking about it. If I scrubbed out . . . I wouldn’t know how that felt. If I don’t make the Top 8, I wouldn’t know what to do on Sunday. I’d be looking at myself like, ‘How come I couldn’t do it again?’ I know it’s not easy, but, I want it to be.
“I want to do it, because right now, there’s a couple people who have accomplishments that are equal to or better than mine. Ryan Hayakawa, Theeresak Poonsombat, [Wilson] Luc . . . but if I win again, it’s just too much. Nobody’s even gonna be able to see where I am. It’ll be on a totally different planet!”
We started talking technical stuff. “I think that the decks that my team plays are a major part of why we do so well. We always try to predict what people are going to play. Like, I know all the Pot of Avarice decks are going to be hurt by Blade Knight. Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer removes their monsters so they don’t have five to remove for the Pot. I’m running Return again, but I added two Blade Knights, two Dust Tornados, D. D. Warrior, another Reinforcement of the Army, and a Kycoo. I took out the copies of Gravekeeper’s Spy, Jinzo, and Trap Hole. If you know the metagame and can build a good deck, it helps you a lot more than just coming in with something random.”
I asked him how he was liking D. D. Warrior in his deck. “It is mad good, yo. I couldn’t get this Spirit Reaper off the field for six turns last round. I dropped that, attacked for 1800, took the game right there.” He continued talking about his deck. “I’m running Dust Tornado for Decree too, because that hurts my deck. I’m running thirteen traps, so I’ve got to be ready for Decree. I’ve got Bottomless Trap Hole for the mirror match. I knew that would be a big deck this weekend.”
He was side decking Stealth Bird for the Avarice matchup, which I thought was a really interesting choice. “They slow-play, so I can use the burn while they’re not attacking.”
I inquired as to whether or not he had anything he wanted to say to the world: “Yeah.” He paused for just a moment. “I don’t cheat. I don’t know if you saw on Pojo, but they had the thread, about how I cheat. It doesn’t bother me. On my mat I put ‘cheat to win’.” He smirked. “I figure if people are gonna think I cheat, I’ll just let ‘em think whatever. Saying I don’t cheat isn’t gonna convince anyone. They’re gonna think what they’re gonna think.”
At that point the pairing announcement was given, and the next round started to begin. I thanked Paul for the interview, wished him and Scurry luck, and watched them both depart.
“I win five dollars if I go undefeated again!” he grinned over his shoulder.
If anyone here today has a chance at doing it, it’s Levitin. Scoop’s anticipation of today’s metagame seems to be spot-on, and their new build of Return from the Different Dimension is light years ahead of their previous one. Their sense of today’s metagame seems to only be rivaled by Team Overdose, and armed with tech for the Pot of Avarice matchup, we could see another Top 8 with multiple Team Scoop members.