It’s been over a year since Metagame.com began doing live coverage of high-profile Yu-Gi-Oh! events. Since the inception of our coverage programs, a big part of our agenda has been helping to grow the celebrity of deserving duelists who distinguish themselves from the pack. Recognizable players help to promote a game by creating distinct personalities that other players can relate to, take cues from, and aspire to play against. And hey, let’s be honest—a little fame in return for kicking some serious behind or coming up with the next killer deck is always nice!

Today’s article is the first in a new column series that’s aimed at doing just that by profiling the cream of the dueling crop and helping you learn a little bit more about some of the stars of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG.

Literally dozens of players have earned the respect of the North American dueling community, but when I had to decide where to start this column, the decision was simple—with Kris “Superman” Perovic. Bearing a nickname that I’m pretty sure he gave himself, you’ll never see Kris in a shiny happy interview that features quotes like, “He really is a nice guy,” and, “The first thing you realize when you talk to him is that he’s a phenomenally friendly person.” Perovic is fully capable of being nice, and he can be incredibly respectful. But on the surface, he’s a wisecracking, competitive, and often obnoxious individual. No matter how well you get to know him as a quality human being, his sarcastic wit and biting sense of cynical self-righteousness don’t slide.

Perovic can swim with the sharks because he is one, and he’s got more than just the gaping maw to prove it. The truth is that he has to be. As the spokesman for Team Overdose, it’s his responsibility to make sure that everyone, from media to the general dueling masses, understands that Overdose is a dominant team. Pound for pound, they’re probably the most consistent group in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG’s history.

While Comic Odyssey far outpaces any other team in sheer Shonen Jump Championship wins, their ranks are pretty deep. In comparison, Overdose is a relatively small team. It’s possible that with the likes of Bryan Coronel, Anthony Alvarado, Jerry Wang, and Rhymus Lizo on the team, the world would know that “Overdose is for real,” whether they had a spokesperson or not. The fact that they have one of the best spokespeople in North America has been an undisputed asset. As for Perovic’s cocky style, well, perhaps it’s just compensation for the quiet ways of the rest of the team . . . or maybe he just knows that they’re that good.

Coming off of his first Shonen Jump Top 8 performance at Shonen Jump Championship Boston, it’s a pretty good time to be Kris Perovic. Here are his vital stats.

Name: Kris “Superman” Perovic

Age: 18

Occupation: Professional Yu-Gi-Oh! Player

From: Clifton, NJ

Team: Overdose

Top Yu-Gi-Oh! Achievements: Shonen Jump Championship Boston Top 4, 8 Regional Top 8s this past season

 

 

The cool thing about Kris is that he’s a very multi-layered person, when he’s off the tables. While he can appear to be a one-dimensional loud mouth when he’s placed in certain situations, there are plenty of other sides to him. He’s been a gamer since the days of the original Nintendo Entertainment System, and he’s been playing TCGs for six to seven years. I asked him what age he started playing games. “Whatever age I could hold a controller—I can’t really say for sure. It all started with Mario, Link, and a NES controller.”

I was personally intrigued to find out that he’d played chess for nine years and counting. At age 18, that means he’d been playing chess since before he was ten. In fact, he’s quite the chess enthusiast. “[Aside from Yu-Gi-Oh!], poker and chess are my other favorite games.” Perovic is far from being the only chess fan in high-level Yu-Gi-Oh! competition, but it’s given him a core understanding of game theory that has done well for him in creating new deck ideas.

Though Kris usually reverts to a tried and tested archetype in serious play, he’s often on the cutting edge of tech and deck design. His Cyber Dragon-OTK build mirrored Albert Wu’s at Shonen Jump Boston, and in a bit of good-natured debate between the two of us last month, he accurately predicted the success of Dark Scorpion, Maenae the Thorn in the current format. A deck build around Maenae fell narrowly short of the Top 8 at Shonen Jump Atlanta, and it was an innovation that virtually no one saw coming.

As for getting into the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG itself, Perovic was highly influenced by a family member. “My brother would hustle cards at school to make some money. Once in a while he’d keep cards and give them to me, and I progressively built a deck.” His favorite card had a role in it, too. “Dark Magician—It’s the card that made me want to play Yu-Gi-Oh! more than Magic. It made me feel like Yu-Gi-Oh! was more fun and exciting.” It’s surprising how many players list Dark Magician as their favorite card, as it’s a top pick of Hugo Adame and several others as well.

A few of my favorite questions that I rarely have time to ask at an event are the inter-personal ones; namely, what one player thinks of another. I asked Perovic about the best players in the game, and his answer was a nice mix of casual and cautious. “A number of needlessly named Overdose players, needlessly named Odyssey players, a couple Canadians, and a few other people I’d just as well not mention to prevent an unnecessary ego-boost.” I laughed, and he was quick to add an addendum. “I only know North American players, so it’s not to discredit those outside of the country.” It was an interesting addition, as not many players even consider those outside their normal range of competition.

Along the same lines, I asked him if he felt any duelists were overrated. The answer was decisive. “Yes, plenty of people. A lot of players gain a false sense of confidence, either from other players building up their egos, winning unimportant tournaments, or by constantly talking themselves up and eventually believing it. This causes a lot of players to think they’re better then they really are, which accounts for a vast majority of competitors in this game. No one seems to have the ability to say, ‘I’m not as good as [random X person]’ or ‘I can get better.’ Everyone’s the greatest duelist in the world, and that's why most people in this game are sincerely, and ignorantly, overrated.”

The interesting thing about Perovic is that for all his talk, his perspective is incredibly well-informed. One of the things that you notice about some of the best players in the game is that they keep tabs on major duelists and have solid opinions on most of them. For example, I sat two seats behind Max Suffridge on a bus from Narita Airport in Tokyo to Ariake (about two hours away) and watched him poll everyone in earshot about their picks for player of the year. Never mind that no such recognition would ever be officially awarded—he was just interested in discussing the topic. Maintaining perspective on your own place in high-level Yu-Gi-Oh! competition is a big secret to success for some of the game’s best players, and Perovic has a rare understanding of that.

When I asked about his favorite tournament memory, I received yet another decisive answer. “Mainly because it's recent, and in my memory more clearly then anything else, I'm going to say that my favorite tournament experience was my match with Brian Long at Shonen Jump Boston. I went around singing about the match all day: ‘This guy goes Pot, Pot, Graceful, Duuu-oooo, / ‘still managed to make it two-oo.’ I warned Brian that I’d tell everyone about it!” he said, grinning. Being at the event, I can attest to the fact that Perovic simply would not stop singing his impromptu ditty about overcoming Long’s Trinity draw in their match.

Ironically, Perovic quoted his greatest challenge as “Saying the wrong thing at the wrong time to the wrong person.” He went on to explain. “I tend to be as honest as possible, as carefully as possible.” He usually errs on the side of the former, never really concealing what he feels, which is again a huge foil to some of the team’s members. In particular, Coronel and Lizo have made their playing careers off of simply being the best actors in competitive dueling today.

I left him with one question, and though it was hackneyed, I simply had to know—what was it like to finally break into a Shonen Jump Championship Top 8, after watching so many of his teammates take top standings in Shonen Jump Championships and Nationals?

“I can only say that it was a huge, long-overdue relief,” he replied.

After standing by and promoting players that have now come to be known as some of Yu-Gi-Oh!’s best, Kris Perovic has finally arrived. “Long-overdue” is the perfect term for it, and Boston most certainly won’t be his last Shonen Jump Championship Top 8. 2006 may be the year of Team Overdose: Rhymus Lizo is set to return to competition, Kris Perovic is at the top of his game alongside Wang, Alvarado, and Coronel, and in the wake of recent team shakeups, the field is wide open.

It’s going to be a big year for the Superman.

—Jason Grabher-Meyer