At long last, i have finally found the time to post the results of the Anime City Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament that took place last week.
First of all, I apologize to everybody who was waiting for quite some time for me to get off of my lazy butt to write up this report....my schedule is sorely messed up these days. As in one minute I have all of the free time in the world and the next absolutely SWAMPED.
Anyway, on to the report.
Now, I'll have to warn you, this tournament wasn't really as eventful as the others I've either competed in or judged over, so please cut me some slack if this report seems a little dry.
The tournament kicked off at 10 sharp at Anime City 7.5.
I saw a lot of familiar faces there before the tournament started...what surprised me the most, though, that the majority of them that i saw had decided not to duel at this tournament. Even Rio decided to pull out at the last second.
I was taken a bit aback at this, but I suppose that they're all just biding their time until the Grand Stage of Dueling -Anime city 8.
In the tournament representing GATT were KajunKid, Bandit, dax, Brian [my brother] and returning champion ChickenandBeer. [I'm not sure if Sean Alexander is a GATTer, but he was there too, so I'll mention him here.] Surprisingly, virtually nobody from World Plus entered the tournament, but this is probably just in preparation for the Nationals.
Representing the 'coffee house' was tournament newcomers Pops and Jonathan.
And, before you ask, the boy who cheated his way through the GATT tourney did show up. I took the time to tell him that his actions during the last tournament were VERY dishonourable, and, if he pulled one stunt like what he did at the GATT tourney, then he's going to be immediately disqualified. The other Genesis officials were notified by me of his actions, and was on probation in that tournament.
The first round of the tournament started off a bit late...we were trying to seat all of the duelists and arranging everything before we got the show on the road, much to the displeasure of the duelists, who were waiting for quite some time. In the meantime, I took a look around and made sure everybody was prepared and ready to duel. I took out a few God cards out of some duelist's decks, helped water down some decks to a legal size of 60 cards, and gave some inquisitive duelists some last minute briefings on the rules, card details and so on.
Finally, after about 10 minutes, the tournament began.
The first round was done in the previous tournament's format- the 32 duelists who could rack up the most wins in 2 hours would move on to the next round. Of course, this could certainly spell trouble for decks that require some degree of stalling to work, [such as EXODIA], but those were the rules, and such decks had to make do.
As a judge, I could tell you that being the only judge tending to the needs of all of the duelists there was one HECK of a challenge. Seating people there, settling arguments there, and registering names were the agenda there.
As the round progressed, people like ChickenandBeer, Pops and Sean were racking up some wins. The name 'Daniel Ballentyne' became virtually etched in our minds, as he has become somewhat famous for racking up wins so quickly [you do know I mean C&B, right?] The boy who cheated in the last tournament also made some remarkable progress in this one, but, mind you, I had my eyes fixed on him the whole time. I watched him to make sure that he doesn't pull any fast ones there, because you know what would happen if he did.
In 2 hours, time was called and those who stood out in the rankings progressed to the next round. ChickenandBeer, Pops and the Cheater [I apologize for this tag, but I don't know his real name] racked up the most wins, with several others such as Jonathan [under the alias Rio] tagging along for the ride. Now came round two, but not after a little intermission.
During the intermission, I picked up my deck and challenged a few of the duelists for kicks. I won the majority of them, and even squared off with the Cheater. We drew, but only because the time for the second round had come. Upon leaving, he said that I owe him a duel. I said 'No problem.'
Round two was just like round one- Try to net the most wins in under an hour, and you will progress to the next round.
Eight people would then be chosen to move on to round three.
I would say that this is the round where people with stalling tactics REALLY suffered, for two reasons:
1. They only had an hour to work with, and that is not enough time to gather a substantial number of wins, and;
2. Some of them had to endure constant questioning of their cards and what they do by their opponents. Several people, including my brother, complained to me about this after the tournament.
It was also a round filled with controversy, as well.
There were concerns abound that Pops was dueling the same opponent over and over again to net easy wins. Pops alibi was that there was no other available duelists to duel. I tried to separate him from his opponent, but I found out that with 32 duelists, none of them was even close to finishing. It would be somewhat unfair to hold back two duelists just to wait for two others to finish, so I had them duel again. I finally saw an opening after the duel, and promptly separated Pops and his opponent.
Also, there were concerns that the Cheater was using Twin-Headed Behemoth illegally to gain advantage. I saw this, and explained to him that the card does not work like that. I did -not- disqualify him though. Some people are probably wondering why.
Before the tournament started, he had some questions about a card with a similar effect, Vampire Lord, and I had to explain to him how it worked.
So, it led me to believe that -this- time, it was a misinterpretation on his part. I can -NOT- disqualify somebody for that, even if I hate his guts for cheating the last time. Afterwards, I lingered and watched him like a hawk. No cheating from him, but probably because I was there.
The second round was finally called.
ChickenandBeer, the Cheater, Jonathan, Pops and several others [I can't remember everybody that was in the Great eight, sorry....] made it to the next round. The third round began immediately after the second, which made several duelists, as well as hungry me, groan for mercy.
:-(
With much thanks to Killa, who bought food for me from the caterers while I had to stay behind and watch the quarter-finalists, I was ready to preside over the last few laps of the tournament.
The third round was an elimination- any duelist who loses is out, out, out.
It went by pretty quickly, though....the Final Four boiled down to these contestants:
ChickenNbeer
Cheater
Pops
Jonathan
The Semi-Finals then took place.
All of the duelists took their places, and dueled.
I could tell you, it was a LOT easier for me to manage these duelists- only four of them compared to the 83 I had to tend to a while ago.
Seeing as how the Cheater was one of the Semi-finalists, I watched over
carefully-not too carefully, though, because of two things:
1. The cheater and his opponent were sitting on the far side of the table.
Seeing as how all of us were on the same table, I had to stretch a bit to oversee the duel.
2.The cheater's opponent was ChickenNBeer.
The other duel was between Pops and Jonathan.
The duels began...what got me when these battles commenced that ALL of the decks were some variation of a Fiend deck, inclusive of dark Ruler Ha Des and that damn crow, Yata-Garasu.
Anyway, Chicken eventually got the upperhand on his opponent, and eliminated him. After a long and drawn out duel, and careful use of Dark ruler Ha Des and Imperial Order, Jonathan pulled out a victory over Pops.
(Some interesting footnotes on that afterwards.)
And finally, it had arrived, the moment we had all been waiting for.
ChickenNBeer vs. Jonathan, the grand prize a GB Advance SP.
Now, I know you were all expecting some big climatic victory, after a long and drawn out battle between the two. Sorry to disappoint you folks, but it was nothing of the sort.
The battle turned out to be one upset victory as Jonathan, through use of Imperial Order and Dark Ruler, defeated ChickenNBeer, as ChickenNBeer kept pulling one bad draw after another.
In the end, Jonathan walked away with a GBA platinum, and C&B obtained a new trike. No prizes this time for 3rd and 4th, though....
And now, some footnotes from the tournament:
1. There were a lot of young duelists in the first round of the tournament. My guess is that it was their first time in a tournament like this, as they were trying to use God Cards and stacking their decks WAY above 60 [they thought 80 was the limit]. Also, out of all 83 duelists, only TWO were girls. One asked me if she was getting a prize because of that.
Well, all I could do is laugh a bit and shrug my shoulders, because, at the time, I didn't even know the prize structure.[Surprised?]
2. Like I said, nobody from World Plus appeared in this tournament. It was really a shame, too, since there are a LOT of talented duelists over there. Well, better luck next time...
3. In case you were wondering, no, the cheater and I never did have that last match. It makes you wonder if it was all part of destiny or some tra-la-la like that.
4. Tragedy struck when one duelist lost his deck at the start of the second round. That was just plain carelessness [heck, plain stupidity on his part] when he told us that he went to the bathroom and LEFT HIS DECK ON THE TABLE. I looked all over for any sign of his deck, including under tables, but discovered naught. I then issued a warning to all duelists to secure their belongings. Pops was blamed for the theft by the duelist and his friends, but there was no evidence, even after a search conducted by me.
5. An unfortunate yound duelist lost ten of his cards in the tournament.
It broke my heart so to see him so sad...it's really hard to lose even a part of your deck, especially at that age. I looked all over for the card, only to find a blank sleeve for my trouble. I tried to comfort him, telling him that the cards he lost could be easily gotten back...until he told me he lost a MIRROR FORCE. :shock:
6. Pops acted like a nut when he lost..constantly ranting about how he tried so hard. Don't worry, he wasn't angry or anything...more of like in a jokey mood. Well, Pops, better luck next time.
7. After the tourney, we got to see the Duel Disks in action. The thing looked pretty cool, but the darn thing was difficult to strap on. plus, we tested it for all of the bugs that was stated in so many consumer reports and found them all to be true. My arm nearly gave out holding that darn thing. :-x
8. I did not once take out my handy dandy rulebook to settle anything.
That's good, considering that taking it out of my crammed backpack would cause the contents to explode.
Well, it may not have been one of the best I've been to, but it was a pretty good tournament. Well, that's all from me! If there is any more details that I left out, please let me know in a reply to this thread.
Until then...later!
