Seemingly confident, I registered to join the second batch of the weekly tournament that was held regularly in my locals. With victory in mind, I was confident that I would crush or defeat any adversary without breaking a sweat, seeing that everyone were only using non-meta decks. My deck was completed and was ready to go and destroy everything in sight...
Or so I thought.
Pairings were announced. My confidence suddenly turned to fear as I face my first ever adversary in the tournament scene. We then proceeded in the duel with my hands trembling as I draw my first card. I found out that he was using a Gladiator Beast deck. I knew the deck inside out-what it can and can't do, and how to defeat it. Theoretically.
On his first tag, he immediately tagged for Gladiator Beast Retiari, removing the Neo-Spacian Glow Moss which he just destroyed (I was using a Junk & Debris deck). I kept drawing dead draws and the opponent soon proceeded to annihilate me.
I was surprised as I face my first loss. I was trembling and I thought what did I did wrong. What did he do to get the win? I shunned the thoughts and proceeded to rummage my Side Deck.
The end result was the same. I was beaten to a pulp. I did not even manage to damage his life points. I then lost confidence, thinking that all the theories and all the articles I've read and studied was useless.
Feeling sad, I then was paired for round 2.
Up against a Zombie Dual deck, I managed to win game 1 without much trouble. I was still tense up to this point until the mid game of game 2. I started to feel relaxed while dueling with my opponent. We were conversing while dueling, which made the whole experience worthwhile, even though he was able to take game 2. By this point, I already gave up my competitive spirit and was only dueling for fun, in which I realized that that was the thing that I was missing since the beginning of the tournament. I forgot that playing the game was fun. I made a major misplay at game 3, (attacking his Shutendoji with a Ally of Justice - Catastor with him only having 500 LP left, I had 2 other different Synchro Monsters on the table) which caused me the game. Even though I lost, it seemed like a fun experience and I didn't flinch much about learning that I lost.
What makes a player great? Is it his clear understanding of the game or his knowledge on rulings? Is it how well-built his deck is? In my way of thinking, the only thing that makes a player great is that he is enjoying whatever deck(s) he made and shows great sportsmanship. Yu-Gi-Oh! is just a game after all and people should enjoy playing the game, win or lose.
No comments:
Post a Comment