I am so totally the Yugioh master...almost. (written yesterday)

Today was the long awaited (by me) Yugioh tournament. So last night I checked all my cards, made sure I was invincible and had everything I needed and then went to bed so as to be well rested for some nerd butt kicking. Then I woke up and spent the day in anticipation, babysitting and cleaning and reading to pass the time (which made my mom happy that I should choose to pass the time that way). Then at 16:00 (4 pm) I strapped my deck in and headed out. Have any of you ever seen where I keep my deck? I always have it with me so you should check it out sometime. Just like Mai has that cool deck holder strapped to her leg (how was a character as hot as her allowed on children’s television?) and Yugi has his cards in that cool deck belt (how was a character who has been described as looking like a bondage slave allowed on children’s television?) I have a cool little pocket on my bag where I can snap in my cards. I’m sure it wasn’t originally meant for holding cards, in fact I think that what I use as a messenger bag was meant to be a women’s purse. But anyway, I’m WAY off the point. Next thing you know I’ll be talking about my facial hair again! So I strapped my cards into my oh so smexical (better than smexy) deck pocket and headed to the library, where I was going to meet Anneli at 16:30 (4:30 pm). I’d had this whole hour planned to the second. Get to the library early because of course Anneli would be there early, she’s the one always fussing about others being late, then be to MegaGame by 16:45 (4:45 pm, do you really need my little time translations? Please comment yes or no, it gets tiring…) and enter the tournament and spend 15 minutes meeting other players and perusing their cards so I knew what I was up against, while keeping the contents of my deck a deep dark secret. Then at 17 (5 pm) unleash the madness of my skill upon an unsuspecting string of opponents and walk out victorious. Sound good? I thought so too. I don’t know about in your life, but for me things never work out as I plan them.

So Anneli was 10 minutes late and I had literally been about to leave without her when she walked up saying something about how just as an “academic hour” is 45 minutes girls have an “academic 10 minutes of lateness”. Dang it! That girl has an excuse for everything. So we walked briskly for 10 minutes and arrived at 16:50 (4:50 pm) just 5 minutes behind schedule. The only problem was that I didn’t see bunches of duelists lining up for me to beat. I saw a bored looking girl behind the desk reading a book. So I broke the dark spell of her boredom with a question. “There’s a Yugioh tournament in 10 minutes right?” “Yes, we sell Yugioh cards” Was her reply. I’d hoped that the book would counteract her blondness, but apparently I had yet another blond to deal with. So I spoke slowly and eventually found out it wasn’t until 17:30 (5:30 pm) and that she didn’t know anything about it. I knew they should have hired me. I would have totally been great at that job. But I think they wanted to add a feminine touch to nerdiness so they hired bored girls. So I stood and chatted and joked with Anneli and an old…more acquaintance than friend, Martin, who decided to take a break from his “CG madness” or in human language, computer games, to come say hi to me. I was truly honored. So we passed the half hour fairly quickly. But I still didn’t see anything resembling a tournament starting. So at 17:35 (5:35 pm) I went and asked my helpful blond friend what was up, was I just delusional in thinking anyone would still want to play this game with me? No, but I had missed the first round. My blond friend was a little out of touch with what was going on in the other room. The tournament had already started, and because I made player number 7 it made sense for me to just get an automatic win because of a lack of an opponent. That’s what happens when you get uneven numbers of players. So I got it all figured out and registered and paid my entrance fee and then waited for another 10 minutes or so while the first round finished. Then finally the duel finished, the apparent organizer of the tournament looked at me and said “you face him”.

An electric thrill of excitement shot through me as I eyed my first challenging human opponent in over a year (I’ve played against humans that aren’t that good, and against computers that are good, but not as good as me) I was finally getting the challenge I had been waiting for. We sat down, shuffled our decks, rolled a die to decide who went first (me) and I drew 5 cards and the game began. It was painfully close. To those of you who don’t know how Yugioh works (all of you) in a match is a set of 3 duels, best 2 out of 3 wins. The first duel I was on fire. Every move my opponent tried I countered. Every move I made brought my opponent one step closer to defeat. He was gone. But I still needed one more win. The next duel was close, too close. I lost. The third duel, the deciding duel was over too quickly, and once I again I had lost. No problem, I still had one more challenge ahead. We sat down and basically the same thing happened. I won 1, he won 2. But again it was far to close. I could taste victory sweet on my tongue. But I lost it. But it was not replaced with the bitter ash of defeat, it was replaced with a different kind of sweetness. Those two matches were extraordinarily close. I’ve been playing this game for 5 years and have never had a pair of games that were so close. I’m usually either against a loser who I mop the floor with or a champion who spits on my cards. And the thing that made it truly sweet is that every other player there knew how close it was. The other two matches had ended quickly while my opponent and I were still at it tooth, nail and flaming fire balls. And so we had a 6 person audience (the four other competitors and Anneli and Martin) while I lost by a few points only after pulling of some extraordinary moves to protect myself and damage my opponent. You might think watching a card game is like watching paint dry, but my skill, my moves, my strategies, my deck got some oohs and ahhs as I put up an amazing fight against a worthy opponent. I lost in the end, but I consider it amazingly worth it just for those appreciations of my skill. And also I got a new card. At the end of every tournament even if you don’t win you can still win a consolation prize, in this case one limited edition card which I’m sure has great collectors value, so if you want it I’ll sell it. I don’t need it. But I’m still happy to have gotten it. I’ll probably trade it for something better suited to my strategy later, but for now I’m happy letting it represent my initiation into the dueling community here in Tallinn, where there are weekly tournaments every Wednesday and Sunday. I’ll only be going on Wednesday s, but still.

And one final thing before I spare you any more nerdiness. Next week I will win! I am confident in my skills and my strategy. Next week they WILL lose. I promise you that. I’ve revamped my deck and now am truly unbeatable. But now I must go, tomorrow is Thursday, the party day. Not really, but it’s a day like any other, and I need sleep for every day. So good night, and please forgive my nerd ways…