Where Are We Now, A Perspective on Competitive Yu-gi-oh

So yeah, on the account of my Internet being all, all I basically can do is sit here and write blog posts that will get published either sometime today or tomorrow. Or never, it would be bad if I was in a state of perpetual Internetless, I use that...for science and porn.

Any who, lets talk about something that I rarely mention, the competitive side of the game.  Like I've said multiple times, I. am. not. a. competitive. player. I do not do nearly enough testing, I don't have that much of a desire or a need to play the game on that level. That does not, however, mean that I can't provide insight on some things, things that might not even pertain directly to play skill. This video got me thinking, it got me looking things up, and it made me realize something that everyone has been talking about.





What is the point of this article?  Well, the point is that a lot of people have been a lot of frustration within the competitive Yu-gi-oh community.  To some players, the game, as a whole, has fundamental problems with things such as coverage, prize support, and even a lack of "good" players relative to the older generation of pros, lasting until the end of the Tele-DaD format. People believe that these things have lead to the decline of the competitive environment, where things like Yugi-tubers are only making videos to profit, rather than help players and the same argument is used against people writing articles. Basically, the main point is that players are hungry for good, quality discussion on Yu-gi-oh strategy.

 In order to prime yourself, you need to read next couple of articles. If you all ready have seen them, or at least heard about it, you can skip.

http://kperovic.com/blog/ygo-the-state-of-the-game-restated/
http://articles.alterealitygames.com/?p=16110
http://duelistgroundz.com/index.php?showtopic=147607

All right, so by now, you should be pretty primed on what the main point of contention is.  I'm going to provide my thoughts on these issues.  BUT WAIT...you're probably thinking, "if you're a casual player, what makes you think you're going to have any idea what you're talking about?" Well, that's true, but the things that happened have actually aren't related to Yu-gi-oh in a card sense that much, and are more related to the cultural aspect of the game, and the construction of that culture.  Being that my main field of study in college is in communication (with some background stuff in Antrhopology), we talk about what and how exactly culture is constructed.

First of all, we need to decide on whether or not there has been a decline in the competitive culture of Yu-gi-oh.  We need to look at what happened, and where the starting point of all of this is.  So is there a decline?  My argument is yes, there is a decline.

Describing the Decline

 The decline is not necessarily in terms of raw numbers of people entering the tournament, but in terms of quality resources and discussion on the Internet, there is.  This is coupled with the lack of competitive drive, in fact, I would even argue that the lack of discussion is a direct reflection of the lack of competitive drive.  This is coupled with the lack of proper prize support.  I don't care what your opinion of Konami is, good or bad.  If a person is being honest and rational, they would look at this game and see that the prize support is strictly worse than all other available options in the card game world.

Also, the argument that players are just being greedy is just a bad argument, borderlining on being a strawman argument.  This isn't about wanting more, this has more to do with generally being concerned about the games competitive environment.  There is very little reason to want to be good at yu-gi-oh at the moment, and it's a shame when regionals hit 500 plus people and the best prize is something with no actual value (National Invite) that is barely worth the effort.  Yes there is a mat and a binder included, but playing 10 - 12 rounds is no where near worth it. No, people shouldn't make money off of being a yu-gi-oh player, but they should at least receive something that is worth the effort put into playing a competition of that caliber.

Also, I'll say this right now, I think the only reason Konami has these high numbers is because there is a lack of tournaments available.  The prize thing is not as big of an issue as the issue of the lack of tournaments.  I hate doing this, but if you compare it to MtGs tournament scene, it's not even close.  There was literally a competitive (5Ks, PTQs) tournament every weekend of the month of September that I could have gone to (in at most a 4 hour driving distance), multiples on the same day sometimes, in addition to local events.  Compare this to Yu-gi-oh, where there is a regional maybe once a month (sometimes twice) that is a reasonable distance, occasionally a YCS once a year within a reasonable distance, and Nationals. 

So yeah.  The big problem with comparing it to Magic is that Magic has all ways had more tournaments than yu-gi-oh, so that point may be moot.  What I am trying to say, is given which the prize structure of regionals (which I think is actually designed to discourage people from entering after getting their Nats invite) there should be no reason why those tournaments are hitting record numbers, unless that reason is because there is a lack of other semi-big tournaments to go to.

Let's touch on the topic of the coverage site as well.  Everyone hails Metagame as being the pinnacle of coverage.  I agree with this, Metagame offered outstanding insights, as well as daily articles on everything ranging from competition to casual play.  Konami's blog is taking a different design, publishing much less frequently, and are less than half the size of an average Metagame article.  For as much complaints as people have had on Konami Blog's coverage of events, I've found it to be decent to start with but I've felt like it has been slowly digressing.  Now it's Konami's site, and shorter articles are probably just the standard, this wouldn't be a problem if there were articles that targeted different groups of players, but this isn't true.  It is a shame as well, because the community knows the writers on the site could put out much more helpful official content, but it hasn't happened.

This all rolls into each other. So what you end up with is a player base that enjoys the game and wants more tournaments, but that partially lacks the resources to have meaningful discussions about the game. I think this leads to the decline of the competitive playerbase.  I get that people should think for themselves, but being able to have the resources in front of you, as well as being able to have topic starters is invaluable to the game as a whole.

How Did We Get Here (The part where things get slightly different)

Up until now, it's been the same rehashed argument.  To put it in TL;DR form, Konami Strategy Site sucks, prizes suck, attendance is through the roof.  I'm trying to refrain as far as I can from arguments about the game (not the playerbase) getting less skilled, Konami designing to make the game easy or formats being bad, as it's hard to get actual evidence that those are the reasons (especially the whole Konami designing things so that anyone can win, no offense to the people using this argument, but it really sounds like a conspiracy theory.  This is vastly different than what I think is actually happening, but it stems from the idea that Konami is trying to make the game more casual, which is a different thing altogether).

We got here because of quite a few different things happening in Yu-gi-oh culture.

The Competitive Desert

UDE getting out of the picture was not a smooth transition at all.  For months during and after the whole thing went down there was a competitive desert.  What I mean is that there were no tournaments, there was very little reason to play the game competitively.  This might not seem like a big deal at first, after all, yu-gi-oh was still popular, but it took it's toll on the competitive scene of the game.  All discussion of the game halted, there wasn't much of a reason to talk about theory and all of that good stuff if there was no real reason to. 

I think the big thing that I am trying to say is that we never fully recovered from this flatline.  The big thing about this is that it lead to the other things on my list.  The transition was not smooth, interest in the game was declining (albeit at a slow pace), writing about the game slowed down, all contributing things to our current problem.

Metagame's death.

I've talked about this a bit in the paragraphs above, but I haven't mentioned how much of an impact this has had on the game.  Without Metagame, the premier source of topics and competitive insight is gone.  This wouldn't be much of a problem if something took it's place.  Right now, the closest thing we have is ARG, which gets a lot more flack than what they deserve.  The void left by Metagame means a couple of things to competitive culture.  For starters, I wouldn't say that the "Pros" in this game are worse than those of yesteryear, more so that they aren't in the limelight as much.  This does mean that the plays they make and why they make them aren't as well known, card choices and tech (a word that you almost never hear anymore) are also left out. 

Metagames death lead to a somewhat standstill on competitive discussion.  Instead of talking about things like card choices and tech, a lot of discussion seems to be on complaining about why a format is bad, hyping cards, etc.  I guess what I am trying to say is that without having a place to start, and without having that platform, there has been a decline of competitive discussion.  Whether you listened or agreed to what was written on there, it gave you something to talk about, it gave talking points, that is the most important thing.

Losing Metagame was to the Yu-gi-oh Community what losing major news networks would be to watercooler conversations.  No one is primed anymore.

The Decline of the Yu-gi-oh Teams

The big names in the pre-Konami era were teams, not specific people.  I guarantee more people that played in that era can name the teams more so than they can name each specific person on those teams.  Yu-gi-oh Teams gave us something incredibly unique to Yu-gi-oh, a community interconnected, something which wasn't seen anywhere else, and something that we lost.

The importance of the teams is incredibly understated.  Teams gave us a community. The competitive goal of Yu-gi-oh has become too individualized today.  Teams gave the community something to aspire to more so than the pro players ever could.  It also set a good example for the importance of playtesting and having a group that you could grow with. 

I think what I'm trying to say here is that by groups of players aspiring to play as a team and playtest as a team, grow as a team, bounded by the mutual idea of improvement was something that the game has lost.  Now, instead of being happy that you're friend did well at a champion level competition, you're jealous. Instead of having people help you focus on what you did wrong in a match, you become conceited.  Having a team meant people could call you out on your bullshit.

It's too individualized now. Sure you have friends but how often do you sit down and work, really work with your friends, not just for yourself, but for the guy sitting across from you as well?

The Pussification of Our Tournament System

Remember when I said that I don't think Konami was designing the cards and format so that anyone can win?  I don't think that's true.  I do not think there is substantial evidence to suggest that Konami wants everyone to be able to win equally.

What I know is true is that there is this current system that is trying to make everyone happy.  What I mean is that by dropping invites down to top 32, and the 5 pack entry, it made the game much less serious in terms of competition.  Everyone may not be a winner, but you can damn sure feel like it under this system.  No one has to work as hard for their spot in Nationals anymore, I don't think this change was originally intentional, what had happened was after the shift, there was a rush to get people to be able to enter Nationals after the Yu-gi-oh Desert.  They dropped the invite level so that there could be a National tournament.  What happened was this drove Regional attendance through the roof at the time, and it could be considered largely successful, in turn making Konami keep that entry requirement permanently.

This isn't needed now.  I don't have the same marketing research, but I feel like if Konami brought the cut back up then there would be more of a drive to play in multiple regionals, which would drive up attendance even more.  The same could be said for prizing.

I wonder if the regional system switched to top 8 invites, with a box going to each of them, would work out.  I'd like to know if regional attendance would increase over time.  The main reason I say this because the original success of their system could have been caused because of initial hype and newness of it and lack of tournaments more so than the prize/invite structure. 

What I would largely like to see is more tournaments, whether that be championship level events, or just more regionals with more locations.  I'd like a system that rewards me for doing good at a tournament more so than it rewards more just for showing up.

I want there to be something special about going and getting to play in Nationals.  Right now, there isn't that feeling.  I get my invite, and I don't feel like I accomplished much, this is ass backwards from what it needs to be.  I don't care if the prize structure doesn't change, just do something to make me feel like it's not a waste of time again.

"'Can I get a trophy?' No, but you can participate." ~Christopher Titus

Where do we go from here?

All of what I previously discussed has lead to the game's competitive decline. We need to fix this.  What I purpose is much like one of the videos suggested.  Take the game into our own hands.  It doesn't even have to be the pros.  In fact, the pros owe NOTHING to us.  They don't owe us shit. Neither do the Yugi-tubers So let's talk, let's have discussions, legitimate discussions about competitive ideas we have.  IT doesn't even have to be good, just as long as you say something, anything you think is worth saying.  You have the power, that's all I'm saying.

Write articles, write ideas, give something back. Don't be afraid to be bad or receive criticism, that's how we improve.  Too many people are afraid of that now.  Don't be afraid to give criticism either. Make sure you are in depth. Don't just talk to hear yourself. 

Something I would say to the Pros is to start considering yourself in terms of teams again, it isn't even that hard.  ARG is practically a team all ready, just wear ARG shirts to tournaments and get the name out there. It's much easier than remembering the specific names and faces. Yugi-tubers, keep doing what you're doing but try to offer something in depth once in a while.

If you have friends, start working together more often.

Write Konami e-mails, messages, anything (don't be a douche though).

Things can get better, but it's no longer Metagame or Konami that's going to help us, it's ourselves. 
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Also, don't be lazy, half of you are going to think I'm crazy now, and just continue doing whatever, but I'm serious, we can change the game.

Fuck it, you don't believe me any way.

~E.P.B.