I've been wanting to spend some time talking about the local level of YGO events lately. Mainly because of the fact that no regionals or YCS's are going on at the moment for me to write about anything. It is very important that you think about what happens at your local tournaments instead of what happens above that. If you don't, you will spend a misrable time getting beat by decks that you never expected to see. Every local tournament is different. You might have more meta decks get played at your locals than others. Some will have nothing but rogue decks and you're having to come up with a wacky side deck yourself!
However, just because you're the local champion every week does NOT by any means make you a good player! It just means that you're probably better than the players that you're around and you obviously stood out. If you win your locals, think about what you've actually accomplished. Did you beat any tier 1 decks? Did you beat anybody that had true skill with their deck? Or did you beat all scrubs en route to victory? Yes, your confidence going into a regionals or YCS will boost up because of a local win, but you may receive a reality check then if you're beating nothing but bad players with bad decks all day.
I've been going to local tournaments for 10 years now. I've seen it all! I've seen tier 3 decks win local events due to lack of knowledge from other players. I've even been beat by the stupidest bullshit in the history of dueling! Was I mad? Who wouldn't be mad? In the end, it's a local tournament! The bad players are going to have their days, and their moments against good players. If you want to get that high of beating others with complete utter bullshit, then you should try some very random techs in your decks. New ones every week for that matter. I'm sure they won't see that Liberty at Last coming.
The better part about local tournaments though is that you have nothing to lose when you're trying new deck ideas in a tournament. The past 2 weeks, I've been throwing together random tier 2 decks to try out and see how they do competitively. In fact, I manage to get the attention of the people around me and yell out "Chad! I didn't know you had that deck!" Well guys, I have that shock factor placed into everyone's heads when I try out a new deck. If you fail to make the cut, then it's alright. You now know that your deck isn't too good. If you go far, then it's something that you could play with in the future for bigger events! Who knows? You could make the next local dynasty with the next deck you try out!
I do have to mention trading! Although some people at every local event will be the shark for your good cards, most people are more than willing to help out someone that needs to get a card for a deck. I'm not always successful at doing so, but if you came here to get knowledge about how decks run, you'd probably need to get that certain card anyways. If you can put together a trade binder with all the cards that you're willing to trade off, you just might walk out with some really nice cards that you've always wanted to own! You'd also be surprised at the others that would overtrade to you for just the most simple cards in your common box!
My favorite part of a local tournament is that I make friends while I'm there! I've exchanged phone numbers and texted a lot of the better players that go to my locals. I even hang out with some of them every so often during the week and playtest decks with them. Tell you the truth, it's the best way to get better! I remember when one of our godlike players texted me wanting to playtest for a night, he showed me some tips on what I should do, and I've gotten so much better just by playtesting that one night! If you don't already, open yourself to the community and take interest in playtesting with the better players outside the card shop! You'll see your results improving as you keep playing!
In conclusion, local tournaments are really fun to go to if you wish to obtain more knowledge in the game. It's not TOO competitive, you get to know how other decks run with your own 2 eyes (and in 3D!) and you can make friends in the process! Local tournaments are the most important events in YGO because of the fun nature of the event. They'll help you gear up for the bigger events in the future, and who knows? You could just be going to Nationals in the future! All it takes is a good attitude, and a will to get better! You just have to get the time to show up every week!
That's all I'll talk about today. Who knows what my next topic will be? Find out....EVENTUALLY!!!
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