Chris Gehring took on the best the world has to offer at the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship held in Tokyo, Japan - 9 August 2009. This was Chris's second consecutive appearance at World Champs, here is his story...
Wednesday 5 August 2009
I wake up at 8am and make sure I have everything ready for the journey ahead. My flight is at 12.25am so I leave for the airport at 10pm and wait around for my flight which is to Sydney. When I arrive I get a taxi to my hotel, as I have to stay there over night because all the flights to Tokyo on the same day were booked out. The taxi fair is $7 and the Arabian driver in a nasty tone is like “Give me $10!!” I’m like wtf but hand over $10.
The hotel in Australia is really nice, but everything in it, including internet it very expensive… $17 for 1 hour of internet. I wasn’t sure if that was a joke or something. Because I have no internet, and there is nothing to do where I’m staying I just look through what cards I have on me as I didn’t even know what I had brought with me. I sleep pretty early as I have a long day ahead of me.
Thursday 6 August 2009
I wake up at 5am. I need to catch a shuttle bus to the airport at 6am as my flight is at 8.05am. I meet up with AJ almost instantly and we chat about YGO and other random stuff. We go to check-in and I get lectured by the attendant because my itinerary was just a bunch of times that Konami had put onto a Word document and sent me. It didn’t have all the flight codes which apparently caused problems for the attendant. Whatever, lady. AJ laughs at me because his attendant didn’t care and just printed him a proper one without saying anything. We go through customs, and being the awesome guy that I am I just swiftly strut my stuff right through. AJ on the other hand, the dodgy looking guy he is gets frisked. He caught the eyes of one of the guards, and I think the guard though that was an invitation to rub AJ. Shame! Although, I bet he enjoyed it.
While waiting for our flight I go buy some breakfast; a BLT sandwich and vitamin water. That sandwich cost like a million dollars, had nothing in it, tasted stale and was a waste of money. At least the water was nice… After I finish with my bad food we have a few games. I use a GardnaCat deck, and AJ uses Blackwing to which I OTK him three times in a row, then lose the fourth game because once again, I had an OTK hand but when I Heavy Stormed he used Dustshoot and I lost from there. Once our four games were over we go to the terminal and wait to board the plane.
On the plane we talk about what deck is potentially the best option for Worlds along with what tech would be good and how we go about predicting the meta. We make a lot of small talk and random jokes.
Our flight is 9 hours long so we watch like 5-6 movies before we land. I watched “Ghosts of Girlfriends past”, “Star Trek”, “Wolverine”, and two or three others I’ve forgotten. We arrive at Nirita airport at 5pm. We are greeted by a small Japanese lady holding a sign with Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2009 with our names beneath. She shows us to the bus stop and tells us our bus ride will be between 1.30-2 hours long. When we step outside I almost feel like dying. I’ve never experienced such heat in my life. It’s unbelievable. No wonder all the Japanese people there are skinny. They would sweat all the fat off!
After our two hour bus ride we arrive at the Prince Hotel in Shinagawa. It’s an amazing Hotel. It has everything. It’s like 3 hotels in one, with a shopping complex, convenient stores, and a bowling alley.
We are greeted by Konami. AJ and I meet the American players who seem like nice guys. We have photos taken by Konami and are given a bunch of papers explaining what’s going to happen over the weekend as well as our breakfast vouchers and room keys.
On our way to our rooms we have to catch two different elevators to the 23rd floor. AJ and I are next door to each other which is very convenient. We have showers, sort our stuff then go down stairs trying to find an adaptor plug so that I can use my laptop in their power point. Once I step out of my room I realize that I had left my key card in there. I have to go to ask them to have someone open my door. We arrive back at my room and no one is there. So we leave and go back twenty minutes later. There is a man standing at my door with his arms folded smiling. I really wonder how long he was waiting. He bows, opens the door then walks off.
From then on, uneventful stuff happens before I go to sleep around 12am.
Friday 7 August 2009
I wake up at 5am not being used to the time change. It’s about 9am in New Zealand. I have a shower and get ready for the day ahead. We have to be in the lobby for a tour of Tokyo with the other competitors by 8am.
First we visit the Tokyo tower which is what transmits signals for radio and TV stations. It looks similar to the Eifel tower is Paris, but is bigger! We hang around there for 1 hour taking some photos. It was a pretty boring place with nothing at all to do but admire the view from up high.
Next we move on to the Shinjusuke temples. What an amazing place. It is said that over four million people visit the temple over four days of new years to pray. Four million people in this one area… Crazy! I made a wish by throwing a coin into the wishing well, but unfortunately it didn’t quite come true. Almost, though.
Finally we went to Anime, and Electronic central; Akibahara. This is the most amazing place I’ve ever been. There was absolutely everything any teenager could ever want in this one place. There are people walking down the street cosplaying. Every shop has like 20 workers, regardless of the size… and they’re all small shops. Every second or third shop sold Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards or sleeves. There was just so much amazing stuff. We had two hours there which seemed like it wasn’t enough. While AJ and I were just checking everything out we started to chat with some of the other competitors; Esteban (South American Champ), Eduard (2nd at Euro Champs), and Rodrigo (DS Spanish Champ). They are awesome guys, and we became good friends over the weekend.
Once our tour was over we went back to the Hotel and were told our decklists were due in within thirty minutes… Wow, that was bad news for AJ and me. We didn’t have anything made up. AJ was favoring Blackwing, and I was going to use GB or Necro Cat. AJ realized that GB was the best meta call as it's the "safe" deck. We make up a random GB deck and tested 6 games vs BW to which it just dominated. Tak, from Konami called my room saying we had to hurry up and that we were the last to hand in our lists. This was two hours after the supposed thirty minutes we had. We were still writing our list while going down the elevator. As we were looking over it we had 17 monsters, the 17th being Secutor. We both agreed that was too much and cut the Secutor. During our six games of testing, the first two I drew it opening hand and got so mad I threw it against the wall. We put a Dimension Prison its place. What an amazing decision. I draw that Prison every single match. I would have lost if it were Secutor. I don’t think there was a game where I wished I had Secutor. In some situations it may have helped, but I had a perfect record on day 1 so I guess it wasn’t a big deal at all.
We hand in our list then are given our sleeves and competitors shirts. I see my good old buddy from the USA; Matt Johnson. He had just arrived. He asked why I was using GB. He said the GardnaCat deck was amazing. It was a deck we had been talking about online a long with Jae Kim. It had no bad match-ups. I started to doubt my decision to play GB because of how he was saying the Gardna deck was so good. But we went back to my room, tested the deck and it just started to draw like crap. So once again I was happy with the GB deck.
Decklist:
MONSTERS: 16
2 Test Tiger
2 Rescue Cat
2 X - Saber Airbellum
2 Gladiator Beast Laquari
2 Gladiator Beast Samnite
1 Gladiator Beast Bestiari
1 Gladiator Beast Murmillo
1 Gladiator Beast Darius
1 Gladiator Beast Equeste
1 Sangan
1 Summoner Monk
SPELLS: 11
3 Book of Moon
2 Gladiators Proving Ground
1 Smashing Ground
1 Monster Reborn
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Brain Control
1 Giant Trunade
TRAPS: 13
3 Solemn Judgment
3 Waboku
3 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Dimensional Prison
SIDE-DECK: 15
3 King Tiger Wanghu
3 Mind Control
2 Dust Tornado
2 Cold Wave
2 Gladiator Beast War Chariot
1 Gladiators Proving Ground
1 Summoner Monk
1 Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness
Matt brought me an awesome Dark Magician Girl double deckbox from America. It was like the only real thing I wanted, and he remember to bring me one. I will love you forever for this!!
AJ and I start to sleeve our decks when I realize I only have 2 Waboku… I look though all my cards like 20 times and can’t find the 3rd. I had 3 in my deck when we made the list, but I forgot that was AJs and which he needed. I started to panic. I asked a few people if they had Waboku and no one did. I didn’t want to ask other players because I didn’t want them to know what I was playing. I was called and idiot many times by AJ and Matt. Never mind though, I got to call Matt, and even AJ a donkey many times over that night because of the way they were playing their decks. I went to sleep at like 1am hoping I could get Waboku in the morning, otherwise game loss for me round 1!
Saturday 8 August 2009
I wake up and have a shower. I get a phone call from Matt saying he had found me a Waboku. I jump for joy! Yus! No game loss round 1.
We all meet in the lobby ready for our journey to Worlds.
We arrive at the event center. I meet up with my mate Zac Olssen. Good times catching up. Konami quickly whisks us away into a secluded room almost immediately and we are told where to sit. Pairings and everything were already up. We all give AJ a bit of grief because he got the Round 1 bye. It was the best start Australia has ever had… winning Round 1!
It’s time to duel!
Round 1 Kazuma Ishikawa (Japan) – Synchro Gladiator Beast
Game 1:
I start with a set Mirror Force. He summons Darius and swings. I Force. He sets 2. I drop Airbellum and he Prisons. I set a Book. He drops Bestiari and attacks, tagging into Equeste getting Darius. I summon Darius and he is stunned to finally see I’m using GB. I run over Equeste and tag into Laquari. I have Heavy Storm, Brain Control, and Rescue Cat in my hand at this time. He Brain Controls my Laquari and summons a Murmillo. He swings with Murmillo, then swings with Laquari to which I Book so he is forced to tag into Bestiari and make Gyzarus so I do not get my Laquari back. I Storm, summons a GB then Brain his Gyzarus. Swing with all and tag into 2 Laquari and a Samnite (I think). I set Waboku. He summons Cyber Dragon, summons Monk and pitches Book of Moon. He brings out 2 Airbellum. He makes Arcanite and destroys my Waboku which I chain. He seems frustrated at this point. He hesitantly destroys a Laquari and makes Stardust with Airbellum + Cyber Dragon. I summon the Cat and bring out Airbellum and Test Tiger. I make Goyo and run over his Stardust and my Laquari swings over Arcanite. He scoops.
Game 2:
I have Book, Prison, Bottomless, Cat, Reborn, and Mind Control. He starts with a set Bestari. I set Bottomless and Book and pass. He sets another monster and contacts for Gyzarus. I flip Bottomless to which he Solemns. I’m so happy! He ends with 1 back row and 2 Laquari. I draw Test Tiger I think then summon Cat to get out Samnite and Tiger. I tribute and bring out Bestari and destroy his card. Reborn Cat, and do some Gyzarus and Dark Strike plays to seal the deal.
1-0
After my match they collect my deck for a deck check. I get it back at the start of round 2.
Round 2 Ryan Newburn (United States) – Blackwings
Game 1:
I shuffle for like 5 minutes because of the deck check and I don’t want to get clumped hands. Ryan starts with a set back row. I draw and summon Laquari and swing. I tag in Bestiari and destroy his face down Icarus. I knew it wasn’t BTH just because the way he responded to my plays. I set 4 back row, 2 Solemn, Dustshoot, and Bottomless. Yes, this was the best turn 1 I had all day. Anyway, he plays Whirlwind so I chain Dustshoot. I see his hand of 2 Blizzard, Sirocco, Gale, and My Body as a Shield. I know this game is over. I send back the Gale. He summons Sirocco and I Bottomless to which he chains My Body as a Shield. I Solemn it and he can’t do anything. I summon another Glad and Tag in Laquari and Bestiari to get rid of Whirlwind. He tops something good and I Solemn it. He scoops.
Game 2:
He goes Whirlwind > Shura, set 1. I think I smashing + Glad him. I set Waboku and Bottomless. He uses Nobleman of Exterminations on my Waboku and I give a fist pump… then he hits the Bottomless with another. It came down to both of us with mediocre hands/field. I have Reborn and Trunade, but Reborn has nothing good to bring back except Bestari which I want to leave until I draw a Glad so I can instant Gyzarus any set up plays he makes. He has 1 in hand and 1 set spell/trap. I set Trunade and end. He topdecks Blizzard makes Goyo then summons DAD… So now I need to draw a Glad to win, but I draw Torrential. So I Reborn Bestairi for fun to see his facial expression, then I set Torrential. But he just removed some darks and it was over.
Game 3:
I gain a lot of advantage early game though simplistic 1 for 1s. He Noblemans my Book of Moon twice, but it doesn’t matter. I Brain Control his guy and make Black Rose as a beat stick. He has no way to get over it and is setting every monster he draws. I’m just drawing more and more cards turn after turn gaining a broken hand. I know he has an Icarus set and one other card, which is why I’m not committing a single other card to the field. I just keep attacking. He rips a Blizzard and Goyos my Black Rose. Must be nice. But now I know he can’t Icarus. I Cat into Samnite and Test Tiger. Tiger makes Bestiari to destroy the face down Icarus. Then I special another Tiger to cycle Bestiari again to destroy the other face down. I Reborn Cat and its over. I did not fear Bottomless because I could then still Goyo the Black Rose, and Smashing the Goyo regardless meaning he still has 0 cards.
2-0
Round 3 Man Man Lai Au (Hong Kong) – Gladiator Beasts
Game 1:
I can’t remember this match so well, but I know it was 2-0 and I know I won because I top decked like a champion both times. Game 1 he had Dark Strike on the field after he raped my hand with double Airbellum. I was left with Mystical and nothing else. I was calculating my outs and it was 5 – 2 Rescue Cat, Monster Reborn, Brain Control, and Summoner Monk. I wished for Cat, or one of my outs, but I topped Samnite and set it along with Mystical. He attacked with Dark Strike and a GB. He tagged in for Darius and brought back Bestiari to Gyzarus my MST. He had 2800 life points. Once again, wishing for one of my outs… I drew Rescue Cat, made Goyo swung over Dark Strike and popped my stuff for game.
Game 2:
He drew 2 Solemns, and I drew 0. He was Solemning everything. I still put the game in my favor. He was top decking and I had Bestairi in hand and Equeste on field. He topped Laquari and swung over my Equeste and tagged in Darius who brought out an Equeste. I had around 13 outs in my deck (1 Brain, 3 Mind, 2 Laquari, Darius, 3 Proving, 2 Cat, Reborn), and I drew the best one; Brain Control. He was low because of Solemns.
- This guy beat all FOUR American duelists during swiss. I was his only loss. Yeah BOI!
3-0
Round 4 Alexander Antonios (AUS) – Gladiator Beasts
This is my fellow Oceanic player. We traveled here together, so obviously we have to play each other! My buddy AJ! We were using card for card decks and we knew the match-up was a coin flip.
Round 1 he had a bye and I was ranked 1st at this point in time. So we decided to coin flip to see who gets the win. We rolled a dice about 15 times to do our best of 3. We both hit 2 like 5 times each. Anyway, AJ wins the dice roll which is much better for him because of his round 1 bye, and if he lost to me, then somehow lost the next round he might have been in a bad position.
Anyway, we play our match for fun just so we don’t get in trouble.
Game 1:
I open with Solemn, Bottomless, Reborn and Cat. He summons I Bottomless. He sets 1 and I have Solemn. So I just OTK him.
Game 2:
I draw 6, 7, and then an 8th monster and lose.
Game 3:
I draw much better than he does and win.
We played so fast the Konami staff behind us was getting confused. We didn’t side or anything. We were pretty much just playing with out decks in our hands consistently tagging. It was epic. Shareif (top4 Euros) was sitting next to us watching. He looked stunned. I was just playing all or nothing.
4-0 matchs
3-1 official
Round 5 Lee Hong Kyu (KOR) – Gladiator Beasts
Game 1:
This game wasn’t very eventful. I Dusthsoot him, see everything. Play around everything. He Solemn the wrong cards and loses to Reborn.
Game 2:
He Solemns the wrong cards and loses to Brain Control.
The match was over in like 5 minutes.
5-0 matches
4-1 official
So, after the 5 rounds the standings are AJ and I are 1st and 2nd with the same deck. Cool story, eh?
Yes, I love how they don't spell my name correct...
5 Gladiator Beast, 4 of which have Summoner Monk, and 1 Icarus build
3 Blackwings
We head back to our hotel after we are given our bag of goodies and just chilax. We were not given the opponents deck lists and I didn't see enough of my opponent’s deck to try and test. It was just a GB mirror which I am always confident in.
Sunday 9 August 2009
The next morning we head to the event and I’m ready to get down to some YuGiOh!
After deck checks and whatnot we get down to business.
Top8 Lee Hong Kyu (KOR) – Gladiator Beasts
Game 1:
He starts with Laquari and pass. Now I don’t know many of the cards in his deck so I based my play off that. I had a REALLY good hand of Sangan, Bottomless, Solemn, Storm, Tiger, and Murmillo. Apart from the Murmillo the hand was amazing. So anyway, because he just played Laquari and passed I didn’t think it would be much of a threat. I set Sangan and Bottomless so I can set up Gyzarus next turn with Storm > Cat > Tiger. Here came the problem. He played Cold Wave… I didn’t know he used that damn card. So he summons Secutor (shame you drew that crap) but had Test Tiger and turned into itself. Laquari swung over Sangan so I searched Cat and Secutor to the face. He made a Herk and had a Flaming Laquari. I just searched Cat and he made Herk. I was confused, especially when I was under Cold Wave. Anyway, if I don’t draw Bestairi, or Samnite I can Gyzarus at will… well, I draw Samnite and it’s all down hill from there. I have to Murmillo his Herk using Tiger. Next turn he goes, Mind Control, Rescue Cat, Monster Reborn, Dark Strike shenanigans.
Game 2:
I open with 2 Proving Ground, Solemn, 2 Monsters, and Mind Control. Not a very good hand. He OTKs me with Cat, Reborn, Autonomous Action Unit.
So 2 years in a row I finish at 6th place overall. I want to kill myself. 1 win off a prize card. How can that happen 2 years in a row. I feel so depressed and just go sit down and think about my bad beats. The way he played in the swiss the day before just made me feel crap because he didn’t play at a very high standard. He was reckless and burned his resources. He knew what he was doing but he didn’t know how to take advantage of cards like Solemn which is so key to being good with Gladiator Beasts. No prizes for me. Sad times.
So after I get over my bad beats I see AJ lose to Roy due to topdecks. Wow, how did we both lose? I was pretty shattered. We go down two floors to where all the side events are and I see the Japanese plays from last Worlds. They all surround me. It was great to see them again.
Instead of watching the top4 we go to Akihabara. We visit all the card shops. I make like 2k instantly. It’s just amazing. Money is like toilet paper there.
Once we (Ryan, Mike, Kris Charles, and some of the Japanese players) get back from Akihabara we go to the side events center. We watch the DS finals which was amazing because one player is just a lucksack time waster. He was using the Gardna deck and timing out all his opponents. He lost to what seemed to be a cool guy which was good.
Then we watched the TCG finals and OMG it was bad. I was shocked and so were all the other people around me. Turn 2 the GB player had a OTK. The BW player had a clear field and a Dark Strike on the board. The GB player had Cat, Reborn, and Tiger w/ Hoplomus in the grave. The damage added up to 8200 total but he was bad and just Murmillo’d the Dark Strike and attacked for 4000. This kind of made me rage thinking someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing is this far in the tournament. He did win because of the advantage, but his opponent did have a chance to make somewhat of a comeback. You never give your opponent that type of chance. Game 2, the BW player summoned Shura and set 5 back row – 2 Solemns, Oppression, Icarus. Yeah this game was over fast. Game 3 was pretty back and forth at the start, but once mid game came a long BW just started to dominate though bigger guys, Kalut and Icarus. The GB player made like 5 misplays in that game.
Apparently the GB player told the new World Champion why he was making some of his plays like in game 1. He said he wanted to see more of his opponent’s deck and didn’t want to OTK him which I find to be a terrible excuse. In a final, you know what you’re facing. In a format like this, and the advantage gained you get 1 or 2 more turns. The cards you will see in 1 to 2 turns will be monsters, or standard spell/traps. It’s just a stupid reason for give up a win.
Whatever though, I went and watched Vittorio play Rogrigo for cash. This is where I first saw Vittorio stacking. Whenever Rodrigo would look away, Vittorio would look at his deck. But this is where I saw the blatant stacking. He fumbled Heavy Storm onto the table. Put his deck on top of it, this is where I was paying close attention. I saw the bottom of his deck was Crush Card, and now Heavy Storm. He did some middle cuts, and then when his opponent looked to the side he quickly put the two cards right at the top. Did some more shuffling missing the top 6-10 cards of his deck time after time. Obviously his opponent didn’t get a chance to cut. I walked behind him, watch him draw his cards. No’1 Storm No’2 Crush... During the game, as a spectator I called him on double summoning twice with Cyber Valley and Scapegoats. He had 4 tokens and quickly put Valley and a token in RFG to draw 2 and then tried to set a monster and Crush Card. When Rodrigo summoned Catastor there was a five minute argument about it because Vittorio would lose. So he was saying Rodrigo wasn’t allowed to use it.
I miss the entire award ceremony. It will just make me feel crap watching it.
We head back to the hotel and I start to sort all the cards in my room and put them in my binder as I really didn’t realize how much people buy stuff for. During this time the whole building starts to shake. AWEOME! I’m in an earthquake… it last like 2 minutes. It was so awesome!
I go down to the lobby and once again I get swarmed. I make a lot of cash moneys. I buy an English Catastor which makes my happy. I sold my Worlds mat to Roy for $200USD, I then sold my Japanese boxes of product for $45each.
Monday 10 August 2009
We hit the town for a bit and get back at like 1am. From that time onwards we watch Vittorio play Alex for cash. $50USD per game. Vittorio refused to play against GB as he was scared of it. All AJ was allowed to play was Roys BW, and he refused to play matches. He only wanted to play game ones without side deck. This guy is such a bitch. So they played for the next five hours and it was very 50/50. Around 5am AJ was up $100USD and Vittorio just didn’t want to play anymore. But AJ kept bashing him so he finally manned up and they played a $40USD game. This is where Vittorio started to stack taking advantage of AJ because he was very tired. I was sitting next to AJ, but Eduard from Spain was behind Vittorio watching everything. AJ lost the $40USD game, then lost a $80USD game. After Eduard told me everything he was doing and even showed me exactly how he was doing it. It wasn’t as simple as when I saw him do it. This time he was doing it at lightning speed and fully shuffling while doing it. But you knew he was doing it because of how he was shuffling if you focused on it. We told AJ after they stopped playing for cash and people started to call Vittorio a cheater. But he was taking it as a joke.
Roy and Vittorio got into an argument. Roy was saying how he was ranked number 1 now, and Vittorio was pretty much calling him out. The nazi started to insult his size, lifestyle and was saying personal stuff about him like how he has no friends, no girlfriend, and calling him weak and stuff. Roy was like whatever and listed his accomplishments, and what he does have e.g. GF, what he owns blabla. Then Roy challenged him to bench press at the gym to see who is stronger as Vittorio called him weak. Anyway, after like five minutes of bitching and moaning they stop. Roy goes to sleep. I play Shareif (top4 Euros), GB vs Cat Sycnrho. I pretty much just Book of Mooned every time he played Mind Control. It was fun.
We slept for like 3 hours 6-10am. Once 11am comes we check out. We all meet down in the lobby. Take some photos, and say our farewells. Most people are leaving in the next few hours; we leave at 4pm so we go to Akiharbara and buy a lot of stuff.
The flight home wasn’t very eventful. So yeah, here I am typing all this tl;dr stuff for you guys. I hope you enjoyed some, if not most of it.
I wish I could have stayed in Japan. Best experience of my life so far.
