Takeaways from a Conversation with the YU-GI-OH! Team YCS Las Vegas Champions
Photo Courtesy of Konami
This last weekend was the second-ever 3v3 Team YCS tournament for Yu-Gi-Oh! and it was a blast to be there. The 3v3 format is a new idea where you and two of your friends compete together as a team, but you duel individually. Each team member is assigned A, B, or C and they duel their counterpart on the opposing team. You then do a normal best out of three match and if two of your team members win, that’s a win for your team. It’s a pretty interesting format and one that seems to be pretty popular. There were 490 teams that started the event on Saturday, and then the top 16 competed on Sunday for the title of YCS Champions. The winners of this tournament were Stephen Silverman, Dominic Couch, and Scott Page making Team Gonna Finish That?.
Page and Silverman both used Dinosaur decks while Couch, the team captain ran using an Invoked Shaddoll deck. Couch felt like his deck involved a lot of critical thinking and felt it was a bit of a struggle to use.
Page has been playing off and on for roughly 10 years, Couch for 1.5-2 years (he played Dragon Duels before), Silverman has been playing since he was 16 (he is now 33) but he’s taken long breaks in the game as well.
In the past, Page even won a YCS before, and he even competed in Worlds back in 2013. Now, he and his teammates can add Team YCS Champion to their accomplishments.
They were excited for the 3v3 game as an opportunity to play together as friends. They cited that this tournament brought them all closer together. Interestingly enough, Couch was set up to play with a different team until about the Monday before the event when he got dropped from that team. During the game, coaching is allowed, but you have to keep in mind that all three team members are playing at the same time so they’re not going to be 100% aware of what is happening in your match. Silverman doesn’t play Yu-Gi-Oh! much, but stepped up to have some fun, and thanks to the format, Page was able to sit next to him and help guide him as they ran similar decks.
The whole team just took the tournament one round at a time. They had the vision of if they got to the top 16, then they would be able to win. Clearly, this paid off.
When asked about getting back into the game, Silverman says that it’s worth getting back into the game but admits that it can be hard to get used to the new cards like Link Monsters and Xyz Monsters. You’ll just want to find easier decks (one reason he and Page both ran Dino decks). They also recommend that you go to your local events and make friends and join the community.
As far as the YCS goes, they do wish that some rules would change. For example, there was apparently a rule where if you saw the hand of your team member’s opponent, you could tell your team members what they had. This does seem like a pretty bad situation as it can give a team an unfair advantage.
The whole team has taken breaks but they all cite the people as a reason for coming back. The community and the competitive drive are the things that bring them back to playing. They’ve made lifelong friends playing this game and had the opportunity to travel for the game and they love it.
Outside of Yu-Gi-Oh!, the team does have other hobbies. Couch used to play football, but after an injury, he went back to the card game. Other than that, they like to just do normal things like hanging out with friends and watch movies.
The three are already planning on training so that the next time a 3v3 is held, they can for sure defend their new title. Their enthusiasm and optimism were crazy and I wish them the best of luck as they continue to play.