I’d like to start this column off by congratulating our new National champion. Adam Corn, like Austin Kulman before him, and Max Suffridge before him, is an adorably desirable duelist. Other than perhaps John Jensen, who has no peer when it comes to looks as a Yu-Gi-Oh player, Adam Corn can arguably be considered the handsomest, ransomest (that’s not a word) Yu-Gi-Oh stud in the world today. Of course, it wasn’t always this way.

I first met young Adam Corn (then known as Adam West) when I was playing in local tournaments. My job with Pojo had just started, Shonen Jump Championships had not started back then, and the local tournament was filled with numerous friendly, casual players. The tournament at the time had been swarmed with a bunch of my friends, young Korean hooligans, so the parents of all the young players sat in cars next to the outdoor venue while we played (true story)!

Now it’s safe to say that young Adam wasn’t very good back then. Very few players were, and theories that we take for granted such as field presence and card advantage were in very primitive form back then. But I met the young lad years, years ago, and we formed a bond. He was short and squat and good he was not.

The Development of Mr. Corn

Flash forward to a few years later. I would periodically return to Southern California for major Yu-Gi-Oh events. After becoming a top player, I found it difficult to enter local tournaments, especially since I was studying for college as well. However, every time I returned to the big convention in Southern California, or attended a regionals or premier event, I’d see Adam and all my old friends. He grew taller, leaner, and enigmaer. Adam joined part of the team venerable Team Enigma, led by Kirk Leonhardt, Lance Leonhardt, and featuring Coin Flip (Matt Murphy of Pojo and now Metagame fame).

It was here that his skills began to develop. Adam saw his first top eight finish at Shonen Jump Long Beach, and began to turn into a major player. While running tournaments at a convention show for Hugo Adame’s company, I saw Adam begin to beat some of the better players at the show. He was constantly around the company of players such as Emon, and learned from them really quickly. I was impressed, and wrote a mental note to watch the young rising star.

I think the culmination of his development came during the next two Shonen Jump Championships that came in Anaheim. After achieving sharp success, Adam began attending Shonen Jumps in California, Seattle, and a few other locations. However, every time we met something spicy would occur. We ran a team battle, a grudge match, between Adam and Kevin Hor (an old Odyssey legend). In this battle, each player was allowed to select any player at the event. Adam immediately stacked his team with me, Hooman (another rising star), Sandtrap Vargas, Tony Lee, and Emon. Kevin selected regional favorites such as Robert Lim from Seattle, and plenty of top unheralded Southern California players. Long story short, Hooman rolled about 6 of them in a row and Tony finished them off.

Then, at another Southern California Shonen Jump, nearly all of Team Superfriends, Kris Perovic and Anthony Alvarado from Overdose, and some of ex-Team Savage all assembled to spend time together and have fun. Adam was invited, and spent a lot of time soaking in knowledge. Here he would playtest with the very best in the world, asking questions when needed and getting far, far better as a player. The leap he took was amazing; pretty soon he became one of the best Monarch players in the nation.

What I Learned From Adam Corn

Unlike other players who take credit for their friend’s success or try to leech off others, I don’t like to draw attention to such things. When Miguel Flores (ex-Team Savage, one of the best), made it to Worlds and placed in the top eight last year, I chose to congratulate him privately. It doesn’t show much class to say “I’m responsible for much of my friend’s success”, or “I built this deck for him, or “we’re going to build this World-altering deck” and scrub out later.

The point of this article is to congratulate a dear friend, and inspire casual players with his story. After all, to every story there’s a back-story. When Max Suffridge won Nationals, he did so as an internet legend. Few people who called him a lucky scrub realized that Max had paid his dues over the internet already. And few people realize there’s a story behind the handsome face of Mr. Corn.

It can happen to you! Adam did not suddenly magically ascend to the top spot in American Yu-Gi-Oh! He began as a casual player, attending local tournaments in Brea, California. Certainly, he was lucky to meet and befriend me and Emon (since we were in Southern California ourselves). But just a few months ago, during the time when almost all of the top players in the nation were gathered together, I looked at Adam and he looked back with the look of someone simply overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge to be gained. Adam proves that all you need is the desire for skill, improvement, and learning to get better. He never started as a cocky boy or an arrogant one.

I write this story because I truly think Adam Corn is a Yu-Gi-Oh hero. His story is inspiring because of the start of his circumstances, to the end of an incredible journey. This was a player that started with little skill, simply the desire and will to learn and get better. He’s been playing the game since the age of something like ten or eleven. Like Austin Kulman before him (who’s the most adorable player in the history of Yu-Gi-Oh), He went from young lad to true Yu-Gi-Oh superstar. In fact, Adam reminds me of a young Frodo Baggins. Frodo went on a journey with an illustrious group of warriors such as Aaragorn (Dale Bellido), Gandalf (Matt Peddle), Gimli (Anthony Alvarado), Samwise Gamgee (Kris Perovic), and others (did I do a good job of ascribing Yu-Gi-Oh faces to LOTR characters? Write feedback at Jaelove@gmail.com!). Yet while Frodo was the weakest at the start, he became the hero of all the land! Blessed with a pure heart and a lack of arrogance, Adam Corn won!

Back in the day, he would rush to buy his heroes such as Anthony and Evan Vargas hot dogs at the stand. When I see him, I’ll be buying him expensive Swedish franks drizzled in the finest condiments. I see nothing less fitting for a true champion.