Pook's Place

My Day In Anaheim
World Championships 2004 – Battle City!
 By Pook

             Greetings all.  Well, another year, another World Championship over with.  I’d like to give you a full tournament report about the finals, but sadly, I missed them.  Why?  Because A. There was no announcement made as to when they were beginning and B.  I was so busy dueling others and making new friends, that I just lost track of time.  So, I apologize in advance to those expecting a full report.  I do know that the guy from Japan won (big surprise, lol), but that’s the extent of what I do know.  However, what I do offer you this week is a story straight out of the anime.  It is a story of friendship, loss, drama, and a whole lot of dueling!

            Let’s start at the beginning of the day.  To my great surprise, the turnout this year was not nearly as large as last year’s (sorry to those who got their early on my recommendation, I too had to wait for no apparent reason).  The doors opened just a bit early to the event hall, only to have us herded into another line.  But then, at 9AM, the final gates were opened, and madness ensued. 

            I think that someone at Upper Deck may have read my column, because rather than having a lack of space like last year, this year’s event hall was big, if not too big.  There were plenty of free play tables, which was a great idea, but the place was so spread out, it was nearly impossible to keep track of events going on throughout the day (thus explaining how I missed the finals).  When I first got in with my friend Hrf, we decided to immediately head over to the Duel the Masters table – the place where you could play Championship Finalists, Upper Deck employees, and regional champs, all for the chance of winning a free pack.  Hrf and I quickly made our way to the line (we were about 20 people or so in) but then realized that the line for the Exclusive Packs will probably be even longer.  So, as a true friend, Hrf went to wait on line for the Exclusive Packs, while I held his place in line for the Duel the Masters.  Well, 10 minutes went by and they started to let us play the Masters.  Unfortunately, I could no longer hold Hrf’s spot, so I regretfully sat down at the table.  I faced a young man from Alaska whose name escapes me (sorry buddy, I know you said you are a reader so don’t get mad at me!).  I decided to play my Water deck, and to my absolute shock, I actually won.  We actually had a really good duel – a good back and forth of control, a few plot twists, etc.  So I got my free Ancient Sanctuary pack and met up with Hrf. 

            By this time, he was getting near the front of the line for Exclusive Packs, and by then, he had made a friend, a young man named Chris.  (Ironically enough, we also befriended someone named Chris at last year’s tournament as well).  So we got our Exclusive Packs (I got a test print card in one pack), plus I bought another Ancient Sanctuary.  Turns out I got the Secret Rare Mazera DeVille, however with all of the excitement of the Exclusive Packs, I forgot that it was in fact a Secret Rare and ended up trading it later in the day.  Such is life. 

            The day went on and we continued to trade and duel and trade and duel.  After lunch, I ran into one of the USA’s video game finalists, and asked him for a link cable duel.  He happily obliged and proceeded to destroy me.  He then played Hrf, also annihilating him.  We then left that location to head back to Open Play, when Chris realized that his deck was missing – an incredible Dark Paladin/Spellcaster deck that included Dark Flare Night, Mirage Night, Dark Magician Knight, etc.  So, the three of us embarked on a quest…yes, a quest, to find this missing deck.  Now Chris had some doubts as to if someone were to find it, would they do the right thing and turn it in and report it, but I assured him that most players are in fact honest people and would do just that (that, and I reminded him of my article “Fear of a Shadow Game”, lol).  So we went to every security station, every info deck, everywhere, even in the “No Access” places of the Anaheim Convention Center.  And then I got to thinking – this really feels like we’re in either a role-playing game, or an episode of Yu-Gi-Oh!  (Think Battle City when someone goes missing – joking, one of us said that it was probably Weevil Underwood who took the deck and now you’ll have to duel to get it back.) 

            Anyway, after about an hour and a half of searching and questioning everyone we met, we finally decided it would be best to take a break.  So we headed back to the Open Play area and met a whole bunch of people (some of which who are avid fans of my column!) and we spent most of the time hanging out with them.  We had a lot of laughs, including when one duelist was looking for a “Last Turn” card and my new buddy Brett proclaimed, “I’ve got a ‘Last Turn’ in my car – it’s a lead pipe that I hit my opponent with, and that’s their last turn.”  Lol.  Well, maybe you had to be there for that one. 

At about 5:15PM, Chris comes running up screaming “Someone found my deck!”  He was honestly trembling he was so happy.  Turns out someone did find the deck and was borrowing a few of the cards, but totally had the intention of returning the deck as soon as the owner was found – a bit questionable, but still noble.  So, our story had a happy ending and dueling proceeded throughout the land…er…convention center.  We were all so wrapped up in our duels that it wasn’t until we all heard screaming coming from the “main” stage (the thing was tiny!) that we even realized the finals were taking place.  Well, not only were they taking place, the screams had signified the end of them.  It was 5:40PM and we didn’t even realize it.  So what did we do?  Went right back to dueling and trading, right up until 6PM when the security guards had to throw us out.  So, we said our goodbyes, took a nice group picture (which I’ll post once Hrf uploads it to his computer) and headed outside.  Hrf and I then proceeded to hang out outside for about another 45 minutes, trading with people right there on the curb. 

            So there you have it, my experience at this year’s World Championships.  It was a lot of fun, but not nearly as well organized as last year’s – I would have liked to have watched the finals.  Oh well.  So now it’s back to counting the days to next year’s Championships.  Until then, happy dueling!