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Pojo.com's Yu-Gi-Oh! Interviews
Arrrgghh Matey…A Pirate Interview With
Chris SoRelle
By Ally
5.04.07

 

Before the interview begins I like to thank Pojo for taking his time out of his busy schedule to put this on the main website.

 

Pojo Screen Name: http://www.pojo.biz/board/member.php?u=1639

 

Ally: First of all I like to than you for taking your time out of your busy schedule to help me do this interview. For my first question what is your full name?

 

Chris: Chris "WangPirate" SoRelle. Everyone just calls me Wang at events though. It's just stuck over time.

 

Ally: Ok, that's a very interesting nickname. I'm afraid to ask why :P. Um next question, how old are you and where do you live?

 

Chris: I’m 17 and I live in Houston, Texas.

 

Chris: And actually, I had to explain the back story to my name just yesterday to Ricky.

 

Chris: To make a long story short, it was a joke account, and people started recognizing me more by this name than others, so it just kind of stuck.

 

Ally: Oh ok haha. How old were you when you first started playing Yu-Gi-Oh!?

 

Chris: Oh wow... I was probably around 13 when I first started playing.

 

Chris: Runnin’ four years strong now, and I can't believe I've played this long.

 

Ally: Wow that was a long time ago lol. How old were you when you topped 8 your first regional?

 

Chris: I had just turned 16, My first top 8 was in October of 06’. For most of the time before then I wasn't really that great of a player to be honest.

 

Chris: I actually didn't consider myself a good player as much as I might have stated so on forums for a LONG time.

 

Ally: Eh, matter of opinion really. What deck, regional, and format were you playing when you first topped 8?

 

Chris: It was just a standard warrior toolbox in the October 06’ format. David Simon had helped me build the deck the night before the event, and I never really had a chance to play test it much.

 

Chris: Speaking of David, shout out to him, because he's one of the best players this game has ever seen; but nobody seems to remember him =p.

 

Ally: oOo I see. Was he like a role model to you in anyways?

 

Chris: Not really; I don't really look up to many people in this game. I'm not trying to be arrogant or anything, but that's just the way I see it. David has always been one of my best friends though; I still talk to him on a daily basis.

 

Ally: That’s still good! Anyways just to make sure you said you topped 8 with a warrior toolbox deck right?

 

Chris: Yeah, but I've had many more regional top 8's since then. That was just the first of many.

 

Ally: Was that regional top 8 a "boost" to do better in this game for you?

 

Chris: I don't think it was much of a boost to do better for me, it was more of a confirmation that I could be as good as I thought I was.

 

Chris: The biggest "boost" I've had in this game to get better has had to be Jae Kim.

 

Chris: I met Jae at the 05’ Houston SJC. We started talking online afterwards, and that summer we tested TONS for nationals. I'm talkin’ like running five or six matches at a time MINIMUM.

 

Chris: Then changing decks and running more and more matches. We would get in so many sets a day that it would be ridiculous.

 

Chris: Before every big event, both of us would just play test tons with each other to make sure we got everything perfect. Through all of this play testing, Jae helped me learn almost everything I know about this game. He's also another one of my really good friends that I've met through this game. Defiantly the biggest boost I've ever had.

 

Ally: Thats amazing! Whoops! I almost forgot his question, you did get your invite that day the first time you topped eight?

 

Chris: Oh yeah.

 

Chris: I've actually won every regional I've top 8'd in, except one where I scooped in the top 8 so another guy could get his invite.

 

Ally: That’s great! A lot of accomplishments I see you got goin’ there. Speaking of accomplishments, please tell the Pojo readers a little bit about them. Like what are some of your credentials?

 

Chris: I'm on Team Hpnotiq (HPQ REPPIN BABY!!), and I've got multiple regional top 8'd and wins. I top 8'd SJC Houston 07’, which was only my fourth big event ever. I went x-2 at USA Nationals 06’ and SJC Houston 05’. I've only scrubbed at one SJC, which was Arlington, but a deck I helped make (the one Jake Mcnealy used), got 2nd at the event, and we both ran it; so I was satisfied with that.

 

Chris: Though lots of the players out there might not know me, I'm widely known for being one of the best internet players in the game.

 

Chris: I've been on online teams with players like Max Suffridge, Matt Peddle, Dale Bellido, Kyle Duncan, Wilson Luc, Dwayne Nunez, Kris Perovic, Anthony Alvarado, and TONS of other top tier players that everyone knows of.

 

Ally: Wow that’s a lot of online teams O.O, but we will come back to that shortly. First, please tell us a bit about your team.

 

Chris: Oh man Team Hpnotiq! What more is there to say? We party hard the night before every event and they're some of the best players out there. Most of us have top 8'd SJCs before.

 

Chris: I don't think we get the recognition we really deserve but then again we don't get out of Texas too often because most of us are still in school and have other priorities in life.

 

Chris: We placed three people in the top 16 at the most recent Houston SJC, those 3 being Myself, Brad Poth, and Harry Anderson.

 

Chris: All 8 of us should be at nationals this year, barring some stupid event happening. Expect a HUGE showing from us because we've all got a few tricks up our sleeves ;].

 

Chris: We're also open to lots of team wars, time providing, and playing for cash or cards. We love to gamble.

 

Chris: We're easily the next big thing in Yu-Gi-Oh!, and we hope to prove that in the upcoming months.

 

Chris: full roster and info, we have a page in the team section of the pojo forums. All questions and comments can be said there :].

 

Chris: AND WE ARE THE BEST TEAM IN NORTH AMERICA!! HAR HAR HAR TAKE THAT SPICER!!!

 

Ally: Well good luck with that! You mentioned team wars in one of your previous comments. Have your team ever teamed war people and won?

 

Chris: I personally have never team warred at all, minus the online wars. So I'm really looking forward to getting in on some action soon.

 

Chris: I should probably start calling myself "The Broom" soon since I'll be sweeping everyone. Just joking lol ;]

 

Ally: I'll make sure I bring the dust pan. You mentioned you wanted to get a team war active soon. With which team do you and your team want to war?

 

Chris: You defiantly had to ask this one didn't you? Haha.

 

Ally: Yes I did so :P.

 

Chris: Well, lately there's been TONS of talk of a war between Team Outphase and us.

 

Chris: Lots of... naughty words have been exchanged, egos have flared, and theres been a considerable amount of hype around this.

 

Chris: Of course I'm not going to claim innocence on our part; we've done our fair share of the above mentioned along with trash talking.

 

Chris: They have "beaten" us before. By "beaten" I mean they played us in a 4v4 with 2 of our main players playing and 2 more that don't play too often against 4 of their main players.

 

Chris: They say they beat us, and we don't deserve another chance. We say we didn't have our full roster in use. Of course, I wasn't on HPQ at the time that all of this took place, so I didn't care about it all until now.

Chris: Though it really does frustrate me to be a main part of my team and hear other people yell and talk about how they've already beaten us before; especially, since I didn't have anything to do with the war at all.

 

Chris: No disrespect to Outphase though; they know that I love all of them and that they're on really chill guys.

 

Chris: But yeah, I think there's going to be a team war between us at nationals this year, so there's a little something for all the fans to look forward to =p.

 

Ally: All is fair in love and war and when I mean by love I meant friendship ;x. Good luck with the team war and may the best team win and when I mean best I mean HPQ ;). Back towards the beginning of the interview you topped 16 Houston SJ this year and then you topped 8. How did both of those accomplishments feel?

 

Chris: They felt AMAZING. Reaaaaally amazing....There's not much else to describe about it haha.

 

Chris: I mean I've been working at top 8'ing and winning major events since I've been in this game you know?

 

Chris: So to finally get my name out there like that is really a load off my shoulders.

 

Chris: Props to Dale Bellido for the deck I used though.

 

Chris: It was his deck and I made some personal changes to it. Oh, and props to Kris Perovic too... he'd kill me if I didn't give him any, because he made a last minute fix for me that worked out great.

 

Ally: I bet it is and lol we don't want you dead right in the middle of the interview. Can you describe the deck you ran in Houston SJ Please?

 

Chris: Emon, and I both had the same idea before the jump. We both went very different ways with it though.

 

Chris: My deck was mostly aimed to simply take advantage of the conservative plays that most people make.

 

Chris: With such an aggressive deck and so many cards that can't be hurt by defensive traps, for the most part it worked out amazing.

 

Chris: Matt Peddle wrote a VERY in depth article about my deck on metagame.com under his champions section.

 

Chris: If you want to get a better look at the idea and concept, I suggest you check it out.

 

Ally: Alright, I forgot to ask who is on your team?

 

Chris: Chris SoRelle (me), James Naughton, Harry Anderson, Brad Poth, Russell Jessen, Ryan Cerda, Kyle Fisher and Brandon Crutchfield.

 

Ally: Very impressive team you have there. On a different subject, what do you think of the current banned list?

 

Chris: The current banned list isn't bad at all, even though ring and snatch are unbalanced cards. I don't think they are THAT bad. There will always be unbalanced cards in this game.

 

Chris: The thing I have the biggest concern with is the amount of OTK's in the metagame

 

Chris: I think it's terrible for the game as a whole.

 

Chris: Even when siding, you're basically just hoping you can draw card X or card Y before a certain combo goes off and you lose.

 

Chris: I wish they would update it more often with smaller changes but the list itself is fine for now.

 

Ally: Eh I guess it is. I just wish they stop adding more cards and taking off less cards. What you think of that?

 

Chris: I think you're right; it limits the amount of cards that can be played.

 

Chris: But also, if they continue the way they're doing things, I wish more playable cards would be made.

 

Chris: Nothing ridiculously broken, just cards that can actually compete in todays metagame instead of the usual trash we get.

 

Ally: Do you consider Samurai Decks Good?

 

Chris: Haha... I probably know why you asked this, but I'm not gonna ask.

 

Chris: No, I don't consider them good at all.

 

Chris: I think they're absolutely atrocious.

 

Chris: From what I've tested so far through a few samurai builds I just despise the way the play and how draw dependent they really are.

 

Chris: I don't think they're consistent enough to ever win a major event, and I consider the deck very lucky to even top 16 one.

 

Ally: What if I told you two sets from now (after Force Of The Breaker and Tactical Evolution) in Gladiators Assault there was more Samurai support and it was GOOD would you have a different opinion?

 

Chris: If it was good... maybe.

 

Chris: But for now, I think they're trash.

 

Chris: My opinion is always subject to change based on what’s going to happen in the future though.

 

Ally: Ok, I see. What do you think of this if there was two of each of the following cards for the next banned list: 2x Torrential Tributes, 2x Mirror Forces, 2x Scapegoats, and 2x Swords Of Revealing Light. I been seeing many made-up banned list like this so what’s your views on it.

 

Chris: More Torrential and Mirror Force would be pretty bad; we don't need more mass removal. Too much would make it to where just anyone can play them, too little would make it to where you can overextend every turn; I think that's fine where it is.

 

Chris: I don't see a single reason for goats to not be back at 3.

 

Chris: Swords doesn't need to be at 2 at all. We have Steelcage, G-bind and LLAB. Tons of stall is already there.

 

Chris: So if those changes were on the list, I would think they were terrible, except the goats, which should be at 3.

 

Ally: I see. What do you want to see put on the banned list and if you had to take one card off the banned list what would it be and why?

 

Chris: I'd like to see Snatch put back on the banned list. It can turn the tide of a game way too easy. Plus we have brain control.

 

Chris: If I could take one card off it would probably be Time Seal.

 

Chris: That card shouldn't be banned at all, not to mention its one of my favorite cards out there.

 

Chris: With Tsuki banned, it's nowhere near ban worthy.

 

Ally: What about getting it back with Mask Of Darkness?

 

Chris: Even with mask at 2, Time seal isn't broken at all.

 

Chris: I just really don't see a point of it being banned with tsuki banned as well.

 

Ally: Hm, Konami doesn't like all those locks, OTKs, and FTKs that’s one of the reasons why. Whats a more annoying game ender: Ring of Destruction Or Snatch Steal?

 

Chris: Ring has more of a potential to be a game ender.

 

Chris: But the more annoying one to me is snatch.

 

Chris: No real reason why, I just hate losing to snatch.

 

Ally: I can name one reason most probably, because when people are about to lose and they top deck it and snatch steal your monster and then your opponent wins with it. Well to me that’s an annoying game ender. Do you play any other card games other then Yu-Gi-Oh!?

 

Chris: I don't play any other TCGs. I'm an avid poker player though. I play online and in real life tons for all sorts of stakes. Speaking of playing cards, I'm also getting into learning how to do magic tricks! It's exciting.

 

Ally: oOo with cards or other items?

 

Chris: I'm starting off with cards for now. If I enjoy it enough, I'll move on to actually trying to learn real tricks haha.

 

Ally: That is great! What are your future goals regarding Yu-Gi-Oh!?

 

Chris: I'm looking forward to attending a few events this summer that are mainly Nationals and SJC Indy. After that I really have no clue; only time will tell.

 

Ally: I wish you the best of luck in Nationals and sadly the interview is almost over :<. What advice can you give to any new player that is now starting Yu-Gi-Oh!?

 

Chris: Thanks for the interview. To all new players, the best advice I can ever give you is to just play A LOT with players that are better than you as much as you can. It's the only way to get better.

 

Chris: I'd like to give a shout out to everyone I know personally, but it would take up a lot of space haha; so if I know you SHOUT OUT TO YOU!

 

Ally: Thanks for the interview Chris! Well since you already gave a shout out is there anything else you like to say for a closing statement?

 

Chris: Hrm.

 

Chris: Yes.

 

Chris: WE'RE GONNA GET IT BACK!

 

 


 


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