Sportsmanship and Yu-Gi-Oh.

[@apsamplifier]

_Goddamn._

[@Mushr88mBreW]

Ghat dayumn? 😮

[@daggerofstyxx1387]

Goddaammnnn

[@MechaTamago]

Gyatt

[@MurdocIsASaint]

I hate that you can’t surrender in Master Duel without getting the finger from Konami

[@nicholasgonzalez4021]

Like that, like that

[@NewtBannner]

Paul’s first title for this video was “The Problem with Yugioh and Sportsmanship”, don’t let him fool you

[@Lewku]

unity + yu-jo friendship (doubt they wash their hands after going to the toilet)@@makingadjustments

[@jorgegamboa5151]

One of my fondest memories about suspicious sportsmanship was this time at locals back in 2019. I was on Salamangreat. My opponent was on Marincess. They went first and before they made their opening play, they asked me “Hey, buddy if you had Nibiru you’d tell me right?” I just raised my eyebrow and was like “No…I wouldn’t tell you.” He was like “oh great, I can just go off.” And he proceeded to make a full marincess board. At the end of his main phase, I activated Nib. Dude was so salty, explaining “wtf dude you told me you didn’t have it!…” And proceeded to rage quit and leave the tourney…. It still makes me laugh he thought I was displaying poor sportsmanship 😂….

[@floooowandereese]

Their skill issue for not making Toad on 5th summon But jokes aside, i hate it when people do stuff like that. Asking "Do you have Nibiru on hand?", or counting every single summon attempt i make, it's such cringe behavior. If you want to count my summon, just do it in your head without saying it out loud. But if they lose track of my summon it's fine to ask "How many times summon you've done?", that is as long as they actually have Nibiru.

[@flacosantana7178]

@@floooowandereese Fun Fact, Asking how many summons an opponent has done and not having Nib in hand is not a Rule Violation. Let's be real what if I want to know how many times a deck can Special Summon or just Summon in General and I don't know beforehand. Yes I know it's a Sus Angle Shooting Tactic but are we gonna keep making a big deal out of this ruling?

[@floooowandereese]

@@flacosantana7178 I see your point and i think for that purpose it's completely fine. What i don't like is when someone intentionally luring their opponent to think "Oh they have Nibiru on hand", prompting them to make suboptimal play.

[@SirFailsalot91]

"Hey, you'd tell me if you had this card that will totally screw over my combo, right?" Why the hell would anyone tell you that, bro? lol

[@Angelite1209]

It's classified as cheating if your opponent asks you beforehand if you have a certain card in your deck. Never do this, it's plain toxic behavior. An opponents deck must always be unkown. Next time call a judge to disqualify any player pressuring you to reveal a card from ypur deck.

[@davidkraft314]

The worst form of sportmanship that I experienced was from a guy I was facing during the brand new synchro era. He was losing and was down to his last 100 lifepoints, he played a card facedown attack mode, and said "This is my stardust dragon, just so you know, I don't want anyone to see this ghost rare card. I have had people bugging me for a while to get their hands on this, and just so you know, this is my ghost rare stardust dragon." I had to call over the guy running the tournament and he refused to reveal the card in any form. He was willing to be branded as a cheater just to get the win. The best form of sportsmanship I've seen is when a 9 year old at my locals drew all 5 pieces of exodia first turn and the entire card shop burst into applause. The kid left feeling really proud of himself.

[@needahobby6830]

You can't be mad at the kid, he pulled off what every yugioh player wanted to pull off at least once.

[@aranzabonanza7231]

I don't mean to be insulting when I say this but was he autistic by chance? sounds really similar to some of my acquaintances who were diagnosed with it.

[@PartyMarty321]

@@needahobby6830some kid resolved Time Wizard vs an entire field of monsters when I was playing 60-Card Zombiesworn. Next turn I OTK’d him but still… I let him know it was really cool and it was some anime level play!

[@IAMMechTastic]

That's like 0.4% chance. Daaamn I'd take that loss anyday

[@AugustD_777]

The second part of this comment reads like one of those fake tumblr stories "and then the whole school clapped".

[@kirika119]

I’ve had my opponent compliment my deck during a tournament once and I’m still super happy about it. That made my day…

[@nelsal6416]

Ikr? Those wholesome moments are amazing when they do happen!

[@whiteeclipse5426]

I can relate to the high tension in the YGO sphere. At my locals it seemed like there was maybe one or two people who really wanted to play there for fun and then all the other people were there for full competitive YGO. And while there is nothing wrong with it as it was certainly a competitive scene I was going to on a short weekly basis, the stress was definitely palpable. Maybe when the Snakes-Eyes stuff is over I'll finally come back to locals but for the time being I am not holding my breath to return.

[@yannrobeiri]

Worst thing on MD is for me : • People surrendering when they're about to lose to a an old school super respectful (not stall, not anti-meta, not floodgate, not exodia) deck.

[@Xelamorph67]

As a very casual player, the meta scene of YGO is pretty interesting to me. I'd prefer to get as much value as I can out of my favourite archetypes (Gravekeepers, Toon, Blue Eyes)

[@3cho_dimension285]

A fellow Gravekeeper, you are exactly right.... That's why I love Yugioh Duel Links I get to have fun with all the archetypes even the not so serious ones like I wanna see if I can have fun with a Goblins Deck ya know just experience it all with some fun ppl

[@CollectorNova]

Yay, more casual for fun peeps! I want to try meta but its so boring and samey. Love the many archatypes outside of meta.

[@SzinDragon]

Regarding sportsmanship, at the first local YuGiOh event I went to, I faced off against a Yata-Lock deck in my first round. I brought my burn/heal Fire Princess deck. This person eventually managed to get Yata on the field and asked if I wanted to surrender right then and there. I said no, because by the time he got it out, I had enough of my stall/heal cards out that unless he had something to destroy my spells & traps, there's no way he could do enough damage to me before running out of cards. I won, and yeah, he was not happy at all. The next person I faced had a similar deck to mine and I lost, but he was much more friendly. Later on, the store owner told me that the person I beat was a judge and had only lost twice all year, including me. It kind of made me realize that I was much more of a casual player than a serious competitor. I just brought that deck for fun because it was my favorite one at the time. But, at the time, a ton of the best players were using Yata until it was banned. I sold the Yata I got in a box to get a lot of other cards I wanted for fun. Anyway, I get why people take it seriously, but I don't think I could ever do so.

[@crossdaboss8914]

One thing that gets me is when the community goes after and kind of throws shade at budget or players who play decks they like I actually stopped going to locals over getting spoken down to by people who are play 1,000$ decks and treat people who don't take it that serious like shit

[@Oblivionm24]

Awesome story

[@stereotypicalemousername9507]

@@crossdaboss8914my entire locals is like that and it’s awful i just wanna play my heroes and have fun im taking a break till april and i’m putting together spright twins for when i come back

[@jbone_malone]

I'm glad you brought this up. I was at locals recently. I was facing my opp, but the issue was the opp's buddy had a bye for that round and was talking with us during our match. I informed both that I was just back into Yu-Gi-Oh and I needed to learn the new cards. Well the buddy kept interrupting and asking about my hand and talking about my hand in general. This led to my opp figuring out one of my trap cards. It really hindered me and nearly ruined my time. I was already struggling to keep up with Runick.

[@SirFailsalot91]

His buddy may as well have just had a mirror held up behind you as you played in order to show him your hand. lol

[@snowboundwhale6860]

Yeah from the description that sounds like malicious chatting, given it was their friend talking it's a plausibly deniable version of your opponent asking you about your hand, a hidden zone they shouldn't have knowledge of, and it's generally rude to be disruptive like that regardless.

[@SonicMegaKing]

You played Runick, you deserve to have a terrible time.

[@theWIIISEguy]

​@@SonicMegaKing You're the problem. Please quit the hobby.

[@SonicMegaKing]

Yu-Gi-Oh is the problem. It should've died years ago but the players cling to nostalgia and are too dumb to quit. So they just stay and whine.

[@zacharymaher2855]

When I was a kid, I used to almost always get real upset if I lost at a game, not just Yu-Gi-Oh! This very quickly drove people to steer clear from interacting with me. I used to embarrass myself and those around so much, cause I couldn't pull my head out my own ass, and just enjoy the fact I had someone to play the game with. So nowadays, I do my best to just take things easy and not take the game too seriously. It feels good to win, and sometimes losing does suck, but at the end of the day, it is just a game, with little to no stakes.

[@AoyagiMei]

Sadly for some people there are stakes. More rewards at the end of a local shop tournament (and bigger events) is a good enough of a reason for people to discard sportsmanship.

[@FireRising86]

@@AoyagiMeiwell those people need a life

[@THEGRUMPTRUCK]

I got a win in a tournament by the weirdest way. I was playing a guy and I lost my first match. He was playing a very unusual deck, but his moves were legal and it was very cool to watch him pop off. I complimented his deck by basically telling him that's one of the coolest turns I'd seen and he started going off on me. Because of it it took two judges to calm him down and he was removed from the match and the venue, I was given the win. I heard from someone later that guy was always omega-level salty, abd did not take compliments or insults well at all, he was super arrogant, and even a slight change in his plans always made him explode.

[@Shutterbugjon]

“I’m cocky in prediction, I’m confident in preparation, but I am always humble in victory or defeat

[@Guy1189]

Worst experience: At a locals recently, I played against someone who spent the majority of my turn essentially mocking me for going through the standard Floo combo line. I would Normal Robina, Search Eglen etc. While I'm making my moves, revealing my search targets, and so on, he is repeating me in a condescending tone. I'm pretty chill and I get that Floo isn't everyone favorite deck to play against, but you don't have to mock me for it. Best experience: At a box tournament, playing Floo again (which I typically play in more competitive prizing scenarios) I come up against someone playing Snake-Eye/R-ACE. He beats my ass and it wasn't close. Afterward, we pulled my deck apart, completely restructured and he even gifted me copies of Talents and Prosperity.

[@fortunamajor7239]

I would've taken a second to stare @ the first person and be like 'are you OK? if you don't like playing with others solitaire is an option' or something bc they sound insufferable. Sucks you had to deal with that

[@FireRising86]

Second guy sounds real chill. I like people like that

[@kings.kards08]

worst was opponent trying to bully me into saying i lost

[@SageTigerStar]

Had this happen myself. I was fighting for 1st at my locals, got game 1 easily, and after I won game 2, they tried to gaslight me saying we only played a single game. They laughed and said it out loud to a bunch of their friends who were also playing, saying i was trying to cheat and take the match after a single duel. I was so confused why someone would do this, and since the shop didn't have a way to keep track of how many games we played, it was him and his group of friends he got to back him up vs my word as his opponent. We ended up playing 2 more games and he ended up getting the win cuz he opened better in those games. I was pissed af.

[@SirFailsalot91]

At least it's a reason to use paper score trackers, I suppose - it's hard to argue you've only played one game when there's papers with the life point tally on them to prove otherwise. But yeah, that's just plain shitty behaviour, definitely a "never play this person again" moment.

[@djjorge87]

​@@SirFailsalot91very good point!

[@AoyagiMei]

The game is already unfriendly enough to new players with the complexity and crappy product designs, then on top you have piss poor communities because of all the cliques and bullying that goes on at LGS. 😢

[@kings.kards08]

@@SageTigerStar that's another thing ruiling when your at a different locals it just so happens if your card doesn't actually do that

[@TQo1]

Going into BP without having Evenly is fine and I wouldnt know any argument against it. Even morally its fine, Idk how people could think thats a bad thing

[@supersaucysaul5400]

Yeah, I mean you are putting yourself at risk of wasting your battle phase anyway

[@mgreen1003]

Sportsmanship and respect to ones fellow humans shows maturity and intelligence. I was pretty let down watching the last rounds of the 3v3, so much hubris over a card game. Thanks for making this vid, Paul. Maybe someone will learn a thing or two about whats really important when we duel.

[@Oblivionm24]

Agreed!

[@cibinomin6540]

what do you expect from people that dont shower

[@SirFailsalot91]

​@@cibinomin6540so greasy that this burn set them on fire. lol

[@SageTigerStar]

I'd say my best experience with my local YGO community came when I had my collection stolen. This was back when "The Lost Millennium" had been out for about a week, I was young and kept my whole collection in a small plastic case just slightly larger than a Nintendo Gamecube system. Someone from the shop stole it from the table behind me while I was at the counter (they were never seen again after this) but I had really been looking forward to joining in the tournament that day, so a bunch of the players actually went through their stuff and just gave me extras to build a deck with. I was given a set of each original vanilla HERO, 2 Skyscraper, 2 Flame Wingman and Thunder Giants, and a whole common-core of Warrior support cards. I ended up winning that day, not just in the tourney, but feeling a real sense of comradery with the other players. They were also surprised and happy for me, considering what went down just a few hours prior.

[@spicymemes7458]

The best sportsmanship I have seen is from kids. Most are just happy to play, and they usually have a good attitude, assuming anime protagonists had some influence. The adults are alright, but so many hold a grudge.

[@sazashime1761]

Well apparently im 30+ year old kid 😂

[@MrSDCHARGRS]

The adults described here are the real children

[@FireRising86]

Amazing how the ones that can drive, drink, vote and fight in wars have less self control than small children

[@four-en-tee]

I came into Yugioh from the Smash community, and a decades old adage in their competitive scene is "No Johns", which means no excuses. Regardless of some of the more fundamental problems with this game (namely the slanted advantage of going first and the cards that can make that stupidly oppressive like IP Masquerena, floodgates or what have you), its my belief that you should still try to approach each game as a learning opportunity. Its a children's card game, just try to have fun.

[@SirFailsalot91]

One of the "Rules of Kaijudo" from the Duel Masters TCG was "I have no enemies, my opponent is my teacher" - it's a great way to promote the idea that you will always have something new to learn for your next game.

[@pamoon_]

That being said we don’t have a banlist in Smash Ultimate, otherwise Steve and Sonic might get hit.

[@LARZMARZ94]

Well said! The card shop where I played official YuGiOh tournaments had really respectful players. I learned the way to good sportsmanship from the calm and energetic ambiance (for lack of a better word). This was the first time I played against human players irl as an adult. The good sportsmanship drove me to wanting to participate more, where I may have been turned away if I saw bad sportsmanship

[@DarkAuraLord]

Competition attracts certain types of people and inevitably either breeds cheating or attracts cheaters. I don't think there is a single competitive scene for anything devoid of cheaters, even in shit with absolutely NO stakes whatsoever, no reward other than the self satisfaction of doing it - speed running is a great example of this. Even in professional athletics and sports, people cheat with things like steroids or finding sneaky and sly ways to break certain rules for advantages over the other team - you even have shit like adderall abusing in professional e-sports like CSGO. Sometimes, a part of that competitive mindset is doing anything you can to win. If it sounds like I'm demonizing competitive people, it's actually just the opposite - this isn't necessarily a bad trait, it's just an ideology that can be taken too far when it reaches the point of undermining competition entirely (aka cheating). That drive and desire to do anything you can to win is ultimately what makes a lot of competitive players as much of a beast as they are.

[@SirFailsalot91]

It's the divide between sportsmanship, gamesmanship and cheating. Sportsmanship is the healthy competition where there's respect and fair play between everyone, and enjoying the game for the sake of the game rather than winning. Gamesmanship is all about winning, even if it means bending the rules or playing dirty without explicitly cheating. And of course, cheating is just straight up breaking the rules simply because you can and you enjoy doing so, especially if you don't get caught and you win because of it.

[@MurdocIsASaint]

I hate that you can’t surrender in Master Duel without getting the finger from Konami

[@JustCallMeKart]

Wdym middle finger from konami?

[@Realdeal958]

​@@JustCallMeKart I think what they may be referring to is how in Master Duel if you surrender you don't get any rewards or anything. And seeing how surrendering in Master Duel is common, it can probably be frustrating for some players.

[@Boyzby]

Konami really ransoming what little you get for a loss, just because you don't want to sit through a combo people do even when they know for sure they've won. It's so frustrating

[@Realdeal958]

@@Boyzby Also I'm positive most of my losses has come from surrendering. Which definitely makes it worse in my eyes. When your staring down an unbeatable board it's much better to just quit which has happened so many times it's essentially most of my loss record

[@Maximusls2400]

Lol “Thinking” never heard of that one lolzlzlzlz

[@shortflame4366]

THIS! My worst experiance that made me go strictly digital with MD. I went to Locals with Dark Magician main gimmick being Dm The Dragon Knight + Eternal's Souls effect and when he read both cards called me a few slurs and threw my deck. I have never felt so embarrassed in my life in a place i considered safe. And it killed lgs's for me as that guy just let loose with various things that make my skin crawl. Its a game not a fight to the death, no one makes 500K+ for winning a LGS tourney. Some duelists just dont need to be in these events if they cant be a manchild about a deck they dont like. And then proceed to throw another players deck is just grounds for banning. Anyways enough of my rambling great vid, and I wish everyone good luck on their duels! Game On!!

[@iatdtv4996]

It's never my opponents fault i lost. it's mine. Afterwards, i go home, look through my cards, and work out what tweaks i can make to avoid losing the same way again.

[@OwenLeBlanc-l7h]

Oh I like that avenge me remark. It basically acknowledges the person's victory while getting them on your side.

[@O-Artistry]

in regards to the IP, move to battle phase for evenly thing. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that at events, you both have to agree? normally if I was in main phase 1 and wanted to leave to battle, I say "attempt to move to battle phase" or "attempt to move to end phase" ect. If they say yes, that's it your green light to be in it, if they say "oh wait I have a response" then its too late as they verbally agreed to moving phases. I think that ties well into sportsmanship because some people at my locals don't go through the phases they just jump straight to battle or end after the draw phase which can be annoying.

[@Maximusls2400]

Had to come back to this video…

[@grantashford4518]

For me I like to joke around a bit and have fun but I also read the room. Sometimes I see my opponent wants to be more serious I respect it and I go along with it but I have had opponents that joke around with me and it is a good time. Win or lose the goal is to have fun even in a competitive setting and usually majority of the time I have had great experiences with my opponents at events and locals.

[@halo3boy1]

in my experience in the past few years of playing Yu-Gi-Oh. I find the card game to be very oppressive so when your opponents pops off and you have to watch them cook being a good sport is the last thing on my mind.

[@konatadusk]

Won't lie I've come a long way since Mendenhall, had my share of duels, filled with salt and all. I used to get decently tilted when I'd get completely sacked, but over time even I learned sometimes it's just the state of the game. You're right, 100%, no point in getting tilted when a certain deck comes up or just a board of negates, sometimes you can even play past it and even surprise yourself with how far you come in that duel, even when losing. I actually recently got a couple of people in the game recently, and as much as I fear Unchained, one of them started with it and I gave them every possible insight to the decks capabilities, even if It meant my favorite, Blackwings, could get outted massively by them. It helped me learn what plays I have to do to get around it, rather than sit there tense and worried over the opponent's deck. I think the biggest thing is, realising that we aren't the best player, have much to learn even as veterans of the game, supporting one anothers climb to the top, even when we are another rung of the ladder sometimes for each other~

[@Yuan3627]

The I:P Masquerena thing of going to battle to bait it, I feel is still a viable strategy. It may seem scummy, but it's legal to do, so why not go for all options? The thing about holding to think when nothing can be activated, however, I feel is not legal and is very much scummy. It's making that turn's player take longer than it needs to. The counting specials for Nibiru is different. I don't think it's a bad thing to count it, especially if you have it in the deck. Also, it makes the turn player be reminded of what could stop/halt their plays and wonder if they should do 5 or more summons. Yet it ultimately it doesn't halt the turn completely. They can still make whatever plays they want.

[@SirFailsalot91]

Baiting and bluffing are genuine tactics for play since you never know what your opponent is going to drop on you, but intentionally slow playing or stalling is absolutely scummy behaviour, especially if you're going to win via time-out - it's not illegal, but it's definitely the kind of thing someone who's a poor sport would do. If you're going to wombo-combo and bring out more than five monsters in one turn, you can't exactly be mad when a Nibiru nukes your field since that's exactly what it's meant for, it all really comes down to predicting whether your opponent has it in their hand or not and taking that gamble.

[@polocatfan]

You have the legal right to enter battle phase. As long as you aren't baiting your opponent it's not illegal.

[@GrahamArnold64]

When I played standard format I loved rocking Dinomorphia, the cards are awesome looking and I'm a huge fan of dinosaurs. The floodgates weren't my favorite part of the deck but I did like how the deck functioned overall. However I hated the round time issue that happened almost every single round. People would see that there wasn't much time in the round in game 3, play more slowly than normal, and I'd lose since I'm always at a low LP total with the deck. Honestly kind of turned me away from playing in general, I could never outright call someone out for playing slow.

[@Stormhawk777]

Response: I use baronne to negate your sportsmanship

[@yannrobeiri]

Oh yeah, Baronne into my old school deck every day. That's just pure disrespect. I surrender instantaneously.

[@sirswagabadha4896]

I think my worst experience is pretty easy. There was some guy I played against at locals once who was...unpleasant to go against, in pretty much every way. He had a NSFW mat and field center that made me uncomfortable, but I didn't say anything since I didn't want to start our match off with tension. Even if I give the benefit of the doubt that he just didn't quite know how his cards worked and wasn't intentionally trying to cheat, there were definitely times where it was clear he was trying to twist things in his favor as much as possible. One example is that I activated an effect that sent his traptrix sera to the gy, he responded with a trap, and then on resolution argued that sera could trigger (from the gy) because a trap was activated while she was on the field. He kept arguing it and I eventually just let him do it since I was in a winning position anyway. He didn't outright yell or anything but was acting visibly annoyed when he did lose, too. That's definitely an outlier case though. Most of the people I play against are fun and cause no problems. The people at my locals mostly fall into 2-3 friend groups so games are often full of banter. People smack talk and what not, but I don't see anybody getting genuinely upset over losing or gloating to anybody other than friends who are in on it. Whether people like it or not, yugioh is inherently a social game, you directly interact with another person in a 1-on-1 scenario and have to clearly communicate information to each other in order to progress and maintain the game state. There is nothing you can do to bypass or ignore that, short of having a simulator like master duel that handles all the inputs and rulings for you. Whenever you play in paper, you necessarily have to be able to functionally cooperate with your opponent, or else you won't have a game

[@davidsparling9631]

One of the reasons I originally quit the game was when one of my opponents looked at me in my face and aggressively told me that I was poor.

[@francisharkins]

I go to play for fun and joke around with my opponent if I can, especially if its someone I've played against often which extends to my personal gripe. My locals tends to do random pulls and the last 5 times I went I always got the same opponents or a free win because someone left early. It got to the point I joked with the judge/shop owner that I didn't want the free win I wanted to lose like a man and he told me back in a silly way "No, you'll take the W and like it."

[@CPG3333]

I’ve played a lot of different TCGs and interested with their communities at large on a competitive level. Yu-Gi-Oh has by far the most toxic player base, both locally as well as more broadly.

[@okiemax]

Buddy an I where at a shop when the local folks were coming in. The one guy we talked to had a visual negative reaction when we said, "for the most part we play causal so we dont feel the need for ash blossom" Which is true, my friends an i don't need ash blossom. We arent running 1000 dollar decks. We each have several play sets of ash so we can, but to us, its fun to see what the deck avross the table can do. We are going to duel at the locals night next Tuesday hopefully and i plan on taking my exosisters who is my "competitive" strong deck

[@DBZBardock00]

I think if you approach duels as a Duel Quiz, then it softens the blow of losing. Its like a puzzle. And also, throwing out a “Dang, good game!” with a smile and going for a handshake is best practice for losing in my opinion

[@lucksury]

“Good luck in your next round, Avenge Me.” Might just be the coldest thing you can say after an L

[@bchavez149]

When I play with my friends, sometimes we just tell the other person some of the cards we have in hand and even what we intend to do with them. Helps us learn how to play around things and figure out if a tech choice works or not. I rather enjoy playing like this and it helps me when I make choices for cards in the deck building process. Not everyone's cup of tea, but its really fun when you and your friend are working on new decks, testing new play lines or trying new tech options.

[@four-en-tee]

thats fine when testing, but you really should be getting used to playing without that information (or even just learning how to route in such a way to avoid losing to those cards)

[@bchavez149]

@@four-en-tee we're just fine when playing the game against non-friendgroup opponents, I was just sharing something that we do sometimes.

[@BigBear2000]

Im thinking about getting back into the tcg and starting to visit locals. This video helped a lot! Im def stealing the "avenge me" if I do any tournyes lol.

[@mentalcrackdown]

I went to my first ever tournament a couple weeks ago and the I got the genuine pleasure of my first ever tournament duel was against a judge who actually worked for the same company as me so we ended up bonding over that before our round. When we dueled he chatted with me and he had seen my deck prior and said that he was familiar with my cards even before seeing my deck so he said I didn't have to explain my effects, which put less pressure on me as a new tourney duelist. He did end up beating me in our first duel but I did actually manage to hit him for around 6K damage before he beat me, and he was very kind and supportive and told me that a few of my plays did actually catch him off guard to where he had no counter. Second round was a complete wipe on my end and it wasn't remotely close, I believe I was OTK'd. But he told me that unfortunately that is a bit common now in the game and how the game isn't the same as it was when I was very into it (I told him before I was very involved during the GX era). But overall it was a nice experience.

[@Oblivionm24]

One of my favorite topics about Yu-Gi-Oh! You are very reasonable Paul.

[@AuratticStride]

I would say a lot of the sportsmanship stuff is context dependent and is really about being a respectful communicator. like the nerves & atmosphere will be different at locals vs big tournaments, and how 2 people interact will be different depending on what they're comfortable with. Like I can imagine people who regularly have 'shoot the shit' games will just default to that playing at other places, and it's more about acknowledging whether your opponent is comfortable with that or not, and if they aren't then respecting their choice to not engage that way. Also dealing with losses can suck depending on how it goes down, especially depending on how your day has gone so far. like I could imagine people being hella frustrated if they lose their 5th match that day to some floodgate stun deck.

[@patrickcoyle5469]

Good sports are always great to see online. My favorite game of Magic Arena ended with an opponent who, rather than just concede, targeted himself with a burn spell to end the game. They probably had more fun losing that game than most people do winning. Bluffing seems standard in any card game though. The whole point of having a hand of cards is that you know what you're holding and your opponent doesn't, and you can insinuate whatever you want about it. Anything that depends on the contents of the other player's hand should come with a reveal though, because you shouldn't need a third party to settle those things.

[@EliteSniper2048]

I personally enjoy the game whether I win or lose. I like the topic you bring up from bluffs on Main Phase effects like “I:P” against “Evenly Matched”.

[@Davisauraus]

As someone who grew up playing sports and just got into TCGs i treat it the same way. Wish your opponent good luck and after whoever wins shake hands and go on about your business. Of course they will be times were you think you’ve been cheated or wrong but al you can do is control what you can.

[@matthewperutelli-zj7fc]

Magic the Gathering player here. Just figured I'd share my fun sportsmanship story. Was playing commander online with random people. Had my dragon deck. One of the opponents was running a hydra deck. They managed to pull off a Villainous Wealth for 18. Managed to get an Utvara Hellkite, The dragon that makes copies of dragons when they ETB, Scourge of the Throne and a few others. I just laughed and the table had fun with it

[@UptownDuck000]

The moment that made me stop playing competitive Yugioh was at a tournament at my LCS. I was running Cyber End Dragon OTK and managed to get my combo off pretty early (there was a surprising lack of counter play from my opponent, especially with how deep into the tournament we were). He proceeds to call over the judge and have a 15-20 mins meltdown about how I cheated, exploited the game, was faking my draws Bandit Keith style etc. Judge ultimately ruled in my favor and the other guy scoops his stuff, leaves after only going down 1-0 and yelling "what's the point? this game sucks now anyway". The whole experience really soured me on the game for a very long time. I've recently started getting back into things and I have to say I'm very proud of our community. Watching the younger generation play at my LCS these days and the genuine love and joy they have for the game is what made me excited to play again.

[@tsuchinoko01]

One of my worst memories of bad sportsmanship is where I'm not sure which one of us actually had it and who was to blame, me or my opponent. It was my friend and only duelling partner at the time and I continiously developed my deck recipe until it was kind of unbalanced and we played a lot of duells over the weeks and months of which he lost more than he won. With him occasionally winning by destroying a boss monster of mine with "Ring of Destruction". A card I gave to him to use, it had the original text before the changes and one day when the situation came up for him to use it as the errata says, I mentioned "oh btw, I randomly saw that the card text had been updated and nerfed a while ago. you actually cant do that, but go for it now. Im just saying for the future." He was kind of tense to begin with and reacted very irritated, saying with lots of salt "I dont care what the new text says, Im using it as it is stated right here. this is bs" ...we continued arguing because I was annoyed by his stubborness and thought this kind of attitude was a very bad fundament for playing this game together. he was probably annoyed with me because he felt I tried to have a high win ratio by taking away another win condition, one of the few he had left against my deck. We played less Yugioh after that. so what do you think? imo he should have just accepted the offical ruling and try to improve his deck with better cards like I did and get over it.

[@SUPERKITTY9K]

As long as a player doesn’t cheat or attempts to cheat I DO NOT CARE HOW RUDE, DISRESPECTFUL, OR DOUCHY THEY ARE… tbh all I genuinely care about is fairness… The reason for this is because it creates an environment where you have a real life antagonist where you wanna beat them in a duel or you’re rooting for someone to beat them and it feels relieving when they lose. Literally like the anime when kaiba trash talks and loses lol

[@PetenarYT]

I like the "Avenge me" line, gonna use that at my digimon regionals when I go 0 - 8

[@nelsal6416]

The IP example is valid and i just remember in master duel when it asks you: "continue main phase?"

[@yannisravas]

those would be a great podcast to listen before bed or in the bus or sum JUST BRAINSTORMING STILL LOVE UR VIDS THANKSS❤

[@Trascist]

When i started playing at locals, i definitely noticed better players dismissing me, not making eye contact or taking it seriously. And i get it, they would crush me every time, but it’s not fun when your opponent is acting like you’re wasting their time

[@jeanpitre5789]

Paul is the sasuke of the yugioh universe. He's emotionally invested but doesn't show it in his expressions 😂

[@evilcoress9397]

Love the positive attitude 🙌🏽

[@chappell10690]

0:10 😂😂 I see what you did there “no particular reason” and “god damn” 😂😂

[@Auovix]

I've only ever been upset about a time loss with full combo in hand I like to open a pack or 2 with my opponents after decisive wins it helps lighten the mood

[@xCorvus7x]

0:54 Coming from Master Duel, this communication which is necessary to even play makes the game a lot more relaxed and civil, I find. When you communicate openly what you do when and ask your opponent all the time whether they have a response, how could you be all that tilted if they actually have one at some point? It's bound to happen and if they have it and it means you lose, that's how it is. Your opponent would have to be mocking you throughout the match or you'd have to have had a really bad day up to then to lose your temper over the response that determins the game or puts the final nail in the coffin. However, in those cases you're already pretty tilted before they have that response, so it wouldn't actually be the reason you lost your temper.

[@yannrobeiri]

I also hate it when people scoop when they realize they're being outplayed by old school cards. I can't even enjoy the satisfaction of activating my "gryphon wing" if the game stops there ! 😑 Maybe, I gave them the feather duster with "exchange". But come on bro. YGO players are Salty losers. SAAALTYY. Can't be happy for their opponent. Scooping = not shaking hands = disrespect. I scoop when I see Accesscode Talker or Baronne. I negate this cards with my FF. I just refuse to play them. 😂

[@yannrobeiri]

Any minor upset and people rage quit !!! That's not sport if you only play a perfect starting hand. 🧐

[@genyatus]

My experience with sportsmanship in YGO is best described with playing against Synchron at locals and getting burned when it was time on the round. That was the last time I played irl.

[@BmanTheChamp]

Whether I'm playing casual or competitive, the only time I get upset is if I get locked out of playing. Like, what was even the point, then?

[@millermcd]

Yeah that's my problem, I like casual decks but the only locals near me is very competitive so if I go there it just feels bad cause I don't really get to play the game. That said the players are nice, but I'm not on their level and don't really want to be.

[@BmanTheChamp]

@millermcd Honestly, same here. I've been to maybe 2 locals, but both times I went, while the people there were fine, I just got stomped. It's turned me off from playing competitive.

[@fumoffu_l]

​ I get that. I love in Kansas City, and no gaming community has any chill. Yugioh locals are all tier 1 or 0 decks. No room to take a rogue strategy and even win a single round. Even the smash community here is cut throat. It can still be fun, but it can be hard to enjoy the games when 99% of the people that show up are going as hard as they can at all times.

[@rapmetaldemon09]

I guess my question is why is bluffing, intimidating, or distracting your opponent bad? As long as you aren't being openly rude or abusive or breaking any kind of rule, psychological tactics are part of any game or battle. I have recently started playing games with others (especially strangers/randoms) less in general because some people are just that toxic, annoying, and arrogant. I understand why people's demeanor can ruin things for someone, but I don't think trying to make your opponent think your hand is bad, or asking them "are you sure you want to do that?" Or stupid things like that are all that dangerous. It's about the same as putting a useless spell face down so the opponent thinks you might at least have something to surprise them with. These mind games have crafted some player's entire strategies around just going for a play anyway even if it's possible their opponent has disruptions or traps.

[@meejlauj1282]

In my first tournament, I told one of the player that is was my first time and I'm not familiar with other decks so I need him to read his effects. He did tell me the effects for 2 turns but then stopped because it was making the game too slow for him. I think about my opponent too so I usually read my effects and he said once with an attitude, "I know what your card does so hurry up." I was shocked he said that to me. It was just rude. Other than that, I had fun and the other opponents were more pleasant and friendly than he was.

[@mattgay9320]

I went to a locals years ago. This was at a point in time where I was just getting back into the game after a breakup. My buddy took me down there with a Fabled-Dark World deck he helped me build. My opponent was playing Gravekeepers, so obviously Necrovalley took me to town. He legit looks at me and says "Look man you don't have a chance to win just give up". And I ain't no quitter. So I wanted to see if I could draw an out. I didn't, went to next game and I scooped. I get now that timing is a thing (didn't then), and maybe that was his concern, but he certainly didn't convey that in a very sporting way.

[@yondaime_tv]

Mad respect for Pak in the last round Team YCS finals.

[@beverlyshields2399]

Coming from competitive mtg to yugioh the reactions to bluffing are, to my mind, insane. Your point about the I:p is a fantastic example of a great bluff, they either call it and you skip your battle phase that turn or they play into the bluff and get played. Its just another skill that players should have in their repertoire. In mtg one of our all time best players used his on field resources to represent making a token to block but actually had a boardwipe he could activate with those same resources in his hand. He pulled the token from his deck box and messed with it, signaling an intention to make it to block, the opponent played into that signal and got punished. It was at the time widely considered to be a brilliant play. The consepts of sportsmenship in mtg vs yugioh is so wildly different, like in mtg it mostly boils down to "Don't get salty and accept defeat with grace and dont rub victory into an opponents face" so yugiohs version is just such a wildly foreign concept to me.

[@SageTigerStar]

There's already vids out there talking about how YGO would see that exact form of bluff as bad sportsmanlike conduct and punish you for it. Whilst mind-games and tricking opponents into making bad moves is a great skill to have in games or...life in general...when they essentially threaten you with a game/match loss/booting for doing it, that's kinda shitty...and Yugioh is no stranger to making rules that are shitty for their players. lol, I mean...they even did mind-games like that in the anime, but ya know, "The anime isn't a good representation of the TCG/OCG official card game".

[@beverlyshields2399]

@@SageTigerStar learned bluffing was illegal when in one of my first big tournaments I started off handedly to the side started tracking summons on a d6. Got dq'ed. I was more flabbergasted then angry because the idea of a card game that exists without bluffing was so foreign to me.

[@djjorge87]

I love that you used competitive integrity in the podcast I started that term and use it all the time on your videos and others. I really think yugioh lacks it completely it didn't use to be like that back when I started. I tell these kids off I am way to old to be disrespected by these kids lmao. I tell them from the get. I don't tell you how to play you don't tell me how to play KAPISH!!!!

[@ketzerapathetic1414]

Honestly, I love devious mind games inside of my card games. It was how we played as kids, bluffing like it was poker. As I got older and realized that a lot of people get upset over that sort of thing I stopped doing it. But when I find those types that are about that game, I'm really into it.

[@SirFailsalot91]

I wouldn't say bluffing is a bad thing, it's been a part of the game since day one (setting a spell card in order to make your opponent play cautiously in case it's a Mirror Force or so they waste an MST) and it's the "acceptable" kind of mind game. It's more the "outside of the game mechanics" stuff that's the issue, like not declaring which phase you're going into or not keeping track of life points - I even found a Reddit post where someone was getting threatened with a judge call by an opponent because they sleeved their Main and Extra Decks differently from each other (even though Konami have ruled that you can do so.) Of course the point of the game is to win, but it's how you get there and how you behave that matters.

[@fracazer]

I have to say that stuff like going into battlephase to fake an evenly or faking a nibiru is something that surprised me quite a lot going into yugioh by how badly it is seen. I'm the type of person who see these type of stuff as just outplaying/bluffing and see it as totally fine but I know a lot of players absolutely hate it. And even konami forbidding to fake stuff like "hey I have nibiru" or whatever is something I still find weird. But ig yugioh is complex enough by itself to want to play mind games with ur opponent too 😅

[@Aaron-l3l6g]

I think the only time ive ever been unsportsmanlike to an opponent was when i was on Zombie World and they were on Floowandereeze. They proceeded to slow play me into oblivion and activated Advent in time and offered the handshake because he was ahead on life. I have never come so close to wanting to throttle someone in my life.

[@Cardlimits]

I think with the current events that have been unfolded, the best you can do is be good and hopefully it spreads. My best experiences is when the duel ends with a smile because of the deck I'm using. my worse is between someone thought I was cheating, and the time I was told I'm too poor to play.

[@yannrobeiri]

People who don't let your last attack go through while you're winning with flying elephant. 👀 Let me have it bruh come on, why so salty.

[@DuraluminBurner]

I like, "Avenge me." I always say a similar thing. Something to the effect of: "You'd better win. I'm not gonna feel good about losing to anyone but the winner."

[@Sp3llmen]

In response to the "tense" part, I get SUPER anxious at regionals and higher, locals I'm usually ok, but big tournaments my anxiety is through the roof. So usually Im the person that just says "ok" to everything and doesnt say a whole lot because my brain is going a million miles an hour and its hard to make a response while having a panic attack lmao

[@ShadowFlame74]

What attracts me to the content from APS so heavily are the classic Yu-Gi-Oh duels: Using structure decks from the 2010's, very little hand traps and playing a much slower paced game. The strategy lies in card management, as well as constantly maintaining a strong offence and defense, wheras what I observe from the current meta is that a great deck and game is determined by how effectively and often you can stop your opponent from making extended and interesting plays. Which in my experience, is stopping players from doing what makes the game fun. I full agree with your statements on sportsmanship, people shouldn't imply they do or don't have certain cards, but I also wish those cards never existed so we would not have this problem. I know there are traditional formats but it would nice to see the largely dominated format encourage both players towering up to decked-out boards and big monsters rather than "if your opponent does anything: they can no longer do that thing" I have been wanting to play at my locals for some time now, but have always been held back by the cost and sticking to this desire to avoid hand traps (this, limiting me to never being able to last more than one turn. This is my first time expressing my thoughts and hesitations. Thank you team APS and Paul for creating an environment that sparks conversation and a community that aims to be understanding.

[@LordKenntax]

Just recently had a major discuss with a really good friend. I'm a more competitive player while he's not. He doesn't understand that drawing testhands will help him with playing and he refuses to do it. So he mainly practises on me and it take him sooo long to take actions. Even if I never played a deck after maybe 5 games I could play each of his decks. Not perfect but for sure much faster. So the last game we played I played Lab and he played performerpals. I made the basic Lab combo and passed. Played a total of 18 effects (most of them were chains) until we got into that discussion. The game was running for about 80minutes when I started to argue that he's playing way to slow. So basically I had about 7min playtime in a 80min game. Haven't played since that again though. I know it's harsh but we're playing since 2018 together and it's always been this way.

[@stephieavo7258]

Idk I always have some kind of interaction during locals that leaves me feeling kind of iffy. The worst one in recent memory was a guy you got visibly upset at the fact I was playing labrynth and said „I feel like I’m getting angry“ and at first I thought he was joking. But then he just kept getting more rude and rude. During the last round he didnt pay attention to anything that I did and just talked to his friends while I was waiting to check if my activations were fine and if he had a response. After his evenly didnt win him the game he just got more upset and said that „the creator of the deck should get sent to a concentration camp“. He probably meant it as a joke and his friends laughed it off but I was left feeling incredibly uncomfortable. Absolute embarrassing behaviour

[@animedaz7279]

About feints and bluffs. In My Opinion, the cards you have in your hand are hidden for a reason. Feinting and bluffing is a skill (although there are subtle and more obvious ways to do it). The example of "I'm going straight to the Battle Phase" bluff is IMO fine because it can be called (in which case you lose your Main Phase 1 and probably the opportunity to win via battle damage on that turn). Everyone runs hand traps and/or board breakers in yugioh. With that in mind expect 1 or 2 interruptions. I try to progress through my combos in a way that accounts for likely hand traps. I know that if certain cards resolve then my opponent doesn't have any of the cards that could negate it. If Nibiru is a game-ending threat then I will prepare for it as part of my main combo (because they actually will have Nibiru sometimes). As a rule of thumb, play expecting your opponent to make their best possible play. Sometimes your hand cannot withstand any hand traps, so your best play may be to ignore the bluffs and go for broke.

[@thephilosophyminor]

The “evenly matched” bluff has happened to me I had Empen and trap to normal summon set and harpie trap set 3 cards total Opponent attempt to enter battle phase I freak out of evenly flip trap to normal summon and end on avian and Empen with harpie trap set Got super poly and left with trap unable to activate Got otk Never failing for it again 😅

[@sowhazupguy]

Yugioh should be a fun game but a lot of people who play it don't view it as fun, but rather a chore. It also seems to attract a strangely toxic crowd, (see the recent YCS).

[@starjadiancloneinvestigato1772]

what happened at the latest ycs?

[@videogamesbecool]

@@starjadiancloneinvestigato1772there were a few voiceless voice players who cheated by picking up the opponents card, then putting it in a different monster zone (they run a card where columns are very relivent)

[@ghosty9966]

@amesarecool9280one even went directly into anima after "reading" and placing the opponents card into the column above where anima is going to be, funny stuff

[@shangothunder1055]

Does triggering a surprise Shadow Game & sending your defeated opponents to the Shadow Realm count as bad sportsmanship?

[@Zetact_]

Regarding the rules about bluffing, and the spirit of the rule, the rule of thumb I'd give is that if your bluff is something that can be read from just the plays of the duel then it's legal. You can bluff via game mechanics, but not through what would be considered out-of-game actions. In the IP example, declaring that you're entering battle phase is using no out-of-game actions to imply that you have Evenly Matched and thus it is legal. The token example is also one where if you are using tokens explicitly to try and mislead the opponent then it's illegal, but if you're just using a token it's fine. Because you can't prove intent in this situation, as long as you don't TELL someone you're using a token/sleeve/mat/whatever to try and mislead opponents it's fine. It's kind of case by case as well. Suppose you are playing Edison format (and are using the current rules around bluffing) and you're running Lightsworn. You have engaged in multiple battles and not declared "damage step." If you do not have Honest but decide at one point to declare "damage step" to bait an action from your opponent, I think this would be considered an attempt to deliberately misrepresent the game state - because by NOT declaring damage step in your usual battles, the purpose of doing it here is only to imply you have a card you can activate at that point. Basically if you're acting in good faith and making sure that you don't deliberately do something that might misrepresent the game state then you don't have to worry about it.

[@shakeweller]

But the damage step always happens, so it's fine. It's like counting summons for nibiru which is also fair game

[@Zetact_]

@eller The issue isn't declaring the steps of battle, it's the action of deliberately doing it when you previously weren't. Technically you're SUPPOSED to declare every part of damage calculation but many people don't simply because it's not relevant for most gameplay. To deliberately choose to declare "damage step" to try and trick the opponent into thinking you have Honest is the type of activity that the rules disallow. Even if you have been declaring phases the action could be to simply put emphasis on "damage step" that would still be illegal because you are DELIBERATELY trying to call attention to "this specific damage step is going to be different." And counting summons is explicitly against the rules. "Duelists may not answer questions or offer information about Game State information that is considered Private Knowledge. Duelists may not make false statements about the game or gameplay, even about information that is considered Private Knowledge. Duelists may not perform actions that would intentionally mislead their opponent or a tournament official about the Game State. " On its face, counting summons in a very noticeable manner to imply you have Nibiru either is doing this (if you don't have it) or is breaking rules on private knowledge (if you do have it). Counting summons isn't illegal, but doing it in a way that you're signaling to the opponent "I'm counting summons" IS. One example given: "Misrepresenting the Game State: A Duelist mentions they are running a certain card which is not currently considered to be Public Knowledge, with the intent to influence their opponent’s actions. " It doesn't have a Nibiru example in the rulebook just yet but Nibiru is the most blatant, most clear example of misrepresenting the game state because counting summons is only important for Nibiru - it's just flatly, unambiguously against this rule.

[@DaemonRayge]

In regards to plays like the example with IP Masquerena, I would not consider that in any way scummy. It is a 100% legal play to bait out an effect and is not "misrepresenting the game state". That's like saying setting Normal Spells as bluffs for Traps should not be allowed since you are "misrepresenting the gamestate". These types of interactions are in private knowledge areas. Saying it is misrepresenting the gamestate and is cheating, is like saying players should have full knowledge of everything at all times.

[@froznrhino]

I really don't like when my opponent talks about random shit while we're playing. My peanut brain has a hard enough time figuring out what I'm going to do next and sometimes that distraction is enough to make me misplay or forget the game-winning play I had in mind. Other than that I don't really care what my opponent does. If they pop off after they win or act cocky while we play that's fine with me. Makes it all the better when you get them the next time, to me that's the fun of competition.

[@Oblivionm24]

I feel that 💯 Laughed at the 🥜🧠 can relate

[@ganyumaindayone1112]

i love to chitchat since i can multi task, though if someone ask me to stay silent i'll

[@ShadowFlame74]

And I think it would be great if we can make this a community where we can say "Hey, I would love to chat about this after the duel, but during the duel I would appreciate if I could focus on the game" and all parties would be understanding of this. I hope for this anyway

[@novakrabby]

I didnt go to many tournaments, just a couple drafts, but the moment I became disinterested in the whole thing was in a match where my opponent won pretty fast (about 5 minutes), the next game I was winning then I noticed he started talking about random subjects and playing slower, I didnt follow through his topics as I just wanted to play, by the time I won, the time was up (second duel took 30 minutes or more) then due to tournaments rules I was out and he went to next round, I wasnt angry at that moment but later that day I realized what he did and I felt awful, the moment my opponent felt like he could lose he started being scummy, we never got to the third game in the match, so disappointing I never returned to any similar events

[@jojomations2596]

teamsam was just exercising his freedom of speech

[@erhiueQWEF]

IMO the one that really bothers me is when my opponent wants to narrate my turn for me. I've had it several times where an opponent bragged to me "Oh I know every version of this deck, you're gonna start with X then activate Y then chain Z in the GY"

[@brianbrooks5366]

My only pet peeve is trying to do extra summons and combos when I’m clearly conceding, like bruh I’m not about to watch you do a 5 minute turn, I got 300lp 😂

[@BmanTheChamp]

Yeah, it's like, you already have game, just attack, why you flexing?

[@neferacronia6798]

It’s so infuriating! They’ll have enough damage on board for game, you’ll see your hand is practically dead so you pass turn, and then they enter Main Phase 1… and just start going ham! Into a long ass combo that is already excessive for the 1 hand/trap you might have?? Just fucking kill me, my board is empty, why are you keeping me hostage?! And in Master Duel, I have to either let them keep me there for another 2 minutes or I surrender because it’s pointless and receive absolutely NOTHING for that entire duel. Absolute rubbish.

[@KFC-Warrior]

Just scoop earlier then, you're the one wasting time

[@ghosty9966]

@@KFC-Warriorso ure one of those people i see

[@KFC-Warrior]

When you're "clearly gonna concede" because you know you've lost, why don't you just get on with it then@@ghosty9966

[@Manley410]

I left yugioh during Pepe tier 0 almost a decade back. Just recently went to a local for the first time since and I played this Ice Jade player in R3 that had such a bad attitude the entire match that I was like, I can't do this anymore. I since then have switched to pokemon tcg because at least I don't have to actively communicate with someone that is an asshole just to make it through my turn in the PTCG

[@nicksnovelreviews8733]

Me when I win: whispers “Wow, I actually won?” Me when I lose:”Well done, that was cool to see you do your thang!” I enjoy watching opponents cook (unless I’ve seen the same combo for 3 hours straight lol)

[@stereotypicalemousername9507]

my locals is filled with a ton of people who don’t wait for your response and it sucks cause my brain needs a minute to process what’s going on i’ve also had people remind me of rulings only when it’s convenient for them or being inconsistent with when they talk about rules

[@jdrog97]

I have 2 stories that came to my mind. 1, at a regionals I was playing against a guy, whenever he would cut my deck he would shuffle it, but he would look down and look at my cards while he was shuffling. I asked him to stop, and he just said "Oh yeah, sorry my bad." And kept doing it. I called a judge over, but the judge knew him personally, so he pretty much just told him to knock it off. I just quit and told another judge but nothing ever came of it. 2, at another regionals, my opponent was way nicer, he won game 1, so we were on game 2, and suddenly I had to pee really bad. I asked him "Hey, I'll just sign the sheet and but can you watch my stuff while I go to the bathroom?" And he was totally ok with it. Absolute bro.

[@maxdabest32]

back in the day I used to play drytron and this one guy would pick up every. single. card. that I put on the field and read it. And the thing with drytron is theres a lot of moving parts coming on and off the field so whenever he stopped to read my cards I would have to stop and let him so I can move it in my next play. That's fine, slow player wants to know what my cards do whatever, the horrible part is him saying "you can keep going while I read" when I can't keep going while my moving parts aren't where they're meant to be, and he put the blame on me when we ran out of time despite the fact my combo lasts less than a minute if I'm not interrupted. Then he had the audacity to get pissy when I wanted to ask the judge a ruling question, even though I didn't stop the duel and just wanted to know something irrelevant. Now on the flip side, some good sportsmanship: some decks I hate playing against like tearlament and runic, but when I'm going up against a funny fella I can crack jokes with and talk shit back and fourth with is so much fun that I don't mind when they play a deck that I don't like. I think sportsmanship is extremely important in this game full of sack and rules and tense situations. I would much rather go against the most annoying deck in the game piloted by a comedian than go against a boring, easily beaten deck piloted by a brick wall

[@TheJeffersW]

Part of this comes back to the age old problem of card games and tabletop games being a common pursuit for people with poor social skills. Especially as these things became more mainstream, some of the typical behaviours of these communities became less acceptable as more "regular" people joined the hobby. It's not everyone and it doesn't excuse bad behaviour, but it is part of the puzzle, I think. Then there are the people for whom winning the game against them is poor sportsmanship. People are very invested in the game and their decks. Especially for a big event, they may have spent a lot of time, money and effort putting together their decks and getting there. Then you have the audacity to beat them. How dare you!

[@KryselITG]

To be honest, moderation is key. I'd consider myself pretty nerdy and into some niche hobbies, but I also work a job and exercise, talk to family, etc. I feel like when it comes to humans, its always an extreme. This is a generalization but for example: Either people can be super extroverted and do things like play sports or go out to bars and may be "well-adjusted", or they are super nerdy and would be considered "basement dwellers" who don't take showers and have horrible acne. Again, this is generalization but I suppose the stereotypes are there for a reason if people have encountered it enough. We love to categorize and sort people/groups and I don't think this is something that will ever truly be resolved since its encoded into our being, but I think we can definitely bridge the gap a bit. If only it was as easy as "have fun, learn what you can and take care of yourself, regardless of what your lot in life is" but it never is that easy.

[@TheJeffersW]

@KryselITG Stereotypes do exist for a reason, but most people are not the extremes. Most people do have a good balance. And I have known good-looking, sporty people who are also extremely nerdy and... people on the other extreme, who have no nerdy interests whatsoever. My point was that in the past these hobbies have appealed to all sorts of people, but were often, and to an extent remain, something of a refuge for those who, for a myriad of reasons, find themselves to be social outcasts. Such people often have poor social skills that may be misinterpreted as poor manners or sportsmanship by the wider community, even if no ill-will was intended (for most people. Anyone can be a jerk.)

[@four-en-tee]

@fersW I just blame the esports mentality in general. This game doesn't even have cash prices, there's no reason to get this salty when you're only bleeding money to compete in this game. Like, this isn't League of Legends, chill.

[@TheJeffersW]

@four-en-tee People were rude and salty at Yugioh before the internet was widespread and mainstream, nevermind e-sports.

[@KFC-Warrior]

The fact that a lot of autistic people (dont mean that as an insult just genuinely referring to the illness) are also attracted to TCG's and they are all in a room together doesn't help either.

[@dragonjames4500]

The master duel, duel links player's "communication we don't do that here"

[@CommanderWar64]

I think the Evenly play is 100% fair play. I did it all the time vs Spright and Floo.