The ARG Format Controversy ∣ Yu-Gi-Oh History

A documentary following the controversy that came with ARG's introduction of a custom banlist to their events.
This'll probably be my last video for a while as school is about to start up again, I really hope y'all enjoy it! ily and follow me on twitter ;)

[@esphir5471]

Yooo, 2 vids in ONE week? Didn't thought it's already christmas :D Jokes aside, I didn't actually knew about this. It's always quite interesting when a third party makes a "Banlist" change. Reminds me of peak Zoo times where certain Locals completely banned this deck because of HOW strong it was during that time.

[@sleepyygo]

Yeah its definitely something I thought was lowkey enough to warrant being told, the game was certainly much smaller back then and I think this period of the game is something not a lot of people remember in detail 😅 Anyhow glad you liked it!

[@timbitz079]

From the looks of Cimoooo’s opinion on that format seemed like he wasn’t on board with it. Then many years later, but last year, Cimoooo’s working with PPG and was fully behind their custom format back in 2020 hahah! Just think that was funny. Anyways, awesome video! Pretty informative as I never knew this happened before the PPG one. Love the content!

[@sleepyygo]

ACTUALLY, its wild that his tone shifted so hard, i didnt bring it up bc im not tryna talk bad on the man but it is interesting that his opinion on the situation changed so much over time

[@timbitz079]

@@sleepyygo As much as I love drama, I respect that you did not firing any shots even tho it may make it more interesting (not that this wasn’t interesting enough) in a way to prove how controversial this was while you stayed on point with this event in time in YGO history. I cannot wait till the next video homie!

[@zojirushi1]

I love the shadow silhouette monsters and opaque background thumbnails!

[@calebrowe8572]

Man, yet another amazing vid. This was so cool to hear about, I wasn't playing around this time, so this was really cool to hear about. The consistent uploads are amazing. Keep the amazing work. Can't wait for the next one

[@sleepyygo]

Im glad you liked it ❤️ And thanks sm its been fun to be making stuff more consistently lately

[@nohhp3955]

Thank you sleepy for being an historian and teaching us zoomers about these eras of the past

[@sleepyygo]

History teacher sleepy

[@CallMeNevermore]

I remember this. ARG wasn't having it when Konami decided to take away banlist end dates. Their banlist definitely came off as a ploy to push Tellarknights and Qli. I'm sure the chairman is a great guy, but his response wasn't a great look for him.

[@sleepyygo]

Yeah certainly not how you wanna come off to a community, but ARG did do a ton for the community regardless

[@adolphineatingchildren2641]

I found your channel yesterday and can't stop watching, best ygo videos on the internet

[@sleepyygo]

Omg tysm ❤️

[@FloatingTri]

Loving the stuff, keep up the great work!

[@felixc.4294]

Went to hit subscribe only for the button to turn red lmao Great content, always a highlight of my day when these vids come out. As a new player (I mostly play Trinity format) learning about the history of the game is incredibly interesting.

[@sleepyygo]

Tysm! ❤️

[@nigamnation]

"Lavalval chain didnt need to be banned" ...

[@TheSparkray]

It did, but it could totally come back now and do nothing

[@thekittenfreakify]

I honestly was excited for this at the time

[@lyzzysmyth7014]

Great video as always! I wonder, if the split had gone on for longer, if Konami would eventually actually have got involded. I imagine they did not like seeing an alternative format pop as competition to the main format. But I guess the banlist was their way of addressing the issues that were the reason why the ARG format got created in the first place.

[@sleepyygo]

I do really wonder a similar thing, where the line is in terms of when Konami will step in and say “this is our game you can’t do this”. But on the other hand ARG was filling a niche the playerbase wanted so shutting that down may have only created more animosity towards Konami that they didnt want. Also ty! ❤️ glad ya liked

[@cantcommute]

'oh no they're not playing the cardboard the way we want them to!!!'

[@KT_FGC]

You've earned a loyal sub today this is some really good content

[@sleepyygo]

❤️❤️

[@11guitarbro]

Love all your vids bro u killing it

[@sleepyygo]

🥰

[@takeikun8200]

wow this was a great PPG analysis video looking to see more in the future

[@sleepyygo]

😘

[@meetRS268]

any chance we will see a gladiator beast video? it was considered a viable strategy for possibly one of the largest periods of time in yugiohs history and was one of the only 2x worlds competitors achieving 1st , 2nd and 4th place in 2008 and 2nd and 4th in 2009. It is an archetype that truly revolutionized how we see summoning from the extra deck and has become the symbol of power creep and the moving away from the battle phase in current yugioh. Even in recent years with new support managed a regional top with a go second variant still making use of the classic gyzarus which launched gladiator beasts into the meta game.

[@sleepyygo]

Glad is definitely a deck that I’ve looked into and certainly has a varied history, absolutely a contender for something I would make a video on, not sure when yall would see that just bc of all the other ideas I also want to put into video, but id like to get around to it!

[@pptemplar5840]

Making an alternate banlist is a non issue, first off Konami makes it's banlist to push product first and ballance second ALREADY. Second, if you think a vendor made a banlist to manipulate the secondary market, you're absolutely free to buy from a different vendor, so I don't see how making a custom banlist is supposed to help them specifically exept making yugioh bulk not entirely worthless, the main competitive format and scarcity are still the two biggest determining factors in a card's value unless a custom format overtakes the official one. I'd be more concerned about game balance, judging, and cheating than market manipulation.

[@nichtanonym3393]

This was interesting I didn't know about this before

[@aaronwishard7093]

I'm hella late to this discussion. Thanks algorithm! So here's what I believe. Let's use Pokemon, since it's a game that I've known more recently more intimately, they have a fan made alternative format that's beloved. It's called "Gym Leader Format", the difference between ARG/PPG, and GLC however, is that it was never marketed as the only way to play the format. It was invented by a singular shop, sure, and they held it at their events, and owner's KZbin channel, but whenever it came to official regionals, league, and the like, it was always official format. The fan made format is closer to playing with whacky rules in a side event for shits and giggles. So to me, if ARG/PPG had merely introduced their banlist changes as an alternative, and by extension optional, rather than as a course corrective. The backlash would have been much less.

[@vincebelgera2237]

Banger

[@bmt-zero9868]

shoutout to Law :) gonna miss these uploads, school is important tho

[@sleepyygo]

😞 I’m still gonna try my best to make stuff I swear

[@melffyrabby1009]

Players making a banlist is always a horrible idea, it is literally impossible to make a perfect banlist as tempting as it is to make one. There will always be bias involved whether or not it’s intentional. As much as I hate to say it, Konami are the only qualified people to make a banlist

[@sleepyygo]

Truth

[@MEGAGAMERX1000]

Can we say how qualified they are though? These madlads have Grass at 2, Maxx C at 3, and Block Dragon at 3 in the OCG. I mean those people are bananas. Also before somebody says "the people who do the OCG and TCG banlists are different groups" aren't exactly correct since it all falls under the Konami corporate umbrella. Konami can make smart decision but they can also make dumb decisions as well. Saying they are qualified is about as easy as saying a monkey with a tie and a suit is qualified, just because they are the entity behind the product doesn't make them always right.

[@evansullivan1602]

@@sleepyygo how you be shitting on BAD format

[@sleepyygo]

@@evansullivan1602 hey man we not qualified but fuck it we ball

[@Gemerl]

Yeah, Konami lists are REALLY unbiased and totally not about making money by selling cards

[@merlinwant1427]

you da best. keep em coming

[@sleepyygo]

Bet

[@thefinalskarm1754]

One of my favourite things about the PPG list was all the memes of Cimo shitting on the ARG one then going "yeah admancipator will be playable without halq and block dragon" (Adamancipator did not exist in the event from memory). As you said there's always ulterior motives in the players hands, I want 3 skill drain because i think the card is only playable in Eldlich right now, Colossus shouldn't be at 0, Electrumite needs to come back or Pendulum's remain unplayable (If we didn't have halq they would be would COMPLETELY unplayable in the TCG). But lets not forget the corporation side ignores us and prints things at excessively high rarities compared to their OCG counterparts, we say they're a problem, but because they're getting money for, let's say Nadir Servant or Prosperity, they don't get touched. There will be a truly perfect banlist (Though the OCG list this week was pretty fire not going to lie) and neither the players or konami will facilitate that.

[@pieromorantearenaza4801]

I cant believe that we where so naive, the ONLY chance we got to finally put a end to konami ABUSING the banlist in order to push around products and artificially inflate card pricesbut NOOOOOO we had to defend big daddy konami and let him FUCK OVER OUR WALLETS. The Perfect example that this would have worked is the pokemon games, the pokemon games competitive scene is completely managed by smogon which is basically the competitive comunity, they decide what gets banned what is allowed if a mechanic should be allowed and NOBODY is complaining. The fact that we allowed this chance to just slip away is just sad :(

[@youwayo]

I remember when Greninja was put into the Uber tier, some people were complaining :P

[@DeezNuuuts]

Can u make a vid about 2014 and 2015 formats?

[@celtic1842]

I would say when it comes to money. I think they're allowed to design any band list they want it's different when there is no money involved

[@jonathanmerklin]

A couple times you misused the root word "divulge" in the place of "diverge", just a heads up. Overall nice video!

[@sleepyygo]

Omg i’ve been misusing this word for years, thank you so much 😅

[@bolobre4th]

Cimo was extremely critical of arg circuit banlist but endorsed the ppg one

[@sleepyygo]

Kinda wild

[@person9513]

either you changed the pfp or im just dumb, anyways it looks great

[@sleepyygo]

Yeah I changed alot of the thumbs a few days ago 😅 im so happy ppl are liking them

[@Brawler_1337]

Didn’t ARG also make a Goat Format variant that threw in modern cards that players suspected was a ploy to move inventory? Or was that another retailer? Edit: Yup, it was Newgioh.

[@FBI.sMostUnwanted]

Separatist ideas don't tend to end very well.

[@AlfredoYGO]

good vid

[@loon1994]

Why are you showing me my 2015 youtube video history?

[@kenadams5676]

Nice thumbnails

[@jameslucrative2054]

So arg was yugioh commander

[@Deltastorm384]

I’m going to be honest Konami is lazy when it comes to their banlist and sometimes I think that these other companies are justified when making a list in a true zero format

[@Brolaub]

Your thumbnails were very simple and good before, now they're too simple; which just makes them boring and hard to distinguish.

[@sleepyygo]

I disagree

[@Brolaub]

@@sleepyygo The lack of colour is what makes them boring, the fact that they're literally just a silhuette and nothing else makes them hard to distinguish. There's a reason nobody has thumbnails like this. I like minimalism too, but this is too much of nothing if that makes sense. Your previous thumbnails were nice to look at and easy to understand.

[@sleepyygo]

@@Brolaub When speaking about design nothing is objective. The lack of color does not make them boring, you just prefer thumbs with color. There isn’t too much negative space, you just want there to be less of it. I disagree with your take, it isn’t that I didn’t understand it, you did not have to elaborate on it. I have have plenty of people talk to me who really enjoyed them, and a few who didn’t. I myself like them and the contrast alot, so I will keep them. Plenty of designers work in black and white effectively, many successful pieces of graphic design have worked in simple silhouettes. Just because something is not to your taste does not make it boring or poor quality. People need to learn that about things like this, your particular taste does not dictate what I should do with my thumbnails.

[@vincebelgera2237]

Banger

[@sleepyygo]

My man

[@kenadams5676]

Nice thumbnails

[@kenadams5676]

Nice thumbnails