YGO European Championship 2010 - Birmingham, England

Well, this is my first blog and i would like to start off with a, not so much a reveiw, as a discussion about the YuGiOh! - European Championship 2010 from a judges point of veiw.

Now let me begin this by saying that this international event was a great sucess from both sides of the event (Players and judges alike) and congratulations to Rodrigo Togores Moli (Madrid, Spain) for his victory using a very consistant Frog OTK deck.

Alot of the feedback from the judges focused mainly on the running of the event and things to improve on, one main focus being not picking up on slow play, and as a lot of you players will know, this can be hard to pick up and often fustrates everyone else (players and judges) who are waiting for the next round. Remember that we judges are watching you at these events and consistant offenders will receive warnings and this could escalate to game losses, and potentially match losses. I'm sure none of you players would want this, especially if you have travelled abroad for this sort of event!!

Now one thing I really feel should be brought up to all you players is observing other players, I as well as many other judges can understand your want to watch other players, your friends and teamates, but you must understand that we judges often move you all back several feet for several reasons, mainly because; we may think you are giving an unfair advantage to a player (which has severe consequences to both the player and yourself - yes yourself even if you are not playing in the main or public events), it can pose a fire hazard you all standing around the tables, it can put off alot of players who are still dueling (either in the match your watching or nearby duels) and most importantly it blocks the spaces in between the tables so we judges have a hard time doing our jobs! Yes we may seem harsh at times, but alot of the time you players do not listen! and again consistant offenders will receive penalties.

Surprisingly, at events such as this, we often find ourselves giving out game and match losses to players who are late to their tables after rounds have been announced! As I hope you are all aware that the offical Konami guidelines state that a player not in their correct table and/or facing the wrong opponenet, within 3 minutes will get a game loss for tardiness, and at the 10 minute mark you will receive a match loss for that particular round! Yet alot of players will argue against this stating that they did not realise that the round had started. I can fully understand that at Euro's this year there was not a system in place to announce the begining of each round, but if you are at an event this high up in the YGO calender you should all be aware that we advise you stay NEAR the main (or public) event area so you can be promt to your next opponent.

This is all I am going to say for now on this event, heck I may even do a part 2, time permitting.

Thanks for reading this and I hope this leads players to being better players at future events