This is Part One of the interview, dealing with the structure of Yu-Gi-Oh! in Japan.

With the Yu-Gi-Oh World Championship 2009 about to take place in a few short days, my interview subject today is Rauzes. A half-Japanese native of Tokyo, he currently maintains a popular Yu-Gi-Oh! blog titled “The Gaijin Duelist” (it is linked to the right). Rauzes is one of the few — perhaps the only — OCG (Official Card Game) players who frequent go-YGO.com, Duelistgroundz, and other English strategy sites.

Being able to process and experience the state of Yu-Gi-Oh in Japan, still an enigma to TCG players, while being able to communicate in fluent English makes Rauzes the biggest link between OCG and TCG I have ever seen. Much of the information on the OCG in this interview (while not exactly earth-shattering) has never been discussed before.

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