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.
Note: Editor’s notes for clarity (explanations of certain Japanese terms will be in italics in the body of the interview like this). Missing words that complete the thought will be inserted in brackets [like this].
Also: Rauzes declined to provide a picture or a name to preserve a sense of anonymity.
“I want my blog to live off my advice, not just my popularity.”
The Structure of Organized Play in Japan Compared to North America
Jae: Seeing as how Yu-Gi-Oh! started in Japan and is tied more strongly to the manga culture, how “big” is the card game over there?
Rauzes: In Japan Yu-Gi-Oh! was a Shonen Jump manga (Japanese comics) so it had an established base. The Shonen Jump magazine is popular in Japan; everyone knows what it is regardless if they read it or not. Shonen Jump has an offshoot called VJMP that isn’t as popular that deals with most of the YGO-related promo cards and news.
YGO is easily the most popular CCG (collectible card game).
J: Does Japan have large unofficial YGO discussion forums such as Pojo and TCGPlayer?
R: 2ch is a large forum on anything and everything. It’s the big unofficial site for YGO and other than that they [forums] tend to be smaller. The [Japanese] Wiki is gigantic and everything and anything you want to know about a single card is on each individual page.
J: In the USA, Konami-sanctioned tournaments can be structured in this order:
Nationals, Shonen Jumps, Regionals (no nationwide relevance), and Locals.
Can you provide equivalents in Japan to these events, and fill in the gaps yourself?
R: Nationals is not a very important tournament. The representatives for Worlds are actually chosen through Regionals (so I get them confused). Qualifying for the tournaments is based off the COSSY system. If your rating is high enough you get an invite. To my knowledge, no [Shonen Jump equivalents] are hosted by Konami.
As for locals, pretty much all of the local tournaments are sanctioned by Konami.
J: How would you characterize the interest of the Japanese players in these tournaments. Do people sit by the computer waiting for updates on the results?
R: No. Unless you’re going there for Worlds, you don’t really care. And when the deck lists come out you net-deck, I guess.
J: So outside of the organized play, I have heard rumors of incredibly popular locals in Japan and also unofficial tournaments with big prize pools as well. Can you elaborate?
R: There are a lot of YGO players in Japan. For example: every week there is a tournament for all age groups in Tokyo, hosted by Konami. About 150-200 people turn up for those. Twice a month, there is a women’s only thing, and about 50-60 people show up. The entry: free. Prizes: crap. You get tournament packs, which are the equivalent of Champion Packs I believe. Some stores give their own prizes but that’s for locals.
I’m not sure what you mean by big prize pools, but 100-250 US dollars is the normal prize range and there are 500-750 USD prizes sometimes.
J: Wow, Yu-Gi-Oh! is about 98% male here. That’s an impressive display of female TCG players!
R: In Japan it’s about 5-10% female (just an estimate). But then again, you attend mainly competitive side events like Shonen Jumps and Sneak Previews and I don’t (Rauzes is implying there are less females at more intense events, I presume).
J: To the best of my knowledge, Kazuki Takahashi, Shueisha, and Konami all have a hand in the Yu-Gi-Oh card game. Can you elaborate a bit on your understanding of the dynamics between these companies? I have heard that Shueisha has designed a few cards (Gorz, Tragoedia) that Konami did not necessarily agree with?
R: I know that Konami gives Shueisha (the company that publishes Yu-Gi-Oh!) the leak info to publish [for new sets and such]. As for the card design, that’s partially true. I think Shueisha comes up with the effect and bounces it off Konami who tweaks it a bit. But sometimes cards from the manga crop up in actual sets. I don’t think one is controlling the other.
J: Does Konami solicit feedback from OCG players for the Forbidden List?
R: Yes, Konami gets a bit of feedback from the players and they usually follow it (see: Premature Burial). [Feedback is given] usually through Konami sponsored events and the Konami game card center with polls there.
This concludes Part One of the interview. Tune in to Part Two for talks about OCG strategy and OCG perceptions of the Western mode of Yu-Gi-Oh! dueling.
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Really good read.
150-200 every week. come on, if that doesnt scream competitive i truly dont know what does.
hopefully these interviews will shed some light on the people that say OCG players are not competitive.
[...] http://go-ygo.com/ocg-insight-interview-rauzes-part/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. … [...]
Thanks for the interview. That’s very informative. Can’t wait to read the next part.
[...] http://go-ygo.com/ocg-insight-interview-rauzes-part/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. … [...]
Cool. :p And that’s pretty good. I thought the prizes were much smaller, but 150 – 200 a week sounds pretty sweet! I can’t awit to see part 2. (:
Part 2 is continued through the hyperlink below.
I KNEW it was a good idea to plug DGZ to Rau, and guess what we get?
HAHA!
Let’s keep this sort of thing rolling~!
Jae, I demand that when an OCG cardthingy gets mentioned and needs translating, you call me up!
WOW!
What a refreshing read. It’s not very often that we get any insight on the OCG.
It also kinda makes you wonder what success, if any, the SJC circuit would see in Japan as there is obviously a large enough player base. 200-man locals? That’s unheard of in the States.
I also thought the way OCG vs. TCG deck theory was analyzed was interesting. I’d never looked at it like that before.
I enjoyed this.
wow i wish my locaks had an avg of 150 players and 100-200 dollars in prizes
Very interesting, and insightful. It is a breath of fresh air to hear about the OCG through an OCG player’s eyes.
Thanks Jae and Rauzes for the great information and insight.
thanks for the interview, jae
perhaps the reason why japan’s meta is so much more diverse than tcg is that cards are easier to get there (i.e., common ccv)
those who buy expensive cards buy to win. and what’s a better way to win than to netdeck a deck proven to win tournaments?
no need to innovate, just cookiecut
When you mention an OCG card, it might be best to hyperlink to information about said card.
great interview Jae.
Hmmm, intriguing; it’s good to know about the OCG from an OCG player and not randoms on crappy forums who “think” they know what they’re talking about. I only wish the interview was longer…
Also they should allow some TCG insight into the next Forbidden/Limited list, not just OCG.
Personally I agree with Jae and the community in that the TCG is more sound in regards to knowledge of the game and building more efficient decks. However, this does not mean I think the OCG is “casual-mode”. I don’t see how weekly tournaments with hundreds of people is not a represenation of a competitive scene. I am sure Japan has decks that consistently top, forming their meta. Players adapt to this by either using these meta decks or running anti-meta. Does this sound familiar? I hope so because this is how the TCG has been in the past — obviously this format is without antimeta decks. Of course I am over-simplifying things and the games ARE different, but the notion that many TCG-players hold of Japan being “casual-mode” is with error.
I want to bring up something important to this discussion. When Rauzes is talking about Raigeki Break vs Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, something very telling is brought up. He brings up the idea of the OCG thought process and the TCG thought process. This is what it boils down to. In Japan their meta decks are a result of their collective thought process. Of course the same is true of the TCG scene. While there may be commonalities, the thought process of both games are largely different. You can attribute it to slightly different card pools, different tournament structure, or different philosophies. For instance, there have been decks in the pass that have had success in Japan, but flopped in the TCG. The decks could have been trash by our standards, but that is irrelevant. The deck came from a different game, from a different point-of-view. In the scope of Japan, their decks are a result of their thought process and thus either succeed or fail based on the limitations that they self-impose — limitations being their imagination and knowledge of the game. You can argue that they play with an underdeveloped thought process in comparison to our own, but that is a different discussion.
You cannot justly say that Japan has no competitive scene, but you can say they play a different game. There are just too many variables to account for. The point is that the TCG and OCG are largely incompatible and TCG players are looking at the discussion and are putting forth the wrong comments and/or questions. Instead of saying that the OCG is casual or sucks, they should be looking at what works in the OCG and breaking it down – does it work in the TCG? what is the theory behind choices x, y, and z? etc.
P.S.: What I would truly like to see is a team of TCG players play at Japanese locals and use their TCG decks against local players. You can show them TCG decks like SalvoDAD, show them the power of Lightsworns with TCG-exclusives, etc. Maybe during the trip to worlds, someone in the community like Rauzes can be your guide. Maybe you should look into this, Jae.
Nice interview. Good choice and loving this site.
@skyline: I hope you got the fact that most people in the OCG here are NOT as competetive as the TCG from my blog.
Also 200 people is kinda a Tokyo area Locals thing. not a Locals Locals. Regionals ish I GUESS you could say, but the prizes are still locals level. So is the player attitude.
But Konami has thier own space for Yugioh players in Tokyo, free to use, capable of seating 150+ people so thats where its held. Normal locals are 30 people for the much larger ones.
seems like a cool guys thanks for the interview and giving us a little light on OCG
I also know of ONE other Japanese OCG player that goes to Pojo, not sure if he goes to DGz and other strategy sites, but doesnt come on often. Goes by pizzaman on pojo and sticks to the OCG part of the forums.
I recently also got an email from an english speaking Tokyo player(not Japanese) trying to get back into the game, so yes, I guess I cant be the only one out there.
To clarify 2ch isnt only YGO. its everything and anything. Everything is discussed there, so is YGO. so other forums are smallerish
Wow…great interview Jae. And +150 people at locals. I am lucky if I can get at least 30 xD Keep up the great articles.
Truly a good read, I enjoy reading different opinions on certain cards. It’s amazing to see they do get suck large “locals”, I’d hate to see how big an event like SJC would turn out for Japan. It would be an interesting, and good read though. Can’t wait for worlds ;].
Very good read, let’s see some more of this OCG line of thinking.
great read
Good read, Jae. Keep up the good work. This doesn’t really have to do with anything but I think you should put an updated picture of yourself in your about section.
Thanks for that interview JAE, and thanks to you Rauzes, for giving it. This was good insight into the attitude and “meta” that is present in Japan. It’s nice to get look at things from a different point of view.
Excellent interview!
I personally think that with Brionac around in OCG, Raigeki Break is a safe option. That’s the reason why we don’t see Stardust a lot in the OCG, hence making Raigeki Break a good removal card adding that extra Lightsworn for JD, extra DARK for DAD, extra target for Pot of Avarice, ditching dead cards, even ditching a target for Equeste to get back.
I thoroughly enjoyed that interview and it is interesting to see the different “atmosphere” of the OCG. Cannot wait for the next interview, be it from Rauzes, be it from one of the famed TCG players.
hey awesome great site thank you
I prefer Wind Blast in most formats, because it’s just as disruptive, and is just as good at pitching dead cards or getting needed cards to the grave, and also messes with your opponent’s tempo. If you use it to disrupt a key play, it isn’t really ‘stalling for a turn’ at all, because the game state will probably have dramatically shifted by that point.
Break also gives your OPPONENT that extra Lightsworn for JD, extra DARK for DAD, extra target for Pot of Avarice etc. That’s the other reason I prefer Wind Blast.
One cool thing I noticed, actually, playing Wind Blast, is its application against Blackwings. If they play Whirlwind, summon a Blackwing and you’re pretty sure it’s the only one they have, then you can Wind Blast Whirlwind so that they don’t get their search and get a dead draw next turn. It requires a narrow scenario or astute read but it is a game-winning play, especially if you’ve got the Bottomless for when they finally do topdeck a Whirlwind target. Raigeki Break doesn’t do that.
Neither Konami nor Shueisha design the YGO TCG mechanics in Japan. It is an outside company called Brain Navi that does all of the product development and game play design. Konami merely markets and distributes the game.