The greatest guy I ever played....

[John Danker]

I've read through a number a good many tournament reports from nationals and SJCs in the last couple of months on various sites....a lot of smack talk goes on in those <shrug> Never did understand smack talk....this isn't West Side Story with Yugi and Joey snapping their fingers and flipping out their decks from under their sleeves to do battle...it's a game, for fun.

I've always maintained that the most intimdating manner is total class....though those with total class never intend it to be.

So my question is this...of all the people you've played at at major tournaments who are a couple of the people you consider to be total class acts? You know, the guys who conduct themselves well, make the game fun, compliment instead of ridicule, catch you before you make a mistake so you won't lose the game on a ruling techicality, offer genuine advice, shake your hand with conviction.....and most often win without needing to talk trash.

Those people deserve to be mentioned and their examples followed...so speak up and give them their kudos.

 

[english chef]

There is one guy that I have faced once or twice at the Des Moines regionals, I can't remember his name but he tends to wear brightly patterened shirts, and always has Blue-eyes white dragon in his deck. He is great to play against, both respectful and friendly, keen, knowledgeable and a joy to play with. The times I have played him I enjoyed so much! I wish him to be recognised.

Likewise, there are some people at my local tourney, whom together have engendered such a pleasant, profesional, interesting and nice atmosphere that it has been my greatest pleasure to play with. They know who they are.

 

[Jathro]

Gosh, I wish I could remember names. I always recognize the faces, though. I always seem to run into this one guy at every Regional. We always go back and forth, the matches are always competitive and we always have fun. We bring out the best in each other, and analyze each others' decks afterwards for help. In fact, there's a few guys like that, and I always enjoy bumping into them. All these kind words, and I can't remember a name. Now I feel terrible...

 

[krazykidpsx]

For yugi, i would have to say Andrew [ he kicks it with Emon and so on], aswell as Phillip, that fool is kool but if you beat him bad he geats really sad. but still kool. thats for yugi though.

for Magic I have never played the following people but i have always wanted to play against them.

Antonino De Rosa
Kenji Tsumura
Jon Finkle [yea hes back but i dont know for how long]

also another person would have to be Mr. Bennie Smith . that guy is so kool! XD

 

[helpoemer316]

Too bad you weren't in Richmond for the Magic GP in February of this year, . Star City had a special table where Bennie sat the entire weekend where he'd take on all challengers at any format. It was very funny to watch over the weekend.

 

[babyarm]

I don't remember any YGO players off hand, but everybody I played at $10K Austin was just great to play against. Handshakes before and after every game, we complimented each other on good plays, discussed tech after each match, and wished each other luck going into the next round. It's why I prefer playing and judging VS tournaments now, the respect level is so much higher.

 

[Entropy]

I kind of think of myself as one of those people...like John Danker said, all that "smack talk" never made any sense to me. But, there are a lot of things I don't get.

Announcer: "Are you ready TO ROCK?!"
Me: "Yes!"
Announcer: "I can't HEAR YOU!"
Me, seriously: "I said yes the first time! Can we get on with the show now?"

Anyway...I always do that "shake hands" thing, which always gets me wierd looks. And I never make fun of my opponent's decks since mine are pretty wierd.

I had a deck a while ago, the whole point was to reduce both players' LP to below 1000, and flip Dice Jar! At that point, it didn't matter who won or lost, since a complex duel came down to a roll of dice!

Although I was sometimes annoying. My favourite deck is a Skill Drain deck. You wouldn't believe how heated some of those arguments got!

 

[DarkLogicianOfCaos]

Not to toot, but I always was more interested in helping than winning...So, I became a judge. Now I get to help people, encourage, teach and give "attaboys" that mean more. I mean, let's face it, if someone loses and says great deck/duel/strategy (whatever), it is recieved like it means a little something coming from a guy that just got whooped. And if someone wins and says it, it may not be received well either. But coming from a judge? That really means something. No hidden motives, or "sportsmanship" about it. A judge has no "need" to say it, so it means more....right? I think we set the standard for sportsmanship. We treat people with respect and dignity, then we can expect others to do the same.

I once had a couple of kids talking smack about me ("the old man"), until one of their friends came up to them, who knew me well, and said, "Hey, man, knock it off...he's cool." They did, and I bought him lunch the next day. We police ourselves and let our respect for others translate into their self-respect, which becomes respect for others, which transl......

 

[krazykidpsx]

Too bad you weren't in Richmond for the Magic GP in February of this year, . Star City had a special table where Bennie sat the entire weekend where he'd take on all challengers at any format. It was very funny to watch over the weekend.

Star city has all the luck. I, think im gonna order some stuff from there again soon. Wished i had gone to the GP though, would have been great to play against mr. Smith. XD

 

[EmeraldDragon]

the greatest guy i never played thats what this should be called. most of the guys i play against are little whinging losers when they lose and when they win they are smug idiots that gloat for ages.

The one guy i have true respect for when i see him in a tournament is a guy that borrowed some cards from me to build a deck cos his cards were in college and even though he wasnt able to get all the cards he sed in his deck from me (I just didnt have them at all) he made a deck that won the entire tournament.I let him keep the cards then. He then came to me and gave me the packs he won. The whole time when we see each other at a tourny even before that happened we would talk turkey and discuss strategies endlessly. Great guy.

 

[John Danker]

I see a lot of how the game SHOULD be relayed in these posts and there are a couple of common themes...the first is I see the word respect tagged onto the people you're talking about. That's important because a lot of people (especially younger people) want to win because they believe it gets them recongnized and respected. What I'm seeing here (and already knew) is that it doesn't take winning to gain respect of others, all it takes is being a class act (which I've always maintained)

The other common thing I'm seeing, and I have to chuckle a little bit, is that while we remember these people's demenor we can't seem to remember their names....yet the name of the jerk we played two years ago at such and such SJC sticks in our minds like it was branded there! <laffin> It goes to show you, it only takes once being a jerk for someone to remember you forever but it takes continual class to engrain yourself on other on a named basis. Sad it's that way but it's something to remember when dealing with people in general.

I'd like to keep this thread going and the next time you play someone notable on the class side ask their name and plug it in here. Those people deserve recognition and those demenors need to be seen on boards and pointed out along with your compliments so that many see how much respect is given those people for their efforts and hopefully follow the example.

 

[Phantom6]

Well, not to toot my own horn but by your description it would be me. ^_^



There are a couple of people at the Tourneys I go to, One in fact was a young lady.

Very polite, very friendly and very good about not winning.

Most people at my local Tourneys are good about it if they lose but I've heard horror stories about players having to be ejected when they lose, Normally though those are players who attend an advane format tourney after having only ever played Traditional.