About Me

I'd like to formally start off this blog by talking a little bit about me and my history. Whether you know me in real life or not, I think this would be a great way to introduce myself. Why should you waste your time reading some dude's blog otherwise? :P

As you can guess, my name is Mike and I am the co-captain of Team Overload. I have been playing the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG ever since the first Yugi and Kaiba starter decks came out. I took a few breaks here and there between then and now, but for the most part, Yu-Gi-Oh has been a part of my life for about 10 years. I have actively played in Washington and Idaho, Florida, and Texas.

Unfortunately I don't have any major credentials in this game, seeing as how our events are fairly sparse. I have gone X-2 at two regional events (two Tri-Cities events), won a Tri-Cities based CRV box tournament (when CRV was like new), placed 22nd at Shonen Jump Seattle (the one where Cesar one), and won a Magic the Gathering regional (Standard) in Portland Oregon in 2007. I have about a 1950 Constructed rating in Magic, but that's not really valid anymore per se, seeing as how I don't play that game anymore. I don't really think local and sneak peek tops are too important, but I have plenty of those throughout the years as well.

For the past several years (ever since PTDN came out), I have treated this game as a way to make extra cash and helped numerous other people make money as well. Konami's rarity bump on Dark Armed Dragon completely shifted my viewpoint on this game, where the focus became entirely on money and "plus'ing" myself. Every day I am on Pojo, DGZ, Shriek, eBay, and various other blogs keeping up-to-date on my card values, news of reprints, OCG and TCG trends, and future product releases, so that I can try to maximize as much as humanly possible. You will never catch me on the butt end of a sudden reprint; I am the one that's plus'ing off those that didn't have the initiative to read up on their news. It's nothing personal, that is simply how I view the main purpose of this game (the second being, of course, having fun!).

I have instilled this mindset into a few close friends as well, not really meaning to, I guess I just have that effect on people. One of my close friends from Texas, Mikey, went from a decent player, who seldom won tournaments, playing a deck based on Necroface and Soul Absorption back in the Lightsworn era, to a player who was the only person in the area to own full Infernity, X-Saber, and Blackwing decks in that era, and not because he bought it all. Considering that the area of South Texas is rather poor, it was a big deal. He also became one of the top contenders making consistent top 3's every week. In his first San Antonio regionals since his "transformation", he received his Nats invite, and that's in a regional where you have Spicer, Brake, Luna, and some of Texas' best. He went from being an average player with an OK card pool to an excellent player with one of the best card pools. I knew that he had it in him, but I must take credit by saying it was because I took him under my wing. I opened his eyes in regards to how to be a better player, and how to actually profit from this game. I'm far from being God's gift to Yu-Gi-Oh, but I know I have helped entire playerbases become more competitive.

Currently, I guess I could say I'm the go-to guy when someone needs to turn their cards into cash, whether that be me buying what they got, or selling it for them when I don't have the money. From the time I came back to Washington about this time last year till now, I estimate my sales for my team to be roughly $4000-$5000. That's not a lot of money in the real world, sure, but when it's all from pieces of cardboard, I'd say that's pretty significant.

I unfortunately don't get to play very often anymore, primarily due to work, school, and being married. I have pretty much given up on Dueling Network; the amount of people that don't know simple, basic rulings is astounding. I no longer have the patience of having to Google/Pojo Q&A search, copy and paste, every damn thing my opponent doesn't know or is just trying to get away with. It's a great tool to play against people who actually know what the hell they're doing, I just don't find those people often enough and my teammates are usually too busy to get on there as well.

Moving forward, personally I will keep doing what I am doing and adding this blog into the mix. Whenever I do manage to play, it will either be at Board Game Nation in Spokane Valley, or Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene. As for the team, my captain and I simply want and expect these things:
- a loyal group of members, who will stick with Team O regardless of the situation (granted it's legal). While I was playing in Texas, I frequently had people asking me if I would join their team. I would always refuse, saying that I was already on Team Overload. They'd ask me "so where is the rest of your team? It's just you," and I'd have to explain that my team was based in Washington and I was in Texas because I'm military, but I always played with my Team O mat and dominated as much as I could. Regardless of me being almost 2000 miles away from everyone else, I always exclusively represented Team O.
- a cohesive group of members, one that works with each other and looks out for everyone's interest rather than their own (ex. don't rip each other off)
- the best players the area has to offer, granted they follow the two things above. Having a teammate who is only "slightly above average" in skill but does everything for the good of the team is better than having someone who can absolutely dominate everyone but only gives a shit about themselves.



Other fun tidbits!:
Favorite monster: Dark Magician of Chaos
Favorite spell: Allure of Darkness
Favorite trap: Trap Dustshoot
Favorite deck: Magical Explosion OTK w/ DMoC, Dimension Fusion, Cyber Valley
Favorite food: Katsu Curry (Japanese curry w/ breaded chicken)
Favorite beverage: Mountain Dew
Favorite current show(s): Jersey Shore, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Dexter
Favorite game: Final Fantasy VII
Favorite movies: Superbad, Harold & Kumar (White Castle), Euro Trip, Equilibrium
Favorite superhero: Spider-Man

Christ, that's enough for one post!