Hi Guys
My name is LUKE LENNARD. I am from the United Kingdom and live in a county called Kent. You may know me from my various YCS and WCQ tops.
I am here today to talk to you about something I like to call THE GRIND! Grinding is a term often used in Europe to describe what you have to do to win four to five games straight on the bubble to secure a top 32 place in a tournament. This is something I have a lot of experience in as in YCS Milan, YCS Paris, YCS Brighton and the European Championship in Madrid I was X-2 by round six in all those tournaments, successfully topping them all.
Often once people lose their second match early on in a big event like a YCS, they become de-motivated. They start to regret their deck choice, often remember misplays which cause them to be X-2 and all in all start to feel pretty bad about themselves. This is something I try to avoid. It is a slippery slope to an X-3 drop.
Once I hit the X-2 mark I often feel strangely optimistic because then the pressure is really on and I do extremely well under pressure. It gets to the point where if I lose a single match my life in the tournament is over and I will have wasted a lot of money and time playtesting for the event. Thus it is that I determine to go undefeated. I do this by blocking all thoughts aside from my matches out of my head. I drink a lot of water, without that your brain will become dehydrated extremely fast, because in a critical thinking card game like Yu-gi-oh your brain is often working overtime so you need to keep it hydrated. I try and keep myself as aware as possible of my surroundings and what people sitting near me are playing. For example, in Round 9 of YCS Brighton, I sat next to someone playing a very interesting antimeta chaos deck. As I won my Round 9 match rather fast, I decided to sit and watch him play for as long as I could. This ended up helping a great deal because ironically I played him in Round 10 and was able to win the match 2-0 because I had a pretty good idea of what he was side decking and what techs he was main decking.
All in all it is essential to keep hydrated, keep your wits about you and your eyes peeled, and ALWAYS STAY POSITIVE, because until you are X-3 you have just as much chance of winning the event as anyone else in the room!
I hope you enjoyed my article and it helps you all in future events.
Thanks.
Luke Lennard
Birchington in Kent, UK
Latest posts by Luke Lennard (see all)
- The Grind by Luke Lennard - December 24, 2011
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