Yu-Gi-Oh can thrive, and unfortunately, it all hinges on yugitubers.
Unlike almost every major e-sport, Yu-Gi-Oh has few viewers of its YCS streams that are not players in some way, shape, or form: it is not a game for spectators. While this might be expected because of its complexity, there are many complex games that are loved by players and viewers alike, and chief among them is Super Smash Bros Melee. Melee benefits from a more streamlined tournament structure that aids in watchability, but where it really shines is in its culture.
In Melee, tournaments are treated as tournament arcs to the loyal fans of its cast of top players. Rivalries and ambition underscore the landscape of fierce competition, which adds tension and meaning to every individual match. This culture is by design. It has been built from the ground up on essays and documentaries delving into the game’s rich history.
Both games enjoyed immense popularity among zillennials, resulting in a whole generation of people familiar with their basic mechanics. This culture has pushed many a Melee player to return to their roots and pursue the game competitively. In this essay, I explore why I think the same can be done with Yu-Gi-Oh, since it has decades of stories to tell, and immense potential to rebound to its former prominence.
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More algorithm-baiting gaping maw thumbnail reaction vids to ban lists will save ygo.
He has a point, to put more focus on the players during tournaments. After all, much of what made the anime entertaining was the interactions between the characters as well as their backstories.
Even if you do that, there’s the problem that the game is uninteresting when there’s no interaction.
Like, look at OCG Structures. They manage to make it work, but only by having most of the combos happen off-screen. Character traits and relations can shine there. But you can’t do that with a live game. A player has to go through his whole huge combo each time to give the opponent time to respond, and that will never be fun to watch.
Competitive Yugioh is awful as a spectator sport in it’s current formatting. Games have so much variance with handtraps that you can have a 2-0 finals because one guy opened droll imperm both games. And most of the actual interesting gameplay is in decision-making, so if you don’t see the line you’re just waiting for them to hit a chokepoint so the interaction starts. It’s like watching somebody play a rail shooter, where occassionally a monster pops out from around a corner and the game either ends there or the player survives and continues down the rail until the next chokepoint. Color commentary can only do so much to allieviate the mundane linear gameplan.
I never watch livestreams, I watch replay so I can skip guess the card, intermission, and the boring player interviews. Literally Cuts an 11hr stream in half. Time wasting indeed.
Comparing Yu-gi-oh! to Melee is really weird and pointless – one is a text-heavy card game and other is a flashy action game – it’s very obvious which one will be more attractive for viewers that are not familiar with the game. Not sure what point of discussion can be made here – maybe that Konami should abandon card game format and move to arena fighters or MOBA?
Comparing Yugioh to other card games would make more sense but you shot down discussion about rule complexity in the first sentence despite this being an actual issue and something that Konami acknowledged by introduction of Rush Duels in Japan and (failed) introduction of Speed Duels in TCG. But it’s something that we already know is the largest flaw of Yugioh.
I’d play a Yugioh arena fighter, to be fair.
>acknowledged by introduction of Rush Duels in Japan and (failed) introduction of Speed Duels in TCG. But it’s something that we already know is the largest flaw of Yugioh
Confirmation bias in full swing
D.D I wouldn’t call something that ran for 5 years “failed”, but I’m giving your reading comprehension the benefit of the doubt
@D.D not D/D typical Rush Hater i see
Yeah the bit comparing to Melee of all things was odd. Maybe even comparing it to just Smash Bros in general would be sorta fair, since the game is always evolving, like Yugioh. But competitive Melee only grows, like the OP said, as its players do. Yugioh, when it was a slower game with less things going across the board, was a fun game to watch. The familiarity of the anime helped a lot in those regards, but the combos we see now would be unheard of in a Yugioh series. Commentators do good to keep up, and anyone spectating is just straight up lost.
which playerbase smells the worst though?
Smash is known to have sex criminals among them, so I’d wager them.
Yu-Gi-Oh is only popular because of hype surrounding BEWD, the original DM, and DM the archetype. The fact people do not realize that without Atem/Yugi Muto, TCG will fail. Konami prints random archetypes every year. At this point, we got too many. Then the protagonist archetypes that we want to win YCS, cannot ever come up because Konami overlook or cheapen the effects they give it. Then you got Meta players and anti-DM haters that run people off. We want Dark Magician support to be Tier 1. Why is so damn hard? Damn.
It has been almost thirty years, Andy. Let it go.
Its not unwatchable, as a matter of fact the anime has proven this to be false. At the same time, with no current vr tech like they had in the anime makes it a very focus on the board type of watch. Not unlike chess. That means that every action you see in real time has no real declaration from the opponent asides from stating what your actvating next. Unlike the anime where there’s drama along with proper explanations for things goingon. (This is why you have narrators so the average viwer knows whats gojng on like sporting events), this and all the multi combos/ ability going off make it very boring to watch. The solution more then likely will be when vr is finnaly able to allow us to play like they did in the anime.
Commentators exist.
Problem is some of the commentators while known players with name recognition have been out of the game for a decade or more and thus can’t commentate worth a damn.
Honestly, and let’s be honest: this game is beyond salvation (and it has been for a long time) .
More viewership would be a tendency with:
– a new media based on the original series
– a reset and relaunch for the original card game ( a new mode like Rush) with mature rules, conditions and redesigns so nostalgia and simplicity would attract new players.
They should’ve done that instead of wasting resources with Rush.
Genesys is a complex and pointless breath and Rush is like “,YGO kids”.
Yu-Gi-Oh ‘s greatest mistake and greatest perk was being a game whose rules and designs evolved with time leaving tons of cards being powerful since launch ( Raigeki) or useless since released (Level 5 normal monsters with 1700 ATK)
“Wasting resources with rush” gave me a good laugh, nice cope there