Analysis and Experience of Yugioh Duelist Cup
The Duelist Cup was quite an event that has made it's mark on masterduel history.
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If you didn't get to partake in it, you can understand what it was like from the words below.
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I will offer my perspective and how things should have been done below.
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At the very end I talk about the controversary regarding everything.
1st Stage
The first stage was a seemingly easy ride, you could all the way to Duelist level 15 without going down in rank.
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Getting to level 17 was fair enough as well, but once you got lvl 17 or perhaps more accurately lvl 18, that's where the top decks and frustrated players were.
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It was a truly frustrating experience and I believe the longer you waited the stronger the players and their frustration got.
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Most people were using King Lich (Eldlich) and Auroradon (Yang Zing Pillars), level 18 and up.
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This meant a lot of duels were decided on coinflip which made the frustration worse, I could not blame people for not wanting to play after playing those levels.
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My arm got damaged after I was level 13 I believe, I had to climb to 20 using only 1 hand playing Yugioh and it was a real hell of a climb. It was my first time playing a meta deck and I learned a lot.
I had 2-3 days and I played a lot on the last day because I really wanted to at least try to play the second stage to see what is was like.
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I managed to get Duelist LVL 20 one hour before stage 2 opened.
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Konami did not write when stage 2 would open in EST time but it was 1 AM EST.
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I played the hour the second stage opened and my god it was wild.
Second Stage (First Day)
Playing in the second stage you were rewarded by awesome music and even in the first hour, people were going off using variations of the top decks and tactics I've never seen before.
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Yes they were using Auroradon and King Lich same way they were in LVL 20, as expected, but they were doing so with perfect plays and ones that were new to me. More players were using Adventurer prank and Floowandereeze as well.
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I knew 100% people were going to hold back even on LVL 20 because I was doing the same.
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I didn't want to use my true deck even though the 17-20 climb with one hand almost made me.
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I was rewarded by playing against the top and after 1 hour, I just went to sleep because I really needed it after the climb. My duelist score was like 1000 the first hour because I was getting wrecked.
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First day afternoon I wake up and I start using my true deck a variation of Aurodon (Yang Zing) with Magistus.
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This deck did fairly well and I got to 11000 score that night after 10 hours or so with some difficulty due to my hand.
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However I couldn't be satisfied with that, the difficult was coming from my deck not having all the URs it needed and I had a ton of other cards UR that I never used but kept cause they looked cool and I liked them.
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I ended up dismantling half of them and asking for their strength.
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I was also misplaying because of my hand and also because some players were really strong so I wanted to be at full power to be able to beat them.
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I ended up making 3 Variations of decks to use tomorrow after deckbuilding for like 2 hours.
Second Day of Second Stage
Second day comes and my most powerful deck was getting destroyed and I would be confused because it was more powerful then my first.
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But I knew better to be confused, my hand did hurt but it was nothing compared to the frustration of my mind because I KEPT losing the coinflip!!!
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Dear lord seeing those coinflips being lost and hearing that sound made a little crazy. I usually don't play going first decks but Auroradon and floodgates being so important made it so much better to go first.
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I even switched to my deck with going second cards but still the Don was too strong or King Lich would appear to spite me. Also sometimes I did have a chance to win but my arm would spasm or I would make a toggle misplay. I'll discuss what toggle misplays are below but they are a little bit your fault as well.
People must have thought I was such a stupid duelist on the second day and they weren't wrong because I found out I also forgot to put Maxx C in my most powerful deck!
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I made a lot of decks and it was annoying to constantly copy them and delete another so I have reference on what I was doing wrong so I must have forgot.
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How I could forget the roach? I put 2 Maxx C in my deck, then I got all my gems from playing and dismantled all of my URs I could part with, I even dismantled Swordsoul Mo Ye since I never played swordsoul but I liked that card and the others.
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Then I put all my gems into a pack and got a royal rare UR card and all the going second UR cards I needed. I ended up trying to use Don with my royal rare in solo mode and it worked well but I wasn't sure about it. I went to sleep after deckbuilding for hours. I only had 5000 duelist score after my loss streak and was upset since things that weren't my fault was playing a part in this. I played like 8 hours second day.
Third and last day
Third and last day comes and I'm still upset, I decided not use my royal rare card deck and try to use the deck I was using for the earlier wins on the first day.
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But the coinflip goddess still did not like me, I lost more games after playing a few hours and took a break. I watched the anime overlord to cheer me up and went on reddit masterduel.
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I noticed that someone on reddit said you could see ranking and I thought that wasn't supposed to come until later and then I noticed someone had like 50000 duelist score. I wish Konami actually said you could view rankings during the second stage but there was no mention of this.
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My duelist score was 3000 and I was laughing but I was inspired. The last hours of the competition were among me and I wanted to be number 1 even though I knew it couldn't happen.
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I start using my royal rare card deck for the hell of it and I am just dominating, literally, using the don with the royal I had was just too strong if I went first, they had no chance and I also stuck in A LOT of going second cards.
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Also the more I won, the more coinflips I won a well. Perhaps it was because I was visualizing the coinflip like a crazy person at this point lol. Could have used that luck before but it was okay.
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I had no use of my going second cards majority of the time but damn did they put in work when I did. Even when I bricked going first a few times, I still would win. If I did not brick, they could not win due to the toxic deck I ended up figuring out due to my royal rare.
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The worst part about using my deck was that some people either thought I made a misplay or they never seen the route I went before so the duels did take some time because people thought they had a chance.
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I actually ended up losing a couple of times as well because at this point my hand was hurting so more misplays but damn I was having fun.
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All losses didn't matter if my deck had an 80% chance to win (if minimal misplays) even against the best players or decks, I ended up getting 12125 +1000 duelist score all the way from 3000 or so duelist score at the end in only 3 hours.
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I say +1000 because my last game I won but didn't get any duelist score because the contest was over. It was an epic duel though it didn't even show up in match history so I couldn't even record it.
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I didn't have much time because I spent a lot of time on break watching anime or woman but it was worth it. I played 5 hours or so last day but dominated during the last hours.
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I saw that I beat the number 3 player which made me okay with everything but I still wish I didn't have a broken arm so I could have done better.
Analysis and Opinions
Man I really haven't been able to have time to play ranked, I deranked so much, I feel kind of bad for the players I face, I should probably change my icon and frame.
Separating Level 20 below from Second Stage
Separating LVL 20 players from everyone else was perhaps the best move, ALMOST NO ONE was using less than the strongest cards in the second stage.
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I wish Konami didn't give 300 gems for being level 20 rather an icon for all players who wanted to get to second stage, this would be better for everyone rather them thinking they want those gems.
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I liked the fact that people could still get to level 20 and start playing against the best though, I thought it would have been closed to only the people who already were level 20 but was glad more people got in.
The Don
70-90% of players were using Auroradon in some way, yet there is data on reddit saying otherwise.
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10%-15% were playing King Lich, mostly Japanese players.
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There was Evil Twins and Tri-Brigade + others but it was few and far between.
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If I recorded all my games it would show this number to be true but perhaps the data is skewed or perhaps this is just my experience, sometimes that happens.
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I knew that most people would use the Don and was doing the same.
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I wish my hand wasn't broken since it does take skill to pilot a Don deck especially if you are going different routes.
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Yang Zing is the most common but not everyone was using even the Yang Zing route to it's full potential except in the cup.
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The Don was the best and worst thing about the cup. Damn it's a strong card that for some reason isn't forbidden.
Perhaps Konami wants to see more routes of absolute chaos due the don. The Airplane is pretty cool.
King Lich
King Lich players were extremely hard to beat if they went first. All the devastating floodgates were being used.
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Not only that they were piloting Eldlich extremely well, not a single misplay. I even had a board breaking Eldlich player win against me going second.
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A good play was to use dark bribe in conjunction with floodgates since counter traps can't be responded to by negating monsters. I never saw that before. Japanese players really can surprise you and give you hard but fun duel.
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Vanity's Emptiness as well as Imperial Order as well as Skill Drain were all banned or limited but I'm sure King Lich players will adapt.
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I thought beginner's were recommended this deck but maybe only because it's so powerful especially if you know what you are doing.
Strange Phenomenon of the State of Yugioh
A strange phenomenon I observed while playing the cup was that it is better to go first even with a going second deck due to floodgates and the Don.
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Now that the top floodgates are banned or weakened this is actually still true but to a lesser extent.
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The Don also has this problem since the person first using it will have quite an advantage.
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Even though I usually only use going second decks this was made apparent quite quickly.
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You can just go first get out a decent monster and have some handtraps or quick play spells with 1 strong floodgate and will usually win against 80% of decks.
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Thank god Konami banned Vanity's Emptiness because it was perhaps the biggest offender to this.
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Whenever I went first and could only put out Halqi, if I flipped Vanity's Emptiness after special summoning a monster with Halq I would still win, it was quite funny when it was not being done to me.
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I still did lose 1 game when I got rid of Vanity's because I felt bad and am a noob with playing floodgates since I never played them before but the fact I still won most games is quite alarming.
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I am not saying to ban all floodgates though, just make cards that actually punish floodgates. Usually it is only a 1 for 1 trade, at best, there should be a punishing card that attacks continuous traps. Perhaps make them discard 1 or banish 1 card after destroying a continuous trap if the opponent has a trap in their graveyard.
Scoring in the Cup
I didn't agree with the scoring method in the cup.
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You got like 800 points in the beginning until 10000 score and would get less points if the duel took longer. You would lose more points too if the duel took longer and you lost.
I don't agree with this because the best duels you have are usually long so why make a person feel bad in the beginning.
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At 10000 or so points you would usually lose 1000 and gain 1000 or so for winning and losing. You would lose more points the further you went up but this was way better.
Skill in Meta Decks, even Floodgates
The Duelist Cup proved there is skill in meta decks.
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I never used a meta deck before but after using one extensively, I saw all the misplays you can do as well not going the most optimal route for deck you are facing.
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Meta decks are usually meta because they can be versatile, so a lot of times you need to read your opponent and what they will do in order to beat them.
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If you fail at doing so with even 1 misplay, you will lose.
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This is not say if you mindlessly do the same combo you will not win because some combos really just make you win if not interrupted but it's about what you will do when you are interrupted.
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I saw all kinds of cards and strategies being used I never saw before and it was refreshing to see.
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Of course you saw the same main cards but it was the ones you never saw or expected the main card to also utilize that really made the top duelists.
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Floodgates were kind of monkey flip but the card conjunctions with them were not.
Toggle Misplays
Toggle misplays are only done in console with the Third and New Toggle Option.
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Konami's Devs are seriously talented and always showing surprises and this option is something I wanted for a long time but it doesn't work correctly on console.
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You see what this new option does on PC is if you hold right click the toggle becomes ON yet if you hold left click the toggle becomes OFF, that is awesome and reduces annoyance.
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On console you press R1 and you can cycle through the 3 options on, auto or off. But you can make a toggle misplay this way if you turn toggle on because you feel your opponent is going to try something, it's quite annoying when you are constantly being asked "do you want to do anything" and if you press R1 again because you are annoyed the toggle turns to off.
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So say you turn the toggle off because you are annoyed as hell then sometimes you will not be able to respond to your opponent even if you have one waiting. This happened to me quite a bit and was very frustrating.
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I know L1 on console makes it so you can use your mate but they should just annihilate this code.
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Make L2 and R2 the mate console controls.
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L1 should force toggle off and R1 should force toggle on, similar to PC users.
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Normally I would want Konami to pay me for this idea but here you go Konami, I feel like they take ideas from me on reddit too.
Konami seems to be doing a good job
I'm really glad made the cup but they should explained things better, this a common flaw in a lot of video games.
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They should have told when the cup was happening in EST time and other time zones.
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They should have explained how scoring would work.
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They should have explained you can get LVL 20 during the second stage so it would be less stressful.
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They should have explained that you can see rankings during the stage if you are ranked high enough.
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They should give me some money for my ideas and also make me top duelist and they should have saved me from breaking my arm.
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But still all that aside they have been doing a good job with the game. I really do appreciate them making it.
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They seem to have extreme understanding of the game as shown from the banlist, hell was a Konami dev a top player in the cup? I wouldn't be surprised.
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Them using the cup to ban cards that are too strong is a good idea and as expected of Konami.
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Banning Pot of Celestial (seriously why didn't anyone call it that before, it draws 2 cards for the easiest reason) was the right move and I was going to suggest it but too many people play HERO's so I wonder if it was the best business move.
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Not Banning Auroradon is hilarious but definitely the best business move, instead of banning the don, they can make him much weaker by limiting adventurer later. It would still be too strong but at least it does take some skill to use since there are a lot of different routes you can take,
Controversy regarding the Top Duelist
The controvery regarding the player who scored the top points was all about having crossplay disabled.
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Yugioh players are notoriously picky and divisive so it was no surprise they called the top a cheater.
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But it is and was objectively not cheating. I will state my opinion below as a player who had crossplay enabled the entire time.
Opinion
If Konami allows for a functionality to be enabled or disabled and doesn't do anything about it, then the player using that function to their advantage is well within their rights to do so.
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It does go against the spirit of the game but another spirit of the game is to try to win no matter what.
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It's not legal cheating, what the hell does that even mean but it was perhaps overlooked by Konami and they can't and shouldn't do anything about it now.
Crossplay should be FORCED ON due to Konami's event description NEXT CUP
All the above being said, Konami kind of did imply it would be a best of the best tournament and that's what people wanted.
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I thought it would be world's best too, but is it really best of the best if you can shut off a good part of the world's players?
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I play on console with crossplay on because I always have and it was a lot of fun playing against the strongest, most people play on PC and the PC players are quite strong, sometimes I get nervous when facing them on a win streak, but it's not like console players, even Xbox players are braindead.
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Xbox players did seem to worse than others but if you're a top player, it shouldn't matter too much.
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Still Crossplay should be forced ON so you can pay against as many duelists you can defeat, if it's on for everyone, no one should complain who gets top.
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Still the top duelists will make perfect plays that you cannot win against sometimes and that is what I saw from the top duelist. More on that below.
TOP Duelist still TOP Duelist Fam
I ended up following the top duelist on Masterduel so I wouldn't forget his name, GERA, but I also saw you can see replays that people make public and the top duelist has a bunch from the Duelist Cup that are public.
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He did make perfect plays and seemed quite experienced on knowing timing, there is no doubt he is a top duelist as I expected.
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I would have been upset if they took GERA's ranking away because it was something Konami seemed to have overlooked and I knew Yugioh players were just being too harsh.
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Also I was a little upset when he changed his name, but I'm glad he changed his name back and deserves the title of top 10 you get.
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I wish I could have played against him but I played on PS4, still I got to play and win against the number 3 top duelist who was playing on PC I believe.
Spirit of the Game and Conclusion
I think that's why people were so upset and they don't know it. They just wanted to play against the best and wanted to know the best was playing against the best.
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Still most of the top duelists are going to do whatever it takes to win, this is shown in most competitions.
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At least the top duelist isn't bad; he's pretty good, worthy of the top. See his videos to see for yourself.
The True Number 1? and True Conclusion???
Okay so that's been my experience and analysis of the duelist cup. I got 12125 score and 83 duels won I believe.
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That means if I just won every single duel without losing once I would have been the top duelist, the true number 1, with crossplay enabled, with a broken arm.
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But damn how many duels did I lose lol, I blame my arm. I played for 20-30 hours in those 3 days so that's actually not bad I got enough sleep and could have been number 1. Thanks Konami for deleting the bots.
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I won against the number 3 duelist the Vtuber guy, so does that mean I'm the number 2 duelist? Nah fam but it's fun to know you got to played against the best. I think I went first against him and he surrendered lol because of the Auroradon nonsense.
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I was using such a toxic deck in the end, I'll show how to use if enough people request it but it will probably make the game worse if people know it. I kind of also want to use it in the next cup since it's not banned yet.
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I knew I should have saved the replay with the Vtuber guy but I had no more replay saves left :( why do they only give you 10?
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At least I know now you can make duels public so I'm probably going to make the duels I already have public, then delete them, so I can record more replays and still have the previous replays.
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Realistically speaking, I could have been the at least the 1000 best with perhaps 30000 duel score if my arm wasn't broken.
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But you know the true number 1 for reading all of this, is you, friend.
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Thanks for reading.
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Good luck in the next cup!
