Magic the Gathering is a world-famous collectable card game (it was the precursor to Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and all subsequent TCG/CCGs), and at the moment it is my number one hobby. In my opinion it is the perfect mix of skill, strategy and yes, at times a little bit of luck.
I started playing in October 2007 after having played Yu-Gi-Oh for two years, deciding that it relied too much on making money and not making the game interesting. It wasn't suprising to see Top 8s of tournaments feature 8 of the same deck. So I decided to give MtG a go, persuaded by the guy who was running it then, Wei Rao. I started off just going to the weekly tournaments, called FNMs (Friday Night Magic, even though we played on Wednesdays...go figure...). Anyways in May 2008 I went to my first major tournament, GP Birmingham (GP stands for Grand Prix, in case you were wondering). I failed spectacularly, and my confidence took a huge knock, even though I did well in a side event later. That didn't matter though, it still hurt.
I then went to GP Madrid two months later, partly for the holiday, but also to get the experience of playing in major tournaments. I did even worse. The next day there was a chance to receive 3 byes (3 automatic wins) for the next GP, which would have been near my birthday, in Copenhagen. I had built a solid deck and though I would do well. After only winning one of my five games I dropped out.
Things carried on like this for some time, my ratings were extremely poor (you start with a rating of 1600, I was on 1540 at the time) and by December 2008 I had enough. The Championships at Manchester would be my final event.
I honestly wasn't enjoying myself, I couldn't concentrate and I just couldn't play well to save my life.
So I was quite shocked to win my first three matches, and even though I only won one of my next three, I made the Top 8 (out of 34). I remember being extremely nervous and I played quite a few misplays in the quarter-finals (the Top 8 play-off is single elimination), but that didn't matter, because at the end of the day I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
I haven't made a Top 8 play-off since but I've come close (11th out of 40 and 10th out of 54) but that day got me playing again, and since then my rating has vastly risen, from 1515 in August 2008 to 1754 now, March 2009, and seeing as the pros are in the 2000s and the better players are at 1800s, that's not too bad.
So here's to more good times with the Team Leeds Magic guys and more improvement and fun in the future!
Sayonara
Heathy
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