The day started with the deck list/registration line. I was on deck list checking and that was a long sit. I was sitting right next to the cashier so I was one of the first to hear when we were reaching capacity and when we, eventually, hit it and started essentially scraping the bottom of the barrel to find more registration booster packs to get some more people into the game. We sadly had to send some people home with nothing. I know it had to suck, but we broke the record for our regionals by over 90 people. The floor was packed with duelists, and we even ran out of table space for some duelists and had to make special accommodations for them.
We got into Round 1 and I was pleased to find out at that point that I would be on the floor for the duration of the event. This meant I could be on my feet and moving about, answering judge calls, and helping players along. I was surprised at how many judge calls I ended up getting early on. They had me positioned towards the lower tables, where people with lower scores gravitate. I ended up breaking out of that area more often than I thought I would and answered a ton of judge calls for rulings and, a lot more frequently, no shows. I really enjoyed this particular job and honestly doubt I'd want any other job at a tournament. A couple of judges gave me some praise throughout the early event (and more so later, explained below) so I felt pretty welcome. A good 4 rounds or so passed without any incident for me. Every time I got my ruling appealed the head judge ended up giving the same ruling as me, I didn't have to solve issues that would result in a penalty (aside from someone who had their Extra Deck sleeved differently).
It was either Round 5 or Round 6 that I discovered that one of the guys I rode with, as well as myself, had our belongings stolen from the trunk of the car. Yes, the trunk of the car. No cameras in the lot and no witnesses. Every Yu-Gi-Oh card I owned was in that trunk and is probably helping someone make a dirty profit as I type this now. To say the least I was absolutely livid that this had to happen at my first regional when I was enjoying myself so much. After boiling about it for a couple of minutes I went to my team lead and, after explaining what happened, told him that I'd like to at least keep up what I was doing before the incident. Naturally none of the judges had any problem with me continuing as a judge since we were, as I said earlier, at capacity. It was also around this time that me and my friend, in our infinite wisdom, didn't call the police or file a report (what are the odds of getting stolen cards back, after all).
At the end of Round 7, the guy who I was riding home with decided to drop since he was on the low end of the bracket. I let Richard (HJ) know and he dismissed me. I did receive my comp, despite not making it to
So what's next? Well I don't really have a means to rebuild from what I lost. Financially I'm just not capable of starting over with the collection I had. I'm a guy who is very specific about what he wants, and the cards that I had I had for a reason. The time, effort, and money required to get all of that back is just insane for me right now. I really would like to just continue judging and see how I feel about the game from that perspective. I still have DevPro to play when I'm at home, but I think that's as much as I can get.
Sadly, the Yu-Gi-Oh community is mostly filled with those who put profit over everything. Stealing, cheating, and ripping off the less experienced is something that happens all too often and is something that pays off for the malicious individuals more often than not. There's no way to crack down on this behavior without making the people who come into this with innocent intentions feel uncomfortable or bring what should be a fun game into an even more strict and more tedious chore for the players who want to compete. It's a lose-lose situation and, without inspecting every single person's belongings before they leave, there's just no way to prevent thieves from being thieves. Just doing so would make people not want to show up to begin with.
I do hope to judge more tier 2 tournaments in the future, and all I can say is that this was a huge and eventful day. Good or bad, it was a learning experience.
Yo man I had the same thing happen at the same regional location. That place is pure garbage and is well known for it's theft. Had card collection and charging phone stolen from car. I just wish they would hold it at another venue. Anyway I hope all turns out well for you.
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