Anyone who has had a a five-minute conversation with Colin in the past two or so years probably already knows that he is passionate about Yu-Gi-Oh. He will happily chatter to anyone (grandparents, teachers, complete strangers) about flip effects and defense positions and fusion and other things that make NO sense unless you are familiar with the game.
He's always wanted to go to a Yu-Gi-Oh tournament, and I found out that there are a couple of them a half hour away that hold tournaments every Saturday. When our pack outing this morning was canceled, we decided to go ahead and give it a try.
Here is Colin, all ready to leave and posing with his cards. I love the confidence in his face!
And here he is in front of the store.
Aaaaand here he is in a casual duel with someone else before the tournament officially began. I'm really happy that he was willing to let me stand around and take pictures of this without being too embarrassed.
It got pretty crowded, and there weren't even enough chairs for the duelists (let alone the parents standing around). The observant viewer will notice that Colin is about half the size and less than half the age of most of the people there. I was a little surprised that there weren't any other young players . . .
. . . until I found out that the tournament lasted for FOUR HOURS. Good grief.
I was really glad that Greg was there, so we could take turns going somewhere else with Spencer - and even then it got to be a bit much. I'm not in a really big hurry to go spend four hours (plus an hour of driving) to repeat this again - on the other hand, Colin had a BLAST. Pretty much everyone was really nice to him, and some people even gave him some cards. The older guys who rolled their eyes when finding out they were dueling an 8-year-old hopefully changed their attitude after he beat them! (; (Okay, he only beat two guys once in a 2-out-of-3 round. But still.)
What made me the most proud of Colin, though, was his happy attitude, whether or not he won. He was just thrilled to be there, and didn't seem at all intimidated by his age in relation to everyone else. For the most part, Greg and I didn't interfere at all - we stayed in the background, since he had no problem going right in and talking to everyone and joining right in. Way to get your game on, buddy!
He's always wanted to go to a Yu-Gi-Oh tournament, and I found out that there are a couple of them a half hour away that hold tournaments every Saturday. When our pack outing this morning was canceled, we decided to go ahead and give it a try.
Here is Colin, all ready to leave and posing with his cards. I love the confidence in his face!
And here he is in front of the store.
Aaaaand here he is in a casual duel with someone else before the tournament officially began. I'm really happy that he was willing to let me stand around and take pictures of this without being too embarrassed.
It got pretty crowded, and there weren't even enough chairs for the duelists (let alone the parents standing around). The observant viewer will notice that Colin is about half the size and less than half the age of most of the people there. I was a little surprised that there weren't any other young players . . .
. . . until I found out that the tournament lasted for FOUR HOURS. Good grief.
I was really glad that Greg was there, so we could take turns going somewhere else with Spencer - and even then it got to be a bit much. I'm not in a really big hurry to go spend four hours (plus an hour of driving) to repeat this again - on the other hand, Colin had a BLAST. Pretty much everyone was really nice to him, and some people even gave him some cards. The older guys who rolled their eyes when finding out they were dueling an 8-year-old hopefully changed their attitude after he beat them! (; (Okay, he only beat two guys once in a 2-out-of-3 round. But still.)
What made me the most proud of Colin, though, was his happy attitude, whether or not he won. He was just thrilled to be there, and didn't seem at all intimidated by his age in relation to everyone else. For the most part, Greg and I didn't interfere at all - we stayed in the background, since he had no problem going right in and talking to everyone and joining right in. Way to get your game on, buddy!
Comments