Coping with Stress in games

-Steady! Steady! Steady!


Before I start I just wanted to credit WDF, Odin Thor Loki Iron Man, in particular, that there is truly no limit to human stupidity. His article is a clear attack on my theory that people play to win in this game and the room for fun and enjoyment is largely occupied by people's desire to win. I dunno about you but I find burning $8 a week to have fun an extremely dumb way to spend your money in any currency. So fuck you, KFC. Speaking of arrogance, I don't recall flaunting my Lavalval Chain in front of anyone but my close friends. Hope that rings a bell, hypocrite.


Anyway, let's dwell into today's topic of stress. Very often, we find ourselves in a tournament situation shaking, though I only credit 50% of that to poor air conditioning. This is usually the case in matches to decide the Tops, or when time is called and both player's LP are extremely close. In these situations, it is often the player with the clearer head that emerges victorious.

For me personally, I usually start shaking in my first match of every tournament, be it Single Eli or Swiss. Because in both cases losing the first round is BAD. Everyone knows in Swiss the first round is the most important round as you will be facing people with 1win in round 2 hence your tiebreaker will be better if you win and not as bad if you lose. As compared to a second round 0win, the chances of going up is almost out of your hands and you will have to rely on the tiebreakers of your opponents to pull you up. For those who do not understand the Swiss system, refer to the following link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_system


Next on to the topic of tilt. Tilt is when a player is put in a situation where he'll be so stressed he'll end up doing shit he normally wouldn't do. One example is often seen in Game 2s of these decisive matches. Very often the player a game down would tend to throw everything he has and win ASAP. Likewise, a less mentally composed player could end up throwing the game because he went to aggressive in game 2 despite winning game 1. 


One must realise that losing games because of bullshit like that is a problem in their game and has to be eradicated. Many a time I see people trying so hard to win or not to lose even in casual play that the shit they do is a clear example of tilt, like throwing a whole board only to get Gorz-ed halfway or Storming 5 backrow and getting SLR-ed. These are poorly timed, poorly executed plays as Gorz and Road are both easy cards to read.


To overcome tilt, one must be mentally composed as mentioned above, but how do we actually go about doing it?


Well first and foremost, I believe the first step to overcoming tilt is to familiarise yourself in a tournament setting. Many non tourney go-ers don't know about how playing in a tournament is like. It is different from your casual games, because every there will be playing to win, and everyone there will look better than you. I'm sure there are those of us who go think someone's way of shuffling is cool, way of drawing is cool, way of hand shuffling is cool and all that fanboy jazz. This can prove intimidating cos you think you don't shuffle cool enough, or draw cool enough or hand shuffle cool enough and all that bullshit which I thought when I was newb. This is the first step to losing your composure, by telling yourself you are not good enough.


Building on that, the status of the opponent should never faze you. This will only lead you to make extra conservative plays cos all his backrow must be real. Similarly, never get too overconfident, as 1 backrow is still backrow. But this is easier said than done, considering I am occasionally guilty of both.


Lastly, improve your thinking speed. This is the only thing I can say that every player can do, the above two may not be as easy for some people because of different personalities, or lack of confidence to take part, but this is a technical point that some people are born with, some people lack, but all can improve in. Very often we do stupid shit in games because we did not evaluate the situation carefully. Of course, you can't take 10mins to do that so what we have to do is improve out thinking speed to prevent going into time with a deficit or whatnot. 


Of course, all this is not foolproof and if your mind goes blank in stress situations there's very little I can say to you but to get something for all that anxiety. This is also why many top players advise younger players to get enough sleep before big tournaments. Lack of rest results in blank minds.


Stress is all part of a competitive game like YGO, no one likes losing, and stress leads some people try too hard not to lose. What matters is how to combat it effectively, and make it close to a null factor in all your games.