STORY BY JOHN CARTER JR
Known in the Yu-Gi-Oh Community for being very entertaining for their various skits and commentary on the Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game, Team APS is an exciting channel that is continuing to grow. Team APS consists of their members Paul, Alec, Alex, Trell, Larry, Chris, and Calvin. Recently members of Team APS were able to attend the Yu-Gi-Oh World Championship. This exclusive and Premier Trading Card Tournament was an exciting event for Duelists across the world to tune in to. With special appearances by Dan Green, the voice of Yugi and Yami Yugi, and Eric Stuart, the voice of Seto Kaiba, this event not only elicited nostalgia for its fans but allowed for the event to have a heightened feeling of excitement.
Recently I had the opportunity to interview Paul McGee from, popular Yu-Gi-Oh YouTube channel, Team APS to discuss the event, his experience with the game, and much more concerning the Yu-Gi-Oh brand.
1). How did you initially get into Yu-Gi-Oh, What was your first deck, and what has kept you interested in the game over the years?
Like most people, I got into Yu-Gi-Oh by watching the anime after school on TV. I didn’t know what anime was at the time, but I could tell there was something about it that stuck out from other cartoons. That and being able to actually buy the same cards in real life that the
characters used in the show was a big pull. The first deck I had was Starter Deck: Kaiba, though
I modified it over time with booster packs. My first somewhat cohesive deck was an early
Batteryman strategy back in 2008, with Batteryman AA and Inferno Reckless Summon!
I think my continued interest in the game is through a combination of friendships, YouTube, and competitions. I met nearly all of the friends you see on the channel through Yu-Gi-Oh, so it’d be tough to quit with them around. YouTube has also gone from being a passion project to almost my way of life at this point, so I always have a reason to keep a finger on the pulse of the game. In recent years, Yu-Gi-Oh also gives me a great excuse to travel, which I didn’t get to do very much as a kid. The game itself is always changing and there are low points at times, but those three things tend to stay constant and keep me hooked.
2). Where did the name Team APS come from? Was it just you at the start? How has the experience been bonding with friends over the Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game?
Team APS stands for “Android Psycho Shocker”, which was the original name for the card Jinzo in Japan. When I was 14 and impressionable, it was my favorite monster, so I thought that would be a cool acronym to use. Looking back, I wish I’d picked literally anything else, but here I am. At the start, it was only me creating videos. To tell the truth, I just used the “Team” handle because I saw other channels doing it at the time.
I never intended for it to be a group thing, but over time it just turned into that as I met a lot of friends who played the game. I personally like videos more when multiple people share different points of view and I notice people tend to cover each other’s weaknesses on camera, so I’d ask people if they wanted to appear from time to time. Then it just gradually stuck, and here we are.
Having others to talk about new cards and travel to events with is honestly something I couldn’t do without. Even when I’ve thought about dropping the game, having friends as always kept me in. At this point, I don’t think I’d enjoy making videos alone for very long.
3). Why did you decide to make content surrounding Yu-Gi-Oh and why YouTube as your most prominent platform?
Honestly, it was a happy medium between my two biggest interests at the time. I loved playing Yu-Gi-oh and I loved cameras. Those who are old enough might remember the Flip cameras from over a decade ago when they were a big new deal. I borrowed one from a friend and decided to just record a new deck I’d built, and that’s where it started. My favorite YouTube
videos to watch at the time were Yu-Gi-Oh product openings, since they were suspenseful and
rare cards were especially hard to pull at the time.
As for why I chose YouTube, I just find videos to be a more impactful and creative medium than just photos or blogs. I’ve since expanded to using social platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but I feel those are best suited to quickly sharing news rather than creations. Seeing a place where I can amass a large backlog of content and watch it grow gives me personal purpose and satisfaction, so YouTube fits that bill perfectly.
4). What do you think about the current state of the game, as in after the introduction of Link Monsters, new formats (speed duels), and even the new platform to play on (Duel Links)?
Yu-Gi-Oh is in an interesting place right now in a lot of ways. Every few years, when a new anime releases and new game mechanics are introduced, there’s usually a bit of friction
between players who readily adopt the new cards and players who miss the way things were
before. This happened with Synchro, Xyz, and Pendulum monsters. As a YouTuber, I get the
privilege (or sometimes, curse) of reading a lot of comments across the internet with player
opinions, and I can honestly say that, no change has been as divisive as Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINs
and Link Monsters. It’s easy to see why they aren’t very popular. The mechanic itself limits what
many existing decks could do, and some of the monsters like Firewall Dragon and Summon
Sorceress are very open to abuse.
That said, I think Konami has managed to reign in the mechanic through a combination of new Forbidden & Limited lists and the release of more balanced, archetype-specific Link Monsters that help individual decks but aren’t exploitable in other strategies. My personal least favorite part about Link Monsters, though, is just how difficult they make teaching the game for a newcomer. Anyone who’s played Yu-Gi-Oh for a few years can understand new mechanics with a bit of practice, but for a complete outsider or somebody getting back in from many years ago, all of the rules and nuances can make it feel like an entirely different game.
I try to address this problem in my videos, but it’ll always be a difficult one and probably part of spurred the release of things like Speed Duels and Duel Links, which I think are both brilliant. They offer players an easier way to get into the game, and Duel Links in particular has gotten a lot of support from Konami in the competitive sphere. Speed Duels is very fun, too, and it’s actually my new preferred way to play the game when I’m just at home with friends. It’s easy to just put together a deck and play some reps, but I feel like Konami needs to market it a bit more and provide more incentive for players to invest and play the format competitively.
Overall, though, Yu-Gi-Oh is doing very well in my eyes. Over the past year or two, we’ve actually been breaking attendance records at the national YCS tournaments, so people are
clearly enjoying competing in the game. I’ve also noticed a bit more new Yu-Gi-Oh merch over
the past several months like shirts, figures, and cereal, which I take to mean that the brand is
pushing further into the mainstream.
5). What do you think of the products themselves? More specifically, what do you think about the artwork design and the development of game mechanics over the years
I think Yu-Gi-Oh products, at least in terms of value, have improved a lot in recent years. Cards that were previously expensive are now reprinted fairly often, and we’ve gotten new themes and imports that have kept the game fresh. Players get a lot more bang for their buck when they purchase a product these days compared to several years ago. As a bit of a nitpick, I’m not the biggest fan of Yu-Gi-Oh product aesthetics, though. Other card games like Pokemon do a much better job of making packs and decks look colorful and alluring on a store shelf. That said, Yu-Gi-Oh has gotten more interesting artwork, especially with TCG exclusive archetypes like Kozmos, Noble Knights, and Burning Abyss where I assume the designs are created by outside sources.
As far as game mechanics go, I think the game is still very intuitive and fun, but I don’t necessarily like how complicated it can be to a newcomer, especially with many older
mechanics like Flip, Gemini or Union monsters that might be familiar to someone from a decade
ago simply being irrelevant now due to natural power creep. I hope Konami can find a way to go
back and explore or reinvent these parts of the game.
(TCG Harpie Perfumer)
6). What are your favorite archetypes in Yu-Gi-Oh and do you think that most archetypes are supported well or are some dead decks due for some revitalization?
My personal favorites are Spellbooks, Yang Zings, and Rokkets. Some other interesting ones for me were Sylvans and Gladiator Beasts. I think Konami has actually done a very good job of supporting older archetypes, since at least a couple of them will get support every few months. Almost every one of the decks I’d like to see get new support cards has ultimately received some, but there will always be some stragglers.
Balancing them with the newer themes can’t be an easy job, though, and it definitely shows. Even with dozens of new cards, some of the older decks just can’t keep up. I think it’s partly why Yu-Gi-Oh itself could use some alternative formats where more decks are on an even playing ground. Other card games like Magic The Gathering seem to do this very well and the players are happier because of it.
(Team APS Meets Dan Green)
7). How was your world championship experience in Berlin? What was it like meeting other great Yu-Gi-Oh Players and did you get the opportunity to meet either Dan Green, Eric Stuart, or even the World Champion?
So going to the World Championship in Berlin was actually not something I’d expected. Konami reached out and offered the trip out of nowhere, and I was really surprised. It was apparently the first time they’ve ever decided to work so directly with content creators like this, and it’s something I hope they’ll continue to do moving forward. There were at least a couple dozen creators there, many of them being foreign. So getting to meet with Yugitubers from other
continents for the very first time was a pleasant shock. As for the event itself, it’s definitely a bit
different than your average tournament. Since it’s an invite-only tournament for the players, it
did feel a bit disconnected and private in a way. Still, the production values that went into the
finals presentation blew my mind. I can’t imagine how much work and planning goes into
orchestrating something like it every year.
I was lucky enough to meet both Dan Green and Eric Stuart, and they’re each as lively and quirky as the different characters they play. It’s actually a little jarring to hear how effortlessly Dan is able to switch voices from Yugi to Atem on a dime. You go from this serious,
commanding personality to a soft, friendly voice and it’s almost unsettling. Eric Stuart seems to
have a lot of fun bringing more and more wit and sarcasm to Kaiba’s character every time he
voices him. At some point, you can’t tell them apart at all.
8). How does Team APS work with other Yu-Gi-Oh Content creators or how do you plan to? Are there any other content Yu-Gi-Oh creators that you enjoy watching?
Working with other creators is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I’ve done some video swaps and guest uploads in the past, but I think my personal goals for collaborations are much different now than before. Since most Yu-Gi-Oh creators are scattered around the country and the globe, it’s hard to meet up and do things in person, but those are also the kind of work I’m most interested in. YCS events can make it a bit difficult to record since there’s a big
tournament going on, but those still seem like the best opportunity.
I stay in contact with a lot of other Yu-Gi-Oh creators, but I’d be lying if I said I watch as much Yu-Gi-Oh content as most people do. The thing is, since many of us cover a lot of the same
news and cards, it’s easy to just feel like you’re watching the same thing over and over. It’s
actually part of why I enjoy doing skits so much. They’re different and not something you see
everywhere in the community. With that said, I find that the channels I enjoy most are the ones
that either go above and beyond in their production values like MST.TV or those who are going
in a different direction like Nyhmnim. There are some others, too, but they come to mind first
and foremost.
(Paul Mcgee with the Yu-Gi-Oh World Champion Kouki Kosaka)
9). What is the next step for team APS and is there any exciting projects you are working on (I do love the skits)?
I’m really glad you like them! Right now, my goal is to keep producing Yu-Gi-Oh skits, but with increasing production values and more ambitious ideas. For instance, right now most of our skits just take place at our local card shop. But over time, I’d like to get out of our comfort zone and go to different locations, as well. We set out to make about one skit per month, but we’ve actually been doing a bit more than that. Finding a balance is tough, since they involve
brainstorm sessions, scripting, some light storyboarding, recording, and editing. Over time, I’d
like for them to start feeling more like a true production than just an online skit. I’m currently dabbling in more long-form content, too. I want to create videos that can also tell a story that the viewers follow. We’ve tossed around ideas like mini-documentaries and vlogs, but it’s hard to say for now.
I’d also like to appear at more Yu-Gi-Oh events over the rest of the year. It’s very humbling to get a chance to meet fans in new places, and traveling has always been something I felt we don’t do enough compared to other creators. Getting to feel like a mini-celebrity for a weekend is a bit surreal! Going to the World Championship in Berlin has me wanting to explore other international trips like YCS London or YCS Milan, but that depends on what everyone else
thinks. There’s also some interest in going to things like Comic Con, which I’ve personally never
attended before.
10). What is the next competition Team APS plans to attend and are you excited for this up coming Yu-Gi-Oh Season?
Barring some possible regional qualifiers in our area, the next major competitive event we’ll be attending is YCS Fort Worth, TX in October. I’m also very excited about this event because I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus from actually competing in Yu-Gi-Oh. This new format feels like a perfect one to return. The top of the metagame has a very diverse list of viable decks and nothing feels overly dominant. New contenders are entering the ring in the form of Fire Fists, Rokkets, and Marincess. And we’ve got three potentially game-changing new cards releasing in the Gold Sarcophagus tins. I think now is probably one of the best times for a prospective competitor to go out and play. I’d also like to see Speed Duels get some competitive love, even if it’s only in the form of side events.
A huge thanks again to Paul McGee and Team APS, it was an exciting opportunity. Team APS can be found on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter at the links below. Please look forward to more content from Tiger Media Network!
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TeamAPS
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teamaps/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TeamAPS