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Greece Lightning

Greece is the word once again as the wasted potential of the “Golden Generation” lies forgotten. YGO Online International takes a look at a new Greece with better prospects for sustained success.

The last time Greece was covered by this website, the article was an admonishment of flash-in-the-pan duelists who buoyed the nation to 10th place in Season 4 before disappearing forever.

By Season 7, the nation was barely staying afloat in 13th and looked ready to be surpassed by the likes of Denmark, Israel and Switzerland. But Season 8 saw the beginnings of the current Greek success. While a rise to 12th was barely picked up upon, being the results of the fall of another one-season wonder, Macedonia, rather than any spectacular performance from Greece, the ranking was worth more praise than it garnered considering that rising stars Israel and Denmark were successfully fended off.

Season 9 greatly built upon this with the Greeks ending the season back to 10th place, equalling their best ever finish back in 2007. But here’s the kicker. Season 10 is showing Greece to be continuing to pull ahead of their rivals in 11th and 12th (Australia and Austria), currently leading them by some 24,000 points and gathering more points so far in this phase than 8th placed Spain and only a few thousand less than 9th place Canada.

A slump after the highs of Season 4 saw Greece competing for “best of the rest” status but the slow, concentrated build-up that has taken the nation to its current position is worth the wait and will likely last a lot longer than the more sudden rise and fall of the Golden Generation. This is one Greece sequel that will likely surpass the original.

Stop the Presses: Seychelles in Trouble

Oh oh! Someone has been a bad boy in the Seychelles, hurting the island nations TP ranking. YGO Online International brings up news hot off the presses.

I’m not usually given to breaking news for a site read by myself and probably two other people but this is worth nothing, I think.

The lead Seychellois duelist has been thrown out of the TP rankings, it seems, for June 24th. As this duelist held over 12,000 of the Seychelles’ then-TP score of 21,990 this has rather an adverse affect on the rankings as you can imagine.

The Seychelles currently rank 14th in these world rankings. When this point deduction is taken into account at the end of the week (Yeah, I update the tables here weekly), then the nation will likely fall to 18th, pushing Switzerland, Denmark, Luxembourg and Bulgaria up one place each.

The reason behind the removal of the Seychellois duelist is unknown although it is likely to be due to Konami’s rule regarding “A Duelist inappropriately trying to obtain TP’s will be subject to harsh penalties.”

Stripes But No Stars

While sheer volume can keep the United States secure as the Third Force of Yu-Gi-Oh! Online for a long time to come, a lack of heavy hitters is allowing Germany to pull further and further away. YGO Online International says can you see a dawn or a twilight for the USA.

When it comes to the top of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Online world rankings, the one thing that matters the most is volume. TP stacks up quickly and it can be just as important to grab tons of spots in the lower 500 as it is to dominate the top 50 or so. High ranking dueling masters combined with a large contingent of dedicated duelists is what ensures constant growth.

For the United States, however, recent months have hinted that their inability to make an impact in one of those areas may be hampering their growth in the world rankings and that their chances of overhauling perennial runners-up Germany are growing more distant as time passes.

The gap as the end of Season 8 between the US and Germany was some 600,000 points. As of the end of Season 9 that gap had increased to 900,000 points and is inching ever closer to one million which is an enormous canyon for any nation save Japan to traverse, no matter how many duelists you can muster.

Meanwhile, as of the time of writing this article, only one American duelist has breached the top 50 in the current TP rankings. Even at the end of Season 9, America had only FOUR representatives in the top 100 TP ranked duelists (11th, 47th, 92nd and 96th).

Of course, we must take this information in perspective. The middle and lower ends of the table are filled with enough decent American duelists that 3rd place is practically guaranteed for many seasons to come (in fact, their lead over 4th placed Italy grew slightly between Seasons 8 and 9).

But mediocrity is also relative and watching the two nations ranked above them sail further and further from view while doing the bare minimum to stay ahead of those nipping at your heels represents the best example of that. If the United States wants to improve both its perception and its standing in Yu-Gi-Oh! Online, more duelists are needed there to step up and make the kind of sustained push that helped the nation reach its lofty position in the first place.

Falling Down (Under)

Once considered part of the world elite (or thereabouts), as of late Australia finds itself mired in a swamp that even the combined forces of Crocodile Dundee, Steve Irwin and every other over exposed Australia stereotype may not be able to pull them from. YGO Online International takes a look while being wary of drop bears.

Australia have traditionally been a kind of dark horse as far as the world rankings are concerned, generally floating just outside the top nations. A highest finish of 9th place back in Season 7, taking advantage of a lacklustre Canada, now seems so far in the past.

Season 9 saw the Oceanic champions fall from 11th to 15th falling behind such relative mediocrities as Switzerland and, most gallingly, the one-season wonders, Luxembourg. Part of this fall is attributed to the resurgence of Canada and Greece as well as the rising stars of Israel but there’s little allowances to be made for falling behind an Austria severly lacking in participation as of late.

As of this article, Australia has clawed its way back to 13th, pushing past a Luxembourg unlike to gain any points this season and a lack of high ranking Swiss participators. But even as these short-term challenges are fended off, other nations such as Bulgaria and the Seychelles, are making gains.

Worse still, Canada and Greece are now pulling so far ahead in terms of points, Australia may be shut out of the top 10 for quite a long time. If their new challengers, especially the Seychelles, continue to rise, what was once a contender for one of the greatest dueling nations of all could quickly find itself mired in a battle with the Swiss, Egyptians and others to try and make a mark in the middle of the rankings.

This is what happened, with a bigger fall, to a hopeful New Zealand as they soared to 15th in Season 5. They currently lie 41st in the world with little hope for improvement. Although such a dramatic fall from grace is unlikely to hit Australia, the risk of losing their status as a pre-eminent dueling nation also hurts the perception of Oceania as a whole. Or maybe, following the example of their soccer team, they could move to the Asian grouping and be free from the pressures of being the only major representative of their region?

Loss of Empire

Britannia has risen but is its fall as inevitable as other great empires of the past? YGO Online International plots the course to a future that may contain either glory or failure.

Great Britain has actually had a slow rise to their once lofty heights. They debuted in 6th place in Season 1, behind France, and it took until Season 4 for the nation to become the new “Fourth Force”, dislodging Korea in the process.

Excusing an overall loss of points in Season 5 (excusable due to, well, a worldwide recession in terms of points gained), Britain spent the next three seasons in steady consolidation, racking up points and slowly closing the gap between it and its little brother, the United States.

Then suddenly, it all fell apart. Another TP recession hit the game in Season 8 and Britain was hit harder than most, losing over 135,000 points in a single season, allowing Italy (who also suffered a net loss in points) to scramble past, knocking the “Fourth Force” to a less than stable fifth.

Even this might not be the end for Great Britain’s woes, however. Season 9 has seen the nation pick up a meagre 12,000 points. Less than those above them, to be sure, but also less than several aspiring nations below, including Korea (20,000), France (23,000), Spain (18,000), Austria (19,000), Greece (47,000) and Israel (19,000).

As the 9th Season has been one of recovery for most nations in the wake of Season 8’s recession, this perhaps signals the start of a great decline for Britain in the world rankings. While it’s unlikely all the aspiring nations listed above will eventually overhaul Britain, it is very much possible that Season 10 will see Korea switch places with Britain once again.

It is also very possible, however, that British duelists are just returning to the game at a slower rate and so Season 10 will see Great Britain re-consolidate their title of 5th in the world as well as potentially closing the gap with 4th placed Italy. Whatever happens, it seems that the future for Britain is very uncertain indeed.

False Passports?

Some players are being (not very) naughty and are bypassing their country of origin and residence, potentially skewing the world rankings! YGO Online International peels back the covers of a (not quite) international conspiracy.

Let’s start with the big one, which everyone really knows. The United States’ one YOC Champion is not American at all, he is, most likely, a Japanese native living in Japan. Shock! Gasp!

Of course, this is not the only example. Not by a long shot. So what is the source of this confusion? Let’s take a look at the reasons these anomalies crop up.

No Representation, But You Still Gotta Pay

The most obvious reason for registering under a nation that is not your own is because your nation is overlooked by Konami. Many nations, with many people eager to play Yu-Gi-Oh! Online are not included. This includes, but is not limited to China, Mexico and the Philippines.

As you can imagine, many Chinese will play under the Hong Kong banner and other non-represented nationals will choose other nations as well, usually but not always with a connection to their own.

Cultural Identification and Fandom

You’re a big fan of Japanese culture; animé, manga, the food, the language so why not get yourself a nice Japanese flag beside your name as part of your on-line identity? Japanese obsessed with western culture leads to this also going the other way, as in our initial example.

Irish-Americans registering as Irish, descendants of immigrants registering as their ancestors nations, purveyors of German pornography paying homage to the home of their desires; these and hundreds of other reasons fuel the choosing of a nation besides ones own.

Obscurity is Cool

Is the Pope an avid Yu-Gi-Oh! Online player, dragging the smallest nation in the world to 32nd in the rankings? Probably not. Although it is difficult to prove, whenever there’s a flash point of dueling power in a micro-nation, it’s usually caused by someone who thought it would be cool to have an account based in a rarely picked nation rather than their more common homeland.

Of course it is possible for even the smallest nation to have skilled duelists representing it, but sometimes, when the numbers don’t add up, the conclusion is easily determined.

How does all this affect the world rankings?

I’d like to assume it all balances out, more or less, and in truth it probably does as far as the top of the table goes. However, the lower you go, the more likely the chance of a ‘false national’ influencing the rankings in a way not representative of how these nations actually perform.

But, usually at least, in the case of the “Obscurity is Cool” rule, flash in the pan entries usually tend to fade away, marking them as mere anomalies of interest in the overall rankings. And so, in this modern transnational culturally blended world, we can at least say that the majority of these ‘false nationals’ feel some sort of kinship or affection to their nation of choice and that, at least to a soft-hearted guy like me, is good enough for now.

Eastern Rising

Season 9 has almost drawn to a close without much comment here but at season’s end YGO Online International spies a new wave of world powers coming over the horizon including Russia and the continuously rising Israel.

Season 9 of Yu-Gi-Oh! Online is coming to a close and our own ranking table here is as complete as it can be until we get the official end of season TP rankings. While, as usual, the top of the table consists mostly of the same old stories (and why not? If they earn the points, they earn their spot so good luck to them.) just below the surface a new wave of nations are beginning to make an impression on the world scene.

Israel, who I covered in Season 8, have surpassed even my generous predictions for their future and currently lie in 12th knocking regular dark horses Australia to 13th and doing much to improve the image of a Middle East section which wasn’t even represented in the world rankings until Season 3 (by Israel coincidentally).

Estonia look likely to make their international début in 17th, although time will tell if this is the start of a boom or a sign of another flash in the pan like Sweden or more latterly, Macedonia. Russia, meanwhile, lie in 18th and have been making steady progress since their own début and look likely to continue to improve.

Meanwhile, bringing up the middle of the table, Bulgaria (20th) and Albania (21st) are either making impressive progress or, at least, maintaining their status, more or less, which is a harder task that you might believe as other nations, such as Hong Kong (down to 28th) can easily attest too.

While I won’t be making any predictions about the likes of Israel or Russia smashing Japan or even Greece out of their way any time soon, their sustainable growth and almost undetectable rise likely only means good times ahead for such nations. And with the rankings now containing around 60 individual nations, placing in the top 20 is now a measure of skills and competence and an accomplishment in itself, in these hectic times on the international circuit.

Japan versus the World

Japan’s dominance is a fact but is there any real hope for a challenger to its power in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! Online? YGO Online International takes a looks at the statistics and concludes that, no, there isn’t, not really.

Let’s ignore our own world rankings for a moment and focus on a different form of competition. The seasonal YOC championships held by Konami. A cursory glance at the results since Duel Evolution came into play suggests a slightly competitive field. Although three of the previous five champions have been Japanese, we have also seen one German and one American champion too. But when you zoom out a little, things before a little more one-sided. In the previous five championships, 75.6% of all duelists who have made the last 16 have been Japanese. Which means only 24.3% of duelists competing on the world stage are non-Japanese.

Papua Don’t Preach

Papua New Guinea has always floated around the mid-to-low areas of the world rankings, but this week the Oceanic nation has moved to 19th in the world and it may not be a flash in the pan. YGO Online International takes a look at the rise of the Bird of Paradise.

Papua New Guinea made their, to be honest, entirely inconsequential début in Season 5, ranking 30th out of 35. Season 6 saw them maintain this position, without giving any hint of being capable of anything more.

Our first clue as to the potential of nation, population 6,300,000, came just last season as Papua New Guinea took advantage of a lean spell for the lower ranked nations and climbed up the table to 25th when all was said and done. But even this was hardly an indication of greater things to come.