Melissa Lierman and her son Jonathan Lierman are here at the 2019 Dragon Duel World Championship Qualifier from London, Ontario, Canada.  Jonathan’s been playing for 2 years and he got his invite for the Dragon Duel WCQ from the Dragon Duel at the Yu-Gi-Oh Championship Series at Niagara Falls in 2018.

“I’m highly involved and invested in the game”, says Melissa.  “Johnathan plays every Tuesday, we go right after school and have dinner in a plaza.  He pre-plays with the guys and plays until 9:30 to 10:00pm every week, even on a school night!  Even on weeks he’s with his father, I still take him.”

The Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME can encourage players to develop skills needed to play a TCG.  But there’s also other lessons that can be learned from playing the game.  “He loves chess, and chess is all strategy, there’s no luck.  With Yu-Gi-Oh, there’s strategy and luck, and you can’t predict and control everything, and luck is a part of life.  In Yu-Gi-Oh, you can’t control everything, so how do you regroup when the opponent plays a card that makes you lose?  That’s just part of the game.”   In addition to all that, Jonathan’s also learned some economic lessons from the game.  “He’ll do anything from flyers to chores to earn money to get cards.  It teaches him the value of work to earn something that’s of value to you.

Jonathan loves going to premiere events because “there’s a wow factor”, says Melissa.  “It’s kids from all over, all races and nationalities for a common love.  For the most part, it’s a happy activity celebrating the love of the cards.  For the most part, everyone’s happy.”