19-year-old Jesse Kotton from Toronto, Canada has competed in the World Championship three times in the past 3 years – an incredible feat for any Duelist. He also has 2 YCS wins (at YCS London and YCS Knoxville) and made the Top Cut in 14 different YCS events. He’s arguably the best Duelist around. What’s his secret? I sat down with Jesse Kotton to find out.

“Hard work, innovation, and math. When I’m trying hard to do well in every event, I’m always thinking about probabilities and hypergeometric distributions for the odds of drawing specific combinations of cards.”

Kotton doesn’t take a Duel lightly. He’s always fighting his hardest, thinking about all of the moves he can make. That’s a large part of the tremendous success he has enjoyed in tournaments.

I asked Kotton what keeps him coming back.

“The friends I made in the game. And I enjoy the competition.”

Kotton’s answer mirrored many other answers given by top players. It’s very common for the greatest Duelists in the world to cherish the friendships they’ve made along the way and the spirit of competition. That’s a big part of what makes Yu-Gi-Oh! – and tournament attendance – so much fun at all levels of competition.

Jesse Kotton is in the unique position of having competed in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME World Championship three years in a row. I asked him what it was like competing in the World Championship each time.

“Each time was very different. Different people, different locations – and I grew as a person myself over the years, which made it different for me.”

Jesse said he got a little more comfortable from year to year, but his perception of the event never changed. He was anxious going into the tournament each year, and attended with the goal of winning.

Kotton is playing a Salamangreat Deck this weekend. “The Deck is very strong after the first turn, and no Deck can OTK you if you go first right now. Every time you go first, you should always see your second turn in this format.” He believes that’s what makes the Salamangreat Deck a strong pick.

Follow the coverage for more Pro-Talk Interviews throughout the weekend!