[ MAUKA-MAKAI ]
WELCOME TO DOMINIA! You and your opponent are locked in mortal combat, two wizards strategically attacking and counterattacking -- casting spells and unleashing otherworldly creatures against each other -- all in the comfort of a living room. Making magic
By Gary C.W. Chun
Star-BulletinOr in a dorm room, military barracks, neighborhood comics and games store, coffee hangout -- or, as Ted Mays found himself earlier this month, at an international competition in Barcelona, Spain.
"Magic: The Gathering" trading-card game was the first of the collectible card games, created back in 1993. It has survived to become the most popular of its kind and is played around the world. Besides its obvious gaming properties, Magic cards have collectible value, the detailed artwork rendered by fan-favorite fantasy and science-fiction artists.
While most casual players use starter or preconstructed decks, it is the game's limited format, with just 15-card booster packs, that separate the men from the boys (in keeping with the proud tradition of geekdom, players are mostly male).
This is the rarefied realm that Ted Mays dwells in. The 41-year-old owner of Gecko Books & Comics stores in Kailua and Kaimuki was Hawaii's lone representative at the Magic pro tournament in Barcelona earlier this month.
Think of Magic as the seminal variant to your kids' Pokemon game. "Every card has its antithesis," Mays said. "Spells and counterspells, to either create or stop creatures, bring into play enemies and friends that represent certain elemental qualities.
"It's the 'official mind sport' of China," he said, "and the fastest growing recreational game in Japan. The international flavor of the tournament was amazing."
The card game is available in eight languages besides English: French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Korean, Chinese and Japanese.
Local groups usually gather Fridays at Mays' Kailua store or monthly in one of the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall meeting rooms to do battle.
"There are around 2,000-plus who are registered to play in a sanctioned tournament and thousands more who are casual players," said Mays.
Winning the local pro tournament made Mays Hawaii's representative in Barcelona, but it did little to prepare him for his first major tournament.
Mays said he was the second oldest of 640 entrants, many of them high-caliber players, well-known on the international money-winning Magic circuit."There's so much psychological manipulation going on at the higher levels," he said. "The rules enforcement on those levels is pretty scary if you haven't been exposed to it before -- for example, if you aren't in your chair at the scheduled start of play, you lose the game; if you're not there 10 minutes later, you're out of the tournament."
The competition didn't start well. "That first day, I was still a wreck from the long distance traveled, discombobulated by my foreign surroundings and intimidated by the level of competition," Mays said.
"The trick to the game at this level is that you don't want to close your mind before you open the pack of cards," he said. "That is, go with what you get and let go of wanting to use only the cards that have been your favorites."
Only 160 would survive for the next day's round. And that last spot would go to the winner of the match between Mays and a well-known French champion, who will remain nameless, for obvious reasons to follow:
Mays started the second set of matches already down one win to three losses; only those with a record above .500 would play the next day. With his wife heading back to the hotel, resigned to the worst, and Mays figuring he'd continue to play just for the practice, he won two consecutive matches, beating champion Irish and Italian cardsmiths.
His moment was at hand. "Here we were, playing for the last slot -- he'd driven some 200 miles down to Barcelona, while I'd flown halfway around the world, through 12 time zones, to get here," Mays said.
Tournament judges, while quick to warn players who use profanity or break agreed-upon standards of etiquette, do not rule on questionable play (cheating, in other words) unless a player challenges his opponent immediately after a card is played.
And Mays was calling his opponent often -- and the judges were ruling in his favor. He won, blanking the Frenchman in two consecutive games. "Afterwards, he looked at my deck and said, in the worst French-accented English you could hear, 'I can't believe you beat me!' and, 'Your deck is clearly inferior to mine.'"
Unfortunately, Day 2 was a total bust -- it just wasn't in the cards. He ended the day at 1-6, the tournament at 5-9.
But Mays feels he represented the state well. "Before me, no player from Hawaii ever played in a tournament outside of the U.S., or went on to a second round."
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