It’s time to get your game on, Yu-Gi-Oh! fans — a club for the hit Japanese card game was started by Durham College Students Inc. a couple of months ago.
Founders Khaled Turk and Adam Niaraki have been fans of Yu-Gi-Oh! since they were kids.
Niaraki is a first-year student at Durham College (DC) studying web design and Turk is also in his first year of electromechanical engineering technology.
Once the Yu-Gi-Oh! club was established and registered, Niaraki and Turk hung up posters advertising it.
The card game was created in Japan in 1999 and distributed by Konami. It involves monster cards, spell cards and trap cards, which all play different roles within the game.
Club member Alex J’Meir Lambe, 29, an animation student, says he was ecstatic when he heard about the group.
“When my friend pulled me by my collar and pointed out the poster to me as I was walking past it, I was like, ‘Are you for real?’,” he says.
J’Meir Lambe is an international student who moved from Trinidad and Tobago and has lived in Canada for nearly three years.
When J’Meir Lambe first came to DC, he says he was a very shy person but Yu-Gi-Oh! helped him make friends and come out of his shell.
He says the game allows him to bond with people who have similar interests.
In the Caribbean, Yu-Gi-Oh! is treated as taboo, says J’Meir Lambe.
Niaraki assumes it’s because some of the cards depict demonic things, like dragons taking on war machine qualities. J’Meir Lambe agrees with him, but they both acknowledge they don’t know for sure.
Some Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, like historic sports cards, are known to grow in value.
The most expensive card J’Meir Lambe bought is worth $1,400 – in Trinidad and Tobago dollars. In Canadian currency, the card is worth $275.
The most valuable Yu-Gi-Oh! card is the Tournament Black Luster Soldier, according to the website Rarest.org. In October, it was estimated to have a value of $10 million — but sold for $2 million.
The Black Luster Soldier was released at the first Yu-Gi-Oh! card game tournament held in 1999 and was given to the winner.
According to Niaraki, they started the club because they love the game and wanted to find other people to play. They host a club meeting once a week and usually have about three or four members who attend regularly.
The club meets every Friday in the Pit and then they find an empty classroom to play.
Attendance depends on the flexibility of everyone’s schedules, says Niaraki.
