Overview
In case you missed it, Clan Wars Season 5 has come to an end! Last week was the Semifinals and Grand Finals with a surprise banslit. Our Last 4 Clans were: 1%, Dark Clan, Destiny Draw and Warufuzake. 4 Clans fighthing each other on epic duels to win the prize of $6,650! You can check all the information, data and reports from this and older seasons here: Clan Wars
And with that we wanted to take some time to talk with our 2nd time Champions of Clan Wars history. So, without futher ado, let's get started with our interview!
Interview with 1%
Congratulations on your 2nd time as a Champion, How do you feel?
Fantastic would be an understatement. It felt great to be the first clan to win Clan Wars and now to be the first Clan to win two seasons just feels amazing. We started this clan because we wanted a platform to casually play with some of our friends, it turns out some of our friends are really good at Yugioh.
Anything you would like to share about your Clan?
Unequivocally, one thing we would share about our clan, is that we all support each other and have great cohesion. Every players input is valued, from those who have competed on the world's stage to the casual competitive player. Every member is deeply involved and valued by the rest of the clan and none more so than our owner NerdChic. We stress him out by deciding our decks 5 minutes before a match and mess with him in the server constantly but we would not be the clan we are without Nerd constantly pushing us and reminding us that we are the best. We are not only clan mates; we are a family and that leads to 1% being the most successful clan in clan wars.
How was your Semifinals against (Dark Clan)?
Could not have been a greater underdog story, anyone who left the stream early certainly thought our playoff run was over in the semifinals. However, this was our season and we knew it. After we beat the unbeaten clan, we knew nothing was going to stop us. We ended up in a bad spot with Jason standing alone against three players but he didn’t make two World Championship Finals appearances by luck and he wasn’t about to go down without a fight. Jason brought it back against all three players and clutched our spot in the finals.
How was your Grand Finals against (Warufuzake)?
Knowing that they would likely plan against our Crystrons, Negative1 decided to switch his deck for Blue-Eyes which proved to be correct when they brought 4 Witchcrafter decks in their lineup. We knew going in that Warufuzake would be a tough clan to predict so we took a risk and brought a lineup we hoped could beat anything they threw at us. We lost round 1 in a close 3-2, with only MVPino winning with his Shiranui and superforms winning the Witchcrafter mirror. For round 2 we knew our lineup was a good call and knew we had gotten unlucky but were confident in our decks. We sent Whilipino to tackle the glass cannon and the rest of us took on the Witchcrafter onslaught and we finished round 2 with a clean 5-0. Round 3 Warufuzake subbed in their second Cyber Dragon deck and managed to secure the initial win with all three Witchcrafter decks eliminating Whilipino, superforms and Jason however, Jonesy9027 and Negative1 were able to stay alive and eliminate both Cyber Dragon decks. What came next was the final elimination where Warufuzake chose which decks to throw at our remaining players. Jonesy9027 and Negative1 both won and brought it back to 2-1 with only King Halo left to defeat. King Halo defeated Jonesy9027 and it came down to the last man for both clans with the title on the line. In the final round, Negative1 defeated King Halo 2-0 securing the win for his clan and showcased his deck's ease in the Witchcrafter matchup.
How did it feel playing in a just released banlist?
One thing we want to highlight is the thrill and terror we awoke to. Waking up to a banlist is a great felling, especially in a meta as stale as this one has become. Waking up to a banlist a few hours before you play in the final matches of a league you have worked for eight weeks in is nothing less than heart stopping. The night was spent testing and preparing for all possible outcomes and we went to bed with a solid plan and thought we were ready for anything. We woke up to several notifications of a banlist and knew our entire strategy needed to be reevaluated. Some of our members had work so they stayed in the conversation as best they could as we planned and rebuilt our lineup. We quickly realized that Shiranui, Dark Magician, and Crystrons were still great decks and there were minimal changes to the meta overall. We looked at what our opponents were likely to bring and built decks we thought could outlast them.
Any comment on your decks choices?
From when we first saw the banlist, we made a quick assessment of the meta impacts and decided that our lineup for the semifinals would only require slight changes and we would wait for the outcome of the other semifinals match to decide our finals lineup. Our decks worked and got us through to the finals. For the finals we expected them to bring Witchcrafters, not a lineup of four WC but we expected some and built our decks to beat them. Our sub was Deadfun with Dark Magician and we did not sub him in because we knew that when we won he would be a free win for their Cyber Dragon deck and we did not want to give them any free wins. Since we faced so many Witchcrafters, several players had some dead side deck cards but having built our decks for this matchup we were able to secure the win.