When the hell did you get into Yu-Gi-Oh? The place had been you all once I was the final holdout of my center college lunch interval making an attempt to do synchro-summons as a result of I believed they had been the good factor on the planet? I ask this as a result of there has not solely been a discernable uptick within the buying and selling card recreation and video video games’ recognition of late, however some man is now pulling out playing cards and successful Olympic qualifying races like some sort of mad man.
Noah Lyles, who’s evidently on his strategy to representing the US within the Paris Olympics later this 12 months, can also be apparently the Olympics preeminent Yu-Gi-Oh scholar. Earlier than his latest heats (or races), Lyles has been flashing widespread Yu-Gi-Oh playing cards to the cameras, together with Blue-Eyes White Dragon and the pinnacle of Exodia, earlier than tucking them again into his working swimsuit. To prime all of it off, or maybe so as to add insult to harm, he’s been successful these races as nicely. Of us, I believe we could have found the quickest geek alive.
After flashing the pinnacle of Exodia simply the opposite day, Lyles has adopted it up in probably the most delightfully predictable approach: two extra items of Exodia. For the uninitiated, unaware, and unbothered, Exodia is a legendary monster within the fiction of Yu-Gi-Oh. It’s so highly effective that when it was sealed away as a card, it was break up into a number of items within the hope that they might by no means be used for worry of its literal harmful energy. Thus, there are 5 items of Exodia: a head, two arms, and two legs.
In apply, Exodia is among the most potent monsters to have in your deck as a result of merely drawing all 5 items instantly wins the sport. The fashionable model of Yu-Gi-Oh options mechanics that enable for Exodia to be taken out of play, or on the very least mitigated, so it isn’t all highly effective prefer it was. Nonetheless, a participant shocked a crowd by successful a match utilizing Exodia simply final 12 months, so that they’ve nonetheless received the juice, and that’s seemingly what Lyles is suggesting about himself.
In the identical interview the place he flashed each the correct and left arms of Exodia, Lyles claimed that “Now it’s time to construct the entire thing. I received the left and proper arms, and I received the legs coming tomorrow.” When the interviewer had zero clue what Lyles was telling him, he clarified, “All of the Yu-Gi-Oh followers know. One thing massive is coming.”
Lyles isn’t simply pulling out the playing cards as a result of he’s an enormous fan of Yu-Gi-Oh and anime although. In an extremely cute twist, he’s really flashing them as a part of a guess with one other athlete, the world champion shot putter Chase Ealey. In line with Lyles, they’ve a working guess which stipulates that if he flashes Yu-Gi-Oh playing cards earlier than his heats all through the continuing Olympic trials, Ealey will put on Rock Lee’s (of Naruto) leg weights—which mockingly make him tremendous fast-–and take them off throughout her personal finals. This is likely to be the perfect sports activities anime I’ve ever seen.
It now appears extremely seemingly that we’ll see Lyles pull out the whole lot of Exodia over the course of his Olympic trials, and seeing as how he retains knocking wins again, solely time will inform what else he’s received up his swimsuit. I solely pray that he makes it to the Olympics and retains this bit up for the hell of it. Within the meantime, do you assume he’s taking recommendations? If that’s the case, convey out Black Luster Soldier subsequent, king.
