School of Duel

Last November, Spencer Schmerling and Mark Widawer had a video production business (Your Turn Products) (ToyShow), 7-year-old sons and a challenge: Each child had asked their father to teach him to play the popular anime card game Yu-Gi-Oh!

After several hours pouring over what they describe as the “cryptic” instruction manual at their local coffee/book emporium and a subsequent search through the book and video sections, the two were left frustrated. It was Mark who suggested that “someone ought to make a video to teach players this game.”

Kismet?

At a local Yu-Gi-Oh! Tournament, they found a young man who agreed to teach them to play. The key to learning the game was actually seeing a duel. This provided the context they had been missing. Schmerling, Widawer and their mentor, dubbed “Professor Duel,” then created School of Duel, the first instructional video for the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game.

Available on DVD for $15.95 and VHS for $12.95, the video presents Yu-Gi-Oh! rules in a way everyone can understand, thus eliminating disagreements that can arise between players who’ve been using different (made-up) rules. It clarifies the game for those who are confused by the TV show’s separate rules, but perhaps even more important, parents find that they are actually having fun playing with their kids—and finding that their kids are eager learners. The two producers have heard from both parents and children via their Website (schoolofduel.com), which provides a place for enthusiasts to check in online.

The 52-minute “Beginner” video will soon spawn two companions, “Advanced Duelist” and “Master Duelist.” Much like the magazines that have sprung up around the Yu-Gi-Oh! craze, this is not a licensed product. But as the Website says, it is “unofficial, unauthorized, unlicensed and unusually great.”

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