The Journey to the World Championship
by Muhd Rumi Bin Mohd
2007 Raw Deal World Champion

Hi all,
I wrote this article to show my journey towards the world championship. Firstly, I had actually quit around July 2006 to prepare for my end of terms exams. When I heard about the Singapore Qualifier news towards the end of the year, I was determined to win it this time because I heard that Frankie had decided not to go this year due to work commitments. The first week when I return to serene centre (the place where our regular raw deal tourneys are held) I had a discussion with Frankie to help me for the qualifier. Realizing that time was running out, I thought hard of which superstar to use as I did not play during the NWO-GAB era. After trying out dx,laise,piper,bobby heenan,vince. I had finally decided to use booker T. I play tested with my mates the booker T deck and tweaked it to my own liking. After much training, the SGQ had finally come. I played through many tough matches and before I knew it I made it to the finals. To my horror, the final match up was none of my mates. The final match up was long and stressful but I finally pulled off a win! I had finally earned a spot in worlds 2007 with the help of my mates.

The worlds format was not released although worlds seems to be coming nearer and nearer so I have decided to test out AA for the moment as I knew it would most likely be one of the format . One of my mates came up with a evolution deck after he tested it out in the local tourneys for 2 weeks. I decided to give it a shot and tested it out, the Evolution had continued success throughout tournaments in Singapore and hence I made up my mind. Just when I decided my AA deck, the other format was released to be revolution. I was shocked as I never had play in a revolution match before and never expected revolution would be one of the formats. To my delight, the second format suddenly changed to AB so I quickly brainstormed which AB deck I would use. One of my team mates pointed out that the Evolution would prove even stronger in AB as there is no show time and this would ensure 95% of the time me starting the game first. Thus, I decided to use it for AB also. Off I went to Detroit.

On the first day of Detroit, after checking in the hotel, me and xiong decided to go to RIW hobbies where the world championship was being held as we knew that there will be a couple of people going there . Over the next few days, we toured around Detroit and met up with the rest of the world championship participants. Friday finally came and I went to LCQ to meet up with the participants and played a few days of raw deal. Finally came to the world championship day, the day that everyone had been waiting for. I woke up in the morning and went for breakfast with the rest of the participants together with Barron, Mike and Peter Bradley. After breakfast, Mike was very kind to drive us to RIW hobbies. Shortly after worlds began, I had to play with Will Alessi on the first round and was lucky that he had no volley this in hand and managed to scoop him first turn. The second round I had face my bad match-up Kennedy it was Mark Laroche and I was extremely lucky after he cut my deck for the thrash talkin interview and I drew a DTTAH for the Chris Nowinski gra. The game went towards my side and I won. The third round I faced another Kennedy and I did the normal stuff and won. Forth round I had to face Darren who was using another scoop deck but I managed to scoop him before he scooped me and won.

AB started after a short break. First round I had to face the 2006 world champion James, his deck was an all rounder even though I had made preparations for Andre before I came. James deck proved to be the strongest Andre I had ever faced with; eventually I fell to the giant. Second round I had to face Rob Maslen, I managed to do what evolution was supposed to do and won. Third round I faced Mark Laroche again this time he was also a FOA deck, after I spinner belt him his hand was really bad and than I managed to scoop him. Last round I had face Alvaro Benitez and managed to do the same thing and won. I was very happy that I went 7-1 and I was just two steps away from bringing the gold back to Singapore. However, it was a pity xiong did not go up and I was sad. Top four came and I played with Darren again. I was really lucky as I had four cards left in the arsenal and luckily I managed to pull off a win. For the second match things went my way again as after I spin his hand he had drawn DI and Work harder and work smarter, resulting in my win that round. While waiting for the finals, I received many well wishes which calmed my nervousness. I also tested one round of revolution format with Adam Pecsi before the finals. The finals finally started and had to play with Andre first. I managed to scoop him over 80 cards and pull off a win a few turns later. The second match was rather scared as I had only played 2 cards which were Foa and ecw belt and he played managed by Vince and hidden dragon next I skipped and he skipped. I was shocked when he resolved managed by Vince and got rid of my ecw belt. The match began and I had play hardcore style throwback to add one damage to my maneuvers, did the same usual cards and managed to pull off another win. I had finally won as luck went my way the whole championship and I did not let Frankie down and made Singapore proud. Watch out everyone as my card is coming to town very soon in Revolution 3!

It was a really fun time going for the MLX and had really enjoyed myself; you guys were as cool as hell. Hope I can come next time! See you all in the future! I had really enjoyed my trip to Detroit and thank you everyone for giving me such a wonderful experience.

Many thanks to (in no particular order):
Rob Maslen
Anthony Lurty
Anthony Ogden
Mark LaRoche
Will Alessi
Mike “Venom” Bauman
Ric Pittman
2006 World Champion James Kandziolka
Fernando Aliaga
Albert Rubio
Jason Perry
Andre Segarra
Darren Patching
Adam Pecsi
Mycal
Barron
Mike
Antigoth
Xiu Bin
Kevin
Frankie
Kun qi
Zuo Ren
Cheng Zhi
Fu xing
Mark
Xiong
Aarron
And everyone I met up with at LCQ and Worlds (sorry I can’t remember your names)

Muhd Rumi