December 12, 2010 7.09 pm This story is over 162 months old

Lincoln teens’ frenzy card-swapping hobby

Teenage hobby: City teenagers are indulging themselves into new card-swapping hobby games popular around the world.

Dozens of teenage card-swapping game enthusiasts met at the Friends Meeting House on Park Street this weekend to indulge their hobby.

The tournament is hosted weekly by Comic Culture and put on usually at the Healthy Hub and Beaumont Fee, but the provisional location this weekend was due to the Alternative Christmas Market.

Strategy card games like Yu-gi-Oh! are receiving a sudden boost in popularity in Lincoln because of the continued franchise is touching another generation.

The Yu-gi-Oh! game asks the players to take turns to attack each other with 40-card decks, taking out 4,000 life points.

Another game the teens play is Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering, challenging players to summon monsters to defend life points through spell cards.

The car-swapping club itself is split two ways, one side plays Yu-gi-Oh! while the other plays Magic: The Gathering.

Daniel (16) started playing Yu-gi-Oh! back in 2000 and finds the game “fun” and interesting how he has to “think things through.”

When playing Yu-gi-Oh!, Jack (15) found he had no plan for winning, “I don’t really have an overall strategy; it varies from game to game”

In comparison with other tournaments up and down the country, a dedicated club member Ashley (16) describes Lincoln’s club as “quite small compared with Sheffield and other European tournaments.

“One was held at the NEC in Birmingham, where players came from all over Europe and translators explained moves to people who spoke different languages.”

The club itself has both old and young players, Ashely said: “There’s a mix of experience and we try to teach the younger players.

“There were more people but with the university students leaving, there’s no real structure and it’s not as competitive.”

The club’s next meeting is next Saturday at 10.30am at the Healthy Hub, and entry costs £1.50.