Theory-Oh on losing and being beaten

In any game losing and being beaten are often confused as being the same thing. In truth though there are many differences between the two. It took one broken PS3 controller and a tantrum over Blazblue: Continuum Shift for me to understand the difference.

 Mechanics of Losing in Relation to Yu-Gi-Oh
When one loses it is an inevitable conclusion by something unaccounted for like a top-decked Brain Control or a random mashed Ultra Combo and you accidentally pressed LP or a random Shoryuken. In the event losing occurs that is when you don't try to learn from it unless the match isn't over yet (In which case they might do it again and you can prepare).Another way to flat out lose is to lose due to a FTK but those are rare. Note: If you have less knowledge than the other player about a situation you will lose but you weren't beaten you just didn't know everything they knew.

If you lose due to the above you aren't bad and you don't suck and you shouldn't rant about it as thats just part of the game you agreed to play. In a card game there is the factor of drawing cards which equates to luck. During deck-building you attempt to drop all luck to make the deck as consistent as possible. Realistically though you will never drop all luck as long as you are drawing cards.


Mechanics of Being Beaten in Relation to Games in General

Being beaten is when you either made a misplay, a misread, or because you weren't prepared. As in they summon Shura with Whirlwind up and you bottomless because you only have 1700 Life Points. They search out Breeze and Special Summon Bora now you lose anyway. It can also happen when one does everything in their power to win and still loses without any misplays due only to the opponent having the match-up down to a science and also doing everything in his power to win. If you are beaten you should immediately ask why you lost and how you could have prevented that loss. Do not get mad if you were beaten it means you worked hard and they just worked harder or made less mistakes.

In the situation with the Blackwings you could have side-decked extra what if you summoned Consecrated Light and then set the Bottomless. You would have been able to stop the first summon from even occuring or set two bottomless. Or you can even have destroyed the Black Whirlwind with a sided Twister or something so that you wouldn't have to deal with it. Even early on you probably could have played your hand differently and forced them to waste their Icarus Attacks early.

If you are beaten you either could have done something or you couldn't but it's never random. Hell if you do 'win' it doesn't mean you beat them if you Brain Control top-decked. Being beaten doesn't mean you lost the game it just means you were outplayed. Judai and Yusei always win after being beaten horridly by a top-deck.

Conclusion
When you can tell you were beaten and ask for help on getting better to not get beaten again you have shown to yourself that you want to be better and that you have the drive to win. You lose a tournament match? So what, it doesn't mean you didn't get better by having more experience dueling people. Luck is always a factor and losing due to it means not that you were beaten but that you just lost. Even if you lose due to your opponent accidentally throwing a Shinku Hadouken after a Shoryuken and it looks legit ask if they did it on purpose or not. If they did it on purpose you were beaten if they did it on accident you lost simple as that.


EDIT: the video disappeared so I replaced it with a better one.