Congratulation on the victory! How does it feel to be crowned Continental Champion?

Gareth: Really good and so nice to play against other player and see what the world got to offer.

Tao: It’s pretty nice and I feel very lucky. I would like to thank all players who play this game with me in my life. Without them, I can’t arrive this place. Also, big thanks for my Japanese friends who helped me to learn some real combos and deck builds through Twitter.

How would you comment on your battles against other National Champions just now?

Tao: I think that all the other national champions are stronger than me in somewhere. I still have to learn a lot from them.

Can you share your strategy in winning the games?

Gareth: We help each other out and figure out new strategies to win our games. Surely we can just assist our teammates by talking and say, “you should have played it this way”. But really, [figuring out strategies together] helps a lot! Of course, we are sometimes very lucky as well (laughter).

Is this your first time coming to Düsseldorf?

Gareth: I was born here so I used to visit Germany really often.

Tao: Yes. Germany is a beautiful country. I was enjoying this short trip and I want to thank Bushiroad for helping us pay for the travelling and hotel fees.

Can you share your thoughts about the city? What do you plan to do after the tournament?

Tao: Germany is really beautiful and I would love to visit it more often besides bigger tournaments. Right now, I don’t have any plans because UK’s single national (Bushiroad World Championship UK Regional Qualifier) is very early to me. I will try to find other countries and see if I can go there to take part in its national during the next quarter.

Can you share a little bit more on how the team got together?

Gareth: Over a Facebook trading group

Tao: At first, I only have two members in this team 5 days before the Huddersfield Team League. I found Alistair who was play A in my team by introducing from one of my friend’s friend’s friends, and then I tried to have contact with him and go to Huddersfield together. That was the first time we met each other.

Is this your first time participating in a nation-wide Bushiroad Tournaments? How did you perform in the previous circuits?

Gareth: For bigger tournaments, yes, it is our first time also as a team. But we usually rank high in bigger tournaments and store tournaments, so we are quite confident doing good on these events.

How do you enjoy entering the tournament as a team, compared to as individuals?

Tao: It is amazing also if you build your team like one or two weeks before the event and see “you don’t need to know each other for years to make a good performance”. Also having the communication after the match is really nice and it calms you down.

Do you have a favorite card? Why?

Tao: My favorite card definitely is Chronojet Dragon. I like not only its design, but also its skill. The relationships of Chronojet Dragon with his Grade 4 friends are pretty interesting to me. I can’t wait for the next <<Gear Chronicle>> set which releases in October.

Gareth: Demon World Marquis, Amon

Do you watch the animation? If you could pick one team in the animation you’d like to challenge in Cardfight, which one would it be?

Gareth: Would be Team TRY3 as of seeing what we can give.

Tao: I want to challenge Team TRY3 and have a match with Chrono Shindou. He is my favorite character in Cardfight!! Vanguard G animations, [and I think he’s] even better than Aichi Sendou and Toshiki Kai. I think it will be an interesting match with “Chronojet Dragon” facing “Chronojet Dragon“.

Among many formats and ways of playing Cardfight!! Vanguard, which one do you enjoy the most or you would like to try?

Gareth: We like all the formats so there isn’t any favorite.

What development in the game or animation do you look forward to for the latter half of 2016?

Tao: I wish to see more new cards in different clans, such as <<Oracle Think Tank>>, <<Genesis>>, <<Nubatama>> and <<Spike brothers>>. Since the G set was out, they have got less support than other clans. All of my friends who was playing these clans are very disappointed. Also, please don’t make the strong clans much stronger. It is unbalanced. I really hate a card game designer who only focuses on his favorite clans and do nothing on the others.

Gareth: I like to see more clans getting start decks and support of older sub-type such as Amon, or reprints of rare cards.

Do you have any tips for other players who want to play better?

Gareth: Go with your heart. If you do not go with your heart, it [won’t be] the true you.

Tao: Don’t work hard, you never have a good result. Including the Huddersfield National and Europe Championship, I played 16 games in total, and my result was 14 wins and 2 losses. Actually I lost two games by the same person in the Swiss rounds, [one time] in Huddersfield and [one time] in Germany respectively. Then, I got revenge matches in the top cut, and I won. I won’t say Cardfight!! Vanguard is a luck game and everything only depends on “triggers”. The opinion of that was correct one year ago. However, as we can have 16 extra cards including G guardians now, this game has become much more clear to me. I know what to do to make my opponents feel bad and what to do to let me have a bigger chance to put out my triggers. If you don’t believe it, try to play more games and find the tips by yourselves. Remember we are not lucky persons. All we have to do is learning how to improve ourselves.

Anything else you wish to say about the event/the game?

Gareth: I would like to thank for giving us these time to show the a team that was made last minute, which could show that you don’t need to know to have been training together all the time, but you can still win if you trust you and your friends.