Randolph teenager competes in fantasy-game world championship

by Ron Kaplan
NJJN Staff Writer

For all the kids whose parents worry that they’re wasting their time playing video or card games, there’s a new role model in town.

Brandon Sherman, a 13-year-old from Randolph, has parlayed his skill at Yu-Gi-Oh!, the popular Japanese role-playing game, into a spot as one of the top players in the world.

By placing fourth out of 16 players at the United States national tournament, held in San Diego in July, Brandon, an eighth-grader at the Bohrer-Kaufman Hebrew Academy of Morris County, earned a two-day all-expenses-paid trip to the world championships, held in Tokyo Aug. 5-6.

Despite finishing ninth out of the top 12 international competitors in the video category against people up to twice his age, Brandon was nonchalant about his success.

“Yeah,” he said simply, when told how impressive his accomplishment seemed.

Yu-Gi-Oh! — which is based on a Japanese comic book series about dueling monsters — comes in playing card or video game versions.

Brandon and his father, Jeff Sherman of Fair Lawn, flew to Japan for the competition, sponsored by Yu-Gi-Oh! manufacturer Konami. They stayed an extra two days for sightseeing.

“It was really nice,” Brandon said. Although he was not the overall winner, he came away with some nice parting gifts, including more cards to add to his collection, which he estimates at about 2,500.

Brandon plays the game around an hour a day, with the exception of Tuesdays, when he plays in a regular tournament in Denville. Altogether, he’s competed in 10 major tournaments. A champion-caliber match can take between 45-60 minutes. He prefers the card game version, but considers the video version easier to play.

He competed in his first regional tournament in Secaucus when he was eight. “I did really badly there,” Brandon said. But he wasn’t deterred and continued to compete, coming in second in a tournament held at the Lautenberg Family JCC in Whippany a few years ago. “I worked on improving — and look what happened,” he said.

Brandon was the youngest player in the Tokyo competition. “I’m never intimidated when I play against older players because I’m used to it,” he said. “When I go to huge tournaments, most of the people there are 19, 20 — they’re a lot older than me. Some of them could be double my age.”

But what about his competitors’ feelings?

“They usually don’t make such a huge deal that they lost to someone younger,” he said. “Age doesn’t really matter. It can be stressful if you’re playing someone really good. Overall, it’s fun but very competitive.”

He even plays at school, although he said he’s never gotten in trouble because of it. “It’s not against the rules,” he said.

When he’s not honing his competitive skills, Brandon enjoys playing other video games or watching television, “pretty much anything to do with electronics.” It should come as no surprise that he’s looking toward a career in computer programming, although not necessarily in the gaming sector.

At first, Brandon’s mother, Anne Bushell, a receptionist at HAMC in Randolph, wasn’t crazy about her son’s obsession, but she’s changed her thinking over the years.

“I think it’s great that he’s doing something that he excels at, that he got to see some of the world,” she said.

She admired his ability to shake off the butterflies under the spotlight. “I would imagine he would be intimidated,” she said. “When we found out that these kids were much older than him, we couldn’t believe that people that old actually played the game and that he was beating them.”

Nor is she worried about the effect his gaming has had on his academics. “He does very well in school. Math and science are his two favorites [subjects].” Brandon’s 10-year-old brother, Alec, likes to watch him play but shows no interest in playing himself.

Brandon has no plans to put aside childish things just yet. He wants to keep playing, he said, “until I become a world champion.”