Ruben “Rimeru” Ramos, a day-one regular of our One Piece community, claimed first place at our One Piece Locals with his trusted Purple Luffy deck. Below is his full interview — all answers preserved exactly as written.

Here’s Ruben’s full interview after winning tonight's One Piece Locals:

🏆 Winner Interview

Q: What’s your name and bandai account name?

A: My name is Ruben Ramos, but I go by Rimeru on Bandai.

Q: We know you have been a local since day 1, how has the competition grown since you started here?

A: When I first started coming to Tilted Gaming, the One Piece scene was pretty small, but as these months have gone by– we have grown to have a solid amount of regulars and it has been a pleasure to see us even sometimes reach max capacity for some of our locals and bigger events. I’m very happy to see how far we’ve come from the start :D

Q: Was One Piece your first TCG, if not why did you choose it as your main?

A: One Piece is my first TCG that I’ve ever picked up and played competitively; before this the only TCG experience I had was loosely playing Yu-Gi-Oh in middle school. I got into this game because a friend of mine had told me about its existence while I was in the middle of catching up to the anime; I love the show so much so I was very interested in trying the game out after I had fully caught up to the show.

Q: What leader and color is the deck you used tonight?

A: I used Mono Purple Luffy to win locals today!

Q: Why did you choose that deck for this event?

A: Purple Luffy is one of my favorite decks and since I am not a big fan of the current leaders in this set, I decided to break out ol’ reliable and see how far I could go.

Q: Did any recent sets boost your deck power with upgrades?

A: OP13 recently introduced a few cards that have been nice additions to the deck, such as the new Silvers Rayleigh SR or the Divine Departure event card.

“I think the new seasonal leaderboard is dope”

Q: How long have you been playing this deck or leader?

A: I have been playing this Purple Luffy deck since OP10, it was one of the first leaders I picked up as I was learning how to play the game.

Q: What was the hardest match up you had?

A: I’d have to say the hardest match I had today was against Julio’s RU Ace. Ace’s ability to generate an insane card advantage while developing a tall board gave me quite some trouble– so much so that the game came down to time in the end.

Q: What was the best card or combo you played to get through each round that stood out?

A: Although it was largely absent for my first 2 matches–the 8 cost Katakuri blocker from OP11 provided me with so much value during my games. It allowed me to stabilize after putting myself to low life by providing me with an excellent blocker that is also quite a threat offensively. Also, shout out to Gum Gum Giant, I love that card so much.

Q: Any advice for players looking to take first place next week?

A: Try to get as many reps in with your leader as you can, familiarity and comfort with your leader allow you to worry less about properly executing your leader’s gameplan and let you focus more on dealing with the matchups themselves.

Q: Are you planning to stick with this deck for future events or switch it up?

A: I love playing this deck, so I’ll probably continue to bring it to more events during this set; however I’ve been thinking about trying out a more meta relevant pick like Imu and seeing how I perform on it. If I find myself in the right circumstances where I think PLuffy would thrive, I won’t hesitate to play him some more :D

Q: Do you like the newly introduced seasonal leaderboard?

A: I think the new seasonal leaderboard is dope; it adds an extra layer of excitement to the competition by highlighting strong players and also rewarding them for their performances. It’s also nice to be able to tangibly track how well you’ve been doing over time by watching yourself climb the ranks. I can't wait to fight for that top spot myself!

Q: Any shoutouts to friends or rivals you faced tonight?

A: Shoutout to all the homies that show up to locals every week! It’s always a good time bantering with you guys and getting some games in. Big thanks to Julio for letting me borrow some cards for the day as well; and also just general shoutouts to Drew and Mac for always being tough competition week in week out and pushing me to play my best and improve as a player.

Thanks for being part of the Tilted Gaming community! 💜