For game aficionados, friendship is in the cards

About 50 young men and women pack the comic book store every Saturday.

They begin to arrive around noon, and they stay in the shop as late as 7 p.m. The owner sells them sandwiches, potato chips and Hot Pockets to keep energy high. They spend all day there socializing, shaking hands and most importantly competing in the game.

The game is Naruto. It's a customizable card game based on a popular Japanese cartoon that airs on the Cartoon Network. Naruto is one of many similar games that became popular about a decade ago. Other examples include Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh and a game based on Pokemon.

Players buy a base deck and then they upgrade it with card supplements known as booster packs. About four times a year, the game's makers release a new set of booster packs with all new cards. Players customize their decks and then they use them to square off. The game snares participants by challenging them to collect and compete.

Local players compete every Saturday at Cyber Comics in Edinburg, located on West University Drive in Edinburg. That's where the 50 or so young men and women pack the rooms.

Paul La Mancha, 16, goes every Saturday. The junior at Economides High School in Edinburg says he can't remember the last time he didn't go. He competes in Naruto, and he always stays until the shop closes. Paul began playing about two years ago, and he is hooked.

He enjoys the collecting and competing, but there are other bonuses too. Paul has made dozens of friends. When he started playing in the tournaments he knew no one.

"The whole entire group that plays over there, they became my friends," Paul says.

That group includes Adrian Villarreal, a 20-year-old computer programming student at the University of Texas-Pan American. Villarreal is a veteran of customizable card games, having started play at age 12. He used to play at a shop in McAllen, but switched to Cyber Comics when it closed a few years ago.

He says the game bonds you to other players.

"Some of these guys are still in high school, but you're surprised how this game has triggered reactions in their brains," Villarreal says. "These guys are a lot smarter than they look."

Roland Ramirez, owner of Cyber Comics, has watched these friendships form since he started the tournaments about a year ago. He's watched the group of players get bigger. And he's watched them come back each Saturday.

His comic book store used to be a large tile shop, but now it only houses his comics business. The switch left him with two side rooms. He uses one for the weekly tournaments, and he opens up the other room once a month for a video game tournament.

These card and video game tournaments started as an after thought, but after watching the positive experiences the players enjoyed, Ramirez has begun to focus more on them. He's even investigated the possibility of hosting more serious play.

Once a month, card game aficionados hold a regional tournament in San Antonio. The best players in the area battle there, and the winners advance to state and national tournaments. Ramirez says he would like to hold such a tournament in the Rio Grande Valley, so the players in his store can have a shot at more glory without having to spend the money to drive further.

Paul La Mancha is already excited about such an idea. He says the only thing keeping him from the San Antonio tournaments is the all mighty dollar or lack there of.

But someday, Paul says, he and his new friends will find a way to compete in the regional tournaments.

"It's going to be awesome, if I could just find a way to get there," he says.

Zack Quaintance covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4447.