Team APS: A Deep Dive into the Brilliant Minds of this Yu-Gi-Oh! Team - Part 2 of 2

We're picking up where we left off in 2020 with Team APS! Now featuring part two of two in our interview with the well known Yu-Gi-Oh! team and YouTubers, Team APS. If you're interested in reading part one before diving into part two, check that out here! 

We left off after learning about each team member and we dove into the content side of things for part two. We ended out last blog with this question posed to Team APS:

Inked Gaming: "What is your favorite video of all time that the team produced and why? Do you ever have any videos that you have just canned post production or do most of them make it through to YouTube? What are your long term goals with your videos? Are you looking to hit a specific milestone? Will we still be seeing Team APS videos five years from now or are you just taking it one step at a time? We know that life comes at you quickly and things could change for any one of you, but does the core group plan to stay together for the long haul?"

Team APS: "Hmm… that’s a REALLY good question. I’ve really enjoyed all of the skits we’ve made in the last year or so. They’re all fun for me because of how involved they are compared to the usual video. We brainstorm, we write, we schedule, we shoot, we edit… and it’s always a dynamic process at each step, with creative input from each person and changes always happening. But the end result feels so much more gratifying. If I had to point to a single favorite one, it’s probably the Yu-Gi-Oh Players in the Wild video. It felt like the best combination of creative presentation and acting that we’ve done. Since it’s fully narrated over a series of actions, we all had to overact to make sure everything came together on-screen.

For a long time, I took a much more haphazard approach to putting up new videos. Basically, I figured “well, if it’s content, we can put it up, even if it kinda sucks”. But over time, I think we’ve collectively become a lot more discerning. We’re a lot more selective about what kinds of videos we want to make and whether a certain idea fits that mold. Workshopping titles, thumbnails, structure, and pacing is more important than just getting something up. We’ve axed a lot of videos during the planning phase, so usually they just won’t make it to shooting. But even more recently, there have been videos that we finished shooting but ended up scrapping mid-edit. Sometimes an idea just doesn’t come together in the way we expected, or other times we’ll have an epiphany that a video really wasn’t such a great idea after all. It always hurts to lose the time and footage, but I’d say maintaining quality over sheer quantity has still paid off more often than not.

You know, it is interesting to think about the long-term plans for the channel. Early on, I was mostly just making and uploading videos for the sake of seeing them on the internet. Later on, I started to become more goal-oriented, with subscriber milestones being a really huge deal. To this day, we still want to become the biggest Yu-Gi-Oh channel on YouTube! Nowadays, though, I think the bigger picture goal is to expand the brand itself. It’s a lot of why we’ve been working harder on merch, social media presence, building relationships with brands, and most recently, these new playmat designs. The content itself has also started broadening a bit. We’re trying to focus less on the core Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game and more on the more fun aspects of the game, the anime, and the culture as a whole. More wild challenges, more skits, more reactions. It makes the content much more light-hearted and approachable to a wider group of people who just recognize Yu-Gi-Oh as a fun hobby or nostalgic memory. Down the line, we’ve discussed the possibility of weaving more anime and gaming topics as a whole into the channel.

I’d say we’re still taking the entire thing one step at a time. YouTube is a very unpredictable platform and of course life itself is even more nebulous. We’re lucky not to have had any major roadblocks, but that could always change. I’ve honestly considered quitting or changing directions numerous times in the past, but lately everything is feeling quite cemented and we’re all committed for the foreseeable future. Right now, it’s just a march toward the next big project or video!"

 Inked Gaming: "Well, I know many of us are excited to tune into Team APS for years to come. Watching APS’s growth over my seven or so years at Inked has been one of my favorite things to watch unfold. Been so cool to be able to watch fellow card players grow their channel and brand as our Inked Gaming brand has grown. Extremely excited to watch you take this next step and hopefully we’ll be able to be a small part of those next steps! 

In closing, I wanted to give you the opportunity to share anything that any of the team members wanted to share about future upcoming projects, side gigs, or any other plans that you feel the Inked Gaming community should know about you. Discord links, social media links, and anything else that you would like to share! If someone reading this has got this far in this long form interview, I’m sure that they’re looking to dive into Team APS content as soon as possible! 

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. I know I learned a ton of new things about APS. It’s been such a fun time getting to know you better. I wish you nothing but the best with the channel as well as all aspects and projects in your life." 

Team APS: Thank YOU for giving the interview. I had a lot of fun just letting some thoughts flow out here and I hope people enjoyed it and maybe learned a thing or two. Anyone reading who’s interested can of course follow us on our YouTube channel, but we’re also on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We usually post behind the scenes content, insights, announcements, fan interaction, and of course memes. There’s also a Team APS Discord server that any fan should join. It’s a great place to meet like-minded Yu-Gi-Oh players and everyone on the team pops in here and there to just chat with fans. We’ve got a dedicated team of moderators who keep things classy and cool, and we’re actually going to be doing community tournaments more regularly there as well. I’ve actually started writing Yu-Gi-Oh articles over on TCGplayer as well. And of course, look forward to getting your hands on some truly beautiful playmats courtesy of both the talented artists behind them and Inked Gaming. Onwards and upwards!

Since this interview, many things have happened. Team APS has released many new videos, we've released a shiny new website, and Team APS has continued to release new playmat designs on our site. Be sure to check them out here. They are wonderful!

A reminder that Team APS receives 10% commission on every sale! Check them out! 

This concludes the two part interview series with Team APS. Which artist or content creator on our site do you want to hear from next? Let us know in the comments!