Nato’s gaming group

Vladimir Kuklev|October 16, 2018

Nato+and+his+group+playing+Magic%3A+The+Gathering+on+Sept.+11+2018

Nato and his group playing Magic: The Gathering on Sept. 11 2018

Any CHS student that wanders the halls at lunch has seen the table where a group of about four people play card games. Contrary to a quick glance, they are not playing Poker, Blackjack or gambling, unlike four years ago, when students from the McGraw forum frequently gambled at that exact table.

They are playing Magic: The Gathering (MTG), a mix of a normal card game and D&D, in terms of gameplay.

The leader of the group is Nato, a sophomore from the DeWoskin forum. If you ever looked at him you may have questions: does he wear that highlighter color sweater every day? How did he even get that name?

Pictured above: Nato standing in front of Ken’s room. This picture was taken after 7th block FOS II class with Courtney Kiley.

All of these questions have simple answers; he wears a bright yellow sweater on basically every day; facts that can probably be used to make many auspicious conclusions. When asked about how many cards he has he replied “a lot” in a calm tone.

However the way he got the name is that his brother, William Panitch, a senior at CHS, couldn’t properly pronounce Nato’s actual name, Nathaniel Panitch, so he decided to just call him Nato and the name stuck. Everyone calls him Nato nowadays, and he even signs that on the DeWoskin forum check-in.

The fact that he organized a gaming group during his first year is also stunning.

As he explained, before he arrived people didn’t play it so regularly. Sure there were occasional people playing rarely, but the daily occurrence, the way it is now, just didn’t happen before.

Unlike what happens now, before Nato’s arrival, people usually played on the first floor by the vending machine.

Unlike Nato, David keeps track of his cards; he even has a favorite card, which has a very weird name. When asked about how many cards he has, he replied by saying that he has about 100 of them. He also plays MTG every day.

Pictured above: Ben is standing in front of the 3rd floor blackboard. During that day, the gamers met at the table right by that blackboard. Only a few feet away was his deck of cards on that day.

Another gamer is Ben, who also plays every day; In addition to playing during lunch, he also plays during free blocks. His favorite places are described by him as “Either of the two tables on the third floor, I’m not usually on the 1st floor”.

 

Overall, the group and Nato embrace their individuality, and prove that unconventionality isn’t always a negative. A person doesn’t need to shoot stones out of a slingshot at a window to be cool; simply playing a quite obscure card game is enough.