Notes On The End of the World
By Kevin Ho
Photo courtesy of @cardistryworld.official
About a year ago, Cardistry-Con Champion and creator of MockingGod, Duy Nguyen, contacted me about a secret project that he and a few others had been cooking up.
As it turns out, he, Daniel Lin, Shivraj Morzaria, and Gaolock had been floating around the idea of doing their own Asian cardistry convention. Duy mentioned that because I was one of the organizers of Cardistry-Con 2016 in Berlin, which was Duy’s, Daniel’s, and Shiv’s first con, they wanted my help with organizing this one in order to make it the best possible event it could be. I, of course, happily and wholeheartedly agreed to come on board. After all, these were all friends that I respected and admired, and the thought that they would be pouring their efforts into recreating for other cardists what they experienced first-hand in Germany a decade ago was too good of a story for me not to want to be a part of it.
What goes around comes around
Duy told me that two things that he and the others missed about the 2016 con was 1) the Cardistry-Con Championship and 2) the House of Cardistry.
In the first case, the competition created hype and buildup leading up to the event in July of 2016. With the prizes including $1000 in cash, a promise of having the winner’s own custom deck printed with Carta Mundi, and a round-trip plane ticket to the event itself, it’s safe to say that no one was holding back when it came to letting loose that year. Each round delivered fiercely iconic videos, and led ticket-holders to question: who would be the two finalists that they’d be meeting at the con that summer?
In the latter instance, the House of Cardistry was sizing up to be a replay of one of the wildest implements of 2015’s Brooklyn con: a singular place where all the headliners of the event would be staying and jamming together that weekend. Suffice it to say, lightning struck twice, and as you can tell from the video below, a fun time was had by all:
So when it came to this theoretical Asia cardistry convention, we knew that we had to feature at least those two elements: the competition tie-in and a place where everyone could stay together and jam in the hours peripheral to the event itself.
After numerous Discord calls, the team and I serendipitously stumbled across the perfect name for the competition: the Cardistry World Cup. And thus, by association, we decided to call the event…
Cardistry World.
The World Tour
Preparation for this year’s event began in earnest in about March of 2025, when Shivraj, Daniel, and I each flew to Hanoi to meet up with the Vietnamese side of the CW team.
I was only there for about 3 days all in all, but from revisiting my photo album, I recall there being a lot of jamming, going out to eat delicious (and cheap!) food, filming tutorials, as well as scouting for locations where we could host the event.
Looking back, my most lasting impression from the visit was that the good-natured heart of cardistry — not just the playing card market, but the actual practice and proliferation of the art form itself — was still alive in these enthusiasts across the globe, and that reignited a spark in me that had laid dormant for quite some time. It was refreshing to geek out with other people about moves, to play Showoff with them, and to recount stories from days of cardistry yore (and more).
Shortly after I got back, the team had cut together this promotional video, and that’s when the event started to feel real:
Go time
Flash forward a year, and the big weekend was upon us: after thousands of messages exchanged on Instagram DMs and many a Discord meeting, all the elements had been set in place, including:
Announcing the headliners and sponsors
Planning and executing the Cardistry World Cup all the way to the finals
Printing the CW deck
Designing and printing the posters, name tags, and goodie bags for the event
Finalizing the schedule for all 3 days of the con
Ensuring that all full-experience ticket holders got checked into their hotels accordingly
Photo courtesy of @yangcardistry
As part of the BTS crew, I can assure you that this was no easy task. As Daniel would later say, “[I] have never been more tired or fulfilled”.
(Incidentally, not enough praise can be heaped upon our graphic designer Ijah, who is not only incredibly skilled, but also profoundly kind, witty, and a lightning-fast worker at that. I remember complimenting him on how everything turned out at the con, and yet he said he still felt like he could have done more. A true hero in every sense of the word.)
So with Tien as our host, we kicked off the event, and that’s when I remembered…
Cardistry in person is FUN
Photo courtesy of @yangcardistry
Mini-games. Move workshops. Live battles. Screenings with a raucous crowd. And jamming. Did I mention jamming?
By far the standout moment of the con for me was watching the Cardistry Showdown, where 15 cardists duked it out in a bracketed elimination-style tournament until only two teams remained to face each other in a final battle. And what a story it was: Benji Tran and Lucas Brown both ended up tying against Samuel Pratt, causing the audience to root for one last round between the two… and they each went pedal-to-the-metal in the end, with Spratt emerging as the decided victor. Instagram won’t let me embed stuff anymore, but you can see snippets of Spratt’s performance here.
Photo courtesy of @yangcardistry
All in all, there’s just something about interacting with other cardists in person, within the framework of a well-structured event that brings out the best in cardistry. The energy is just so creative and good-spirited, and even in moments where I was going out for meals with other cardists and we weren’t talking cards at all, I still thought to myself, “man… this is what cardistry is all about.”
At the World’s end
I ended up having to go back home early, but those three and a half days in Hanoi were enough to rejuvenate my passion for cardistry and the community for the time being.
Off the top of my head, I can fondly recall:
Watching Shiv try chicken wings and biting into the bones… multiple times
Witnessing Tien down a can of Asian Red Bull first thing in the morning, every day
Being allowed to see Cam’s highly offensive ‘secret deck’
Getting to re-unite with The Virts onstage as part of the Saturday Q&A
Speaking broken, vulgar Mandarin with Shuaicheng and Kevin Wu
The crowd chanting “U-S-A! U-S-A!” once the CWC results were announced
Hunting for souvenirs at 9 o’clock at night with Brandon, giving up, and then ordering bubble tea instead
Hosting a diabolical game of Showoff live on stage, where every participant brought their A-game
Laughing my ass off at Benji and Lucas’s Cardistry Showdown segments
Losing my voice from talking and laughing so hard (and the weather, probably)
All these memories and more serve to remind me that it really is amazing how a little pile of paper in your hands can unite you with like-minded weirdos from every corner of the planet.
I’m proud to say that Cardistry World was a smashing success in every way that mattered. And while I don’t think the next one will be taking place anytime soon, the next time it does…
I’ll see you there.