Ashton Wu

Ashton Wu is a Board Game expert at Shelfside. After delving into the Yugioh tournament community while growing up, Ashton launched himself into the board gaming community in 2014 and went into reviewing board games as a career full-time in 2019. His YouTube channel Shelfside has over 45K subscribers and over 4 million views, assisted by written reviews on the Shelfside website and BoardGameGeek.com. He also consults with gaming companies to build high-quality gaming products. Ashton is a tournament commentator, board game playthrough director, and host of the Shelfside Podcast, where he talks about board games with his business partner, Daniel.

Education

  • University of California Santa Barbara, BA, Economics,
  • University of California Santa Barbara, Technology Management Certificate

Professional Achievements

  • All Time Wrestling 2023 Finalist (Shelfside)
  • Primal Showdown 2023 Winner (Shelfside)
  • Storm the Block Tournament Commentator
  • WSBG 2024 Commentator
  • Fanime Yu-Gi-Oh Top 8
  • Has achieved 1st place at numerous local Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments
  • Created a board gamer personality test - https://www.shelfside.co/bgamer-personality-test

Favorite Piece of Advice

There's a board game out there for everyone! Use my board game personality test to find your perfect match: https://www.shelfside.co/bgamer-personality-test.

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Forum Comments (3)

Do you have recommendations for 2-player board games?
Here are some great 2-player games by category.

Shortform :
  • Patchwork
  • Splendor
  • Magic: The Gathering
  • Android: Netrunner
  • 7 Wonders Duel
  • The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-earth
  • Wingspan
  • Splendor Duel
  • Earth
  • Cascadia
  • Jaipur
  • Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game
  • Hive
  • Hanamikoji
  • Sea Salt and Paper
  • Harvest
  • Evokers
  • All Time Wrestling
  • Summoner Wars 2nd Edition
  • Undaunted Normandy
  • Skytear
  • Solforge Fusion
  • Re;ACT The Arts of War
  • Blitz Bowl
  • Ashes: Reborn
  • Dominion (2nd Edition)
  • Monolith Arena
  • Parks
  • Takenoko

Longform :
  • Brass Birmingham
  • Twilight Struggle
  • War of the Ring
  • Caverna: The Cave Farmers
  • Dune: War for Arrakis
  • War of the Ring: The Card Game
  • Dune: Imperium Uprising
  • Lost Ruins of Arnak
  • Gaia Project
  • Quartermaster General: WW2

Cooperative :
  • Arkham Horror LCG
  • Eldritch Horror
  • Sky-Team
  • Lost Cities
  • Spirit Island
  • Mansions of Madness
  • Codenames Duet
  • Primal
  • ISS Vanguard
  • Tainted Grail: Kings of Ruin
  • Skytear Horde (solo/co-op)
  • Pilfering Pandas
  • This War of Mine
  • Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
  • Suburbia

Here are some additional recommendations for different types of games:
  • Star Wars Rebellion: for a cat-and-mouse experience
  • Gloomhaven/Frosthaven: for co-op dungeon crawling
  • Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: a good mystery for 2 people to go through
What are the best board games of all time?
This is totally subjective, but I love:
  • Brass: Birmingham
  • Star Wars Rebellion
  • Dune Imperium Uprising
  • Sid Meier’s Civilization 2010 (with 2 expansions)
  • Ashes: Reborn
  • Last Word
  • Twilight Imperium 4
How do people actually make money on Youtube?
Don’t rush anything! It’s best as a hobby, so start simple - just make content ! Most importantly, it should be fun (because of how much work it really is), and you should figure out what your niche is. One more thing - audio is king if you want to upgrade anything.

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