The venue for the UK National Championship this year is the Britannia Hotel, on Birmingham New Street in central Birmingham. Today we are on the ninth floor, while the side events are taking place on the second floor. The main event is in the Britannia Suite, while the side events are being held in what’s called the Malvern Room. A slight change from the popular venue of Olympia Conference Centre, Britannia Hotel is more central to the entire nation, and the ninth floor has some pretty jaw-dropping panoramic views!

Among the attendance today, we have many noticeable players who are well-known around the UK as well as on online forums. Adam Kruszynski and Joe Whittaker, who came first and second at last years Nationals respectively, are both here today and looking to place solidly, if not repeat last year’s feat. Igor Kharin is also here and has his regular ego that we all love about him. “Oh baby, I am so schooling these noobz!” he claims. We shall see, Igor, we shall see.

Some relatively unknown players are also here today, having earned their invites through various tournaments around the country. They include Scottish players such as Duncan Tang, Liverpool locals such as Alan McDonald, and even the completely unknowns such as John Tsigarides who received his invite by placing high enough to snatch the hand-down invite from a City Championship.

I’ve made the Top 8 of the last two UK National Championships, and although I agonized over the decision, I’ve decided to give up my place today in order to bring you all the news and updates here on Metagame.com. Stay tuned and keep that browser refreshing, today we will crown the 2006 Yu-Gi-Oh! UK National Champion!