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For Lazaro Bellido and Kris Perovic, this is the culmination of dueling careers that have spanned years. |
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When reminded of prizes, Cedric commented, “I don’t want Des Volstgalph . . .” Cedric would need to win if he wanted to avoid it. |
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For someone who started this weekend with no features, Jesus Suarez has certainly turned things around. |
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For the first time this weekend, we’re featuring a match that contains no players from the United States! |
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We were in for a mirror match, fought between two long-time friends and two topnotch duelists. |
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Neither of these duelists knew if the had a snowball’s chance in heck of making the Top 8, but they were sure going to try. |
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This is it, the last chance for these two X-3 players to try and steal a spot in the Top 8. |
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Cedric pointed out that he’s had around seven feature matches at this point, won every one of them, and used Crush Card Virus with Sangan in almost every one of them. |
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The winner of this match would be just one victory away from a strong shot at the Top 8. |
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Lazaro Bellido and Hector Heras are both 9-2 coming into this round, and both of them are playing Dark Armed Dragon builds. |
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Each duelist was 9-2 heading into this round, and would almost assuredly have to win this round to make it to the Top 8. |
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The Top 32 have come through 10 rounds against over 1000 other duelists. |
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Renowned as the best Diamond Dude Turbo player in North America, Kris Perovic was now taking his signature deck against Wiktor’s Six Samurai build. Regardless of who won and who lost, this match was going to be short. |
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Both of these players are going to need all the wins they can muster in today’s Swiss rounds if they want to reach the Top 8. |
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An unprecedented 32 duelists gathered from seven different countries (including four National Champions) qualified through ten long rounds of dueling in Day 1, and are now about to square off in the first of seven rounds. |
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More than a thousand duelists battled their way through ten grueling rounds here today at the Costa Mesa Fair Grounds, and now that the smoke has cleared just 32 competitors remain. |
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Both of these duelists had been under serious tournament pressure before: Jorge Olivella is the reigning Mexican National Champion, while Keanson Ye has made repeated Day 2 appearances at Shonen Jump Championships. |
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Both duelists are playing teched out builds of Dark Armed Dragon. While Olivella is packing copies of Dark Grepher, Navarro has been leaving his opponents stymied with Necro Gardna. |
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Both players need this win to keep their hopes for Day 2 alive.
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I must admit that there was a time when I wept for the ignorant. |
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Team Enigma has earned a name for themselves for their combination of class, skill, and unique deckbuilding over many years. |
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If you’ve been reading Metagame.com at all, then you are familiar with Team Overdose. |
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A win here for Chau would be his first step into the dueling spotlight, while a win for Arocho would be an all-time first. |
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This match promises to be particularly interesting as the longtime veteran and SJC Champion Eric Wu will take on a previously unrepresented strategy: a full-blown Evil Hero deck. |
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After their duel in the finals at SJC Orlando, Heras and Sequerra are paired again at the undefeated tables. |
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Michael Gruener traveled here today from Germany, and is one of the greatest, most recognized duelists on the international stage. |
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Picking these matches is always easiest when there’s one you absolutely cannot ignore. |
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This match is going to be all about speed! |
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These two decks were ready to trade blows . . . or rather, trade drawing cards, as it would turn out. |
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Neither of these players is new to the SJC scene, and an exciting match was almost sure to follow. |
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How do you make a double tribute in a format where monsters are exchanged at such a fast pace? |
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As if the various blunders and failures of hundreds of will-never-be champions over the past 49 Shonen Jump Championships weren’t enough to make my blood boil, the errors committed here today after only three rounds have left me feeling faint . . . and angry. |
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Both these players are long-time friends and have played each other before. |
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It’s been only a few rounds, but we’re already seeing some new trends based on the results of the last Shonen Jump Championship. |
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This round pitted Vittorio’s Six Samurai uplift party plan against Mike’s “my other graveyard is a removed zone” Dark monster deck. |
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Another cool feature of the day, courtesy of the kind folks at Upper Deck: playmats! |
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Jackson Hamilton hails from Carlsbad, California, and, at just age 12, had scored up a flawless 2-0 record with Dark Armed Dragon. |
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James Pennicott is a well-known writer and European competitor here today with an innovative burn deck loaded with creative tech designed to wreck the format. |
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James Pennicott has traveled all the way from the UK to prove that not all Burn decks are born equal. |
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Jorge Vasquez has travelled here today from Phoenix, AZ to play a budget version of the popular Diamond Dude Turbo deck. |
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Despite the fact that this is a truly international tournament with players flying in from all over the world, Lance and Alex have managed to find themselves in an all-California match in round 1. |
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This is Heriberto Calderon's first-ever premier tournament, and what a way to start a tournament career! He’s up against fan favorite Chris Moosman, running an innovative new Exodia deck.
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This is an amazing day for competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! |
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Where others saw unnecessary risk, Levitin saw opportunity to innovate. |
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Creative duelists are turning to new strategies here this weekend to try and out-speed the high-impact builds of Dark Armed Dragon. |
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It’s not very often that you see an entire deck move from its spot on the field to face up in the graveyard in a single turn, let alone as the result of a single card. |
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It’s show time. |
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