Table One: George Diaz vs. Elliott Ghorbani

Elliot is from Orange County, and George is from East Los Angeles. Neither were here as part of a team.

Elliot went first for the first duel, which went fairly quickly, and proved the value of a solid hand. “Actually, I started off with really good cards. Off of Graceful Charity, I discarded Sinister Serpent and Jinzo, and I still had Call of the Haunted and a Nobleman of Crossout.” George didn’t get such good draws and ran short of monsters, and Elliot overwhelmed him for the win.

George went first in the second duel, and pulled some card advantage. He activated Pot of Greed, Delinquent Duo, and set his Magician of Faith. After two Delinquent Duos Elliot no longer had a hand as of turn 2, and could never regain the advantage. George pushed ahead for the win.

Leading off duel 3, Elliot again had a good hand. He activated Graceful Charity and set Magician of Faith. Using Magician’s effect to return Graceful Charity to his hand, he continued to collect card advantage, maintained control of the game, and won the third duel to claim the match.

Table Two: Rex Mendoza vs. Omar Osirio

Rex is from Poway, California, and came to the event as part of Team Artifex. Omar is from downtown Los Angeles, and came to the event with friends.

Rex opened in duel 1, but Omar quickly gained the advantage with Pot of Greed and Delinquent Duo. Rex came back with Spirit Reaper, and from there the game progressed to topdecking as each player strove to dominate the other. Rex emerged victorious.

Omar took the lead for duel 2. After initial jousting for control of the field, the game again came down to topdecking to get the needed advantage for a win. Finally, with Rex down to 1200 life points and with three effect monsters on his side of the field, Omar activated Ceasefire for the win.

Rex again opened in the third duel. The duel progressed along the lines the previous matchups, with control swinging back and forth. “I had my field full with Omar’s Kycoo and Spirit Reaper, and I had Thousand-Eyes Restrict equipped with his Vampire Lord,” Rex said. “I tried to attack with Thousand-Eyes, and he Mystical Space Typhooned Vampire Lord, so I Book of Mooned the Thousand Eyes so I could attack with the other monsters.” It wasn’t enough to win; in the end, the game was called on time. With 6300 life points against Omar’s 2300, Rex was awarded the win.

Table Three: Jesse Rodriguez vs. Jorge Salazar

Jesse is from Los Angeles, here as part of “The Brethren”—a five-man team consisting of himself and his brothers. Jorge is from Fontana, California, and attended the event as part of Team Enigma, and was “keeping it real” with a deck built around older, classic cards.

Jorge won the first duel by maintaining control of the game, causing Jesse to open the second duel. He again fell under fire as Jorge activated Heavy Storm and Delinquent Duo, costing him a lot of field and hand advantage. Jesse managed to stall. “He held me off for a while with Scapegoat,” Jorge said.

Jesse added, “I had Messenger of Peace, too, and got out Swords of Revealing Light. I still wasn’t drawing anything.” Jesse caught a few breaks, but Jorge always had a comeback. When Jesse used Enemy Controller to take Jorge’s Jinzo, but Jorge activated Scapegoat in response. Jesse’s Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning hit the field, and Jorge brought out Injection Fairy Lily to kill it to win the duel and the match.

Table Four: Jonathan Navarro vs. Ronald Sharpsteen

Ronald is from Las Vegas, and came down as part of a team of two, the "Phats." Jonathan is from San Bernardino, and came with friends.

Jonathan went first in the first duel. “He made me forfeit!” he said, pointing at Ronald. “I had no cards left, and there wasn’t any point in continuing.”

“He did it to himself!” Ronald responded. Oh, the perils of overextension.

Again taking the opening in the second duel, Jonathan discarded Thunder Dragon and activated Pot of Greed and Reload, increasing his hand size to avoid the problems in the earlier duel. Forcing Ronald to discard 37 cards, Jonathan won on turn 3.

Ronald got to take the lead for the third and pivotal duel, and hit a run of no monsters. He still managed to get Jonathan down to 200 life points, but lost 30 cards from his deck before he could take him out. Jonathan claimed the win for the final duel, and for the match as well.