At the beginning of round one, the excitable Guy Israel had somehow lost a little of the bounce from his step. For the first round of the tournament, he seemed to be hoping that there would be a nice easy matchup. Once you get to the level of the European Championships, this becomes something of a forlorn hope. Guy was facing down David Kretschmer of Germany, who had beaten the 2005 Belgian Champion in Japan the following year.

Guy began, and set a monster, who was met with a Cyber Dragon then hit by a Nobleman of Crossout from Kretschmer. There would be no Sangan for Israel this game, and to add insult to injury, the 14-year-old took a 2100 point beating from the German dragon.

Graceful Charity from Guy helped him rebuild, and he put Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive and Call of the Haunted in the graveyard before setting a monster and passing.

Kretschmer simply attacked on his turn, forcing Israel to reveal Magician of Faith, who got back Graceful Charity, allowing for even more card advantage on the Belgian side of the board. A Mystical Space Typhoon took down Call of the Haunted from Kretschmer, then Israel dropped the bomb, Chaos Sorcerer, who ate Cyber Dragon merrily.

On the back foot now, Kretschmer set a monster and a trap, only to have each dealt with handily by Guy, with Breaker the Magical Warrior and the Chaos Sorcerer. The fight back was to wait for the following turn, as a Breaker came down for Kretschmer, along with Snatch Steal on Chaos Sorcerer, in order to swing the game.

The game did not remain swung for long, though. Guy fought back with Torrential Tribute, and soon had another Chaos Sorcerer with which to battle. This got hit by a Sakuretsu Armor, but, Return From the Different Dimension was more than enough to ensure a swing for the final points.

Kretschmer scooped, and began briskly shuffling for the second game. He had been down in game one, but showed the fighting German spirit, moving to his side deck and bringing in cards with which to show new force in the following duel.

Neither player had monsters for the first couple of turns in the second game, with the first attempt at an attack, a run in by Kretschmer’s Spirit Reaper, being thwarted by Scapegoat.

Guy tried to swing back with Asura Priest, but ran into Sakuretsu Armor, and the game continued to stall. Kretschmer hit Mystic Tomato with Nobleman of Crossout, but then took a little hit back from Cyber Dragon over his attack position Spirit Reaper, for the first damage of the game. A Nobleman from Israel took Magician of Faith out of the game, and then Kretschmer played Zaborg, who got hit by Armor, before Chaos Sorcerer.

As Guy used Snatch Steal to acquire his opponent’s Chaos Sorcerer, the room was filled by a deafening roar. It wasn’t the crowd, just a problem with the microphone, but nonetheless Guy appeared pretty pleased. The smile disappeared when Enemy Controller took Chaos Sorcerer back just long enough for it to destroy itself, but the game still appeared close.

Kretschmer worked on this with a Breaker and Cyber Dragon, to which Guy responded with a Creature Swap and Magical Merchant, to get himself a Dragon. Kretschmer tried to make a blocker in the form of a face down Magical Merchant of his own, but Guy had Nobleman of Crossout to take the German down to a precariously low life total. The following turn, Kretschmer had no play, and on the following attack he had to extend his hand.

Guy Israel wins!