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Matt Laurents, featured in two matches earlier, has made it to the Top 8 in San Francisco once again! San Francisco has certainly been good to Matt. Matt plays for Team Comic Odyssey, giving them a long awaited Top 8 showing. When asked how his Deck did today, he said that it had done great. Asura Priest had been “like the best card in the format,” because a lot of cards required him having a monster and Asura Priest could often get around that. It also worked with Creature Swap. He said that the deck had been built with Dwayne Anthony Nunez and he wanted to give thanks to Dwayne and the rest of the team. He is excited at the chance to go to Japan. If he makes it and faces the players from around the world, he plans to take them as they come.

Hailing from Team Fusion, Austin is the youngest Nationals Top 8 player ever, at only eleven years old. But within him beats the heart of a champion, and he made that well known today by earning the respective of his fellow competitors. How did he feel about making the Top 8? “It was cool.” He had made a goal to reach the Top 8 at both a Shonen Jump Championship and the National Championship. Now he has Nationals under his belt. He thinks thought that going to Japan will be “kinda cool,” but added that he dislikes long plane rides. A flight to Japan from Bellevue, Seattle is not a short flight by any stretch. When asked about his deck, he said that everyone should be using Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer. He said that Magical Merchant had performed well, and that he had opted out of using Skelengel because he didn’t really like it that much.

He wanted to say thanks to Sam Post for his deck recommendations and give a shoutout to his other team members: Jerome Austin, Sam Mulvihill, Sam Post, Jonathan Weigal, JP Gentry, Josh Hanson, Kevin Wang, Daniel Wood, Art Atayan, and Rylan Evans. He also looks forward to facing Emon tomorrow in the Top 8.

Miguel participated in the Top 8 last year, but said that he did not do so well. He almost retired from Yu-Gi-Oh!, but he has a lot of friends that encouraged him to continue on. He said that his deck was a deck he had seen used at a previous Shonen Jump Championship event, and that it had really made an impression on him. He tested it out and it seemed to him that he and the deck “fit.” As far as card choices go, he had also stuck with Magical Merchant because it really helped him to get the cards he needed. He said he would be very happy to go to Japan, adding that it is expensive to go so earning his way is like a dream. He has always wanted to go to Japan and has long been a fan of anime.

He wanted to thank Nghia for letting him borrow Cyber Dragons to replace what he had lost prior to the event. He also wanted to say hi to Rodie, Jasmine, Sang Bui, Fran, and his friends from Odyssey like Patrick and Eric Wu.

Benjamin represents for the Kamikaze Crew, often playing at the House of Gaming in Chicago. He had played at the previous Nationals in 2005, where he got twenty-fifth place. Now he’s in the Top 8 and couldn’t be happier. He said that Augustin built the Deck for him and he wanted to give thanks. The deck had done well, with Morphing Jar helping him to win many games. He said that he would have liked to use Asura Priest in his Main Deck, because it worked well and kept good field presence because it was hard to take out. He says if he makes it to the Top 4 and gets to Japan, it will definitely be an “OMG.” He added that he has always wanted to go. He mentioned that he thought Austin had done well in the National Championships and added that he is sure he will see Austin in Japan.

While his fellow members from Team Collusion couldn’t attend, Victor had made a strong showing for himself and the team. He said that Georgia doesn’t have many teams, with most being rather informal, but they all get along well and will often travel together to events. Among the members of his team, Brian Perez was getting married that day, and he wanted to give his regards. He also mentioned Oscar, Drew, and John (a.k.a. Dutch), fellow members that had earned their place several times over but could not attend. He came to this event with friends that helped him to test his deck, like Raheel Merali, Jim, and Ben Massey with the Yata-Garasu playmat.

He felt at ease today, and his deck had done well for him. One card in particular had allowed him to pull major damage from monsters like Cyber Dragon or a group of Dekoichis arriving by Return from the Different Dimension. He says if he makes it to Japan he is going for sure. During the interview he mentioned that he had also stopped an armed robbery. That’s a story best left for him to tell.

Steven Tsilimos hails from Jacksonville, Florida. He hasn't had a chance to attend many Shonen Jump Championships, but he has had some previous success in a ton of the Florida regional events. He's happy everything worked out to get him into Sunday. If he goes to Tokyo, he says he wants to eat Chinese food. Make of that what you will. Nonetheless, he's happy to be here and he'll be happy to be playing tomorrow. He is a member of Total Anarchy, a five-member team consisting of himself, James Tsilimos, Jonathan Ray Barber, Ricky Barber, and Elmo Gonzales Jr.

What more needs to be said? Emon Ghaneian has gone from seasoned veteran to one of the biggest stars in Yu-Gi-Oh!. Emon hails from Redondo Beach of Southern California, and he's been a huge success at every local event and Regional event. His first Shonen Jump Championship Top 8 came last year. He finished in the Top 8 of Shonen Jump Orlando, and then finally claimed success with a victory in Shonen Jump Columbus. Since then, he's become a huge success and a huge personality in the Yu-Gi-Oh! community. If he can win the trip to Tokyo, he wants to learn the entire Japanese culture. He wants to immerse himself into the food, Naruto, animation, Naruto, technology, and oh—did I mention Naruto? He is currently a member of the goliath Team Overdose, and is a representative of the online community Project D.

Mark Garcia is a relative unknown from Stockton, California. He's been playing for around three years and has been playing around the North Californian regional events. He chose to run "Cyber Toolbox," a Warrior Toolbox hybrid with a Chaos deck. He didn't look overly excited, but he assured me that he's really happy and would love to get into the Top 4. He mainly just wants to compete. He's getting his chance tomorrow and if he succeeds, he'll get his chance halfway across the globe.