It’s over, and a new duelist has scored a massive upset!

After coming up from the underdog side of the bracket, Bobby Chambers of Long Island took on John Jensen. Most anticipated a crush match; Jensen has won two Shonen Jump Championships thus far, and split a third with a teammate. He’s been one of the strongest duelists this year, matched only by Emon Ghaneian in total achievements, and he had the advantage of experience.

None of that mattered. In one of the closest finals matches that we’ve ever witnessed at a Shonen Jump Championship, Chambers scored a narrow 2-1 victory over the Champion of Indianapolis and Atlanta. Sweeping the tournament without using Cyber-Stein, he went through two up-and-coming duelists before facing down the Nexus champ and claiming victory.

A plethora of different decks performed well this weekend, and the Top 8 was filled with beat-down, Monarchs, OTK, and Warrior toolbox. Despite the fact that we have a winner here today, there doesn’t seem to be a dominant deck amongst the four that made Day 2, let alone all the others that finished with respectable records. While this tournament will no doubt influence deck builders over the coming weeks, there isn’t a no-brainer deck choice, and the format finally seems to be balanced.

Now that a core four decks have been established, the real fun can begin. We officially have a burgeoning metagame, and that means that the creative, skilled deck builders out there will be setting to work to break it. At the same time, many will certainly take their cues from Bobby Chambers, and Stein might finally see a drop in play.

We’ll see how everything pans out at Shonen Jump Championship Austin in three weeks, but for now, congratulations to Bobby Chambers, the first Champion of the new format!