It may be 112 degrees outside, but things are only heating up inside Centennial Hall here at the Mesa Convention Center. The 2007 season is over and, as the minutes count down to the first Shonen Jump Championship of the 2008 dueling year, duelists continue to flow into the tournament hall.

The field here today is not the largest we’ve seen; with the US National Championships just two weeks ago, duelists’ travel budgets are still recovering, but that doesn’t mean we’ll see a low level of competitive play. On the contrary, dozens of the US’s best duelists have made it here, including Theerasak Poonsombat, Chris Moosman, Matt Laurents, Jake McNeely, Eric Wu, Hugo Adame, and Marc Glass. In a surprising turn of events, Glass showed up today flying the black and red, the latest acquisition of Team Nexus!

Trends established at the European Championships are materializing early here today, with Widespread Ruin high on the priority list of several big players. In addition, several unique trends are also springing up, including a resurgence in popularity of Hydrogeddon and Dust Tornado. One thing is on the minds of most competitors here today: damage. I expect to see an increased amount of special summoning and spell and trap removal. Several players are going so far as to eschew Thestalos to run three Raiza the Storm Monarch and three Zaborg the Thunder Monarch in an attempt to make a lot of big, fast attacks.

Speaking of fast, today’s tournament looks to be just nine rounds, so duelists are going to have to make every game count. Plenty of local talent is just waiting to be discovered, and we’re bound to see some fresh new faces in the Top 16. With so few competitors traveling here this weekend, players from right here in the Phoenix area will be setting the pace of the metagame, and they may have a distinct advantage.