Part VI: The DS World Championships, Pt. 1

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The release of Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 saw Konami finally move the World Championship series to the Nintendo DS. World Championship 2007 introduced several new features, including a character creator where players could mix and match preset hairstyles, faces, and clothes to make their own duelist avatar. The new console also made it possible for Konami to release new updates to the game over Nintendo Wi-Fi, as well as support online dueling across the globe. Alongside this new title, Konami announced that the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship would once again take place in the US, at San Diego Comic-Con in San Diego, California on July 28-29.

The format for the US Nationals followed the same formula as the previous years. For the Qualifiers, participants completed a timed 25-question quiz that tested their knowledge of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. The 128 top-scoring entrants were then given a new 15-question quiz, and the top eight competitors proceeded to Nationals. These duelists were flown out to San Diego Comic-Con on July 28 for a single-elimination tournament, and the top four became the US representatives at the World Championship the next day.^[113] An article from Gamersinfo provides the names of the four finalists: Paul Squires,^[114][115] Derek Smith, last year’s National Champion Jason Lee, and Manuel Alejandro Lopez, who took first place.^[116]

The number of European countries participating in the Video Game World Championship dropped to five this year, now including only Italy, Spain, Germany, France and the UK.^[117] 

UK Nationals was similar to the previous year, accepting the first 32 applicants that signed up through their official World Championship 2007 website. These duelists would then participate in a tournament alongside TCG Nationals at the Emirates Football Stadium in London, England on May 13, and the winner would become their representative.^[118] 

According to a tournament report on French media website Krinein, the French National Tournament was held at Espace Saint Martin in Paris, France on June 17. Up to 50 players could email Konami France to register for the event, and would play five rounds of a Swiss-system tournament before the top 8 competitors finished the event in a single-elimination bracket. Of the 34 entrants, all of the previous French National Champions were in attendance, including Yohann Descamps, who would win his second Video Game Nationals in a row this year. The article’s author Islara details a number of issues with the management of the tournament, including a typo in the European Nationals website provided in the game’s manual, a lack of details about France’s tournament on the correct webpage, and the short amount of preparation time between the game’s release and the event.^[119] 

While most of the other pages regarding European Nationals were not archived, the German website does have some information about its registration process. Duelists interested in representing their country would send in an application to Konami Germany headquarters, who would then approve an unspecified number of players to participate in a tournament in Frankfurt on July 6.^[120] In addition, Worlds representative Michel Grüner stated that, due to the low number of participants, the tournament consisted entirely of a single-elimination bracket, with no preceding Swiss-system rounds. He stated that Konami’s communication regarding Video Game Nationals was poor, and that he only knew of it because of a friend, 2009 Video Game Worlds representative Soner Güngör. Despite not owning a DS or a copy of World Championship 2007 before learning about the event, Grüner entered the tournament and ended up taking first place.

While Michel Grüner does not remember much about the World Championship as a whole, he did note how strange it felt to have the event held inside of San Diego Comic-Con. “It’s like you had the ice hockey world cup in a football stadium during the FIFA world cup, you know. It’s nothing special,” he said, noting that there was a reduced focus on the tournament in comparison to other Yu-Gi-Oh! events. What he did recall is that both TCG and Video Game Divisions held their opening rounds in the same room together before moving to the public venue for the final bracket. 

Grüner also found an archive of his first place decklist and recalled that in the second game of finals against Yohann Descamps, he almost won the match with a copy of The Winged Dragon of Ra, a card that did not yet have a tournament-legal printing in the TCG. He used Premature Burial to revive a Ra in his Graveyard, and its effect allowed him to pay all but one of his Life Points to increase Ra’s ATK stat by an equal amount. However, Grüner had miscalculated his LP, since Premature Burial costs 800 LP to activate, and just missed out on winning the match with a lethal attack from The Winged Dragon of Ra.

No detailed coverage of the 2007 Video Game World Championship could be found on the official event website or other online publications. However, a press release recapping the event and announcing the winners was posted on Upper Deck’s news blog the day after the tournament concluded.^[121] Konami also uploaded the top three competitors’ decks and avatars to the video game via Nintendo Wi-Fi. While no longer available to download, this information has been archived on websites such as GameFAQs^[122] and Yugipedia^{[123][124][125]} for reference. The final results for the 2007 Yu-Gi-Oh! Video Game World Championship were:

Place	Name	Country	Deck
1st	Michel Grüner	Germany	Perfect Circle[126]
2nd	Yohann Descamps	France	Perfect Circle[127]
3rd	Manuel Alejandro Lopez	USA	Apprentice Monarch[128]
4th	Masahiro Eguchi	Japan	Unknown
Unknown	Paul Squires	USA	Unknown
Unknown	Derek Smith	USA	Unknown
Unknown	Jason Lee	USA	Unknown

The move to the Nintendo DS saw more TCG competitors crossing over into the Video Game World Championships, with three of the five new participants already having at least one premier event top.

Michel Grüner had previously been the German TCG National Champion in 2006^[129] and reached top 8 at the 2007 TCG European Championship.^[130] He would continue to see major success in TCG events after his win at Video Game Worlds, including first place at the 2011 TCG European Championship followed by top 8 at the World Championship; 11th place at the 2013 World Championship; and numerous top finishes at premier events up through 2015.^[131][132] He currently owns and operates LOOT, a gaming and shisha lounge in Würzburg, Germany.^[133] Manuel Alejandro Lopez achieved three top 8 finishes at the Anaheim Regional from 2007 to 2009^[134] as well as first place at the 2014 Las Vegas Regional^[135] and second place at the 2016 Las Vegas Regional.^[136] Paul Squires qualified for TCG Nationals from 2006 to 2011, and had 15 regional tops over the course of his career.^[137] At SJC Columbus 2009, Squires was undefeated going into Round 7 and received a feature match write-up from Konami’s official event coverage blog.^[138]

Masahiro Eguchi and Derek Smith were not documented as participating in any other Yu-Gi-Oh! tournaments.

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Konami announced that the 2008 Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship would take place at the Tempodrom in Berlin, Germany on August 8-9, making it the first Worlds to be held in Europe. To coincide with the event, Konami also released Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2008 for the Nintendo DS. This title would be the last in the series to feature GX protagonist Jaden Yuki on the box art.

In order to take advantage of the DS’s online capabilities, Konami US made a significant change to their National Qualifiers process. Now, when registering to enter the Qualifiers, duelists included their DS Friend Code along with personal contact information. The first portion of the event was a timed 25-question quiz, with the best-scoring 256 participants continuing to the next round. These competitors were then paired up for daily matches in a single-elimination tournament over Nintendo Wi-Fi. Once the final four duelists had been decided, they were flown to San Diego Comic-Con for the last rounds of Nationals, where the top two players would become the US representatives at the World Championship.^[139] Unfortunately, issues with the new Qualifiers format were already starting to arise. Players reported receiving communication late;^[140] getting emails without their seed numbers, which they needed in order to find their opponents;^[141][142] and rounds getting delayed for several hours due to connection issues.^[143][144] In addition, Konami had initially promised a free seat at Comic-Con for its reigning National Champion, similar to previous years. However, a change in the organizational staff and Qualifiers format meant that last year’s winner, Manuel Alejandro Lopez, had to play out the entire tournament if he wanted to compete.^[145]

While the US was branching out into a new Nationals format, Europe continued to hold in-person events to decide their representatives. 

In the UK, Konami continued to take sign-ups through their official video game website like previous years. The first 32 duelists to register would go head-to-head in person at the ExCel London Exhibition and Conference Centre in London on May 25 as part of a larger Yu-Gi-Oh! event.^[146] 

A Krinein article details the French National Tournament, which took place in late June at the Escape Saint Martin in Paris, France. Players could either email the organizers at Abysscorp to pre-register, or sign up in-person at the event. The 25 entrants would face off over four rounds of a Swiss-system tournament before the top 8 competitors finished in a single-elimination bracket, where Christophe Barré won the National Champion title. While the author notes that many of the mismanagement issues from 2007 were taken care of this year, the official website for French Nationals was never updated beyond a placeholder message, meaning information about this tournament had to be acquired from press releases posted to other sources.^[147]

Spanish Nationals was held in Madrid on July 3, with regional Konami staff manually approving select entrants to participate.^[148] Worlds representative Eduard Alvarez stated that he was able to compete in the tournament because Video Game and TCG Nationals were not held on the same day, a situation that had barred him from entry in 2006. “[I]t was completely random every year,” he said, “it was as if Konami would get up and say ‘Okay today is sunny, just make the tournaments different days’ or ‘Today it’s raining a lot, just make it the same day.’”

German duelists who wanted to represent their country entered their National Tournament at the Tempodrom during the first day of the World Championship.^[149] The winner, Besnik Kajtazi, continued on to the main event the day after.^[150]

While no official information was archived about Italian Nationals, Worlds representative Matteo Bertuzzo said that it was an unorganized and poorly announced event. The tournament took place at the Casa dei Giochi in Milan, and he recalled that only a small group of friends from local game stores were in attendance, which made the event feel more casual. He also stated that during the tournament, if a game was disconnected due to issues with the link cable, both players would lose the current duel.

Matteo Bertuzzo, Eduard Alvarez, and Emily Fuchs all provided details on the World Championship tournament, which was handled in a different format from other Yu-Gi-Oh! events. Instead of starting with Swiss-system rounds, the twelve competitors were first broken up into four groups of three. They would then play a round-robin tournament of single-game matches, and the duelist with the best record after their two games would be declared the winner of the group. In the event of a tie, which was not unlikely due to the low number of total games played, the victor was decided based on who had the highest Life Point total from the match that they had won. The four finalists from this round would then be placed in a single-elimination tournament bracket, where they would play three-game matches to decide the champion. Both Bertuzzo and Alvarez stated that they were not made aware of the tournament format before arriving at Worlds, which greatly affected how they played throughout the day. Bertuzzo noted that many Japanese players appeared to be playing Burn strategies, which gave them an advantage in the initial rounds. Alvarez said that his deck contained many powerful cards that cost Life Points to activate, which meant that if he wanted to keep his LP high enough to reach the final standings he would have to give up the advantage provided by these cards, effectively forcing him to play with a handicap.

Meanwhile, Fuchs was able to use this unusual tournament format to her advantage. Since the players in each pod would be familiar with each other’s match results, they could manipulate their record in such a way to force a tie and win based on their Life Point total. Fuchs stated that she recognized this loophole and was incentivized to play her games differently. “I was able to secure my game against opponent 1 with 7200 Life Points,” she said, “and after confirming the rules with judges I played recklessly against opponent 2 to get him below 7200 Life Points and then conceded the match before he would have an opportunity to gain any back.” Fuchs further clarified, “I want to be clear here, I hated how this format was run, but I found a winning strategy and took it.” It was an unpopular tournament structure, both due to the lack of forewarning and the way it affected gameplay, and it would not be used again, either in video game or TCG events.

Eduard Alvarez noted that one of his games in the round-robin portion was like “something from the anime”. His opponent set one Monster and one Trap on his field and passed the turn to Alvarez, who had what he felt was the perfect hand. He set one Monster and four Traps, prepared to slowly accrue advantage by keeping his opponent from making any plays. However, as Alvarez put it, “at this moment I lost the game.” His opponent activated their Trap, Crush Card Virus, which destroyed the last card in Alvarez’s hand, Light and Darkness Dragon. When Light and Darkness Dragon is destroyed, it also destroys everything else on its owner’s field, so Alvarez passed back to his opponent with “zero cards in my hand, zero cards on the field, and nothing at that moment to do.”

“It was like if you were playing poker, and you have pocket aces, you think ‘What could happen?’ and then your opponent appears with a royal flush.”

Eduard Alvarez

Emily Fuchs similarly recalled a couple of memorable moments from her top 4 match against Besnik Kajtazi. The first came in game one, where Kajtazi had played a Light and Darkness Dragon and forced Fuchs to waste multiple strong defensive cards in order to reduce the Monster’s ATK stat and prevent herself from losing. Immediately following this desperate turn, she drew Treeborn Frog, whose self-revival effect could activate multiple times in the same turn and render Kajtazi’s Light and Darkness Dragon useless, turning the game around in her favor. The second happened in game two, as Kajtazi played another Light and Darkness Dragon, with two powerful resources in his Graveyard: Destiny HERO – Disk Commander and Destiny HERO – Malicious. However, Fuchs had the perfect response ready. She used a D.D. Crow on Kajtazi’s Disk Commander to force out Light and Darkness Dragon’s negation effect, after which she chained Torrential Tribute to destroy the Monster before it could resolve. Because Light and Darkness Dragon was unable to negate the D.D. Crow, Kajtazi could only revive his Malicious afterwards, which cannot do anything on the field by itself. On her next turn, Fuchs took control of Kajtazi’s Malicious and summoned her own Light and Darkness Dragon, taking full control of the game. When recalling this match, Fuchs could only conclude her thoughts with “SORRY BESNIK.”

Official information on the 2008 Yu-Gi-Oh! Video Game World Championship is scarce. The Konami TVch segment reporting on the event focuses solely on the TCG tournament,^[151] and the Upper Deck coverage only provides the name of the champion, Kim Su-Hyung, in its wrap-up article.^[152] However, a two-page spread from Yu-Gi-Oh-Koku magazine about the event provided by second place finalist Emily Fuchs gives the names of all 2008 Worlds participants and their place in the tournament bracket. The final results for the 2008 Yu-Gi-Oh! Video Game World Championship were:

Place	Name	Country	Deck
1st	Kim Su-Hyung	Korea	Perfect Circle[153]
2nd	Emily Fuchs	USA	Perfect Circle[154]
3rd	Besnik Kajtazi	Germany	Perfect Circle[155]
4th	Ryo Nakamura	Japan	Unknown
5th-12th	Joel Enriquez	USA	Unknown
5th-12th	Christophe Barré	France	Unknown
5th-12th	Matteo Bertuzzo	Italy	Unknown
5th-12th	Samuel Parker	UK	Unknown
5th-12th	Eduard Alvarez	Spain	Unknown
5th-12th	Makoto Ito	Japan	Unknown
5th-12th	Koichi Asada	Japan	Unknown
5th-12th	Noriaki Matsumura	Japan	Unknown

Four duelists from the 2008 Video Game World Championships had already found competitive success in the TCG. Christophe Barré had reached top 16 at the 2006 Pharoah Tour Final in Paris^[156] as well as top 8 at the 2007 French TCG Nationals.^[157] Matteo Bertuzzo had a number of top finishes at Italian tournaments, including a first place finish at the 2005 Piedmont Regional Championship and top 64 at both the 2005 and 2006 Italian TCG Nationals.^[158] Besnik Kajtazi had begun the year by achieving high-profile finishes at several TCG tournaments, topping three premier events and finishing top 8 at both German Nationals and the European Championship.^[159] In a duelist profile from YCS Berlin 2014, Besnik noted that he had to take an extended hiatus from the game after 2008, but hoped to make a comeback.^[160] He would go on to take second place at the event,^[161] as well as top 32 at YCS Paris 2014.^[162] Eduard Alvarez had previously made top 4 at the 2004 Spanish Video Game Nationals, losing to that year’s Worlds representative Pere Torellas Salietti, and top 8 at the 2006 Spanish TCG Nationals. He would receive invitations to every TCG European Championship from 2008 to 2011,^{[163][164][165][166]} and even take second place at the 2009 European Championship, earning him a spot at the TCG World Championship that year.^[167] He would also return to the Video Game World Championships in 2011 where he would take third place. His Nationals vlogs include several cameos from Spanish Video Game World Championship representatives Pere Torrellas Salietti and Rodrigo Togores. Outside of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Alvarez also made it to the top 4 of the 2009 Pokemon European Championship for Pokemon Platinum.^[168] 

Three additional players from this year would continue to see success in later Video Game World Championships. Emily Fuchs would defend her title as the US Video Game National Champion the following year and return to Worlds to take third place, becoming the only competitor in the event’s history to receive two downloadable World Championship duelist avatars. Kim Su-Hyung would also return to compete at the 2009 Video Game World Championships. Makoto Ito would reappear at the 2011 Video Game World Championships alongside Eduard Alvarez and place second overall.

The remaining competitors, Ryo Nakamura; Samuel Parker; Koichi Asada; and Noriaki Matsumura, would not be documented as participating in other Yu-Gi-Oh! tournaments. Joel Enriquez is referenced as participating at YCS Las Vegas 2014 in a tournament report posted on card game website Alter Reality Games, but whether he attended any other events is unknown.^[169]