Have you activated any trap cards recently? Do you own any Rescue Rabbits or perhaps a Tour Guide From the Underworld? Do you know the difference between a Fusion Summon and a Synchro Summon? Well, those taking part in this record-breaking event sure did!
Having now reviewed the evidence, GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS can announce that last year's 100th Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series, held in Long Beach, California, USA, is officially the Largest trading card game tournament ever held.
A total of 4,364 Duelists (players) battled against one another in this event, breaking the record previously held by Magic: The Gathering Grand Prix Madrid, which attracted 2,227 players.
" We are honored that the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME continues to grow and maintain the top positions with GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™" said Tomoyuki Tsuboi, President of Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. Yu-Gi-Oh! is also recognised as the Best-selling trading card game, with over 25 billion cards sold as of 2011.
In Yu-Gi-Oh!, as with other trading card games (TCG), players compete using decks of their own design, using cards they have collected from booster packs and pre-constructed decks. Two players face-off in a Duel, utilising cards that represent powerful monsters, magical spells, and surprising traps, attempting to win the game by reducing their opponents life points to zero. It takes a mixture of strategy, planning, and a little good fortune to rise to the top in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG.
At the 100th Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series event, it quickly became apparent that more players than anyone had anticipated had come to play in this special event. However the organisers were able to expand the play space to an area equivalent to more than 12 American football fields to accomodate all 4,364 Duelists.
By the fourth round, over 1000 players had been knocked out of contention, and after round eight, only 859 participants remained.
After 11 rounds of Swiss play (players play against an opponent with the same record each round), the tournament moved to a 64 player knockout (single-elimination) structure.
After two elimination rounds just 16 players remained, sporting a variety of deck archetypes, including Skill Drain HERO, Piper Chaos, Dino Rabbit, Dark World, Wind-Up, Inzektor, and Chain Burn.
At the climax of the weekend tournament, Michael Balan's Dark World deck defeated Simon He playing Dino Rabbit, awarding him the title of 100th YCS Champion!
Balan received prizes including a trophy, an Ultra Rare Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series Prize Cards Blood Mefist card, paid travel and accomodation to the World Championship Qualifier tournament, and a 64GB iPad.
The Dark World deck he used to win the tournament used spells such as Dark World Dealings and Card Destruction to discard and activate the effects of his Dark World monsters, wreaking havoc on his opponents. Once discarded to his graveyard, he could then Special Summon Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World, a powerful level 8 monster, back into play. Balan describes his deck in detail in this video.
Do you want to learn to play and become the next YCS champion? You can find out more about the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game on its website and Facebook page.
