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UNITED STATES NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Satellite News
JULY 12, 2009
9:30 AM The Trophy Case
Check out the shiny trophies we’re going to hand out to the Top 4! Here are the U.S. National Championship trophies for first through fourth place, along with the highly sought-after “Dark End Dragon.”
How impressive it looks in its acrylic display!
- Julia
8:00 AM Yesterday’s ATTACK OF THE GIANT CARD!! Winners!
Players here at the U.S. National Championship were treated to Jerome McHale’s demonstration of how ATTACK OF THE GIANT CARD!! events should be introduced – larger-than-life cards deserve a larger-than-life tournament announcement. At any rate, we did have two of these events yesterday, with 2 lucky winners!
I expect these events to continue in popularity – players really seem like the quality and look of the cards. If you’re planning to attend either San Diego ComiCon or Gen Con Indianapolis, make sure to check out the available GIANT CARDS!! since we will be running these tournaments at both of those conventions.
- Julia
JULY 11, 2009
2:00 PM – A Short Look Back at Day 1 Of Nationals
While the big event began on Saturday, there was still a lot happening on Friday. The Last Chance Regional Qualifiers kept humming all day long as players who hadn’t yet earned an invite competed for their chance to compete – 34 happy winners grabbed a last minute shot at Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG fame and those tasty, tasty Nationals prizes. Another four players won their way in through the Dragon Duel.
While those without invites struggled to earn one, the line of players who had already qualified was getting longer and longer. More than half of the total tournament count opted to take advantage of pre registration and enjoy breakfast and sleeping in on Saturday.
Take a look at that line!
How do you feel about playing in Nationals? How is your line-waiting experience going?
Vying with the pre registration line was the line for Duel Terminal! Originally planned for Saturday and Sunday only, we set them up on Friday too. The player response was enthusiastic, to say the least.
While some players opted to just get a card, many tried out the gameplay. If we had 20 or so of these things lined up, it would have looked just like Las Vegas.
The events wound up around 8:00 PM with 790 players pre-registered (already bigger than last year’s event…and a fairly solid confirmation that this year’s National event was going to be the biggest Yu-Gi-Oh! event ever, in North America.
- Julia
10:30 AM –
The tournament hall always looks so calm and peaceful before the players come in. Tables are in orderly rows, draped in pristine tablecloths. Chairs are straight and orderly, and the atmosphere is quiet.
Peaceful and quiet.
Then a faint tremor disturbs the air, vibrating the ground. Is it just imagination? No – there it is again, but closer! And an indistinct murmuring…what is that unearthly sound?
It’s getting closer!
IT’S THE PLAYERS…HERE THEY COME!!! LOOK OUT JUDGES, THE PLAYERS ARE AT THE DOOR!!
- Julia
9:00 AM – The Judges Assemble
We’ve got a very large team of judges this year – here they are in black and white glory. They will spend a very long day, constantly on their feet and constantly on the go. There are just over 1200 players enrolled in this event and they’ll all be taking the tournament very seriously. They’ve got their work cut out for them today.
Good luck, guys!
- Julia
12:17 PM – The New Dark Deck
Weeks ago at a Regional in Long Beach, CA, Adam Corn debuted a new Deck he’d been testing. It was a new take on the Black Salvo Decks that saw some anticipation when Crimson Crisis was released, but never really materialized on the tournament scene. Packed with choices that can only be described as “daring” in a “Book of Moon”-heavy environment (in includes triple “Cyber Valley” and “Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive”), it’s carried several competitors to a 2-0 finish so far. We’ll try to get the scoop on that and maybe score a feature match with it if the Deck remains strong.
-Jason
9:58 – Crazy for Duel Terminal!
As Round 1 approaches, the lines for Duel Terminal are still as long as ever! For over a day now, the Duel Terminal consoles have been on display – live and in use – here at the convention center, and as you can see from these pictures, the crowds around the Terminals are huge. Each turn at the Terminal rewards players with an exclusive Duel Terminal card – each with a unique parallel foil finish across the entire card face. And while most of the cards on offer are reprints of cards we already have in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME, one is unique to the Duel Terminals: “Ally of Justice Catastor.”
The hype around Catastor has made it one of the most in-demand cards in the game right now even though it’s not legal for play, and the result is a massive line packed with Duelists, all waiting for just a single turn playing Duel Terminal. Round 1 begins shortly, but even once the tournament gets underway we can expect this line to be packed with the hundreds of Duelists who showed up to trade and compete in side events. They aren’t leaving until the Duel Terminals run out of cards!
- Jason
9:43 AM – This Room Won’t Be Empty For Long!
It’s 9:43 AM, and as registration outside the tournament hall doors creeps past 1200 Duelists, I can’t help but stand in awe of the sheer size of this venue. Bigger than this year’s SHONEN JUMP Championship Anaheim, and shattering the record established by the 50th SHONEN JUMP Championship over one year ago, this is far and away the largest Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME tournament that’s ever been held in North America or Asia. The hall alone is massive, and while it’s empty at the moment, we’re just minutes away from swinging open the doors and flooding the room with hundreds of competitors.
A turnout this big would usually require eleven Swiss rounds of competition, but for the sake of the competitors, only ten rounds of Swiss will be held today. Instead of an eleventh round, the Day 2 cut will be extended, and instead of a Top 32 playoff tomorrow the Top 64 Duelists from Day 1 will return on Sunday. From there they’ll play six rounds of single elimination cutting a field of 64 players down to 32, then 16, then 8, then 4, before one final match decides the winner.
Get ready – Dueling literally just doesn’t get bigger than this!
- Jason
