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Anaheim, California
April 26, 2009
It’s all over, and for the first time in fourteen weeks the Dueling world has a brand new SHONEN JUMP Champion! From a field that included eight Lightsworn Decks, three Gladiator Beast Decks, Counter Fairies, LIGHT Skill Drain, and DARK Synchro, a single Duelist wielding a DARK Skill Drain build has claimed victory. And that Duelist is none other than Jeff Jones!
Jeff’s morning began with the biggest Match of the Top 16, as he took his Skill Drain Deck against SHONEN JUMP Champion Jason Holloway and Lightsworn. An early stumble left Jones scrabbling to regain control of the Match, but in the end, he pulled out a 2-1 victory. From there he proceeded to defeat three-time Day 2 Duelist Justin Trias with Gladiator Beasts, before moving on to defeat two Lightsworn Duelists in back-to-back Matches: Semi-Finalist Jerry Williams, and Runner-Up Jarel Winston. Winston gave Jones one of the most harrowing Matches of his Dueling career, but in the end a fatal slip-up and a massive triumph of intuition led to Jones claiming game 3.
Jones’ Deck this weekend was designed to counter the expected field of Gladiator Beasts and Lightsworn, throwing up big defense and negating the effects of opposing monsters. With an aggressive offense driven by “Beast King Barbaros” and plenty of Synchro Monsters, Jones was able to switch gears as needed to outplay a variety of tactics from his opponents. It certainly worked, as even in the varied Day 2 field we saw, Jones had the luck to plow through nothing but three Lightsworn Matchups and a single Gladiator Beast Deck. Fate was clearly on Jeff Jones’ side this weekend.
This weekend’s tournament was nothing short of amazing – a record-breaking turnout combined with an astounding range of Day 2 Decks made for one of the most memorable SHONEN JUMP Championships of all time. The Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME is back and bigger than ever. Congratulations to every Duelist who came out to attend this historic event, and special congratulations to your new SHONEN JUMP Champion, Jeff Jones!
-Jason Grabher-Meyer
