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SHONEN JUMP Championship
Satellite News
APRIL 26, 2009
Here’s a look at the Top 8!
Top 16 Playoff Update!
Well, we are 45 minutes into the Top 16 and we’ve nearly completed the Top 8 bracket. So far, Ricardo Gayton and his Dark Synchros have defeated Xue Hao Hu Lightsworns; Joseph Franzo and his Blackwings have defeated Mario Matheu’s Light Skill Drain, Jarel Winston and his Lightsworns have defeated Tyler Krabofsky’s Gladiator Beasts, and Jake Silver took the first round due to his opponent Raul Rodriguez not showing up.
APRIL 25, 2009
End of Day One
It’s over! Day 1 of the second-largest SHONEN JUMP Championship of all time has drawn to a close, and 858 Duelists have been whittled down to a final Top 16. Eight Lightsworn Decks and three Gladiator Beast Decks will be joined tomorrow morning by Dark Synchro, Dark Skill Drain, Light Skill Drain, Counter Fairies, and Black Wings!
Top names in contention tomorrow include former Champions like Hooman Farahbakhsh, Bobby Chambers, Mario Matheu, and Jason Holloway. Some of America’s greatest Duelists will go head-to-head tomorrow against some of the game’s newest up-and-coming stars, and tomorrow is truly anybody’s game. While Lightsworn are certainly the favorite for the win, an upset in the form of Counter Fairies, Blackwings, or any other number of rogue Decks is certainly possible.
How will it all end? Join us tomorrow at 10 AM to find out, as we kick off four final rounds of single elimination style Dueling. Sixteen Duelists will enter, but only one will leave here with the title of SHONEN JUMP Champion! Find out who, when we bring you live coverage from Day 2 of Shonen Jump Championship Anaheim!
Win A Mat Winners!
Most of the players here today seem to want to stay in the main event…but we did run two Win A Mat side events. Here are our lucky winners!
And oddly enough, his roommate picked up the prize in the second event –
How about a closer look at that mat? Stardust Dragon Assault Mode has made its mark on the event today, so it looks like it was a timely choice for mat artwork.
We’ll be running more of these events tomorrow, giving out Game Mats to the winner and earning players points for the Side Event Playoff!
First Official Konami Dragon Duel
The first-ever official 12 and under event went off pretty well – the Duelists knew how their decks worked and enjoyed the smaller, faster tournament. The Side Event hall is definitely giving off a more laid-back feel than the main SJC hall.
Here are our winning four Dragon Duelists, proudly showing off their new 2009 season Regional mats! They are the first Duelists to receive this mat as a prize, in addition to an invitation to 2009 Nationals.
Let’s take a closer look at that mat! We’ll be giving out more of these tomorrow at the first Official Regional Qualifier, as well as an additional Dragon Duel event.
Look who's at the Top Tables!
Well, it’s Round 4 and time to check in on the top tables and see what is going on!
Table 1 – Christian Martinez vs. Anthony Alvarado
Table 2 – George Saavedra vs. Barry Huang
Table 3 – Gilford Velez Jo vs. Harold Pier
Table 4 – Miguel Lopez vs. Erik Landis
Table 5 – Tomas Mijares vs. Calvin Bryant
Table 6 – Hooman Farahbakhsh vs. Kenneth Van
Table 7 – Aldo Rincon vs. Matthew Wright
Table 8 – Mario Rouria vs. Anthony Gospel
Table 9 – Mark So vs. John Dahilig
Table 10 – Omar Khalil vs. Tong Vue
Table 11—Bryan Zepeda vs. Patrick Sterret
Table 12 – David Monterroso vs David Sanville
Table 13 – Jason Holloway vs. Robert Zepeda
Table 14 – Jerry Tran vs. Jeff Jones
Table 15 – Matthew Johnson vs. James Laurant
Table 16 – Jerry Williams vs. Christian Ferratti
Table 17 – George Garcia vs. Jesus Rico
Table 18 – Marshaun Young vs. Maurice Brantley
Table 19 – Rex Mendoza vs. Ken Lee
Table 20 – Chris Kossak vs. Brett Everett
Keep on going, players! You’ve got six more rounds ahead of you.
1:50 PM
I just went over to take a look at the first Dragon Duel tournament being run in one of the auxiliary rooms. At first there was concern about lack of of space, but since the auxiliary halls were rented, there's enough extra room to squeeze in some side events.
There was a good mix of Decks being used by the boys and girls in the Dragon Duel tournament. I saw Six Samurai Decks, Gadgets, Lightsworn, standard Synchro, Blackwings, a Spell Counter burn Deck, and even an Exodia Deck.
I'm sure we'll see some of these players going Day 2 at an SJC soon. Their plays were really fast and all their chaining and rules understanding were excellent. They were even announcing their plays clearly - if only more players got into that habit!
-Kevin
1:45 PM
They're handing out everyone's free booster packs now. They're also administering deck check penalties at the same time, which is a smart way to multi-task the tournament organization.
858 players times 5 booster wrappers each is a lot of trash. The Head Judge asked everyone to crumple up their booster wrappers real tight and stuff them as far in the trash as possible.
-Kevin
1:20 PM
Speaking of Game Mats, there are 3 new Game Mats this weekend:
The SHONEN JUMP Championship Game Mat. It goes to the Top 16 in the main event.
The Win-a-Mat Game Mat. These are 16-player, single-elimination tournaments. The winner gets a Yusei Fudo & Stardust Dragon / Assault Mode Game Mat.
The Regional Qualifier Game Mat. I don't think they've shown this one off yet, but it's here in a box somewhere.
- Kevin
1:10 PM
I just did a quick tour of all 3 tournament halls to check out everyone's Game Mats. Rainbow Dragon and Judgment Dragon are by far the most popular. Dark Armed Dragon was third. There were hardly any non-TCG Game Mats. Everybody seems to have an official one that they're happy with.
-Kevin
1:00 PM – Your New Prize Card Is…!
This show is finally on the road, and we have 858 Duelists in today’s tournament! The day began with a series of announcements from Konami’s Senior R&D Manager, Kevin Tewart. After welcoming the players to the 68th SHONEN JUMP Championship, he discussed some important, never-before-seen details about upcoming releases and events!
-Regional Qualifiers will be held across the US and Canada starting very soon.
-More SHONEN JUMP Championships are already being planned, and announcements of venues and dates will be released shortly.
-All SHONEN JUMP Championships and Regional Qualifiers will feature the “five booster packs to all players” prize distribution featured here this weekend. The crowd liked that one!
-Canadian Nationals will take place in June.
-US Nationals will take place in July.
-The Synchro Monster “Light End Dragon” will feature as one of the Secret Rare bonus cards in Raging Battle!
…And on that note, the new SHONEN JUMP Championship prize card is none other than “Light End Dragon’s” deadly counterpart, “Dark End Dragon”! With 2600 ATK, the Level 8 Synchro Monster will add a powerful new monster to the Extra Deck of any Duelist. Its high attack power lets it destroy Gladiator Beasts, Monarchs, and Lightsworn monsters in battle, and its effect can send bigger threats to the graveyard – without destroying them. That means “Stardust Dragon”, “Light and Darkness Dragon”, and any other monster with effects that trigger when they’re destroyed, simply cannot touch “Dark End Dragon’s” master.
Four Duelists will walk away this weekend with a copy of “Dark End Dragon” – the top three competitors in the main event, as well as the Side Event Champion. We’ll bring you feature match coverage of all those deciding matches this weekend, including the side event playoffs, so get ready for some intense dueling action. “Dark End Dragon” drew a huge reaction from the crowd, and is sure to be one of the most sought after prize cards ever: an explosive start to this event!
-Jason
11:09 – …And They’re Still Coming
We are one hour past our scheduled start time here today, and registration is still ongoing. Tournament Organizing staff is fighting for every seat they can find in this building, as the imperative here this morning becomes not just registering Duelists, but making sure none have to be turned away! Seating figures are a little hard to come by as the situation continues ballooning, but at last check there were chairs and tables for about 920 competitors – and it looks like they’ll all be filled. If we had a building big enough we would break the previous record of 1024 Duelists at Shonen Jump Costa Mesa clean in half.
See this picture? This is a picture taken ten minutes ago of just one of the rooms today’s tournament occupies. Imagine three rooms like this one, pack a lot more people into them, and then add a hallway still filled with eager competitors patiently awaiting their turn. That’s what we’re seeing here today.
In the meantime though, some awesome Decks are making the rounds. California’s Leonhardt family (AKA Team Enigma) is mirroring some of the top decks in Japan’s most recent tournaments, with Lance (the younger of the Leonhardt men) packing “Skill Drain” Zombies with all the LIGHT Attribute trimmings, while his father Kirk is playing Monarchs. Armed with “Zeta Reticulant” and a host of remove-from-game monsters like “Caius the Shadow Monarch,” “D. D. Assailant,” and “D. D. Warrior Lady,” Kirk’s deck is very similar to one currently shredding through Japanese metagames. The kicker? Kirk doesn’t stay current with the game in Japan, and has brought unique American stylings to the build. We’ll show you more later.
Florida’s Team Illusion is packing two different strategies here this weekend – a Twilight Deck mixing Lightsworn and Dark monsters, as well as a brand new Counter Fairy build from by James Laurents that could make a big impact here today. Even typical strategies like Lightsworn are receiving some crazy innovation – at least one big-name Duelist has added “Fiend Comedian” to the mix.
The clock continues to tick down and the competition draws ever closer. This tournament is truly going to be one for the ages.
-Jason
9:57 – Let’s Put Stickers On Stuff!
Attendees for today’s tournament will be amongst the first Duelists in the U.S. to join the new global ranking system, Konami’s Card Game Official Tournament Support System - “COSSY”. Duelists registering for a COSSY account receive a Konami Card Game Player ID card and a strip of three identical stickers – the stickers have a barcode, an ID number, and a password. And they’re really cool – trust me on this.
Once you’ve got your card and stickers, log onto the official COSSY page at https://www.cossy.konami.jp/ to register your COSSY account – that’s what the password on each sticker is for. Change your password to something NOT written in public view on your sticker, throw in your info, and you’ll be able to track and view your tournament history event by event in detail: just one of the great tools on offer for tournament players wanting to track their performance across their Dueling careers.
…Which is cool, but not as cool as those stickers! Once you’re registered, scorekeepers registering you for future events will be able to quickly scan your barcode sticker instead of taking down lengthy account numbers and information – the result is the fastest player registration system in the world. And since the barcodes are in convenient sticker format, you can stick them on your Deck boxes, trade binders, or token cards for super-easy access. I know I’m sounding a bit over-enthusiastic, but yeah – it’s super-special awesome. Check out my Deck box (and if you can make it out, my uber-cool COSSY number).
COSSY is just the first of the awesome new things debuting here today – the player meeting will begin shortly, and with it will come a ton of new info from Konami officials!
-Jason
9:32 AM – Whoa That’s A Long Line!
Welcome to Satellite News, your up-to-the-minute source for stories and commentary live here from the SHONEN JUMP Championship! We are one half hour removed from the opening ceremonies of today’s competition, and right now the big story isn’t inside the tournament hall – it’s outside, and wrapping around the hallways of the Anaheim Convention Center. Pictures can say it better than words: the – line – is – long.
While expectations were high for turnout at the first SHONEN JUMP Championship in 14 weeks, it’s safe to say those expectations have been shattered! Tournament Organizer Chris Wong is busy performing “emergency rentals” of multiple rooms adjacent to the main convention hall, as Duelists continue to crush through the doors. We aren’t anywhere near a final tally of the competitors, but estimates are topping 900 Duelists thus far – testament to the fact that Dueling is alive and well!
If everything goes to plan we’ll have some special guests joining us here in Satellite News today, so keep your finger on the refresh button for some big surprises. Today’s tournament will begin with some huge opening announcements from Konami’s Senior R&D Manager Kevin Tewart, so stay with us for all the exclusive details on upcoming tournaments, some new info on Raging Battle, and the big reveal – the unveiling of the new SHONEN JUMP Championship prize card!
-Jason
