The Grand Championship, known in Japan as the KC Grand Prix, is a tournament in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime.
Despite the defeat of Dartz, Yugi and the gang can't really celebrate since they're trapped in America; as Pegasus was the one who paid for them to fly there, the group is stuck since it would take forever to get a meeting with him to arrange a ride home. Mokuba promises them a ride home if they enter the next tournament KaibaCorp is hosting.
The tournament is hosted at Kaiba Land, and is being held to rebuild the company's reputation due to the damage it suffered thanks to Dartz. Being the ultimate tournament, the best Duelists from all over the world are being rounded up so they can battle for the chance to challenge Yugi for his title King of Games.
On the other side, one of the tournament entrants is a hacker trying to send a virus into KaibaCorp's main computer. Kaiba's main goal is to find out who the hacker is. It turns out that the hacker is a strong duelist named Zigfried von Schroeder, who is actually participating in the tournament!
Main Duelists
- Zigfried von Schroeder: The European Duel Monsters Champion, a rival of Kaiba's, and Leon's older brother. Zigfried seeks to take down KaibaCorp as revenge because he feels that Seto Kaiba stole his plans for holographic dueling technology. He uses the alias "Zigfried Lloyd" whenever he duels. He comes across as arrogant and vain, but he has a kind side, as evidenced by how regretful he feels at the end of the arc for making Leon help him with his plot. He genuinely loves his brother, as Seto loves Mokuba. At the end of the anime, he is seen making a business deal with Maximillion Pegasus.
- Leon von Schroeder: A genius who is Zigfried's Brother. He uses the alias "Leon Wilson" whenever he duels. He is a sweet child who idolizes his brother, yet realizes that what Zigfried is doing is wrong. When Zigfried is disqualified and recruits Leon to help him with his plot to destroy KaibaCorp by playing a card in his duel that will trigger a virus, Leon initially agrees even though he doesn't feel right about it. Eventually during the duel, he refuses to help Zigfried by playing the card because he doesn't want to go against his morals. However, the virus was already unleashed and the card could not be destroyed when Leon attempted to remove it from play. Yami Yugi then tried to help him destroy it while Seto Kaiba worked to stop the virus.
- Vivian Wong: A beautiful duelist and the Asian Champion. She tends to space out in fangirly ways when she should be staying serious, and this often proves to be her downfall. At one point she helped Solomon Muto with his hurt back, but only if he would help her bring Yugi to duel her. When Yugi protested that it was against tournament rules since she had already been defeated, she hurt Solomon's back again and forced Yugi into the Duel, threatening that if he did not Duel her, she would not fix the damage.
- Paul McGregor: A Sherlock Holmes - dressed duelist detective.
- Fortune Salim: A fortune-teller duelist. He is tied up by Rex and Weevil, who used his robe to pose as him. He is later rescued and given back his outfit. Never given a chance to duel.
- Balfry Ginger: A magician-themed duelist card the Master of Magic Cards.
- Jafar Shin: A duelist from India. Type of deck unknown - duel was not seen.
- Shane Jordon: Known as the Lone Dealer of the South West.
- Totani Ialos: A magician duelist, or duel-lusionist.
- Abe the Monkey Man: A wild man with a pet monkey, who helps him with his duels.
- Sergei Ivanoff: Siberian strongman duelist.
- Ethan Shark: Australian with a biker outfit duelist.
- Richard Goat: Doctor and duelist. Prone to medical puns.
These characters appear in previous parts of the second series anime:
- Yugi Muto: Duelist Kingdom and Battle City Champion, current holder of "King of Games" title. Does not take part in the main tournament, only duels the winner of the 16 duelist elimination round.
- Mask the Rock / Apdnarg Otum: A Legendary Duelist who turns out to be Solomon Muto, Yugi's grandfather. His name is "Grandpa Muto" backwards. (Allowed in by Mokuba as he taught Yugi all he knows about Duel monsters, plus maybe to even out the number of competitors.)
- Rebecca Hawkins: The American regional champion, having replaced Bandit Keith.
- Joey Wheeler: Ranked 2nd in Duelist Kingdom, ranked 4th in Battle City.
Grand Championship Dueling Tree
Round of 16 | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | |||||||||||
Episodes 187-188 | ||||||||||||||
Joey Wheeler | 100 | |||||||||||||
Episodes 190-191 | ||||||||||||||
Solomon Muto | 0 | |||||||||||||
Joey Wheeler | 0 | |||||||||||||
Episode 189 | ||||||||||||||
Zigfried Lloyd | 100 | |||||||||||||
Zigfried Lloyd | 4000 | |||||||||||||
Episode 192 (not featured) | ||||||||||||||
Fortune Salim (Weevil & Rex) | 0 | |||||||||||||
Zigfried Lloyd | ? | |||||||||||||
Episode 189 (not featured) | ||||||||||||||
Balfry Ginger | 0 | |||||||||||||
Paul McGregor | ? | |||||||||||||
Episodes 190-191 (not featured) | ||||||||||||||
Shane Jordan | 0 | |||||||||||||
Paul McGregor | 0 | |||||||||||||
Episode 189 (not featured) | ||||||||||||||
Balfry Ginger | ? | |||||||||||||
Balfry Ginger | ? | |||||||||||||
Episode 194 | ||||||||||||||
Jafar Shin | 0 | |||||||||||||
Zigfried Lloyd | (disq.) | |||||||||||||
Episode 189 | ||||||||||||||
Leon Wilson | / | |||||||||||||
Vivian Wong | 0 | |||||||||||||
Episodes 190-191 (not featured) | ||||||||||||||
Rebecca Hawkins | 3200 | |||||||||||||
Rebecca Hawkins | ? | |||||||||||||
Episode 189 (not featured) | ||||||||||||||
Abe the Monkey Man | 0 | |||||||||||||
Abe the Monkey Man | ? | |||||||||||||
Episodes 192-193 | ||||||||||||||
Totani Ialos | 0 | |||||||||||||
Rebecca Hawkins | 0 | |||||||||||||
Episode 189 (not featured) | ||||||||||||||
Leon Wilson | 900 | "King of Games" Title | ||||||||||||
Ethan Shark | ? | |||||||||||||
Episodes 190-191 (not featured) | Episodes 196-198 | |||||||||||||
Sergei Ivanoff | 0 | |||||||||||||
Ethan Shark | 0 | Yugi Muto | 200 | |||||||||||
Episode 189 (not featured) | ||||||||||||||
Leon Wilson | 4000 | Leon Wilson | 0 | |||||||||||
Leon Wilson | ? | |||||||||||||
Richard Goat | 0 | |||||||||||||
Match Lists
The matches are divided into two groups Block A and Block B. For purposes of brevity, some Duels were shortened or not shown.
Round 1: LAST 16
Joey Wheeler vs. Solomon Muto
Joey used his typical luck strategy whilst Solomon Muto used the strategy that can turn the luck against Joey. Toward the climax of the Duel, Solomon Muto manages to Summon "Ancient Dragon" by using "Ancient City". Joey turned the table by using a combination of "Giant Trunade" and then "Premature Burial" twice in same turn.
- Joey wins.
Zigfried Lloyd vs. Fortune Salim (Zigfried Lloyd vs. Weevil & Rex)
Episodes 189
Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor kidnapped Salim to take his place at the Grand Championship. They are unmasked but Zigfried agrees to Duel against them rather than winning by default; the Duel becomes
Weevil Summons "Insect Queen" using "Eradicating Aerosol" and "Pinch Hopper" while Rex Summons "Black Tyranno" using "Ultra Evolution" and "Balloon Lizard"; Zigfried Summons 4 Valkyries with "Ride of the Valkyries" (2 "Erste" and 2 "Zweite") which destroy and banish "Black Tyranno" and "Insect Queen", then attack directly resulting in a double One Turn Kill.
Paul McGregor vs. Shane Jordan
Episode 189 (not featured)
- Paul McGregor wins.
Balfry Ginger vs. Jafar Shin
Episode 189 (not featured)
- Balfry Ginger wins.
Vivian Wong vs. Rebecca Hawkins
Episode 189
- Rebecca wins.
Rebecca faces off with Vivian, who constantly calls her a kid and fawns over Yugi. Rebecca uses her "Marie the Fallen One" and "Fire Princess" combo to take out 2000 of Vivian's Life Points. She also blocks Vivian with "Gravity Bind" and "Imperial Order"; however, Rebecca removes the second card to conserve her own Life Points. She then uses "Injection Fairy Lily" and "Guardian Angel Joan" for attacks, reducing Vivian to 400 Life Points; however, the effect of "Fire Princess" reduces Vivian's remaining Life Points to zero.
Dr. Richard Goat vs. Leon Wilson
Episodes 187-188 (not featured)
- Leon wins.
Ethan Shark vs. Sergei Ivanoff
Episode 189 (not featured)
- Ethan Shark wins.
Abe the Monkey Man vs. Totani Ialos
Episode 189 (not featured)
- Abe the Monkey Man wins.
Round 2: QUARTER-FINALS
During this round, Zigfried sets off another computer virus that makes the attractions more dangerous, but not life-threatening. This clues Kaiba in on who is behind this.
Joey Wheeler vs. Zigfried Lloyd
- Zigfried wins.
Joey gets a bad hand at the start of the Duel, while Zigfried barely tries to fight back due to finding him not worth his attention. However, after suffering a direct attack from "Jinzo", Zigfried focuses on destroying Joey; however, Joey fends off attacks from the Valkyries by using "Hyper Refresh" to double his Life Points before they attack. He begins dismantling Joey's Deck with the help of "Nibelung's Ring" and his three Goddess of fate cards. However, Joey manages to use "Dangerous Machine Type-6", "Giant Trunade" and Roll of Fate to change the tide of the Duel. Unfortunately, he makes a poor choice on which monster to attack with Maximum Six, allowing Zigfried to power up "Valkyrie Brunhilde" with "Enchanted Sword Nothung", which gets stronger for each of Joey's removed monsters, reducing Joey's Life Points to 0 with one attack.
Paul McGregor vs. Balfry Ginger
Episodes 190-191 (not featured)
- Balfry wins.
Ethan Shark vs. Leon Wilson
Episodes 190-191 (not featured)
- Leon wins.
Rebecca Hawkins vs. Abe the Monkey Man
Episodes 190-191 (not featured)
- Rebecca wins.
Round 3: SEMI-FINALS
Balfry Ginger vs. Zigfried Lloyd
Episode 192 (not featured)
- Zigfried wins.
Rebecca Hawkins vs. Leon Wilson
- Leon wins.
Rebecca's Life Points restoring strategy is nullified by Leon's Deck of "fairy tale rejects", which keep destroying her monsters and blocking her Traps. Leon continues to try getting Rebecca to cheer up and enjoy the Duel, but only irritates her more and more. Both have children spectators cheering them on. Using his "Thorn Princess", Leon takes control of her "Diamond Head Dragon" and wipes out Rebecca's Life Points.
Yami Yugi vs. Vivian Wong (non-tournament)
Episode 193
- Vivian enlists the help of Yugi's grandfather in order to challenge Yugi to a non-competition Duel. If Yugi wins, Vivian will heal Yugi's grandfather's back. If Vivian wins, Yugi must go on a date with her ("become her love slave" in the original Japanese). Yugi uses Vivian's cards against her, Summoning "Dark Paladin" after she sends four Dragons to the Graveyard due to a Spell effect, allowing "Dark Paladin" to be strong enough to deplete Vivian's Life Points.
- Yugi wins.
Round 4: FINAL
Leon Wilson vs. Zigfried Lloyd
Episode 194
- Seto Kaiba disqualifies Zigfried for playing under a fake name. Leon wins by default.
Seto Kaiba vs. Zigfried von Schroeder (non-tournament)
- An exhibition match replaces the final Duel: Seto Kaiba vs. Zigfried von Schroeder.
- Seto Kaiba wins.
The Duel between Seto and Zigfried would decide whether or not that Zigfried would be able to be reinstated into the Tournament and get to play Leon for the title of the KC Championship. He used "Dimension Fusion" to let him Summon 5 of his removed Dragons. After they all attacked, they depleted Zigfried's Life Points.
"King of Games" Title Duel
Leon von Schroeder vs. Yugi Muto
- Yugi wins.
Leon faces off with Yugi. Leon is in fact a Von Schroeder, and Zigfried's little brother; Leon has been manipulated into thinking that he needs to defeat Yugi to restore his company's reputation. After being tricked into playing "Golden Castle of Stromberg", an illegal card, Leon also unwillingly releases a virus that begins erasing Kaibacorp's data. When Yugi deliberately thin his Deck into one card, he is able to destroy the illegal card and allow Leon to play fairly; however, he still loses the Duel when Yugi uses a combination of "Dark Magician", "Necromancy", and "Diffusion Wave-Motion". It also turns out that Kaibacorp had backup data, eliminating the virus.
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