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World Championship

The World Championship logo

The World Championship is an international, invitational Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game (TCG) and Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game (OCG) tournament held annually —most commonly in Japan— between the top-ranked delists of various countries. In order to receive an invitation to the World Championship, a player has to earn an invite at their respective region's World Championship Qualifiers tournament. These regions are North America, Central America, South America, Europe and Oceania for the TCG as well as Asia, China, South Korea and Japan for the OCG.

While the number of participants per region and in total usually fluctuates slightly from year to year, there are usually about 22-28 players who get to participate, with roughly 2/3 of them being from TCG countries and the remaining 1/3 from the OCG.

The World Championship is the only Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament that unites the TCG and OCG formats which are usually very different from eachother. To accomplish this, the World Championship tournaments use a special banlist, where all cards are set at their lowest allowed status in any region. For example, a card that is on the Semi-Limited list in one region but the Limited list in another will be Limited on the World Championship banlist, and a card that is Forbidden in one region but Unlimited in another will be Forbidden. In addition, any cards that are not legal in any one of the regions are automatically Forbidden on the World Championship list.

Along other prizes, the winner of the World Championship receives a guaranteed invite to the World Championship of the following year.

Currently, only one player, namely Shunsuke Hiyama, has managed to win more than one World Championship. He is also the only back-to-back Champion. The record for the highest amount of Worlds participations is held by Galileo de Obaldia, who has played in five tournaments.

Additionally to the main tournaments for the physical card game, World Championships usually include one or two additional tournaments that are also referred to as "World Championships":

Tournaments

2023

Location: JapanTokyo, Japan
Attendance: 28
Champion: United States Paulie Aronson (Bystial Dragon Link)[2]
Runner-Up: Peru Mateo Renteria (Tenyi Swordsoul)
Semi-Finalist: United States Jeremy Mitchell (Vanquish Soul)
Semi-Finalist: Colombia Santiago Marin (Bystial Dragon Link)


2019

Location: Germany Berlin, Germany
Attendance: 28
Champion: Japan Kouki Kosaka (Salamangreat)[3]
Runner-Up: Taiwan Chia Ching Wang (Salamangreat)
Third Place: Panama Angel Ovalle (Salamangreat)
Fourth Place: United States Koty Angeloff (Crusadia Thunder Dragon Link)


2018

Location: Japan Chiba, Japan
Attendance: 28
Champion: Taiwan Chia Ching Wang (Trickstar)[4]
Runner-Up: Australia Bohdan Temnyk (Altergeist)
Third Place: Italy Francesco Simoncelli (Gouki)
Fourth Place: South Korea Seung-Chul Jung (Sky Striker)


2017

Location: Japan Tokyo, Japan
Attendance: 26
Champion: Japan Ryosuke Tsujimura (True King Yang Zing Dinosaur)[5]
Runner-Up: Singapore Shen-Fei Milton Chua (True King Yang Zing Dinosaur)
Third Place: Japan Marcello Barberi (True Draco)
Fourth Place: Italy Michael Forner (Windwitch Invoked)


2016

Location: United States Orlando, USA
Attendance: 22
Champion: Japan Shunsuke Hiyama (Blue-Eyes)[6]
Runner-Up: United States Erik Christensen (Blue-Eyes)
Third Place: Japan Kajihara Soichiro (Majespecter)
Fourth Place: Australia Matthew Casiero (Monarch)


2015

Location: Japan Kyoto, Japan
Attendance: 22
Champion: Japan Shunsuke Hiyama (Tellarknight)[7]
Runner-Up: Panama Galileo de Obaldia (Nekroz)
Third Place: Japan Akira Hasegawa (Nekroz)
Fourth Place: United States Chase Cunningham (Artifact Tellarknight)


2014

Location: Italy Rimini, Italy
Attendance: 22
Champion: Canada Sehabi Kheireddine (Infernity)[8]
Runner-Up: Japan Shunsuke Hiyama (Artifact Traptrix)
Third Place: United States Oliver Tomajko (Infernity)
Fourth Place: Italy Niccolo Mazzoleni (Bujin)


2013

Location: United States Las Vegas, USA
Attendance: 26
Champion: Taiwan Shin-En Huang (Dragon Ruler)[9]
Runner-Up: United States David Keener (Spellbook)
Third Place: Japan Hiromi Kudou (Dragon Ruler)
Fourth Place: Thailand Weerapun Suebyoubol (Dragon Ruler)


2012

Location: Japan Roppongi, Japan
Attendance: 26
Champion: Japan Akikazu Saito (Inzektor)[10]
Runner-Up: Italy Stefano Memoli (Inzektor)
Third Place: Germany Joshua Schmidt (Inzektor)
Fourth Place: Singapore En Wei Wesley Seek (Inzektor)


2011

Location: Netherlands Amsterdam, Netherlands
Attendance: 26
Champion: Japan Takashi Ogawa (Agent)[11]
Runner-Up: Japan Kei Murakoshi (Junk Doppel)
Third Place: Panama Galileo de Obaldia (Junk Doppel)
Fourth Place: Thailand Kongjaroen Phanupak (Machina Gadget)


2010

Location: United States Long Beach, USA
Attendance: 25
Champion: Panama Galileo de Obaldia (Frog FTK)[12]
Runner-Up: United States Vincent Paglia (Blackwing)
Third Place: Japan Kei Kuwano (Herald)
Fourth Place: South Korea Tae Woo Kim (Blackwing)


2009

Location: Japan Akihabara, Japan
Attendance: 23
Champion: Singapore Benjamin Tan Hong Hwee (Blackwing)[13]
Runner-Up: Taiwan Chien Yen Jui (Gladiator Beast)
Third Place: United States Roy St. Clair (Blackwing)
Fourth Place: South Korea Hong-Kyu Lee (Gladiator Beast)


2008

Location: Germany Berlin, Germany
Attendance: 22
Champion: Japan Kazuki Mutsuoka (Gladiator Beast)[14]
Runner-Up: United States Robert Ackerman (Gladiator Beast)
Third Place: Japan Takeru Norihama (Lightsworn)
Fourth Place: Austria Claudio Kirchmair (Gladiator Beast)


2007

Location: United States San Diego, USA
Attendance: 23
Champion: Chile Andres Toro (Trooper Monarch)[15]
Runner-Up: Italy Mattia Sarpa (Machine Monarch)
Third Place: United States Adam Corn (Burn)
Fourth Place: Canada Dexter Dalit (Monarch)


2006

Location: Japan Akihabara, Japan
Attendance: 22
Champion: Italy Dario Longo (Chaos Decree)[16]
Runner-Up: Hong Kong King-Hang Shum (Dark World Chaos)
Third Place: Poland Adrian Madaj (Recruiter Chaos Decree)
Fourth Place: Greece Miltiadis Markou


2005

Location: Japan Ariake, Japan
Attendance: 40
Champion: Greece Miltiadis Markou (Nephthys Goat Control)[17]
Runner-Up: Mexico Jorge Pina (Empty Jar)
Third Place: Germany David Kretschmer (Machine Chaos)
Fourth Place: Taiwan Guan Sian Li (Warrior Chaos)


2004

Location: United States Los Angeles, USA
Attendance: 31
Champion: Japan Masatoshi Togawa (Chaos)[18]
Runner-Up: Hong Kong Wan-Hang Chan (Chaos)
Third Place: Japan Yoshinobu Suekane (Chaos)
Fourth Place: United Kingdom Ryan Pugh (Chaos)


2003

Location: United States New York, USA
Attendance: 18
Champion: Hong Kong Yu-Leung Ng (Hand Destruction)[19]
Runner-Up: Japan Shigeki Kitamura (Hand Destruction)
Third Place: United States Mike Rosenberg (Hand Destruction)
Fourth Place: United States Huai Tao Sun (Hand Destruction)


References

  1. https://yugiohblog.konami.com/2023/02/announcing-the-dragon-duel-championship/
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XunOFynG2Oo
  3. https://web.archive.org/web/20190810182825/https://www.konami.com/yugioh/worldchampionship/2019/ja/
  4. https://web.archive.org/web/20220706070534/https://coverage.yugioh-card.com/event/world-championships/2018-world-championship/
  5. https://web.archive.org/web/20180331170604/https://www.konami.com/yugioh/wcs2017/ja/
  6. https://yugiohblog.konami.com/event/championships/yu-gi-oh-world-championship-2016/
  7. https://web.archive.org/web/20220519153335/https://coverage.yugioh-card.com/event/world-championships/2015-world-championship/
  8. https://web.archive.org/web/20220706062000/https://coverage.yugioh-card.com/event/world-championships/world-championship-2014/
  9. https://yugiohblog.konami.com/event/championships/yu-gi-oh-world-championship-2013/
  10. http://duelingdays.blogspot.com/2012/08/day-3-at-wcs2012-event-day-2.html
  11. https://web.archive.org/web/20220706071252/https://coverage.yugioh-card.com/event/world-championships/world-championship-2011/
  12. https://yugiohblog.konami.com/event/championships/wcs-2010/
  13. https://web.archive.org/web/20100202030835/https://www.yugioh-card.com/uk/events/championships/World_2009/index.html
  14. https://web.archive.org/web/20080820043706/http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/yugioh/en/events/event.asp
  15. https://web.archive.org/web/20070820140520/http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/yugioh/en/events/event.aspx?eid=14
  16. https://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=330807
  17. https://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=190698
  18. http://kperovic.com/metagame/yugioha9df.html?tabid=61&EventId=5
  19. https://web.archive.org/web/20040613171437/http://www.konami.com.hk:80/kma_th/yugioh_card/yugioh_kma/schedule/world2003e.htm
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