YU-GI-OH! YCS 200 DAY 1: SLOW START, STRONG FINISH

It was not the most auspicious way to start a tournament, but the 200th Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series’ first day ended on a real high note, as more than 2700 duelists gathered at the Great Columbus Convention Center in Ohio.

A large group of participants lined the halls of the convention center to register their decks before the start of the tournament. Duelists from all over the country have come to the YCS 200 to try and win some exclusive prizes and the title of YCS champion, and Konami was pressed to make sure as many people could participate as possible.

“We had a few anxious moments where we felt that we didn’t have enough room to fit everyone in,” Yumi Hoashi, Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Senior Vice President told Newsweek. “I’m just glad we got to accommodate everyone.”

This was the 200th YCS event, but the first time Konami held the tournament on three separate locations on the same day. Europe held their YCS 200 in Utrecht, Netherlands which had more than 2000 participants for the first time, and Latin America had the event in Mexico City, where 2540 duelists gathered.

Splitting the YCS between three locations helped Konami manage the amount of people attending and avoid potential hazards.

“The 100th was a huge milestone for us where we broke the Guiness Book of World Records for the single largest tournament ever held,” Hoashi said. “I didn’t want to go that route again, which why I felt it was a great idea to hold it on three continents. It’s a great and exciting event.”

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Accomodating the early Saturday morning crowd pushed the start time for the tournament back about an hour but duelists took the delay in stride. The YCS 200, like others in the past, really brought the Yu-Gi-Oh! community together in a variety of ways. Of course there was the main tournament with a trophy prize with an exclusive card that saw nine swiss rounds on day one to narrow the field for the second day.

But that wasn’t all. There were so many more things to do at the YCS 200. If you wanted to purchase more packs, single cards, or even sell cards vendors lined the back wall and was a popular area for duelists to commune.

The Dragon Duel Tournament was held in the afternoon for children 12 years old and younger, as well as multiple public events. Some of these events had duelists compete in a tournament with a single structure deck, others participated in Duel Links tournaments. There was an area to get your picture taken and put on a token card and even Darren Dunstan, the voice of Maximillion Pegasus held autograph signings and gave the opening speech to the YCS 200.

The amount of activities really helped pass the time. Many of the duelists were lining up at 9 a.m., and were still around for when the event ended well past 10 p.m.. Despite the late start, everyone was calm and respectful, which really helped make the first day of YCS 200 end on a high note.

“I want everyone to be excited about the brand with extreme sportsmanship. With a crowd this size it’s important that they are behaving themselves and being sportsmanlike,” Hoashi said. “That’s what Yu-Gi-Oh! is all about.

Source: newsweek