Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG’s biggest competition returns to the US for the first time in eight years.
Land of the free, home of the Pendulum Summoned.
All of the best Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game players will travel to Seattle, Washington in the US on September 8th to test their mettle in the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2024 and fight to claim the honour of top duelist.
Last hosted in the US in 2016, this year’s world championship will be spread across two days of matches where the contestants knuckle down on some of the most important matches of their lives while the rest of us enjoy some of the side activities and concession stand treats.
The world championship will comprise four different tournaments in as many categories: the paper TCG everyone knows and loves, Master Duel, and two different Duel Links format - one being the recently added Rush Duel format that does exactly what’s on the tin, while the other will be the tried and tested Speed Duel from WCS’s of the past.
Qualifiers for the world championship will take place in the Americas, Europe and Oceania throughout the summer. Contestants from across the globe will duel their hearts out for a chance to walk onto that Seattle stage and begin furiously flipping some cardboard.
Central American players will compete in Mexico City between June 21st and 23rd, while Oceania players will travel to Auckland, New Zealand from June 28th - 30th. South America’s qualifiers takes place on June 28th in Lima, Peru, North American players can compete in Austin, Texas from July 19th through the 21st, and finally European duelists must travel to Berlin, Germany between July 26th and 28th.
This is a big year for the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary with several planned events and special releases, such as The Infinite Forbidden booster set featuring a new version of the loved and hated Monster, Exodia. Japan already celebrated the 1999 release by throwing a massive convention and party in the Tokyo Dome, along with an anime short developed by Konami’s new in-house animation studio.
Those of us who couldn’t make it across the Pacific will have to console ourselves with these nostalgia-filled booster packs full of monsters from the very beginning, such as Blue Eyes White Dragon, Black Luster Soldier and the adorably vicious denizens of Toon Town. Will someone clinch a win by summoning the fresh-faced Exodia? Will there be any meta-defining strategies that might crop up in the annual commemorative Mega Tins?