Yu-Gi-Oh World Championship Tournament (Singapore) - 25062007

Today is the day where players from all over Singapore gather at Suntec Convention Hall Room 307 for the Yugioh World Championship Tournament.

I left home about 6.45am to catch an early ride to Suntec, because there was a pre-tournament meeting for the staffs involved (aka crew meeting). I met "Sotong" at CCK MRT and found out that he was the only one there so far, waiting for the others... Not wanting to be late, I made my way down to Suntec first.

Upon reaching there, I found myself to be alone, waiting for Julian to come along. So a photographer in me started to take a few things that I didn't see before in Suntec.




This is Food Republic, they have taken over the old kopitiam that was in the location near the Duck Tours Booth




A cool new section with blue neon lights in Suntec




Yet another cool effect from taking a picture off the pillar.




Nice new corridor for people to walk

Then at about 8am, we finally gathered around for a meeting while having breakfast and discussed about the plan of setting up and additional rulings to take note of.

At about 8.30am, we proceeded to the tournament room where we set up the laptops, printer, rearranging of tables and chairs. At about 9 to 10am, registration of contestants started. I didn't manage to take any pictures because the turn out for the event is amazing. I can estimate about 300 people took part - Previous tournaments never reached such a huge number of people.

There were four elimination rounds because of the number of people who took part and a semi-final elimination (because there were really too many people - kids and teenagers and adults alike). The finals was decided with a 5 round swiss pairing, resulting in the ranking of players - whomever was playing very well, would get more points and thus be ranked higher. Only the top four players were given the prizes, the rest went home with door gifts only, which was a pack of deck protectors.

The whole event went on so fast, it was pretty hectic. We were behind schedule from the start due to the overwhelming response from the players, and we sort of ended around 8.30pm.

There was however a few things I'd point out. Rulings from Japanese (Konami) and American (Upper Deck Entertainment) were a little different, though the restriction list was the same. Things such as "only cards that are released for Japanese and English versions can be used, if it was never printed in English, it cannot be legal", was not clearly defined, and thus a lot of players violated this rule.

Examples are those who used Japanese promo cards or Japanese booster pack cards that were not release for English yet - Shield Crush, etc.

A few players became rude and rowdy and suffered a stiff warning from the judges. A player was found to have counterfeit cards in his deck. And a lot of players were playing decks that countered D.Hero - Gravekeeper decks. The Six Samurai Deck was a refreshing idea in the tournament, as with the Gem Beast deck. A ritual summon deck almost made a come back. The winning top four decks were basically Gadget decks (very very meta game).

Here are some pictures from the prize giving.




The Booteh... he he he....




I wanna know who's the top four!!




All gingerly waiting for prize presentation




I'm waiting for the prize presentation too!




Number four!




Number three!




Number two!




Number one!




Paparazzi at work




Winners of the day.


Overall I'd say that this competition is the most successful one ever. Hope the next one is coming, its really a very very fun job being a judge.