By the time you're reading this, the TCG will be reeling – or celebrating? – in the wake of an update to the Forbidden & Limited List, which is due to drop this Saturday. Did Konami actually send Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess to the penalty box? (Right now, everyone seems to think so.) Did they deal a lethal blow to the Snake-Eyes deck? (Many hope.) Does Fiendsmith's Lacrima still get to cheese wins in time? (It's a pretty recent card, so most people think yes.) By the time you read this, you will get to smugly smile because you know the answers, at which we (in our little article-shaped time capsule) are just guessing.
However, there's at least twenty-four players on the planet who aren't still coming to terms with a new format; and that's because they're getting ready to compete in an entirely different format, at the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship! With its own unique Forbidden & Limited List, it is a very special format, with only one shot at getting it right, at a single event. If you're just catching up, we've covered some of the differences to the "standard" formats in last week's breakdown. Also included there – the first fourteen competitors of the twenty-eight-player field that'll be competing for Yu-Gi-Oh!'s ultimate crown.
That leaves another fourteen for this week. Or rather, it should... because mystery is afoot. At least one player is not attending, and another player has publicly said he's "inherited" the spot. A third player has indicated he's likely to bow out, and maybe another secret replacement has been quietly arranged? Read on to find out... or at least find out what we've been able to find out, about this most important tournament of the year that Konami, for some reason, doesn't seem to talk about at all. So, instead – here's what we know about the remaining World Championship competitors.
Anthony Lopes
Anthony Lopes is quickly becoming a prominent name in the European scene, with now three major event tops under his belt. Anthony seemed all set for glory after winning three of his four swiss rounds in the Worlds Qualifying Points Playoff: this qualified him for the Top 4, of which three would go to worlds. But after losing the first Top Cut match to Gabriel Netz, it all seemed uncertain – did he come this far, only to fail at the last hurdle? Thankfully, he did not, and skillfully piloted his Fiendsmith Snake-Eyes deck to a win in his third-place decider against Guillaume Maron, punching his ticket to Seattle.
Qualified via: EU Worlds Qualifying Points Playoff (3rd place)
Qualified with deck: Fiendsmith Snake-Eyes
Jose Santiago Torres
Jose Torres is the other duelist to qualify through the North American World Qualifying Points Playoff, securing his spot at the world championship with – what else – Fiendsmith Snake-Eyes. Jose has an assortment of accolades under his belt, from regional victories to several top cut placements at Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series events. While he's still hunting for a first place victory at a major event, his consistent collection of accolades still makes him a formidable foe, and a duelist worth keeping an eye on.
Qualified via: NA Worlds Qualifying Points Playoff (Top 2)
Qualified with deck: Fiendsmith Snake-Eyes
Lim Daun
Lim Daun is a highly acclaimed Korean player, consistently ranking at the top in various OCG CS events in Korea. Despite being a first-time participant in WCQ Korea last year, he achieved an impressive 2nd place at the Busan qualifiers and reached the top 32 at the WCQ Korea Final 2023. This year, Lim Daun dedicated himself to extensive practice. Although he only secured a 16th place finish at the Busan qualifiers, it was sufficient to earn him a spot in the Korea WCQ 2024 Final Round. There, alongside Voiceless Voice, he triumphed over all his opponents and claimed the title of WCQ Korea Final 2024 Champion. This victory made him the sole representative from Korea for the Yu-Gi-Oh World Championship 2024.
Qualified via: Korea World Championship Qualifier – Final Round (Winner)
Qualified with deck: Voiceless Voice
Michael Haynes Thomas
Michael "Mike" Thomas (better known as TrishulaTTV) is one of the more popular Yu-Gi-Oh personalities around! A big part of this is due to his strong Twitch and Youtube presence where he streams and uploads content regarding his favorite decks, such as his flagship Dragon Link deck. While he only became a full-blown content creator during the COVID era, he has been a long-time competitive player. Recently he achieved his best result yet: by piloting Fiendsmith Snake-Eyes all the way to a second place finish at the NAWCQ, he has secured his spot in this year's World Championships. And in case that wasn't enough to show his mettle in a variety of formats, he also placed third in the Master Duel WCQ a few weeks before. Mike is definitely a fan favorite to win it all, so let's stay tuned on what he cooks up for the most prolific Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament of the year.
Qualified via: NA World Championship Qualifier (Runner-Up)
Qualified with deck: Fiendsmith Snake-Eyes
Julio Valls
Julio Valls is one of Spain's finest and most decorated duelists over the years. He's been placing well across premier events with a variety of different decks, has a lot of regional wins under his belt, and is currently a part of the coveted Grand Duelist team. Besides all that, he continues the trend of streamers placing second at WCQs, being a very prolific producer of YouTube content. He took Ritual Beast, a highly effective rogue option positioned well in a metagame vulnerable to Dimensional Shifter, all the way to a second place finish in the European Championships! The deck is relatively unharmed by the World Championship banlist, so it'll be interesting to see if he sticks with the strategy for Worlds with its key strengths remaining intact.
Qualified via: EU World Championship Qualifier (Runner-Up)
Qualified with deck: Ritual Beast
辅助
辅助 is a Yu-Gi-Oh! player from China. Although he was a big fan of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime from a young age, he was relatively new to the competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! scene in China. His journey into competitive play began after watching the Duelist Cup 2023 China Final, which inspired him to become one of the players there. He started training intensively and achieved his first major success by reaching the Top 16 in the China City Tour 2023 Shanghai Special. Although he participated in the WCQ qualifiers early on, he did not secure a spot. It wasn’t until he competed in the Challenger Cup China 2024 that he finally earned a place in the WCQ China Final. There, through his hard work and determination, he won the WCQ China Final, earning the honor of representing China at the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2024.
Qualified via: World Championship Qualifier 2024 China Regional Final (Winner)
Qualified with deck: Fiendsmith Snake-Eyes
Juan Carlos La Torre Infantas
Juan Carlos Infantas is a relatively new player in the South American scene who has quickly established a name for himself, surprising everyone and winning the entirety of the South American WCQ with Melffy Spright! The deck has experienced a renaissance these past few months with the release of Battles of Legend: Terminal Revenge. Swap Frog sending Mirror Mage of the Ice Barrier to add Freezing Chains allows for instant access to Toadally Awesome, one of the strongest boss monsters ever printed! However, real life intervened, and it appears that Juan Carlos will be unable to make it to Seattle for the tournament. With the South American spot up for grabs, Konami appears to have reached out to a replacement contender...
Qualified via: South America World Championship Qualifier (Winner)
Qualified with deck: Melffy Spright
Francisco Bobadilla
... giving a surprise opportunity to Francisco Bobadilla, who originally fell short at the final hurdle, losing in the final round of the South American WCQ with Kashtira Snake-Eyes. He's honored by the opportunity and is ready to make Chile proud! He's also yet another content creator who placed second in a WCQ – this time on TikTok, where he's highly active.
For those of you who you don't know him, Francisco "Pancho" Bobadilla is one of Chile's rising star duelists. Recently, he's been performing incredibly well all over LATAM's premier competitive scene with a wide variety of decks, such as Adventurer Plunder Patroll, Ishizu Tearlaments, and now Snake-Eyes. He also has a decorated record of multiple YCS tops and a National Top 4 to boot under his belt. While he may be a replacement World Championship contender, he's definitely no pushover, as anyone who dares underestimate him will undoubtedly find out!
Qualified via: South America World Championship Qualifier (Runner-Up)
Qualified with deck: Kashtira Snake-Eyes
Fox Chudleigh
Fox Chudleigh is a veteran duelist who has a lot of achievements in the Australian competitive scene with a variety of decks. His recent foray into Snake-Eyes has proven to be especially effective, especially as he won the entire Oceanic Championships with an FTK version of the deck! Using Proxy F Magician, Promethean Princess and Zealantis to resolve Blaze Fenix' effect three times, this creative variant allows him to deal 8000 points of damage without his opponent ever getting a turn! Of course, some time has passed since then – Infinite Forbidden has released, and we're playing under a different banlist. Will he stick with his FTK, or try something different? We'll have to find out!
Qualified via: Oceania World Championship Qualifier (Winner)
Qualified with deck: Diabellstar Kashtira Snake-Eyes FTK
Loo Wei Jing
Loo Wei Jing is one of the top Yu-Gi-Oh! players in Malaysia. He has achieved impressive milestones such as winning the Battle Nexus 2024, placing 8th at Black Luster Soldier 2024 I, and 10th at Black Luster Soldier 2024 II. He also won the New Year Carnival 2023 Malaysia and reached the top 4 at the Yu-Gi-Oh! Asia Championship Winter 2018 Malaysia Qualifier.
He has not only excelled domestically – Loo Wei Jing has also made his mark internationally by winning the Yu-Gi-Oh! Oceanic Championship 2019, becoming Oceania's representative at the 2019 Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship. This year, he won the Malaysia Rank Up League Season 2, earning a spot at the WCQ Asia Final 2024. There, he used the power of friendship with Yubel Fiendsmith to win the championship, becoming the Asian representative for the 2024 World Championship. This makes him one of the very few players to represent two different regions at the World Championship in different years – and definitely a dangerous foe to face!
Qualified via: Asia World Championship Qualifier – Final Round (Winner)
Qualified with deck: Fiendsmith Yubel
Luis Gabriel Romo Rosas
Luis Rosas is a renowned figure in the Central America's competitive scene, and known as a strong duelist with his huge catalogue of regional and premier event runs. Already in 2017, he managed to reach Top 4 at the Central America WCQ, getting tantalizingly close to a World Championship spot! For this year's iteration, his deck of choice was Snake-Eye – in its pre-INFO incarnation – and this worked out well: the deck's insane flexibility, and the large number of generics it can run, allowed him to conquer the competition and win the entire event! Heading into the World Championship, we'll see if he sticks with the strategy, now augmented with the Fiendsmith cards, or tries his hand at something different altogether.
Qualified via: Central America World Championship Qualifier (Winner)
Qualified with deck: Diabellstar Snake-Eyes
Noguchi Daigo
Noguchi Daigo, the winner of the Japan Championship 2024, is a relatively new entrant to the competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! scene, having joined after the release of "Burst of Destiny" in July of 2021. Despite his recent entry, he has achieved multiple impressive results in various CS Tournaments. He has been diligently practicing with the Rescue-ACE deck throughout the past year, and with this dedication, he secured victory at the Japan Championship, and became one of Japan's four representatives for this year's Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship.
Qualified via: Japan Championship (Winner)
Qualified with deck: Fiendsmith Rescue-ACE
Aditya Dharap
Aditya Dharap is one of the breakout stars from NA's fierce competitive scene. Come the release of Duelist Nexus, he was tearing up multiple regional and YCS-level events with the Unchained strategy, which is the deck he's most well known for. He's also managed to do incredibly well with Snake-Eyes, once again recording multiple Top Cut placements at YCS events. Most recently, he used a Fiendsmith variant to sweep through the NAWCQ. Will he stick with the deck heading into the World Championship? Only time will tell.
Qualified via: NA World Championship Qualifier (Winner)
Qualified with deck: Fiendsmith Snake-Eyes
Esteban Re
Esteban Re is a well known duelist from Italy, and the only player to qualify for the World Championship using Tenpai Dragon! His take on the deck goes all the way to the edge, forgoing hand trap disruption and replacing it with multiple copies of Dark Hole, Raigeki, and Lightning Storm. This proved to be quite effective, allowing him to win the entirety of the European Championships – and his incredible meta call and deckbuilding decisions have changed the landscape of Tenpai Dragon deckbuilding ever since! At the World Championship, he'd only have a single copy of Sangen Summoning at his disposal instead of the usual three. It's a hit, but not insurmountable – will he stick to his guns? We'll find out next weekend!
Qualified via: EU World Championship Qualifier (Winner)
Qualified with deck: Tenpai Dragon
So, have you been keeping count? That's a full twenty-eight contenders we've introduced to you. But, if you've been paying attention – one of them's a replacement for the other, so that actually only puts us at twenty-seven. An odd number for a tournament? Will the World Championship have the same issue that plagues Sunday locals, where the odd person out has to quietly sit in a corner while everyone else gets to play fun card games? Well, it shouldn't, because there should actually be twenty-eight competitors. However, there's a bit of a catch to that.
The twenty-eighth contender, automatically qualifying for the World Championship, should be the reigning champion – Paulie Aronson. Once again, however, reality seems to interfere, as Paulie has had to deal with health issues, and has said he likely won't make it to the World Championship. It is possible that another replacement has been arranged – the apparent replacement would be the runner-up of last year's World Championship: Mateo Renteria from Peru. But whether Mateo or someone else has been called up, or whether the tournament will go ahead with only twenty-seven competitors, only Konami knows – and they're not really telling anyone anything about the most prestigious tournament of the year; so we'll find out alongside all of you over the weekend, as we prepare to bring you all the decklists, and all the breakdowns, in all the usual qualify. See you then!
