The culmination of a year of events has led to this! Competitors in the 2024 North America World Championship Qualifier (WCQ) have gathered in Austin, Texas for their chance to compete in this year’s Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME World Championship!

The 2024 North America WCQ is broken up into two separate tournaments. Today, 16 Duelists will compete in an invitation-only event. The top 2 Duelists in today’s event will qualify to compete in the 2024 Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME World Championship in Seattle, Washington on September 7^th and 8^th, and win prizes that include paid travel and accommodations to compete. Only the most dedicated Duelists were invited to compete in today’s 16-player single-elimination event. Over the past year, Duelists accumulated “World Qualifying Points” by achieving success in official Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD tournaments, including Regional Qualifiers and Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series tournaments. Consistently achieving high rankings in these events allowed Duelists to rack up “World Qualifying Points”. Only the 16 Duelists with the most “World Qualifying Points” are allowed to compete in today’s event. There’s a chance to compete in the World Championship on the line, and every Match threatens the knock each Duelist out of today’s tournament. That will make today’s Matches some of the most intense of the weekend.

Tomorrow, the rest of the competition begins. All of the Duelists who earned invitations to the 2024 North America WCQ – including those who qualified to compete in today’s competition – will gather together in one tournament. The tournament will span two days, and consist of Swiss Rounds followed by a single-elimination Top Cut. The top 4 Duelists of that tournament will join the top 2 Duelists of today’s event and compete at the World Championship in September to represent their country!

Stakes are high this weekend for our competitors. For all of these Duelists, the dream of becoming this year’s Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME World Champion begins (or ends) here. Duelists are bringing their best skills this weekend, capitalizing on new cards from The Infinite Forbidden to improve their Decks. Many Duelists are expecting the new “Fiendsmith” cards to overtake the top tables at the North America WCQ, while other strategies from The Infinite Forbidden – including Mimighoul, Millennium, and White Forest – are expected to make a splash. New cards in the Gimmick Puppet and Tenpai Dragon themes have Duelists giving those themes a second look too, so we might see those Decks pop up in the WCQ.

The sixteen Duelists qualified for today’s World Qualifying Points Playoff are shuffling up and getting ready to begin, while the remaining Duelists of the weekend are filing into the Austin Convention Center to register for tomorrow’s tournament. By the end of the weekend, six Duelists from North America will be qualified to compete at the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME World Championship in Seattle, Washington. You can follow the coverage right here on the Konami coverage blog, or watch it live on Twitch and YouTube!