Events like this weekend’s Gen Con convention are host to gamers from all walks of life, from the most casual to the most serious. That goes for the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG too, and even here – behind the badge-protected doors of The Best Four Days in Gaming – plenty of new Duelists are taking their first step into the world of Championship-level tournaments. Meet four of the Duelists who are making that step today, right here, at YCS Indianapolis!

Eleven year-old Noah Collins is an Indianapolis native, and was our first interviewee of the day. He’s only been playing since Christmas, but he dove headfirst into the competitive scene through local tournaments just a couple months into his Dueling career. “One of my friends got me into the game, and my Dad brought me here this weekend.” Noah is playing a Gadget Deck teched out with Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, Breaker the Magical Warrior, and Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo. His build was really quite competitive, but was it strategic power that led him to play Gadgets? Nope! They were just his style: “I think Gadgets are cool!” His favorite card? “Red Dragon Archfiend!” He proudly displayed it for us before heading off to compete.

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Next up was thirteen year-old Jordan Grant, from Toronto, Ontario. He traveled all the way from Canada to compete this weekend in his first-ever Championship, playing Frog Monarchs with Obelisk the Tormentor (you can see Jordan chalk up a win in our Round 2 Feature Match). “During testing I was playing Frog FTK, but I wanted to come here and have fun, so I decided to switch decks.” Grant’s been playing competitively for about a year, but the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG was a part of his life for many years before: “I had cards lying around since the game came out! Everyone had the cards when I was younger.” His impression of the event this weekend? “It’s huge! All the big names that I hear about are all here, so it’s really cool.” His favorite card he’s running this weekend? “Obelisk the Tormentor! Any time I drop it, it’s game.” Sure enough, Obelisk brought victory two times in his Feature Match.

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Isaac Lopez traveled here from nearby Crawfordsville, Indiana. He’s twelve years old, and he’s been Dueling since he was nine. “My brother taught me how to play. I’m here this weekend with him, a couple friends, and my Step Dad.” Issac is running a mixed Deck that focuses on kicking out Synchro Summons – it plays quite a few Blackwings, but isn’t limited just to Blackwing monsters. “I don’t really have just one theme.” His thoughts on his first Championship-level tournament? “It’s fun! I really like it. It’s bigger than I thought it would be.” With a deck focused on Synchro Summoning, you could probably guess his favorite card: Stardust Dragon. Good choice!

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One of Isaac’s friends is Manuel Arroyo, a fellow first-timer and another twelve year-old Duelist. “I’ve been playing since I was seven years old. My neighbour had some cards, and I had some action figures, so I traded them to him.” And thus, Manuel’s Dueling journey began! Like Isaac, he’s running a varied Deck with a focus on Synchro Summoning. It runs a lot of Warrior-Type monsters, but splashes all sorts of cards from different themes. Like all of our first-timers this weekend he was pretty impressed with the tournament: “I’m liking it – it’s a lot bigger than I thought!” His favorite card? Road Warrior.

Every Duelist’s competitive path has to start somewhere, and for a few lucky Duelists that path starts right here, at YCS Indianapolis. With a big main event Championship tournament and an expanded list of Public Events offering new event formats never played before, it’s an amazing way to get your first fix of high-level Dueling action!