History has been made! Erik Christensen, YCS Dallas winner from earlier this season, has taken down the 2016 North American World Championship Qualifier with Domain Monarchs. This is the first time a YCS winner has claimed the North American WCQ title in the same season, a huge feat. Not only that, but this is the largest WCQ in history with 2253 Duelists battling it out for their chance to compete in the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship in Orlando, Florida next month. Along with Christensen, five other Duelists have also earned a full paid accommodation to the World Championship: Thomas Rowe, Admassu Williams-Ademe, Travis Smith, Jimmy Nguyen, and Adam Hutchins are all representing North America as well!

Burning Abyss Phantom Knight was the most dominant force this weekend. After winning both YCS Providence and YCS Origins, everyone knew it would be a big contender – but not like this. A whopping 33% of the Top 64 was Burning Abyss Phantom Knight, and as a result a variant of Monarchs that was previously deemed inferior took advantage. Domain of the True Monarchs is absurdly powerful against particular strategies, and one of them is definitely Burning Abyss. You have to sacrifice using an Extra Deck to build around the card, but it’s definitely worth it if you can boast having a good matchup against such a large portion of the field. Out of the six Duelists who qualified for the World Championship, three chose to pilot Burning Abyss Phantom Knight while the other three, including Christensen, battled with Domain Monarchs.

In addition to the Main Event, the North American Dragon Duel World Championship Qualifier also took place this weekend. Twelve year old Aiden Tiemann took it down with his Performapal Deck, but both John Wilkin and Ian Parish also finished high enough to earn their slots in the North American Dragon Duel World Championship. If full paid travel and hotel accommodation wasn’t enough, both the Main Event and Dragon Duel top finishers scored a ton of sweet prizes varying from electronics to a Minerva, the Exalted Lightsworn prize card!

Thanks for following the coverage of the 2016 NA WCQ! If you happened to miss out, make sure to catch both the written and video coverage from the weekend. We will see you at the World Championship in Orlando, Florida on August 20^th and 21^st!

[NA WCQ attendees still have something to play for; by helping Konami and completing this short survey, two random winners will get a display box of The Dark Illusion.   https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YGO_NAWCQ_2016]