While you can expect a lot of veteran Duelists to attend this weekend, we have a wide variety of players entering the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series. We went out to the tournament floor in search of new Duelists who have never been to a YCS before!

10-year-old Will Schneider is from Minneapolis, and he’s very excited to be attending his first ever YCS! He is using a Blue-Eyes Deck that is designed to get Blue-Eyes White Dragon into play as soon as possible. What he likes the most so far about the event is just hanging out with his friend, Isiah Hemphill, and experiencing it all with him!

11-year old Isiah Hemphill is also from Minneapolis and came here with Will Schneider. He is piloting a Deck incorporating a variety of strategies, but Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Number 39: Utopia are some of his strongest Monsters. He has had a ton of fun playing this morning and is super excited for the tournament to start!

Mason Couillard is 22 years old and is defending his hometown of Minneapolis this weekend. He has chosen to bring Performpals to his first YCS, a Pendulum archetype that centers around combos involving Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer. What excites him the most so far is how huge the tournament venue is! He definitely didn’t expect the YCS to be this large, but he’s stoked that it is!

Barrett Beskar is also 22 years old, hailing from Hudson, Wisconsin. He brought Mermails this weekend: An aggressive WATER Deck that tries to beat the opponent in a single Battle Phase! Beskar noted that much like Couillard, the size of the hall is what excited him the most. He wants to find out what the highest table number is!

Derek Howe is 23 years old and made the trip from Burlington, Wisconsin. He is playing a Performapal Pendulum strategy with sweet boss monsters like Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning and Chaos Sorcerer! He’s excited that he has the chance to play against anyone, and the sheer size of the event means that there must be some good competition out there!

How will our first-timers fare in the overall competition? Follow the coverage to find out!