Today marks many Duelists’ first steps into the highest tier of Dueling – the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series. Here are some YCS first-timers here in Minneapolis!

Meet Owen Mechelke, from St. Louis Park, MN! He’s 12 years old, and he’s already got 4 years of Dueling experience under his belt. His initial impression of his first YCS was – it’s awesome! He noted that there is a lot of people. Today he’s playing in the Main Event using his Crystal Beast Deck, which he built using the new Structure Deck: Legend of the Crystal Beasts. He’s also looking forward to doing some trading with all these Duelists.

Here’s Owen posing with his favorite card, Yubel – The Ultimate Nightmare!

Next up is Nicolas Peterson, from Bismarck, ND! He’s 15 years old and plays at the very same OTS as this writer! He’s been a Duelist for as long as he can remember. He says the YCS is cool so far, and while he expected a lot of people he hadn’t thought it would be quite this big. He says it’s cool to see all the best Duelists here, and also enjoys seeing what kind of tech cards people are running. He’s playing a Dark Magician Deck in the Main Event today.

Here’s Nicolas with his favorite card, the Dark Magician!

Finally, we have Julian Hayes, from Bloomington, MN! This 13-year-old has been Dueling since 2019. He said the event has been really fun! He was happy he got a game mat from playing in the Dragon Duel event. He also liked that he could see people he knew from MN, as well as meet new Duelists who traveled here. He knew there would be a lot of people, but said he wasn’t quite expecting this many!

Here’s Julian showing off his favorite card, Decode Talker Heatsoul!

Good luck to all our first-timers!