Both of these Duelists are former YCS winners! Cristian Urena became a Champion at YCS Lima in 2019, and Dominic Couch won his Championship at YCS Las Vegas in 2020. Both competitors were defeated in the Top 4, but now they’re scrapping it out for a copy of the new YCS Prize Card Anotherverse Dragon. To make matters more interesting, it’s the first time these two Duelists have ever played against each other.

It all comes down to this! Jesse Kotton from Toronto is Dueling against Raymond Dai from Detroit, Michigan in a Match that will determine the winner of YCS Niagara Falls. Jesse Kotton has competed in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME World Championship three times and has won two YCS events already. He is no stranger to high-pressure Matches, which may give him an edge in this final round. Dai, on the other hand, has made it to the top cut of a YCS many times in the past, but never achieved a first-place win. He’s looking to change that today. Dai believes that Tearlaments Decks are one of the best matchups for his Exosister Deck, so he should be favored in his Match from a purely strategic standpoint. In less than an hour, one of these two Duelists will become the champion of YCS Niagara Falls. It’s time to Duel!

Raymond Dai from Detroit, Michigan is Dueling against Cristian Urena from Reading, Pennsylvania in a Match that will determine which Duelist will advance to the Finals of YCS Niagara Falls! Both Raymond Dai and Cristian Urena finished the Swiss Rounds with an 8-2 record and made it into the Top 4 with completely different strategies. Dai used his Exosister Deck to advance to this point in the tournament, whereas Urena used a Tearlament strategy. Now they’re facing off, and one of them is about to be eliminated. It’s time to Duel!

Steven Santoli from Hamilton, Ontario made it into the top cut using a Spright Deck that doesn’t just include Frogs, but also uses Live Twin and Runick cards. All of the Live Twin monsters are Level 2 monsters, giving them a natural synergy with the Spright cards. The Runick cards from Tactical Masters give Santoli additional power by allowing him to deal with a variety of different situations and draw a ton of cards with the incredibly strong Runick Fountain. Luke Parkes from Sheffield, England is using a Tearlaments Danger! Deck, but there’s a twist to his Deck too – he’s using Branded in High Spirits and Albion the Shrouded Dragon in his Deck. He uses Branded in High Spirits to send D.3.S. Frog from his Extra Deck to his Graveyard and send Scheiren, Merrli, or Havnis from his hand to his Graveyard and trigger their effects. There are two cool Decks in this Top 16 Match, but only one of them can prevail. One of these Duelists will advance to the Top 8, while the other will be eliminated. It’s time to Duel!

Ryan Yu finished in 2nd Place after the Swiss Rounds, taking a clean 9-1 record with a Deck almost nobody was predicting for this weekend: Exosister. We saw Exosister builds top a handful of Regional Qualifiers in August, in venues like Conway Arkansas and Edison New Jersey, but the Deck’s largely flying under the radar. Now two Exosister players were in the Top 32 here at YCS Niagara.

Remote Duel YCS Champion and social media personality Pakawat Pamornsut from New Brunswick, New Jersey is facing off against Blair Hunter from Warner Robins, Georgia in our final Swiss Round Feature Match. This is going to be an intense one. Pamornsut and Hunter are both currently 7-2 in the tournament, so each of them is relying on a victory in this round to get them into the Top 32. Pamornsut is using a popular Deck that uses Tearlaments, Spright, Danger!, and P.U.N.K. monsters, whereas Hunter is using a more streamlined Spright Deck that uses Frogs to Summon Toadally Awesome. We’ve seen both types of Decks win many times throughout the weekend, but only one of them can win in this final Swiss Rounds. It’s time to Duel!

Canadian competitor Gabriel Bonneau traveled here this weekend from Montreal, and he’s paired up against Simon He, a fan-favorite veteran Duelist from the UK. Both of these competitors are playing Spright variants, but they’re running different secondary themes to support them. Both Duelists are very likely to wind up in the Top 32, but the winner of this Match locks their seat here and now.

So who’s it gonna be? Montreal, or Manchester?

Andrij Rybsky-Shaw from Mississauga, Ontario and Jose Carrillo from Guadalajara, Mexico are both 6-0-1 with their Tearlaments Decks, and are now facing off in this Round 8 Feature Match. Although they both rely on the Tearlaments strategy, their Decks are very different. Rybsky-Shaw is using a Therion engine from Dimension Force, while Carrillo is using Spright monsters, Frogs, and a heavy reliance on the new Runick cards from Tactical Masters. For the final time today, it’s time to Duel!

Speed Duel events here at YCS Niagara are using an all-new event-only Limited List, legal only this weekend, and only here at YCS Niagara! The List consists of cards that are Limited 1, Limited 2, and Limited 3, similar to the system used in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links. Competitors can only play one card total from the Limited 1 list, two cards from the Limited 2s, and three cards from the Limited 3s. You can read all about it right here. So far, the impact this weekend has been massively positive, ushering in lots of new, highly competitive strategies.

RCharley Futch is from Indianapolis, Indiana, and was the winner of the Dragon Duel World Championship in 2018. Since then he’s competed in numerous high profile tournaments, and now he’s X-1 here in Round 7 at YCS Niagara Falls. Another win would clinch his place in Day 2, and leave him with a strong shot at the Top 32 tomorrow. Futch is running Adventure Spright this weekend.